Resiliency shattered rival ’Quakes
This time, the gut punch was buried deeply in the midsection of someone other than the Vancouver Whitecaps. And if there was ever a moment to savour a little schadenfreude, this was it.
“Devastating. I don’t think words can quite describe it right now,” said San Jose striker Chris Wondolowski.
“Just a gut punch.”
The No. 2 all-time scorer on the Major League Soccer list, who’s broken the hearts of the Caps and their fans many times, watched from the bench as his team dominated, then staggeringly imploded Saturday night at Avaya Stadium, a 2-0 lead dissipating like Thanos had snapped his fingers.
In a nine-minute heartbeat, the game had been flipped on its head.
The Caps, a team that had been dominated and shown three straight yellow cards for frustration-fuelled actions, suddenly score three straight goals.
“I thought we came out bright. The first 15 minutes ... two goals and dictating the game,” said ‘Wondo,’ who has 11 goals in 11 career games against Vancouver.
“And then we just had 15 minutes of — (I) don’t know exactly what happened. Can’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but it went real wrong.”
It’s been going wrong at home for the Earthquakes (13-14-8) all season.
They haven’t won at home since their 3-2 opening-night victory over Minnesota, a club-record 11game winless streak.
But for the Whitecaps (10-9-7), something finally went right.
They’d seen heartbreak in two straight home games, giving up 11th-hour equalizers to Toronto and Red Bulls New York, and were flushed away on the road to TFC.
And it appeared through 58 minutes that their playoff hopes, already on life support, had flatlined after falling behind to the league’s worst team.
But when Yordy Reyna’s 25-yard free kick curled between two Whitecaps in a wall, then off the hands of San Jose keeper Andrew Tarbell and into the net, they suddenly had a pulse and the Quakes, heart palpitations.
“When we conceded the first goal, I think we lost everything, actually,” said San Jose coach Mikael Stahre.
“We lost the shape, the power and the will to play. Crazy defeat.”
Two minutes later after Reyna, El Bicho — a.k.a. Cristian Techera — scored the equalizer.
Kei Kamara then recorded the game-winner after another seven minutes of sustained pressure, giving the Caps their first win in
San Jose in 11 games and blowing away the dark storm clouds circling coach Carl Robinson’s head.
“Robbo got into us at halftime, and that’s what woke us up,” said fullback Jake Nerwinski.
“We were asleep at the wheel the first 20 minutes.
“We came out in the second half and nearly scored in the first 10 seconds, and I think that set the tone for us. We were really able to put on pressure.
“We knew if we got one goal, we were OK. It was all mentality. We know we have the players to score the goals, and shut people out. We just have to really get down to it, and do it.”
The substitution of Aly Ghazal and Nico Mezquida for Marcel De Jong and Felipe in the 56th minute was the game’s pivotal moment.
De Jong had given up a penalty kick in the first half with a late tackle, and seemed uncharacteristically tardy on a few others, getting whistled for a team-high three fouls, and both he and Felipe were yellow-carded in a two-minute span in the second half.
Ghazal, who was called up for Egypt’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Niger on Sept. 8 — his first in four years — was disruptive as usual in midfield. Mezquida took over Reyna’s spot in the middle, allowing the Peruvian to move wide, and the Caps began to exploit the gaps it created.
“I thought we were soft in those first 20 minutes. … I thought they won every second ball, they won every header, they wanted it more, and that is a big concern.
“No team of mine wants to be outfought and outbattled,” said Robinson.
“So that’s what I said at halftime. I don’t mind losing the game, but you don’t go under and you don’t give in and you don’t be soft.
“We’re in professional sports, we’re in big boy world, so you have to roll your sleeves up and fight.
“And we did fight, we showed a little bit of fight, subs made a big impact in the game.”