San Jose embarrassed in crucial contest
Call the morgue. The Earthquakes’ chances of advancing to the MLS Cup playoffs all but ended on a sultry early autumn evening Wednesday at Avaya Stadium.
San Jose hit the bottom in a god-awful 4-1 defeat to the Chicago Fire in front of an announced crowd of 17,256 fans — the first time the team has not sold all 18,000 seats since the stadium opened three years ago.
By the way, fewer than the announced crowd showed up for this stinker.
The Quakes (11-14-6, 39 points) didn’t just say goodbye to a sevengame home unbeaten streak. They perhaps stumbled into irrelevancy after a midseason coaching change and the signing of a slew of foreign talent.
“This is our low right now,” said Chris Wondolowski, who scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season in the 86th minute.
It had little bearing on the result but allowed the Danville native to move into a third-place tie with Jaime Moreno on the alltime MLS career scoring list with 133 goals.
Wondolowski didn’t bother addressing his move up the scoring chart. Not on a night that he called “embarrassing — especially myself.”
The Quakes captain apologized for what almost every player deemed disappointing.
Chris Leitch, who replaced the fired Dominic Kinnear in June, didn’t bother with positive spins after the Earthquakes have gone from playoff contenders to practice fodder. They’ve been outscored 12-2 in their past four games to tumble to eighth place in the Western Conference.
“We’ve got to win out,” the rookie coach said of the final three regular-season games, starting Saturday at home against the Portland Timbers.
San Jose had no margin of error to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2012. But it seemed the team had a big advantage ending the season with three of the final four games at home.
That changed dramatically in a horrible first half dominated by the Fire (15-10-6, 51 points). If not for Quakes goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell’s six saves it could have been much worse.
But that was little reassurance for San Jose, whose defensive confusion continued after goals by Djordje Mihalovic (14th minute) and Luis Solignac (40th).
“We can’t put together a complete game,” said Tarbell, who had no explanation for what has gone so wrong.
It got worse at the start of the second half when Nemanja Nikolic scored his 19th goal for a Fire single-season record. In the 65th minute, the Hungarian international tied Portland’s Diego Valeri in the Golden Boot race with his 20th goal.
But the avalanche began — again — after the first goal, one that gave Mihalovic his maiden MLS score. After that the San Jose defense seemed to crumble as Solignac got his seventh goal of the year on a sharp cross from Michael de Leeuw.
Any thoughts of a rally ended within the first two minutes of the second half. Nikolic, who grew up in Serbia, easily scored on a quick attack. Chicago clinched a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with the victory.
Defender Florian Jungwirth had never experienced such defense collapses as San Jose conceded four goals for the third time in four games.
The Earthquakes must regain their defensive footing for a chance to win the final three games — including a tough match at first-place Vancouver.
“We need a little miracle,” Jungwirth said.
Miracles do happen.