Cristian Espinoza’s sixth goal of the season was not enough to stop the San Jose Earthquakes from defeat against Real Salt Lake Saturday night on the road.
Salt Lake took the lead in the first half on a goal from Jasper Loffelsend. Espinoza tied the game up shortly after the break. But a goal from Jefferson Savarino quickly gave the lead back to the home side, and Carlos Gomez put the result out of doubt in the 80th minute.
“We felt short. A positive is that we can compete against anybody, anywhere, any day,” said Quakes coach Luchi Gonzalez after the game. But to win these kinds of games away in a venue like Salt Lake, we have to execute, kill in our chances, and we did not. Let’s work. Let’s keep getting better at it. Our foundation is very good, and we know we can do that against anybody, but it didn’t happen tonight.”
Next up for the Quakes is a US Open Cup third-round match against USL side Monterey Bay FC.
“We played them in a preseason game. It’s a good stadium,” noted Quakes midfielder Jackson Yueill. “They’re going to be a hard opponent. They’re going to be up for it. We’re going to have to recover in these next two days to get guys on the field and be as prepared as we can.”
