Quakes Best Houston 2-0; Reserve Side Topple Los Angeles 3-0

By: Chris | June 7th, 2011

The game Saturday evening came after a couple days of intermittent rain. The conditions were not “Great Deluge”-esque, but I compared it to playing on a Slip ‘n Slide. Within 3 minutes 2 Quakes midfielders and 2 Houston forwards found themselves on the ground with soaked shorts because of the slick pitch. The conditions resulted in a chippy first half in which neither team had many decent opportunities on goal. The Quakes came out firing in the second half like they have been in the last few games and managed to nick 2 goals for their 3 consecutive home victory. The Quakes are now unbeaten in their last 5 and Houston has not won a game in their last 8.

The Quakes answered some of their critic’s statements that the team is a one man show, and with Wondo gone on international duty, the team would have trouble scoring goals. Well Lenhart and Dawkins proved them wrong with classy strikes. Lenhart got credit for his first goal of the season and Dawkins got his first goal since being out with compartment surgery; Beitashour and Cronin got their first assists of the season.

Steven Lenhart’s Goal

Lenny finally got his first goal for the Quakes, and what a goal it was. Beitashour collected the ball on the right side of midfield, pushed forward to about 35 yards and picked out Lenhart in between Houston’s two center backs. Lenhart got lucky because when Beita played the ball forward, Lenhart was a step offside. But the referee missed it and Lenny managed to steer the ball in between the near post and Tally Hall with a diving header. There was probably a 1-2 foot window of space between Hall and the post, and seeing Lenhart nail that spot, it’s pretty sweet.

Simon Dawkins’ Goal

Dawkins made his first appearance since his compartment syndrome surgery 4 weeks ago. The time frame for recovery was between 4-8 weeks but like all athletes, he was pushing himself to get back as soon as possible. Earlier in the week he said he felt he could contribute about 15-20 minutes on Saturday if needed. Yallop decided to put him in in the 75′ minute and Dawkins managed to score in the 2′ minute of stoppage time. Convey fed Dawkins the ball from the Quakes side of midfield into Houston’s half, Simon passed to Cronin at the top of the center circle and Dawkins timed his run between the center backs perfectly for Sam’s give and go pass. It looked like he had a bit of trouble getting the ball positioned correctly at the top of the box, but he was able to slot it by Hall’s left. Simon’s celebration involved almost the entire team as they dog piled him near the sideline where I was sitting, and he was so happy it was infectious.

Game Highlights

Overall the team’s play the last few games has been getting better. The defense is clamping down and has been strong for most of the game and the offense starts to click more often. Unfortunately the offense has been anemic during the first half of games and despite the Houston shutout, the defense has been letting in late goals. Working on these two aspects will enable the Quakes to make their playoff push during the summer.

Players have started to step up with Wondo and Johnson gone. Beita has been great at right back. He’s making attacking runs and worrying the midfielders and defense, while still being able to get back on defense and be effective. The Convey/Corrales swap at left mid and left back has worked the last two games. Corrales last played as a midfielder in 2005, but with his age, and possible loss of a step, being in the midfield could be better for him and the team. With Convey at left back, he can make the attacking runs from the rear while Corrales can cover for Convey while he is in the attacking third. Bobby Burling has played well in center back with Hernandez and Brad Ring has been effective in Dawkins’ role before his injury.

Reserve Squad
The reserve squad played a match against Los Angeles yesterday and trialist Sercan Güvenışık scored a brace and McLoughlin scored at the end of the game to seal the 3-0 win for the Quakes. Güvenışık came to trial with an MLS club from Germany and he has impressed the Quakes in his week on trial, but the club is wary of signing him because of salary cap room. The club will want to keep an option available during the summer transfer window when they might be able to pick up a player that might come from a more prestigious background than the 3rd and 4th divisions of the German Leagues.

Player News
Ike Opara injured his left foot during practice last week, the same foot he broke last year towards the end of summer. There is no break or muscle tears, but the extent of the injury is unknown and his return isn’t known.

Wondo got to play the second half of the USA-Spain game on Saturday. Wondo was able to find some spaces against Spain, but due to Spain’s quality, there was little service to any of the forwards in that game. It was hard to critique him because he didn’t really have anything to do. Wondo had a half chance late in the game on a corner kick or a cross, but the ball was a bit too high and he wasn’t able to get his head on it. Wondo played the last 25 minutes of tonight’s Gold Cup game against Canada. It was a little frustrating to watch with Wondo in the game because I kept shouting at the TV trying to get the midfielders to pass to him, but Wondo didn’t really help his cause. He got into some space but there was little service, but there were also times where Wondo dropped too far back (I thought) instead of staying up below Altidore and then Dempsey. He wasn’t moving like he has been doing with the Quakes. There were lanes and gaps in Canada’s defense he could have exploited or tried to run into to get some space but he didn’t do so. Like Saturday Wondo didn’t get a chance to take a shot on goal, but since the score was 2-0 when he came on, there wasn’t much pressure to score another goal, so the attack wasn’t as furtive as it was before Dempsey’s goal. Hopefully he’ll get a chance to score and shine against Panama or Guadeloupe.

GO QUAKES

GO WONDO!