Quakes Crumble Aginst Toronto

The San Jose Earthquakes lost to Toronto FC 3-1 on Saturday Night at Buck Shaw Stadium. Darren Huckerby scored the only goal for San Jose. Chad Barrett scored the first and third goals for Toronto and Pable Vitti tallied the second goal.

The Quakes came out both the first and thew second half flat giving away early, easy goals in both halves. Coach Frank Yallop was surprised to see this after the training the team had leading up to this game. “From our standpoint it was a poor performance by us. We want to obviously get a good performance at home. We came out flat, nervous and not really ready to play. It surprised me to be honest.”

The quakes did respond in the first half pressuring the Reds goal, Yallop liked the response initially “We responded a little bit but not as much as we needed to. We go a goal down, but we did better in the first half to get back in the game. The third goal was unfortunate; I’ve never seen that happen to be honest. It killed us a bit; I thought we were coming back to the game at 2-1.” Aaron Pitchkolan, was chasing Barrett on a breakaway when he fell to the ground due to a strained groin. Barrett was than Able to easily breeze past Cannon for the insurance goal Toronto was looking for.

The Earthquakes needed a win and three points to start moving up the table a bit and this game cost them dearly. They will finish at the bottom of the standings unless they start winning at home every time and stealing a win or two on the road.

Gary and Denton Cut Loose - New Signing to Follow?

The Earthquakes have waived defender Eric Denton and defender/midfielder Kelly Gray. With the emergence of Mike Zaher at left back and the versatility of Brandon MacDonald recently Denton and Gray dropped became expendable. The opportunity for the Earthquakes was to free up some salary cap room for the likely signing of another player once the signing window opens on July 15.

No reports yet on exactly who that might be but it's known that Doyle and Yallop have been on the lookout to bring in some reinforcements.

Quakes Down the Galaxy in Oakland

The San Jose Earthquakes netted a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy in the California Clasico Saturday afternoon. Pablo Campos scored on a penalty kick in the 6th minute and Ryan Johnson scored his sixth goal of the season in the 54th minute to give the Quakes the victory. At the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in front of 17,128 fans the Quakes played in a back and forth affair.

The Earthquakes played with Brandon McDonald, Aaron Pitchkolan as their two center backs now that Garcia was traded and Hernandez suffering from an injured calf again. They also featured Bobby Convey and Darren Huckerby on the other with Arturo Alvarez recently suffering a groin injury. Ramiro Corrales and Antonio Ribeiro roamed the central midfield and up front Yallop inserted Pablo Campos along side Ryan Johnson. The defense held up for the most part bending but not breaking. Surprisingly McDonald and Pitchkolan having not played much together and not being in their natural positions were effective for the most part.

Overall Campos and Johnson were able to cause havoc at times for the Galaxy and the Quakes outshot them 10-7 and 4-1 with shots on goal.

Frank Yallop was releived to get the three points for the win, “Today’s main objective was to get three points, and getting that result was great for us. We had a good game, unfortunately the field was not at its best and some winds here and there, but the three points was all that mattered.” As for the standout performers, he added “I thought Pablo (Campos) played very well against Los Angeles on April 18, he had a great goal as well. Today Pablo (Campos) came in with a stronger and renewed aggression and played very well. He did terrific on the play for the penalty kick and got a good goal off of the penalty as well.” Yallop feels like the team has started a good run of games lately, “Looking at the last four games we’ve won two, lost one and tied one, but we should have really won in Dallas. I feel we’re on the right path, we work very hard in sticking our head in, making it difficult for our opponents when the ball is played into the box. (Ryan) Johnson stuck his right foot in to get that second goal. Our guys were very brave and I’m very proud of them on today’s performance.”

Ryan Johnson never gave up and kept working hard to help the team score goals. On scoring the game-winner, he said “It just comes down to being hungry. I was hungry out there and I want it bad. I have set goals for myself and this team and it is important to achieve them. Every team in this league has good players and anyone can beat you and that is why it was so big to put them away. This is huge for the guys that haven’t been getting a ton of playing time out there to have this kind of success. Guys like Brandon (McDonald) and Mike (Zaher) have been playing extremely well and that creates a lot more competition in practice. No one is guaranteed to start every week, and that is what will help raise our level of play.”

Next up for the Earthquakes is a July 3rd match at Real Salt Lake. The Quakes will attempt to get healthy and build on the momentum they've started to produce.

Red Bulls Run Over Quakes, 4-1

The San jose Earthquakes gave up four first half goals and lost 4-2 to the New York Red Bulls on Friday night. Frank Yallop wants his team to put this one behind them and focus on the upcoming games. ”The game was basically over in the first 20 minutes. Three-nil down and I don’t know what the minute was, but especially away from home, it’s tough to get anything out of the game. The game was over once they scored. We were just not in the game and we weren’t really playing the game. And when the game was sort of dead and buried, we started to push and do the things that we talked about before the match. But once the goals are in, it’s all about scoring. We were poor first half and it showed in the scoring.”

Chris Leitch, recovered from his concussion the week prior was disappointed with their play against the Red Bulls. “I don’t think if it can be even more disappointing. I mean, four goals in one half - what can you really say about that. Every single guy has to look at himself in the mirror and ask himself if they can do anything more. I don’t think anyone had a good half, including myself. Kandji’s a good player. I like Kandji’s game. He won his battles, no matter who he was up against. He’s more physical I think. He wanted it more.”

Joe Cannon commented, “You know, there’s really not much to say. Week in week out, we’re tired of trying to come up with excuses. I feel for our guys because I believe in them, we’ve got a good core. However, you can see that we kind of miss some players who are out right now. I feel bad for our staff. I feel as a group, we’ve let them down, we’ve let our fans down and our entire organization.” As for turning things around, he added “We’re not getting our job done as players. I believe there will be a time and a point this season when things come together.”

So the Earthquakes have a week off and than play at Houston and Columbus the week after that. If they can get any results in their upcomign road games it will help start to turn things around. If not, the misery will continue.

Quakes Obtain Pitchkolan in Trade From Dallas

The San Jose Earthquakes announced today that the team has acquired defender Aaron Pitchkolan from FC Dallas in exchange for a conditional pick in the 2011 SuperDraft. The conditional pick is thought to be a fourth round pick that could be moved to a third round pick if a certain number of appearances are reached. “We are happy to bring Aaron to San Jose,” said Earthquakes general manager of soccer operations John Doyle. “He is an experienced MLS player who has great versatility. We think he will be a solid addition to our squad.”

The 26-year-old, who was drafted in 2005 by FC Dallas, has made one appearance in 2009 entering as a sub on March 29 vs. Chivas USA. For his career, he has made 68 appearances for FC Dallas and scored five goals. In 2008 he made a career-high 21 appearances, with 15 starts. He scored four goals in all competitions in 2008, including one regular season strike.

Pitchkolan played college soccer at West Virginia. He appeared in 54 matches in three years and scored 11 goals for the Mountaineers. He also spent one season at the University of Tampa.

Sounders Down Quakes 2-0

The San Jose Earthquakes fell to Seattle Sounders FC 2-0 Saturday night at Qwest Field. Steve Zakuani and Brad Evans scored for Sounders FC. In front of an attendance of 28,838 fans, the Quakes played better soccer overall but couldn't get the last pass or the last shot to find the back of the net.

Coach Frank Yallop lamented the Quakes final touch, commenting “On general play tonight, I thought we did pretty well. We came out and moved the ball better than we have recently, but we were just lacking that final touch to get the goals. This game is about scoring goals and at the end of the day, we didn’t do that tonight.” On Keller's block of Johnson's chance to start the second half, he added “The game kind of hinged on that save. If we score that one, it is 1-1 and it is a different game. Credit to Kasey (Keller), he made the play there and then Seattle goes right back down and scores. At 2-0, they had the momentum again and it was tough for us to get back in it.”

Next week the Quakes are at home against Chivas USA who currently hold the best record in the league.

Cochrane has Ankle Surgery

Defender Ryan Cochrane underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle Friday afternoon. The surgery was performed by the team physician, Dr. Michael Oberlander, at Sequoia Surgical Pavilion in Walnut Creek. Cochrane is expected to be out of action for 10-12 weeks.
Cochrane, who missed time in preseason due to the left ankle injury, has started two games this season, including last weekend’s game against the Los Angeles Galaxy.