3-0, Quakes Record First Home Win

San Jose was able to get their first home win of the 2011 season Saturday night. The Quakes scored 3 goals in 12 minutes and managed to hold on to their second shut out as well despite playing the last 12 minutes a man down.

Columbus had been playing some great defensive soccer recently, but the Quakes were able to exploit some lapses in defense to score quickly and surgically. San Jose’s midfield has been playing well despite losing Simon Dawkins. Brad Ring has been playing exquisitely as an attacking mid. It was through his efforts that the Quakes were able to set up the first goal. Just watch in this video how he tracks back, steals the ball, then dummies the Columbus player into going forward as he switches back towards the attacking third and dishes to Johnson on the left.

Lenhart’s role in the game comes into stark clarity on this goal as well. He’s the big target man who is able to draw defenders to him to free up others. Look how much space Wondo has while the two central defenders are covering Lenhart. You also have to blame the right back for leaving Wondo with too much space, but he is a rookie so hopefully, for Columbus’ sake, he learns not to do that in the future.

Lenhart shows what he can provide on set pieces on the second goal. Another large target man to go along with players like Wondo, Johnson, McDonald, Hernandez, etc. Unfortunately he wouldn’t get credit for that goal, as the scorers gave it to McDonald. But Lenhart shows his hops on the effort. I think he gets the assist for that too.

The third goal was another long shot by Stephenson. Once again Ring starts the play in the middle of the field. He passes to Johnson who is able to spin his defender and distribute to Convey on the left flank. Convey slips the ball to Lenhart, who may or may not have passed the ball behind him to Stephenson. Khari collected the ball and rifled a shot into the upper left corner.

McDonald’s red card was really the only negative to the match. From the replays it looks like McDonald elbows Tommy Heinemann in the chest, but Heinemann went down clutching his throat and sold it to the ref who carded McDonald. As of Tuesday night the league has denied the club’s appeal of the red card and McDonald will sit out the next match against New England.

Here’s the overall game highlight video.

Miscellaneous
Ryan Johnson has been playing outstanding soccer in the last couple games. Unfortunately he’ll be missing at least a couple weeks coming up because he was called up for the Jamaican National team for Gold Cup play.

Stephenson has not been called up for national team (Jamaica) duty and will be with the team during June.

Wondo has worn the captain’s armband the last 3 league games against Philadelphia, Vancouver, and Columbus. I think for the Philly game it was warranted as Yallop wanted to shake things up and send a message. But with the last 2 games still as captain, I wonder if Wondo will now be the default captain despite Corrales’ seniority and Hernandez being the designated vice-captain.

Reserve Team

The reserve team played the Santa Clara Men’s Team today and won 3-0. Luzunaris and McLoughlin scored in the second half. Luzunaris bicycle kicked a ball into an empty net and McLoughlin picked up the brace. The starting lineup for today’s reserve team was Bingham, Beitashour, Opara, Burling, Morrow, Jasseh, Cronin, Ampaipitakwong, Baca, McLoughlin, and Luzunaris. The reserve team is 3-0-0 against local college teams. While it’s not something to point to and say the reserves are doing well, it is positive to see them playing well together. I think it’ll help the college teams a lot by being able to play against Quakes players who have had starting XI experience.

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