Quakes Breakout of Scoring Drought, But Still Picking up Draws; Real Salt Lake Preview

The Quakes ended their 4 game streak of being shutout by the opposing team by scoring two goals against Vancouver. Both goals were scored by Chris Wondolowski, bringing his season total up to 8, which is good enough to be tied for 4th in the Golden Boot race. Unfortunately the defense fell asleep a bit Wednesday night by allowing two relatively easy goals for Vancouver, both of those goals being scoring by Eric Hassli, who is also tied for 4th in the Golden Boot race with 8 goals on the season.

When the offense sputters, the defense steps up; when the offense steps up, the defense sputters. Such seems to be the quandary the Quakes find themselves in this season. When one is doing well the other does not and the team ends up picking up draws instead of wins. The first goal came in the 3rd minute when Wondo beat Vancouver’s offside trap, brought down Dawkins’ chip pass, and left footed a blast into the far netting past former Quakes Joe Cannon. But Vancouver answered back before halftime when another former Quake, Shea Salinas, found Eric Hassli one on one with a Quakes defender. Hassli out maneuvered the defender and Jon Busch could only get his fingertips onto the ball as it sailed past him into the net.

The Quakes pulled ahead 2-1 in the 54th minute when Wondo got his head on a Jacob Peterson free kick from near the corner flag. Wondo was able to slip by his defender and with no one around him picked up his second goal of the match. Unfortunately Vancouver’s second goal was also brought about by Salinas. Shea outpaced Chris Leitch to the end line and managed to bring Busch out to try and stop him. Unfortunately the rest of the 3 defenders were no paying attention as Hassli stood unmarked at the penalty spot. Salinas was able to get a low pass to Hassli who easily put the ball past Bobby Burling who was standing on the goal line. The Quakes pushed hard for a third goal and nearly got two in the last 10 minutes of regulation when Steven Lenhart hit the post with a header and missed the goal entirely while one on one with Cannon. Burling managed to stop Vancouver’s last real chance of the game in the 86th with a brilliant sliding tackle from behind.

It seems like Jacob Peterson might be the answer to the team’s problems at right midfield. Coupled with Bobby Convey’s return to the left, both right and left flanks can now start working together to break teams down on the wings. I still think Dawkins should be the tip of the four man midfield diamond, with Wondo the underneath striker to Lenhart. This will allow Dawkins to push attacks down the middle of the field and Wondo will be able to roam around and find his space to attack.

The defense has been doing wonders in the previous 5 games, barring the Chivas loss, but Wednesday night it looked like they took a break from their good play recently. However it could simply be fatigue as the team has played 7 games in 3 weeks, an average of one game every three days. After this weekend’s game against RSL, the team gets an actual week off for the first time in July.

Real Salt Lake
The Quakes have had a decent record against at RSL, going 1-1-4 and scoring 5 goals while conceding 6. While not overwhelming, the fact that RSL have only lost twice at home in MLS competitions in the last two years, it is a good show against a good team in a hostile environment. RSL will be without Javier Morales and Paulo Jr., while Fabian Espíndola and Álvaro Saborío are questionable. San Jose will be missing Ramiro Corrales due to yellow card accumulation.

Options for left back include Convey with Khari Stephenson, Rafael Baca, or Anthony Ampaipitakwong playing left midfield; or Tim Ward playing left back and Convey or any of those other players starting at left mid. While RSL may be missing some of their most potent offensive talents for the game, they will still be playing with their strong defensive line which has been defending really well so far this year, and they still have Will Johnson, a Canadian international who has proven himself within RSL’s organization and teenager Luis Gil who despite being 18 was moved to a starting position for several games during the Gold Cup player drought.

The game will be tough but if the Quakes can get their defensive legs back under them they should be able to hold RSL to a draw, and if the offensive moves forward from Wednesday’s successes, they may have a chance to deal RSL a rare home defeat.

GO QUAKES!

Category: Game Preview, Post-Game