Quakes lose to Sporting Kansas City 1-0

By: Chris | June 20th, 2011

Sporting Kansas City was able to capitalize on a CJ Sapong first half goal to come away with their first home victory in Livestrong Park. I think the result was a combination of the heat/humidity making both teams play slower than usual, Sporting’s urge to get their first home win, and the Quakes’ mentality after going 6 games unbeaten. The Quakes may have felt a bit cocky when they were playing the team in last place in the league after going on their unbeaten streak. It’s a dangerous response in MLS where every team can be dangerous and can punish the opposition like we’ve seen in the last several years.

Frank Yallop once again started the same side that won last weekend against DC United. The Quakes had more opportunities than Sporting but nothing would come from their efforts. Most of the Quakes’ chances came off set pieces, as Sporting’s defense held up well against probing runs. Sporting was able to score the first MLS goal in Livestrong in the 31st minute. Sapong managed to get his foot on a Graham Zusi free kick and redirect the ball into the back of the net.

The Quakes started the second half with two subs; Ellis McLoughlin for Anthony Ampaipitakwong and Simon Dawkins for Sam Cronin. Dawkins brought some renewed attacking vigor to the Quakes and he also had a pair of very good shots that went just wide and was parried away. The Quakes pressured Sporting for a good part of the second half but were unable to score. Late in the second half the Quakes made their last substitution, Scott Sealy for McLoughlin. However it was not enough as Sporting held on against San Jose’s barrage of shots and ended the game looking for their second goal.

My YouTube guy got his account suspended again so here’s a review video put up by Sporting:

I was very upset that Yallop waited until the 89th minute to put in Sealy. I could tell by the 70th minute that the Quakes were having trouble creating scoring opportunities but no subs were sent to the 4th official until Sealy in 87th. And why was McLoughlin subbed out for Sealy? McLoughlin was left out in the cold on the right hand side, but that’s primarily because all the attacks were building from the left or center. Ellis may have been a bit out of sorts since he usually plays on the left, but without any play on the right, how is he supposed to get in on the action? You could see McLoughlin was upset/unsure why he was being subbed off. As he was coming off he looked confused and when Yallop went to shake his hand Ellis stood there presumably asking why he was taken off. It was a bit mystifying to see.

National Team News
USA defeated Jamaica Sunday night. This means the USA gets a rematch against Panama on Wednesday, but also means that Ryan Johnson will be back in camp this week training for Saturday’s game against the Galaxy. Now if the US loses Wednesday Chris Wondolowski will be back as well. Before Sunday’s US/Jamaica game, I was thinking about which team advancing to the final would be better or worse for the Quakes’ game against the Galaxy on Saturday. If Jamaica lost, we would get back Ryan Johnson and the Galaxy would get Donovan Ricketts. If the US lost, we would get Wondo and the Galaxy would get Landon Donovan.

As it turns out Jamaica lost so we’ll be getting a red hot Johnson who scored 2 (3 if you count that own goal as a goal for Johnson) goals in the tournament. But Los Angeles gets Ricketts back between the sticks. Ricketts was a rock in goal for Jamaica through the group stage and has been solid in MLS so far this season. Of course if the US loses its game on Wednesday then both Wondo and Donovan could feature for both teams on Saturday, and if that happens I’ll be pretty upset since I’ll be in Pasadena for the Gold Cup Final and not at Buck Shaw for a Wondo/Johnson vs. Donovan/Ricketts Super Classico.

We’ll see.

Finally, Jozy Altidore’s loss is Wondo’s gain. Jozy went down around the 10th minute of the game against Jamaica with a hamstring injury. An MRI will be done tomorrow, but if anything is at all wrong, his tournament is over. I’m not celebrating this turn of events, but I am pleased that it will almost surely result in Wondo’s return to the match day 18, maybe even the starting XI. I was a bit upset to hear that Freddy Adu was included as one of the 7 subs while Wondo was left off the team entirely. Sure, Wondo had that shot at Panama that he flubbed, but he isn’t playing in the Turkish second division right? Anyways, hopefully Wondo will be back in the game day squad against Panama and maybe he’ll get a revenge goal.

GO WONDO!

GO QUAKES!