The San Jose Earthquakes conceded two goals in the last twenty minutes to lose their home season opener to the New York Red Bulls 3-1.
After Patryk Klimala put the visitors in front in extra time in the first half, San Jose’s Chofis tied the match off with a nice flick on from a Cristian Espinoza corner in the 69th minute.
However, the Red Bulls quickly reclaimed their lead on an Omir Fernandez goal three minutes later when he nutmegged San Jose goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski.
New York’s Tom Barlow added an insurance goal in the 92nd minute to allow the visitors to collect the full three points.
After the match, Earthquakes head coach Matias Almeyda conceded little to the visitors for claiming the full three points.
“If you watch the three goals, which I just watched, there was no build-up play from the opponent,” Matias explained. “There wasn’t game control from the opponent to create the goal-scoring chance. What I saw on the opponent is that they pressed us when our players had their back turned. We know that we shouldn’t play through the middle because one of the strong points is Red Bulls’ pressure because we know that with our turnovers, they can break away quickly, and they will catch us open – and that’s how two of those goals were scored. Two turnovers, two counters, but it was their virtue where they put away the chances that they had. But I didn’t see that they were able to hurt us through their build-up play, but rather our own mistakes.”
The newly assembled Quakes squad played a strong match in front of a passionate home crowd. However, their mistakes led San Jose to not claim any points from their home opener.
After the game attacking midfielder Jamiro Montiero expressed his frustration with the loss.
“This is our first game, it’s a long season, and we will do better for sure,” said Montiero. ” The idea that the coach has is a very good idea, but it will come for sure. We will do better.”
San Jose will have a chance to quickly avenge their home opener loss. They next play the Columbus Crew on Sat. March 5, at 2:30 p.m.
