Soccer
Quakes Fall 2-1 To Whitecaps
The Vancouver Whitecaps ran their undefeated streak to six games (4-0-2) with a solid 2-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes in front of another sellout crowd of 22,120 fans at BC Place moving within a point of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Vancouver came out with a game plan to attack the the San Jose Earthquakes from the opening kickoff testing them early and often that saw Cristian Techera send one over the crossbar in the 14th minute keeping the game scoreless.
The Caps opened the scoring in 29th minute on yet another exceptional masterful goal by Alphonso Davies after
He (Davies) took the ball wide and managed to slide it past a surprised “Quakes” goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell giving the Cap’s the early 1 nil lead.
They (Caps) almost added to the lead as Kei |Kamara took a pass off the wing sending a rocket shoot just wide of the post in the 35th minute off a Aly Ghazal feed that saw Tarbell getting a piece of it for a corner kick.
The Quakes had a quality chance in the opening half when Captain Chris Wonodolowski was at the top of the penalty area that saw him hammer one over the crossbar allowing Vancouver to maintained their lead.
Cap’s Kamara had a corner kick in the 42nd minute came close to extending their lead with a header over the crossbar with the half winding down that saw Vancouver take the one goal lead to the half.
Vancouver kept up the pressure in the second half against the Quakes defense testing the San Jose defense at times taking them wide and using the centre of the field creating several scoring chances, only to be denied.
San Jose made some subs in the second half to make adjustments against Vancouver in the 57th minute that saw Jackson Yueill come in for Lius Felipe Fernandes.
Vancouver’s Kei Kamara was handed a yellow card in the 62nd minute, which was followed by a Techera miss sending one wide of the far post keeping Vancouver up by a close 1 nil score.
Vancouver made subs as Nicolas Mezquida came in for Techera in the 71st minute which proved great for the Cap’s as he found the back of the net in the 78th minute curling a free kick into the top corner giving the Caps a 2 nil lead.
Vancouver made two additional subs as Erik Hurtado came in for Kamara in the 82nd minute, while Brek Shea came in the 89th minute for Jordy Renya for their final subs of the match.
Things got interesting in the 90th minute that saw San Jose get a marker in extra time from Valeri Quzaishvili that seemed to catch the Caps defense napping for the additional five minutes of extra time.
The Cap’s take their six (6) games undefeated streak (4-0-2) as they take on the Seattle Sounders seven (7) game undefeated streak in a Western Conference match-up.
Vancouver comes away with a solid 2-1 victory moving into a tie for 7th in the West with a record of (11-9-7) tied with Portland (11-7-8) each with 40 points.
This see’s them sit one back of the Seattle Sounders (12-9-5) with 41 points.
Scoring Summary: VAN – Alphonso Davis (Yordy Reyna, Kei Kamara) 22; VAN – Nicolas Mezquida (Yordy Reyna) 78; SJ – Vako (Jackson Yueill) 90+1.
Misconduct Summary: SJ – Nick Lima (caution) 42; VAN – Cristian Techera (caution) 63; VAN – Yordy Reyna (caution) 67; SJ – Magnus Eriksson (caution) 83.
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC: Stefan Marinovic; Brent Levis, Aaron Maund, Jakob Nerwinski, Kendall Waston; Aly Ghazal, Alphonso Davis; Russell Teibert, Yordy Reyna (Brek Shea 90), Cristian Techera (Nicolas Mezquida 71); Kei Kamara (Erik Hurtado 81).
Story by Bruce Nolte/Steve Erickson