Quakes Take Down Galaxy and Gain Three Points

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The San Jose Earthquakes defeated their southern rivals, the Los Angeles Galaxy in Oakland in front of more than 26,000 fans. The newcomers to the team started off the scoring for the Quakes just as John Doyle and Frank Yallop hoped when they acquired theri cast of new characters recently. Darren Huckerby crossed the ball to Scott Sealy who one touched it to Arturo Alvarez who placed it to the far post with his preferred left foot. Later it was Huckerby himself blowing down the left wing and shooting to the far post to beat Cronin again and put the Quakes upt 2-0.

Of course Beckham and Donovan had something to say next when Donovan headed in a Beckham cross to make it 2-1. Edson Buddle than dribbled in from the middle and put a shot past Joe Cannon to tie it up. In the 90th minute defender Ryan Coachrane put in a Huckerby rebound and that proved to be the game winner for the Quakes.

Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop felt good about the game today, “It feels good to win in front of our fans. We had some good chances to score some more goals. All in all, it was a terrific game for us. We were obviously not happy for the two goals that LA scored, but sometimes you’re a little bit vulnerable. We had a terrific comeback in the last couple of minutes of the game and it showed character in the team.” On the second half “I thought Ramiro Corrales really drove us on today. He was terrific in the middle of the field. We put a lot of energy putting the ball forward and it was good to see. I was very happy in our efforts with both sides of the ball against a team that scores a ton of goals. I was very happy in the stuff we created.” His confidence in the team is obviously growing as well, “Every game is different, but we will be trying to play the same type of soccer that we just played today. I’m hoping that we can establish a really good rhythm now and I look forward to our games. We feel comfortable now that we can play the ball into Darren Huckerby’s feet and he’s not going to lose it and that gives us the confidence to move forward. If we can get a win in our next game then we might be able to try to make a run for the playoffs, which is our whole aim.” Earthquakes Midfielder Darren Huckerby, on scoring his goal “It was a good ball from Eric (Denton) and I knew it was one-on-one and I just got by them. I was looking to pass it to Scott (Sealy), but he got blocked off so I took the ball to the corner and it worked.”

Galaxy head coach Ruud Gullit noticed an imporvement in the Quakes since the last time they played, he said “I think that my team played well today. We battled for everything, but we were just unfortunate. Their team fought back and battled for it so you have to credit their team. I think we did everything to get a good result, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen. I think they are much better than they were and we knew that coming into today. We played an excellent game against them.”

Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham remembers Darren Huckerby from their EPL meetings in the past, “Of course he is capable of scoring goals. He has done it all through his career. He’s a quick player and when he’s got confidence like he does at the moment, he scores goals, which gives any team problems. I’ve seen that before when I played for Manchester United and he played for Coventry. He’s a player that can bring a lot to not only his team, but also the league. He’s a player with quality and we will see him score goals.” He's also noticed a big improvement in the team, " I think that they brought new players in and this time around, their confidence is a lot higher than when we played last time and our is slightly lower than when we played them last. They played well today and we also played a lot better than our last game. But like I said before, what we can take from this game is the fact that we showed some character. We’ve got ten days before Chivas USA and obviously, that game now becomes a must win game for us.”

How do you feel about the new and improved Earthquakes team? Are you happy with their new signings? Do you want more new players? If so, where? How