Anibal Godoy celebrates scoring his first goal with San Jose in the 27′ Photo: Graham Green
Sporting Kansas City was undefeated at home this season. The key word there is “was” after the San Jose Earthquakes came in and dismantled Sporting to the tune of 5-0. It started early with a Cordell Cato goal 3 minutes in and the Quakes added from there as Chris Wondolowski added from the penalty spot in the 17th and Anibal Godoy scored his first with the team in the 27th. Another goal from Cato in the 58th and Wondo in the 61st followed by a Benny Feilhaber red card in the 71st sealed the deal for the Quakes as they lept Houston for 7th place in the West.
The performance by the Quakes looked a polar opposite from the unconvincing 1-0 win against Colorado on Friday and the pairing of Godoy and Fatai Alashe in the midfield is a large part of the team’s success. With Matias Perez Garcia out of the lineup to rest and heal a lingering injury, coach Dominic Kinnear had the 2 defensive midfielders play alongside each other with Cato and Shea Salinas on the wings, allowing Wondolowski to play as a forward up top with Quincy Amarikwa. Getting Wondo higher up the field let him run at defenses more and not need to worry about defensive responsibilities and made the Quakes attack as dangerous as we’ve seen all season.
Chris Wondolowski hugs Cordell Cato after Cato scored the game’s opening goal 3 minutes in. Photo: Graham Green
With all the added attention to Wondolowski and Amarikwa, Salinas and Cato found acres of space to work in as the wingers combined twice in the match and were some of the best players on the field. Salinas was able to make runs to the endline on both goals and then get enough space to put the ball into the center of the box to a wide open Cato as all the defenders keyed on Wondolowski making the first run. Both Cato and Salinas made run after run on the Sporting defense and consistently made it difficult for Sporting to find a rhythm in the match.
Since coming back from the Gold Cup this summer, Chris Wondolowski has struggled to find his form and get back to his goal scoring ways. That all ended in Kansas City as the captain scored a brace and probably should have had more. Wondo benefited from an Amarikwa earned penalty kick in the 17th minute to get his name back on the score sheet and continued to get chances as the match continued. Wondo had an easy tap in the 52nd minute only to pass it just wide of the post but made up for it in the 61st with a fantastic diving header to redirect a cross into the back of the net and give him 100 goals with the Earthquakes.
San Jose now travels to our nation’s capital to take on DC United this Saturday at 4 pm PDT on CSN Plus in San Jose.
