Wondolowski, Vako, Urena score, Quakes stop road skid

CARSON >> The Earthquakes ended their longest road losing streak in nearly two decades by pouncing on the team with Major League Soccer’s worst home record Sunday.

Chris Wondolowski, Vako and Marco Urena scored in a 3-0 win against the Los Angeles Galaxy in front of 19,237 at the StubHub Center.

The Quakes stopped their sixgame losing skid on the road, against their arch-rival.

The victory moved the Quakes (10-11-6) into a tie with FC Dallas for sixth place, the Western Conference’s final playoff spot. Both teams have 36 points, one more than eighth-place Real Salt Lake and two less than the Houston Dynamo and Vancouver White-

caps.

“It’s a big point in the season for us,” Wondolowski said. “It was a bit of a statement game. We had a long week — players-only meetings, stuff like that.”

Wondolowski ended the scoring in secondhalf stoppage time with his 11th goal of the season and his 64th on the road for his career, passing Landon Donovan to become MLS’s all-time leader in road goals.

That goal also was Wondolowski’s 132nd in his career. The Quakes captain needs one more to tie Jaime Moreno for third place on MLS’s all-time list, two to match Jeff Cunningham for second — and 15 to pass Donovan.

Wondolowski accomplished the feat while playing in a more withdrawn position, part of the tactical changes coach Chris Leitch made.

“He didn’t play traditionally up high today,” Leitch said. “But the amount of work he put into it was phenomenal. I guarantee that he probably ran the most out there. Even in the smallest, little details, he excels at them. To beat Landon Donovan in any statistical category is pretty darn hard.”

Yet Leitch believed the key to victory lay beyond tactical adjustments.

“I think it was just the grit that we had, the unwillingness to step back or lay off,” Leitch said. “We wanted to outwork them. We wanted to outbattle them. I could just tell that this team really wanted to dig in and fight, which is you need to do on the road,”

Shea Salinas said the Quakes had the mindset than no obstacle would set them back.

“We were going to overcome anything,” Salinas said. “In the past, we allowed circumstances to affect the way we played. Tonight, we just had a bigger desire to win than they did. I think that’s what made the biggest difference.”

Los Angeles (6-14-5) — which has only one home victory — controlled possession early yet managed just two shots on goal in the first half. One of them almost put the Galaxy ahead.

Jonathan Dos Santos fired a 24-yard line drive that ricocheted hard off the crossbar in the 45th minute. Moments later, an unmarked Vako converted Salinas’ corner kick with a 13yard shot from the left side of the penalty area.

“On our corner kicks, especially in the first half, we were attacking the ball really well, which is something we’ve worked on a lot,” Salinas said. “We stacked the near post on that one. I’m trying to hit it hard near post. Fatai (Alashe) and Wondo both challenged for it, and Vako was supposed to pull off near that back post. It worked pretty much like we drew it up.”

In the 57th minute, the Galaxy’s Nathan Smith received a red card for a hard challenge against Andres Imperiale. Quakes goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell made three saves for his first MLS shutout.

Wondolowski also will represent the United States in the next round of World Cup qualifying.