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Gordon spurs Quakes to late 2-1 win over Rapids





COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – A own-goal and a stoppage-time penalty from Chris Wondolowski allowed the San Jose Earthquakes to emerge from Dick’s Sporting Goods Park with an unlikely and thrilling 2-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday night.
The Earthquakes netted their fourth stoppage-time victory of the season thanks to the 91st-minute Wondolowski penalty, just minutes after pressure from Alan Gordon forced a Hunter Freeman own goal in the 83rd.
Gordon later drew the penalty on Rapids 'keeper Matt Pickens’ flailing dive at the ball, where the 'keeper appeared to catch Gordon’s cleat, and US international Wondolowski buried the subsequent spot kick.
The Rapids will feel robbed for the second straight game after Brian Mullan’s 18th-minute header had the home side ahead for the majority of the proceedings, only for two late strikes to provide the unquestionable heartbreak for Oscar Pareja’s men.


Despite a nearly month-long absence in league play, the Earthquakes dominated the opening quarter hour of the match, though it didn’t register on the scoreboard as Pickens made excellent saves on both Víctor Bernárdez and Simon Dawkins.
But against the run of the visitors’ early dominance, it was the Rapids who found the back of the net in the early goings.
With right back Hunter Freeman surging down the right wing, the veteran defender crossed to an open Mullan at the far post, and Mullan made no mistake with Freeman’s pinpoint service, heading to the back post to become the 11th different Rapid to score this season.
The two sides continued to trade blows, and it was Pickens who unveiled the save of his already highlight-ridden season. Steven Lenhart’s point-blank header looked destined for the back of the net, but Pickens improbably got down to his right to push it out at the last second.
The Rapids had the first good chance of the second half as Edu’s header nearly found top corner for the Rapids, but San Jose controlled the tempo the rest of the way.
In the 68th minute, Pickens was again called on to parry away another Dawkins effort, making yet another save to preserve the clean sheet.
Despite good looks on the other end from Jeff Larentowicz and Omar Cummings, the Rapids couldn’t add to their lead and the missed chances came back to haunt them.


Though Pickens denied Lenhart point-blank once again, Gordon and Freeman came crashing in at the far post, and the rebound caromed off the Rapids defender into the net.
Gordon then earned a penalty after darting behind the Rapids defense and being caught by Pickens.
The 6-8-1 Rapids have 10 days before they next host Portland, while the 9-3-3 Earthquakes hop the Rocky Mountains for a highly anticipated clash at Real Salt Lake on Saturday night.

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SEATTLE — Jacob Peterson and Patrick Ianni traded first-half goals as Sporting Kansas City and the Seattle Sounders played to a 1-1 tie in a chippy match at CenturyLink Field on Wednesday.
The Sounders have now gone a franchise-record six matches without a win, while Sporting KC extended their unbeaten streak to four games.

The game was wide open at times, but also extremely physical, with the two teams combining for 30 fouls. There were also five yellow cards and Seattle midfielder Álvaro Fernández was shown a straight red card for a tackle from behind on Sporting's Roger Espinoza in stoppage time.
Either team could have come away with all three points and made a decent argument they deserved them.

The Sounders’ best chance to pull out the win came in the 88th minute, when Fredy Montero was able to round the defense and squeeze off a shot from about six yards out to the left of Jimmy Nielsen. The SKC 'keeper, however, managed to put a hand on the ball, forcing it to ricochet off the far post to keep it out of his goal.
On the other side, it was Andrew Weber who came up big for the Sounders. Making his first start of the season, his big moment came in the 71st minute, when he made a diving stop on a Chance Myers header.
The first half was full of chances as well.
Sporting KC jumped out to the early advantage when the Sounders failed to clear a throw-in into the penalty area in the eighth minute. Aurélien Collin controlled the ball and passed it back to Peterson, who fired a shot from about 16 yards out. His effort deflected off Sounders midfielder Osvaldo Alonso and into the far upper corner, giving Weber no real chance to make the save.


That seemed to spark the Sounders, who up until then had failed to generate many chances. Right winger Brad Evans twice came close to connecting on crosses, both in the 12th minute, and Montero narrowly missed Zach Scott with a pass from a 14th minute free kick.
Seattle broke through in the 15th minute when Mauro Rosales sent in a free kick from the right side about 25 yards out. Ianni was able to hit a spectacular side-footed volley from about eight yards that easily beat Nielsen. It was the center back's first goal since May 28, 2011, when he scored against Real Salt Lake. It was also Ianni’s first appearance since May 5, as he’s been out with a back injury ever since.
Each team had at least one very good chance of grabbing the lead. SKC's Soony Saad hit the crossbar after slipping around Scott on the right wing in the 19th minute. For Seattle, Eddie Johnson had a good opportunity in the 38th minute when he was able to collect a rebound off an Alex Caskey shot, but his attempt from about eight yards went wide.
Both teams will return to action this weekend. Sporting KC will take to the field on Saturday, when they travel to face the Philadelphia Union. The Sounders, meanwhile, will face Cascadia rivals Portland Timbers in an ESPN-televised match on Sunday.

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CARSON, Calif. – Juan Pablo Angel scored his third goal of the season to give Chivas USA just their second home win of the year, a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Impact Wednesday night at the Home Depot Center.
Just minutes after coming on as a substitute, Angel headed in his 71st career goal to edge Chivas past the expansion side.


Pressuring from the outset, the Rojiblancos finally broke through in the 15th minute of play. A Cesar Romero corner kick found the boot of Juan Agudelo whose touch deflected off Alejandro Moreno’s thigh for the opening goal.
Chivas continued their offensive pressure in the 29th minute when Ben Zemanski launched a shot from 25 yards out that forced a fingertip save from Impact ‘keeper Donovan Ricketts.
That seemed to bring Montreal into the game, and they began tilting the field regularly as the first half wound down. Andrew Wenger and Felipe both had attempts pushed wide by Dan Kennedy in the 39th minute.
Three minutes later, Felipe would not be denied. Davy Arnaud dashed down the right flank before sending in a cross to the near post that Felipe coolly flicked past Kennedy. The wild finish to the first half continued as, just two minutes later, Zemanski forced another diving save from Ricketts with a shot from outside the box.
At the outset of the second half both clubs pressed ahead in search of the go-ahead goal. Chivas nearly got on the board for a second time when a pinball-esque passing sequence allowed Agudelo to get alone on the ‘keeper, but defender Shavar Thomas made a sliding tackle that prevented the forward from getting a chance on frame. Chivas continued the pressure just moments later when Moreno — with a Montreal defender on top of him – played the ball back for Romero, who launched a shot just wide of frame.


His club struggling to create chances, Impact head coach Jesse Marsch opted for a pair of offensive substitutions midway through the second half, bringing forward Justin Braun for Patrice Bernier in the 63rd and Sanna Nyassi for Wenger ten minutes later.
With the match stagnating, Fraser countered with a pair of subs of his own, inserting Angel and Jorge Villafaña in the 77th minute. Fraser’s substitutions paid off almost immediately when, in the 82nd minute Villafaña fired in a cross from the left side that Angel nodded past Ricketts.
In the 90th minute, Montreal nearly equalized when Nyassi launched shot from distance that forced a diving save from Kennedy. But that would be the Impact’s last gasp as the home side hung on.
With the win Chivas move to 5-7-3, with their 18 points good for sixth in the Western Conference. Montreal fall to 4-8-3, eighth in the East on 15 points.
Both teams return to action on Saturday as the Rojiblancos travel to Frisco, Texas to take on FC Dallas while the Impact head home to Stade Saputo to host the Houston Dynamo.

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HOUSTON – The first half for the Houston Dynamo against Toronto FC was something out of a horror story.
Undefeated at home, the Dynamo conceded three times to a Toronto squad that had mustered just eight goals in 11 MLS contests coming into the night. Simply put, Houston were getting outworked for second and third balls and produced play that several players characterized as sloppy, prompting a call to arms from head coach Dominic Kinnear at halftime.
His message? “Play better.”


That paved the way for a second half punctuated by a Will Bruin brace and the type of quality the Dynamo are accustomed to when playing at home as they pulled out a 3-3 draw on Wednesday night.
“I’m going to say we were probably playing some of the worst soccer I’ve ever seen,” Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall said. “We were uncharacteristically losing battles that we’ve won all year. At halftime, [Kinnear] told us, ‘Don’t look at the scoreboard, go out there be men, be better. Tackle and do things that are characteristically us and the scoreboard will take care of itself.’”
Kinnear was correct. The ills that had the Dynamo behind two goals disappeared after the break, and unlike the first half where the Dynamo were searching energy, the final half saw a renewed fight that had players putting their bodies in harm’s way and crashing the box with vigor to grab a result.
That drive, according to the Dynamo, was what turned a match that in the first half was setting up to be their worst defeat of the year.
“We said we could do one of two things, we could continue to accept this result or come out and do something about it,” Kinnear said about the halftime talk. “I think the players, each man, came out and did something about it. I think the guys for lack of a better term really wanted that second half and I think it showed.”


The reward for the turnaround was one point instead of three – not what Houston wanted, but considering the course of events it is one they will take.

“It was a good fight, good comeback but it took about 60 minutes to get going,” said Bruin, who notched his seventh and eighth goal of the season. “[Kinnear] challenged us and we didn’t want to let him down. He said, ‘I think everyone knows how the first half went and we can’t change it, but we can change how we play the next 45 minutes,’ and I think we rose to the occasion.”

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VANCOUVER, B.C. – Despite all the attacking talent on the field, Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the New York Red Bulls at BC Place was a night for the center backs.
Martín Bonjour put Vancouver ahead 15 minutes from time, but Heath Pearce equalized in the 86th minute to give both teams a point.
Davide Chiumiento, who was instrumental in many of Vancouver’s attacks throughout the night, set up the opening goal, juking past Dax McCarty before crossing a low ball into the area. Three Whitecaps made an attempt to go for the ball, before it eventually landed at Bonjour’s feet. The Argentine took a touch and curled it into the upper 90 to put Vancouver up 1-0.
Pearce equalized in the 86th minute, rising up unmarked to head home a cross from Joel Lindpere.



The Whitecaps started strongly with 52.7 percent of possession in the first half, and had better of the early opportunities.
In the 12th minute, Chiumiento played a nice one-two with Camilo before attempting an effort from just outside the area, but narrowly missed the top right corner of Ryan Meara’s goal.
Eight minutes, later Camilo thought he’d put Vancouver ahead, sneaking a ball just past Meara. The assistant referee flagged the play down and replays subsequently showed the Brazilian was well offside.
Chiumiento continued to pull the strings, but Gershon Koffie and Camilo could not make the most of their opportunities as New York rode their luck.
In the 41st minute, New York got their best opportunity of the opening period, as Dane Richards found McCarty with a cross, but the midfielder’s header went well wide from close range.
In the 56th minute, Camilo missed a chance from a good position, as Sébastien Le Toux cut the ball back only to watch the 23-year-old scuff an effort wide once again, this time to the right. Almost immediately the fans started chanting Eric Hassli’s name, and seven minutes later they got their wish as Camilo was withdrawn in favor of the Frenchman.


He almost made an immediate impact, turning his marker at the edge of the area before firing a shot just wide to the right of the target in the 69th minute.
A minute later, Richards was sent through on goal by Connor Lade, but Joe Cannon stepped off his line quickly to deny the Jamaican with a sliding intervention.
After Bonjour had put the 'Caps ahead, though, Cannon was powerless to stop Pearce's equalizer, coming courtesy of some slack defending from the players in front of him.
The Whitecaps, now 7-3-5, prepare for five consecutive away matches, starting this Saturday against defending MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy. The Red Bulls, sitting at 8-4-3, are back in action on Sunday as they host D.C. United.

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As an international-class striker himself in his playing days, Toronto FC head coach Paul Mariner understood how Danny Koevermans felt on Saturday.
The Dutch striker, who wowed the league with his clinical finishing in 2011, hit his nadir in 2012 against Sporting KC when he couldn’t put home a couple of big chances in what eventually was a 2-0 loss.
But strikers have short memories, and Koevermans came through on Wednesday with two first-half goals as Toronto built a surprising 3-1 lead before finishing at 3-3 against the Houston Dynamo for their first road point of the season.

“I felt sorry for him on Saturday because he had his chances,” Mariner told MLSsoccer.com in a telephone interview after the game. “He was bitterly disappointed that he didn’t take any of his chances.
“But it’s like that. Being an old striker myself sometimes it goes like that for you. You just have a bit of an off day or the defense does particularly well. But he was terrific tonight. I thought Ryan Johnson and himself were terrific as were all the players.”
Koevermans now has five of the 11 league goals scored by TFC who are now 1-10-1. His first goal came in the 22nd minute, two minutes after Houston had tied the game.
Johnson did a lot of the work, carrying the ball nearly half the length of the pitch before knocking a pass forward to Eric Avila, who was just running into the box. From the right side, Avila put to ball over to the onrushing Koevermans.
The big man had the simplest of tap-ins, and he made no mistake.
“It was a beautiful goal,” Mariner said. “The movement of the front three was sensational.”
Koevermans headed home a pass from Julian de Guzman in the 45th minute to give Toronto an unexpected 3-1 lead.


“Julian puts in the cross and I beat my man near post and I hit it in,” Koevermans told reporters. “For me, personally, I would rather not have scored and have gotten the three points because I am still disappointed.”
But most Toronto supporters would have taken the draw had it been offered before the game against a tough opponent. Especially if it means their big striker is ready to flash that 2011 form once again.
Mariner, for one, thinks it’s coming.
“I absolutely do,” he said. “I hope it’s going to happen to Danny and Eric and Ryan.”

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Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes trusted his backups to deliver a road result, and they did.
Vermes — whose team is in the midst of a 14-day, five-match stretch — went backup-heavy against Seattle on Wednesday night and saw his patchwork lineup come away with a 1-1 draw that extended Sporting’s unbeaten streak to four straight games in league play and six in all competitions.
“I thought the effort from those guys was outstanding,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com by phone after the chippy draw, which ended with Seattle reduced to 10 men after midfielder Álvaro Fernández was issued a straight red card for a tackle from behind on Sporting’s Roger Espinoza. “At the end of the day, it was a great team effort to pull out of here with a point.”

Vermes gave three players — forward Soony Saad and midfielders Peterson Joseph and Michael Thomas — their first career MLS starts. Saad came close to delivering a game-winner, but his shot in the 19th minute hit the crossbar.
Thomas, who went the full 90 in Júlio César’s usual defensive midfield spot, made his first appearance in any top-level competition for Sporting.
“He’s played well in reserve games and he’s worked hard in training,” Vermes said. “One thing I said to all the guys who were getting starts today: ‘You guys deserve it. You guys have worked for this. You should go into this thinking you deserve it. That’s why you’re out there and you’re going to do well.'
“The guys went out and fought for it and made a huge contribution to the team, based on the number of games we have in such a short period of time.”
And with a cross-continental trip and yet another short turnaround looming — a league match at Philadelphia on Saturday, followed by a home date against the Dayton Dutch Lions in the semifinals of the US Open Cup on June 26 — Vermes will continue to rely on role players and reserves.
“We’ve got to keep reaching down deep into the roster,” he said. “That’s how we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do right by our players. They’re working hard, they’re recovering, and we’ll keep assessing game by game.”
Wednesday’s game also saw the return of right winger Kei Kamara from international duty with Sierra Leone. After a 38-hour plane trip to rejoin the team, Kamara came on for goalscorer Jacob Peterson after 65 minutes, as Vermes kept bringing on attacking players in an attempt to come away with all three points.
“We didn’t start him because we wanted him to be able to rest a bit,” Vermes said. “It was good to see him get those minutes at the end.”

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COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – It was the kind of game the Colorado Rapids had grown accustomed to winning. After all, the Rapids won their first and only MLS Cup a year-and-a-half ago by gutting out hard-nosed, defense-oriented victories, so leading 1-0 deep into the second half against the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday night they appeared to be headed towards one of those trademark blue-collar wins.
But after allowing two goals in the last 10 minutes, the Rapids felt shattered, and weren’t shy in expressing their disappointment after the game.
When asked postgame about where Wednesday’s loss ranked in his mind, midfielder Jeff Larentowicz labeled the defeat “probably one of the most embarrassing” he had experienced in his two-plus seasons in Commerce City.

“When’s the story going to change, you know?” Larentowicz told MLSsoccer.com. “We can look at the games and try to the take the positives and say we’re going to build on those things. But we were a team that in the past that would grind out results and it was about the result. I’ve seen both sides of it.
"We need to get back to that graft, that fight that we had before that. Regardless of whether we’re playing well, we make it difficult for other teams.”
The Rapids appeared to have a stranglehold on the contest deep into the second half, but late fatigue and sloppy play gifted the Earthquakes a lifeline back into the contest. Hunter Freeman turned a rebound into his own net under pressure from Alan Gordon for an 83rd-minute equalizer, and Gordon later drew a penalty that Chris Wondolowski turned into the game-winning goal in injury time.
Wednesday’s loss followed a defeat on Saturday in Vancouver, where the Rapids dominated proceedings until an 80th-minute defensive collapse gifted the Whitecaps a 1-0 victory. Following yet another collapse, the heart of the Rapids defense, center back and team captain Drew Moor, offered a stern message for his team.
“I’ve been here for a little bit now, and this one stings as much as any loss I’ve ever had,” Moor said. “It has nothing to do with coaching, tactics, formations, it’s just guys digging deep on the field and grinding out results.
"That’s not a game [we lose], 10 minutes to go here and we’re up 1-0. I don’t think that’s happened since I’ve been here to lose a game like that. We close games like that out, and you know I think everybody that’s been on the field the last two games, every single one’s got to look in the mirror tonight, and decide whether they’re – myself included – and decide whether they’re putting everything into this that they need.”
Goalkeeper Matt Pickens, who appeared to clip Gordon for the foul leading to the game-winning penalty, echoed Moor’s frustrations.
“This has been the most frustrating two games I’ve ever been a part of,” Pickens told MLSsoccer.com afterwards. “And they were back-to-back and they were so close together. So it’s tough. We weren’t threatening much, to be honest. These two games were a tough stretch and it doesn’t get any easier.

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SANDY, Utah – The difference between three points and a home loss was easy to pinpoint Wednesday night for Real Salt Lake. The Western Conference leaders know there was one thing that caused them to fall to the LA Galaxy 3-2 at Rio Tinto Stadium: mistakes.
"I thought we approached the game in the right way," RSL head coach Jason Kreis told reporters after the match. "I thought we were really aggressive. We were good with the ball, got the ball in their half the field, strung some nice passes together, created chances to score and took them. I'm really, really pleased with how we started the match, and I'm not pleased with a lot of things from there.”

But after compiling a 2-0 lead, things went downhill at the half-hour mark when defender Tony Beltran sent a poor back-pass to ‘keeper Nick Rimando that Landon Donovan intercepted and calmly put in the back of the net.”
"I think ultimately that was our demise," said Kreis. "Tony had a really lax back-pass to Nick that Landon steals, and then the momentum shifted completely. That's unlike our team."
It got worse 20 minutes later when the usually infallible Jámison Olave gifted Donovan another opportunity, allowing the Galaxy captain to set up Mike Magee for the equalizer. Donovan added a second goal in the 68th minute to seal the deal after LA caught Salt Lake pushing too far up the field for a winner.
"It's pretty bewildering to be up 2-0 and lose a game 3-2," said defender Nat Borchers. "We made some mistakes. We all know we made some bad mistakes in terms of our possession, and they made us pay. Let's give them some credit. They were definitely ice-cold when it came to finishing those chances and they deserve that win.”

While the loss was hard for the players to stomach, the good news is they don't really have time to feel sorry for themselves. RSL host San Jose on Saturday night back at Rio Tinto Stadium in a clash for first place in the Western Conference. With only two days to prepare, the Claret-and-Cobalt don't need to make many adjustments.
"It's pretty easy to clean up," said defender Chris Wingert. "It's mistakes we don't usually make. We just need to avoid those and you have to move on and just do some of those things better."

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It was like old times for the LA Galaxy at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday night.
At first, it appeared those times were the ones from March through May, when the Galaxy couldn't stop any opponent from scoring.
Turns out, though, the defending MLS Cup champions dipped back into their 2011 form.
LA overcame a two-goal deficit and beat Real Salt Lake 3-2 to claim their second victory in four days and will head into Sunday’s match against Vancouver with a chance to piece together their longest winning streak of the season.
“Even though they scored those two goals, we didn’t feel bad about how we were playing,” said Landon Donovan, who scored two of the Galaxy’s three goals. “The energy was still good, the commitment was still there and then, obviously, you have to get that first goal to get back in the game. It was a little bit of gift, but you’ve got to take advantage of them.”

RSL nailed the Galaxy twice in the jaw early on but the champs didn't fold. This outing, in fact, turned out better than the last time they were at Rio Tinto, when the hosts turned a 2-0 lead into a 4-1 rout.
“We hung in there, we were a little unlucky to be behind 2-0 and that had all the makings of a disaster," said Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena. "To get that goal before halftime was big.”
Donovan sparked the Galaxy to life when he plucked a back pass Tony Beltran tried to get to Nick Rimando. Donovan instead latched onto the ball, took one touch to evade Rimando and easily knocked the ball into the back of the net. The LA captain had a hand in the second goal and scored the match-winner after getting past Nat Borchers and taking a pass from Mike Magee to beat Rimando once more.
“The second goal early in the second half gave us a chance to get a point and, obviously, the third goal was huge,” Arena said. “Getting three points is fabulous.”

After a relatively mistake-free 1-0 win over Portland last Sunday, Donovan said the challenge was much tougher heading into Wednesday’s match, and the captain responded with his first multi-goal game of the season.
“That’s the kind of player that Landon is, he is certainly capable of doing that,” Arena said. “Obviously, the first goal was a mistake by Beltran and he had a great pass on Magee’s goal for the second goal and Magee gave him a great pass to push Landon behind for the third goal. It was a great performance by Landon and by the whole team.”
While it may not have seemed like much to last year’s team, the Galaxy’s victory was nonetheless a confidence-booster. They not only claimed their first-ever win at Rio Tinto but also notched another first – RSL had never before blown a two-goal lead, home or away.
“They are a great team,” Donovan said. “For probably the last four or five years, the road to the championship goes through them and vice versa for us. It's chippy, but there is a lot of respect both ways. We play hard and after the game we shake hands.”
Despite the Galaxy’s about-face, things are not quite yet back to how the club wanted them to be at this point of the season. They continued their climb out of the Western Conference cellar but they're still in seventh place, one point behind Chivas USA and two back of Colorado.
“When we were walking back in the locker room we had a ton of confidence and then somebody showed us a picture of the standings,” Magee said. “We’re still in last place or third-to-last, so we got brought back down to earth real quick.”