San Jose Travel to the Big Apple

By: Chris | April 15th, 2011

The last time the Quakes were in New York, they snatched a playoff victory from the Red Bulls, along with advancement to the Eastern Conference Finals, with a 3-1 victory. This season both teams are currently sitting on 5 points after 4 games. Technically the Quakes are having a better run of form as they are undefeated in their last 3 games while New York is coming off a 1-0 loss to local rivals Philadelphia.

The Red Bulls will be looking to avoid another home loss to the Quakes. It will be tougher than normal as Henry is a question mark for the game. New York has secured De Rosario but the team has been having trouble getting all their players to sync together so far this season. On the other hand the Quakes are settling into their new play style quite well. In the last three games the team has been able to maintain a solid attack backed by midfield dominance. Being able to hold the ball in midfield and launch attacks on goal and pepper the opposing ‘keeper with tons of shots has been the team’s goal this year. The Quakes are just missing that last killer touch to truly make their attack potent.

Wondolowski and Dawkins are joint top scorers for the team so far this season with 2 goals apiece. Stephenson has a long range shot to his credit as well; while Johnson, Convey and new signings Luzunaris, McLoughlin and Ampai are just as keen to get their names on the score sheet as well. Yallop has talked to the team and no one seems nervous or anxious about coming back to the stadium where they won to advance in the playoffs. The team is looking to continue their good performances and with the state both teams are in, I don’t think it’s out of the question to assume the Quakes can come out of New York with 3 points.

There are no suspensions for the Quakes this week but Andre Luiz, Tim Ward, Steven Lenhart, Scott Sealy and Ellis McLoughlin have picked up knocks of one form or another recently. By now Lenhart’s knee should be all better and he could play. But he’s probably still being eased back into training and intense practices because of some personal issues. But who knows, he could be on the bench for the game tomorrow.

Here’s my guess at a formation for tomorrow:

Convey – Johnson – Gjertsen
Stephenson – Dawkins – Wondo
Corrales – McDonald – Hernandez – Leitch
Busch

I think with Rafa Marquez in defense Yallop will switch out Opara for Leitch so that the team can have some attacking options on the right flank. Opara is great for set pieces since he’s freakishly tall, and he’s a good central defender, but Hernandez doesn’t make a good attacking right back.

Prediction: 2nd shutout for quakes with a 2-0 win.

GO QUAKES!