COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The San Jose Earthquakes picked up their first clean sheet of the season in a 0-0 draw against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Despite missing both of their regulars on the depth chart at left back and starting right back Brandon Barklage, Earthquakes head coach Mark Watson was able to cobble together a backline that withstood the Rapids’ advances throughout the match. The Earthquakes also finished the game down a man after second-year forward Adam Jahn was sent off in the 87th minute.
The Earthquakes put pressure on their hosts early and nearly found the net two minutes in. Alan Gordon had a look in front of goal after a Shea Salinas corner kick, but his header rattled the crossbar and bounced away.
Chris Wondolowski had another golden chance in the 38th minute after losing his marker on a free kick from Salinas. Wondolowski snapped a header toward goal, but watched his shot shave the woodwork just high.
Earthquakes goalkeeper Jon Busch was largely untested in picking up his first shutout of the season. He made one save with Andreas Gorlitz, Victor Bernardez, Clarence Goodson and Ty Harden providing cover on the backline. Gorlitz, a former Bayern Munich product, played 90 minutes in his San Jose debut while Harden went the distance in his first career start at left back.
Saturday’s draw ups the club’s unbeaten streak against Colorado to eight games (5-0-3).
The Earthquakes return to action on Saturday, April 26 against Chivas USA at Buck Shaw Stadium. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. PT on Comcast SportsNet California, 1590 KLIV and 1370 KZSF.
San Jose Earthquakes (0-2-3, 3 pts.) 0:0 Colorado Rapids (3-1-2, 11 pts.)April 19, 2014 – Dick’s Sporting Goods Park
Attendance: 12,306
Scoring Summary: None.
Misconduct Summary: SJ – Atiba Harris (caution) 25; SJ – Adam Jahn (ejection) 87.
San Jose Earthquakes: Jon Busch, Andreas Gorlitz, Victor Bernardez, Clarence Goodson, Ty Harden, Atiba Harris (Yannick Djalo 70, Cordell Cato 88), Sam Cronin, JJ Koval, Shea Salinas, Chris Wondolowski, Alan Gordon (Adam Jahn 84).
SHOTS: 6;
SHOTS ON GOAL: 0;
SAVES: 1;
FOULS: 12;
CORNER KICKS: 10;
OFFSIDES: 3.
Colorado Rapids – Clint Irwin, Thomas Piermayr, Shane O’Neill, Drew Moor, Chris Klute, Jared Watts, Dillon Powers, Nick LaBrocca (Dillon Serna 63), Vicente Sanchez, Deshorn Brown (Gabriel Torres 82), Edson Buddle.
SHOTS: 8;
SHOTS ON GOAL: 1;
SAVES: 0;
FOULS: 9;
CORNER KICKS: 10;
OFFSIDES: 2.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH MARK WATSON
On result:“That’s a good result. You look at how the 90 minutes unfolded, we had to dig deep again and had a lot of pressure on us. We also went down a player. We’ll take a lot of positives out this result with the way we fought and earned that clean sheet.”
On defensive effort:“That’s our first clean sheet of the season. That’s something we pride ourselves on, being tough to break down, and we hadn’t quite gotten there this season. I thought our team played well. Colorado had a fair bit of pressure. I don’t think we had a ton of great chances, but there were some good situations where we just lacked a bit of quality in the final third.”
On Andrea Gorlitz:“I thought he did well. He’s been battling injuries for eight weeks now. That was his first 90 minutes and his first time with our first team. He’s an experience pro, calm, a good passer of the ball. Defensively he was solid in dealing with Deshorn Brown, who has a lot of pace, and I thought he did well handling a tough Colorado team.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD ALAN GORDON On his chance that hit the crossbar:“It was a good ball. I was able to get free. I was just trying to put it on target. It was a bit high, and hit the crossbar. I tried to get the rebound, but my momentum was carrying me away. That’s just the way it goes sometimes, but next time hopefully [it will go in].”
On getting a point on the road:“I think we’re happy with the point. It’s tough to play here and we’re playing against a good team. But I think that we’re getting desperate for a win. I don’t think that we’re celebrating by any means, but we’ll take the point and move forward.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES DEFENDER CLARENCE GOODSON On what kind of a threat the Rapids offense poses:“Strength and pace. Edson [Buddle] is kind of a target forward, and you have the other guys, [Vicente] Sánchez and [Deshorn] Brown as well, playing off of him trying to get behind. I think we were just trying to keep a good shape and we’ve gotten away from that a bit in the last few games to give up some not so good goals. That was really the focus tonight – get into a good shape.”
On Colorado not having very many chances at goal:“They had some crosses, but I don’t remember any saves that [Jon] Busch had to make that were goal-saving saves. They certainly had a lot of corners, but we’re big guys. We don’t give up a lot of opportunities on set pieces. I think we had opportunities to score as well. We had some good crosses in at the end there with Yannick [Djalo], a really dynamic player. I thought he got hacked a few times as well and we could have had some free kicks.”
On what the message was at halftime:“Stay focused. Toward the end of the first half it really got kind of messy out there. It’s a hard field and when it starts to rain it gets slick, so there were of those kinds of mistakes. Ty [Harden] and I slipped on a play, I think that was maybe their best chance, but they ended up shooting wide. I think [Jon] Busch may have touched the shot, but it was going high. It got really windy as well so I think we were sitting back a little more than we wanted to, and we just wanted to step up a little bit more and put more pressure on them, if possible, higher on the field. And we did that in the second half.”
Diego Colorado, de Atletas con Porvenir logró un podio más para su nutrida carrera deportiva en la XXII Carrera Atlética 'Trepadores a Colosiná' que se disputó este fin de semana, en la cual vencieron Julius Gidabuday, de Tanzania y Kelly Arias, de Atletas de Oro.
