Quakes can’t hold early lead in loss to New York City FC

SAN JOSE >> San Jose has its best results at home, and is almost unstoppable when leading at halftime.

Both those trends came to a crashing halt Saturday night.

Even without star striker David Villa, New York City FC still scored twice in the second half and survived a barrage of late-game shots to defeat the Earthquakes 2-1 at Avaya Stadium.

San Jose (1-2-0) had lost just two out of 18 league home games since the start of 2017, and was 122-5-25 since 2000 when leading at the half.

The result was even more stunning after what took place in the opening minutes. New York City (4-0-1) came in with the league’s best record, but the Earthquakes couldn’t have asked for a more promising start.

First, Villa pulled himself out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury right before the opening kickoff. The Spaniard, who has 64 goals in 96 MLS appearances, missed the past two games with a calf injury but went through warm-ups and was expected to start.

The Earthquakes then opened the scoring in the third minute thanks to Uruguayan defender Yeferson Quintana, the youngest player in the starting lineup. Quintana, who turns 22 in April, made a near-post run on a corner kick from Magnus Eriksson and flicked a header past goalie Sean Johnson for his first career MLS goal.

After conceding five goals in the first two matches, even the Earthquakes defense started well on Saturday. New York City FC, which has scored exactly two goals in every game this season, didn’t record a shot on target in the first half.

Still, the Blues continued to press high and overload the center of the field, and got the equalizer in the 49th minute when defender Anton Tinnerholm, unmarked at the top of the box, onetimed a corner kick off the crossbar and in.

Eleven minutes later, Maximiliano Morales’ shot deflected off Quintana and into the net to put NYCFC up 2-1.

“We seem to let up goals in bunches,” San Jose captain Chris Wondolowski said.

Now trailing, San Jose pressed forward with urgency and took control of the game, but couldn’t get anything past Johnson. The Earthquakes had 14 of their season-high 19 shots in the second half, and forced five of Johnson’s nine saves in the final 30 minutes.

“It’s bad that we have to concede two goals before we reach that level, because when we reached that level the last 30 minutes we were much better than them,” Eriksson said.

After an odd scheduling quirk that gave San Jose two bye weeks in the opening month of the season, the Earthquakes now play at least once a week until midJuly, which they hope will allow them to find a better rhythm. Next up is Saturday at Philadelphia (1-1-1).

“The disappointment is huge,” Eriksson said. “There are a lot of players in this locker room that hate to lose. Still, we’re going in the right direction. The last 30 minutes was good. But the 90 minutes was not good enough to win the game.”