Game Recap: San Jose Earthquakes 1, Colorado Rapids 0

The beginning of the game seemed pretty balanced, but San Jose started putting on some serious pressure 20-plus minutes in. The Colorado Rapids were playing the Rapids game - sit back and absorb the pressure, then take the opportunity to break if you get it. Unfortunately, there were many clearances and passes to no one that just turned the ball back over to the San Jose Earthquakes.

The Burgundy Boys had a few good moments. Early in, some solid ball movement and pressure led to a Kevin Doyle header, though it went straight to David Bingham. The Rapids’ best chance came at around 25 minutes when Axel Sjoberg got a header off a corner. Unfortunately, a defender cleared it off the line.

There was a super close call near the end of the half when Jared Watts fouled San Jose’s Simon Dawkins barely outside the box. Chris Wondolowski took the kick and it was “deflected” by the wall. And by deflected I mean Mike da Fonte for SOME REASON UNKNOWN TO ANYONE stuck his arm up and we were VERY lucky that it wasn’t a penalty kick. Da Fonte also got himself a yellow earlier in the game because he got beat and had to foul the player to stop his run. He also somewhat recklessly slide tackled a guy and left his arm trailing. He needs to be more disciplined if Pablo Mastroeni is going to continue to let him start.

The Rapids really needed to get their passing together for the second half. While they had two shots on goal in the first half, they needed to put more pressure on San Jose. The Quakes didn’t look amazing, but the Rapids were definitely letting them control the game.

To start the second half, Alan Gordon came in for Mike da Fonte, pushing Marlon Hairston to right back and Eric Miller to left back. Gordon immediately started putting more pressure on Bingham, but nothing came of it.

At one point, Marcelo Balboa said it all: “What’s Colorado missing? That 10.”

San Jose got a corner kick in the 59th minute, but all the Rapids’ players were in the box, so when the ball got to Nick Lima around 30-ish yards out, he had all day to put it exactly where he wanted - in the upper 90. MacMath didn’t have a chance and the Quakes got on the board.

From about the 71st minute on, the Rapids were a hot mess. Chris Wondolowski had a great pass and Marco Ureña blew past the defense with a wonderfully timed run. MacMath came out but didn’t get to the ball, but luckily Ureña shot it wide, despite having an open net in front of him. Two minutes later, Ureña had another shot on the ground, but it also went wide. In the 76th minute, Tommy Thompson ran the defense ragged and passed the ball out wide to Ureña. He crossed it in to Wondo, but he was covered and headed it out for a Rapids goal kick. Wondo blew another chance in the 81st minute and it should have easily been three or even four to nothing at this point.

There were a couple glimpses of hope, but every time Colorado was able to get anything going, it was shut down by San Jose. After three minutes of stoppage time, the game was called and the Rapids lost another on the road.