The New England Revolution hosted the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday night in a make up game from early August. New England was eliminated from the playoffs a few weeks ago, and in a strange circumstance, the Quakes needed Los Angeles to secure a win or at least draw against New York during the week to keep their playoffs hopes alive. Unfortunately for our playoff hopes, that didn’t happen as New York cruised to a 2-0 victory. Some Quakes fans will take a small measure of comfort in the realization that if our team had to be eliminated from playoff contention, at least the Galaxy lost as well.
On a weekend make up game that meant little to nothing in regards to table position, each team had something to play for or prove. New England has a teenaged striker who might just be their attacking future. 16 year old Uruguayan Diego Fagundez managed to score last weekend against Seattle and was dangerous against the Quakes, testing the backline and David Bingham with creative displays. Benny Feilhaber displayed throughout the game good distribution and control on the ball. If the Revs can build a team around Feilhaber and Fagundez they could become a playoff team like they were in the mid 2000s.
The Earthquakes might not be playoff bound like last year, but with their win against New England they have secured a league finish no lower than 16th. This means the team won’t be recipients of the Wooden Spoon, the “award” for the worst team in the league in a season. The Quakes also had the chance to play some rookies for some more experience in genuine MLS matches to see how they perform. Bingham made his first MLS start, something which Jon Busch had discussed during the week prior to the game. Busch had said that he works hard to start in goal and felt that Bingham needed to earn his first start. While Busch may have felt a bit slighted at not getting the start, I’m sure he can’t argue too much after seeing Bingham get his first MLS assist and make some nice saves.
The Quakes also have the chance to help Chris Wondolowski defend his Golden Boot award from last season. Coming into the game Wondo was tied for 3rd with 12 goals. Wondo scored both goals in the Quakes’ victory and moved up into a three way tie for first with Thierry Henry (New York) and Dwane De Rosario (DC United). I think ties are determined by assists, and De Ro has 14 and Henry has 4 while Wondo has 3. So right now he’s 3rd of the 3 in 1st place. The Quakes might be out of the playoffs but the team can still help Wondo win the Golden Boot again and potentially become only the second player to ever repeat as Golden Boot winner. The first was Carlos Ruiz in 2002 and 2003 while with Los Angeles.
The Quakes played well in the first 30 minutes and last 30 minutes. The team looked confident on the ball and held possession well. The statistics at the end of the game were pretty much even across the board, but the Quakes were able to exploit New England’s mistakes while San Jose’s defense kept the Revs from scoring more than their 1 goal. Bingham showed again why the team was ecstatic to acquire him in the allocation draft, as he came up with great stops. I’m still not sure about Feilhaber’s goal however.
During the play of game it looked like Bingham tried to tip the ball up and over the bar on Caraglio’s headed attempt. Replays don’t quite help, as it’s hard to tell if he actually got his hand to the ball or it was just out of reach and hit the bar on it’s own. If Bingham couldn’t get his hand to the ball, the defense has to take the blame for the goal. Wondo and Morrow were caught flat footed as the ball bounced back into the play. Wondo made an attempt to get in front of Feilhaber but he wasn’t fast enough. Morrow didn’t even move. Corrales ran to the back post, but the ball was played into the central part of the net. Another mistake from the Quakes’ defensive line in a season full of them.
However the Quakes were able to respond and get their seventh win of the season. In a play that started in the defensive third on the right hand side, the Quakes were able to swing the ball out to the left, move it up the field, pick out Simon Dawkins in the middle, who left the ball off for an onrushing Sam Cronin. Sam was able to chip the ball to the backpost where an onrushing Wondolowski was able to put the ball into a relatively empty net for his 14th of the season and second of the game.
The last two games for the Quakes are against Seattle and FC Dallas. Seattle is coming off a third consecutive US Open Cup win, but they lost their successive MLS match against Philadelphia in Seattle. While it would be nice if their USOC victory malaise would last another week, I very much doubt it will. It will be a tough match for the team and for Wondo to score. The Quakes’ final game of 2011 is at home against FC Dallas. The Quakes faced Dallas in their second match of the season and Wondo scored a brace to open his tally for the Quakes in 2011. Dallas has been slipping in recent weeks but have maintained the top spot in the wild card spots for the playoffs. Two tough matches to end the year.
GO QUAKES!
