MLS San Jose Earthquakes

Earthquakes Weekly Update

Published on September 1, 2014 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
San Jose Earthquakes News Release


THIS WEEK

The Earthquakes are on the road this week to take on the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on Sunday, Sept. 7. Kickoff is 2 p.m. PT on ESPN2, 1590 KLIV and 1370 KZSF.

Last MLS Game

Earthquakes 1, Real Salt Lake 1; Aug. 30, 2014; Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Sam Cronin scored for the second time in as many games to lead the Earthquakes to a 1-1 draw against Real Salt Lake. San Jose broke in front in the 14th minute after a perfectly executed combination play in the 18-yard box. After a missed clearance from Kyle Beckerman, Wondolowski took the ball toward the endline and rolled a pass back to Cronin. Cronin cut the ball across his body to his left foot and tucked his shot inside the far post and past the outstretched arms of Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando. Real Salt Lake were awarded a penalty midway through the first half after forward Olmes Garcia went down in the box. Javier Morales tucked away the spot kick, locking the score at one apiece in the half's closing minutes. The Earthquakes' best chance to regain the lead came in the 43rd minute with an attempt from Atiba Harris. Shea Salinas' service trickled into the six-yard box to the right foot of Wondolowski. Wondolowski managed to touch it back toward Harris, whose first-time strike was narrowly cleared off the line by Rimando with a diving swipe. Thompson had a moment of magic in the 70th minute after settling a ball out of the air on the Real Salt Lake's endline. Looking over his shoulder to an oncoming cross, Thompson took the ball out of the air with a perfect touch toward goal, setting himself up for a near post strike that was corralled by Rimando.

Earthquakes in September

The Earthquakes are 34-23-11 all-time in MLS play in the month of September.

PORTLAND TIMBERS INFO

Earthquakes vs. Portland Timbers All-Time

MLS Regular Season: 1-2-5

Home: 1-0-3 (6 GF, 5 GA)

Away: 0-2-2 (3 GF, 5 GA)

Playoffs: 0-0-0; US Open Cup: 0-0-0

All-Time Scoring: San Jose - 9, Portland - 10

Last Game vs. Portland

Earthquakes 2, Portland Timbers 1; July 27, 2014; Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

The Earthquakes scored twice in the second half to earn a 2-1 win against the Portland Timbers in front of a sold out crowd at Buck Shaw Stadium. The win was San Jose's first against the Timbers. After a scoreless first half, San Jose broke the deadlock from the penalty spot in the 55th minute after Timbers defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste obstructed Shea Salinas in the area. Captain Victor Bernardez stepped up to take the kick and beat goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts with a smartly-placed shot to the lower left corner. Steven Lenhart doubled San Jose's lead three minutes later on a set piece. Salinas teed a free kick up from 40 yards out and sent an in-swinger toward goal that found Lenhart open at the back post. The target man slid and bounced a shot over Ricketts for his second goal of the season. Portland pulled one back in the 83rd minute after a turnover in San Jose's attacking third. Diego Valeri located teammate Frederic Piquionne downfield where the second-half substitute redirected a pass to Darlington Nagbe at the top of the box. Nagbe took a touch and then slotted his shot to the right past goalkeeper Jon Busch.

History of the Quakes - Portland Timbers Rivalry

The Earthquakes and Timbers rivalry dates back to when the teams played in the North American Soccer League ... The squads faced off for the first time as members of the NASL in 1975 in San Jose and the Earthquakes were victorious 2-1 with Ilija Mitic scoring both goals for the Quakes ... The Timbers evened the series with a 2-1 home victory towards the end of the '75 season ... In 1976 the teams only met once and Portland got the better of the Earthquakes in a 1-0 victory in San Jose ... The Earthquakes swept the 1977 season series with a 3-2 victory at home and 2-1 win in Portland ... The Timbers came back in 1978 and outscored the Earthquakes 8-2 in two wins on their way to the NASL National Conference Final, where they lost to the New York Cosmos ... The teams split the 1979 series with Portland winning 4-3 in San Jose and the Earthquakes winning 2-1 in Portland ...In 1980 the Earthquakes dropped both games to the Timbers, losing each match by just one goal ... The Timbers got the best of the Earthquakes in 1981 as well, sweeping the season series by finals of 3-0 and 2-1 ... 1982 was the last NASL series between the two teams ... The Earthquakes won the first game 1-0 in Portland and the Timbers were victorious 1-0 when they traveled to San Jose ... The two sides played again in a 2001 exhibition in Portland and the Timbers were victorious 2-1 ... The next meeting came in 2004 during the U.S. Open Cup and the Earthquakes won 3-0 ... In 2005 the sides met again in the U.S. Open Cup and the Earthquakes were victorious 2-0 ... The Earthquakes topped Portland in U.S. Open Cup Qualifying 1-0 on May 3, 2011 with Ike Opara scoring the game winner in the 120th minute ... The Earthquakes and Timbers battled to a pair of 1-1 draws in 2011 ... Portland got the better of San Jose 2-1 at JELD-WEN Field in the two team's first meeting of 2012, snapping a three-game winning streak for the Earthquakes ... Chris Wondolowski came off the bench to score a pair of second-half goals and rally San Jose from a two-goal deficit in a 2-2 draw at Buck Shaw Stadium on Sept. 19 ... The Earthquakes and Timbers closed out the 2012 regular season with a 1-1 draw on Oct. 27. Chris Wondolowski tied Roy Lassiter's single-season mark of 27 goals with a penalty kick in the 24th minute ... Portland won the clubs' first of three meetings in 2013 1-0 at JELD-WEN Field with Will Johnson curling home a free kick in the 78th minute ... San Jose rallied at Buck Shaw Stadium to draw even with Portland 1-1 thanks to a 92nd-minute goal from Adam Jahn on April 21, 2013 ... The Earthquakes picked up their first-ever win against the Timbers on July 27, 2013 with a 2-1 result at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Earthquakes - Portland Timbers Connections

San Jose forward Mike Fucito played for the Timbers in 2012 ... Earthquakes midfielder Shea Salinas played with Timbers midfielder Michael Nanchoff for Vancouver Whitecaps FC in 2011 ... Portland head coach Caleb Porter was originally drafted by San Jose in the third round (No. 27 overall) of the 1998 MLS SuperDraft ... Porter appeared in four matches with the Clash in 1999, his only season with the club ... Earthquakes Designated Player Matias Perez Garcia, Timbers forwards Maximiliano Urruti and Gaston Fernandez, Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri, Timbers defender Norberto Paparatto are Argentinean ... The group were all in the top division of Argentine soccer in 2011-12 with Perez Garcia playing for CA All Boys, Urruti for Newell's All Boys, Fernandez for Estudiantes LP, Valeri for Lanus and Paparatto for Tigre ... Perez Garcia, Paparatto and Valeri each started their careers at Lanus in the Buenos Aires province ... Perez Garcia and Paparatto played together at Tigre from 2012-14 ... Earthquakes defender Shaun Francis and Timbers defender Danny O'Rourke played together at Columbus from 2010-12 ... Earthquakes defender Jordan Stewart and Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell are both English and played in the Premiership ... Ridgewell spent most of his professional career in Stewart's hometown of Birmingham, playing for Aston Villa from 2002-07 and Birmingham City from 2007-12 ... Earthquakes defender Jason Hernandez and Timbers midfielder Jorge Villafana spent one season together at Chivas USA in 2007 ... Timbers goalkeeper Andrew Weber played for San Jose from 2009-11.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Final Countdown at Buck Shaw Stadium

The Earthquakes have just three MLS regular season games remaining at Buck Shaw Stadium before they move into their new home at the beginning of the 2015 season. The club hosts the LA Galaxy on Sunday, Sept. 14, the Portland Timbers on Saturday, Oct. 4 and Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday, Oct. 18. Tickets are available to those matches by calling 1-800-225-2277, visiting e6555008c3431b7f97e435bbf www.sjearthquakes.com or fa0eb990b38e83d506d15aae6 www.tickets.com. Groups of 10 or more should call the club's Front Office at 408-556-7700 to ask about group rates.

Wondolowski Continues Hot Post-World Cup Pace

Chris Wondolowski is one of the hottest players in MLS since returning from the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Since his homecoming after United States Men's National Team duty, Wondolowski has five goals and four assists in nine games. He has a goal or an assist in seven of those nine games, and recorded an assist in San Jose's most recent match, locating Sam Cronin in the area for the Quakes' lone goal in a 1-1 draw against Real Salt Lake on Saturday.

Cronin Doubles His Haul

One week after scoring his first goal of 2014, Sam Cronin doubled his season haul with a tidy finish in the area in San Jose's 1-1 draw against Real Salt Lake on Saturday. Cronin took a Wondolowski pass, side-stepped his defender and tucked his shot to the far post for his second goal in as many games and his fifth in five seasons with the Earthquakes.

Cronin Enters Club's Top-10 List

Sam Cronin made his 131st career appearance for San Jose on Saturday, tying him with current Earthquakes assistant coach Ian Russell for No. 10 in club history. Last week, he entered the club's top-10 list in games started with his 122nd.

Busch Among League Leaders

Earthquakes goalkeeper Jon Busch is having another stellar season for San Jose. He leads the league with 89 saves and is tied for fifth in saves percentage among goalkeepers with at least 10 starts at 71 percent.

Second Half Lockdown

The Quakes are still tied for first in the league for goals allowed in the final stanza. They have allowed just 13 goals in the second half all season, tied with Seattle Sounders FC for top honors. The Earthquakes are also second in goals allowed over the final 15 minutes of games with four, one behind Seattle.

#MilestoEpicenter Goes Global

Earthquakes fans around the world will soon be able to gauge their distance to the Epicenter of soccer after the club announced an expansion of its #MilestoEpicenter campaign. Billboards will be placed in a number of locations depicting the distance to San Jose's new stadium, including: multiple places around the Bay Area, New England, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Route 66, New York City, Miami and Las Vegas. The international boards include Mexico, Brazil, London, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and other locations around Europe.

Enter to Win #MilestoEpicenter

In addition to the billboard campaign, fans have a chance to win 2015 Earthquakes season tickets through the #MilestoEpicenter contest. To enter for a chance to win the grand prize of two 2015 Earthquakes season tickets, fans can either pick up a "Miles to the Epicenter" sign at the Quakes Front Office or download and print a paper one from the team's official website at sjearthquakes.com. Using the sign, fans can then write their distance from the Quakes New Stadium on the sign and take a photo of themselves with the sign. To enter the contest, fans have the option of emailing the photo to milestoepicenter@sjearthquakes.com or uploading the photo through the club website, sjearthquakes.com. All of the photos will then be displayed at sjearthquakes.com and the team's official Facebook page, facebook.com/sanjoseearthquakes. Fans can then share their submission with the hashtag #milestoepicenter and vote for their favorite photo. The photo that receives the most votes will win a pair of 2015 Earthquakes season tickets. The contest will run through the end of the 2014 MLS regular season on Sunday, Oct. 26.

Check out the San Jose Earthquakes Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Major League Soccer Stories from September 1, 2014


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central