The expansion San Jose Earthquakes had a realistic gameplan before their match against the New York Red Bulls on Sunday.
Sure, they wanted to pick up a win on the road, just like they had done at Colorado last weekend. But San Jose would have been happy to escape Giants Stadium with a point. And if not for a penalty awarded against them 11 minutes from time, they just might have done it.
Instead, Jozy Altidore drew the decisive spot kick, which was converted by Mike Magee, then put the dagger in the visitors with a strike in injury time. The 2-0 loss was the Quakes' third of the young season, dropping them to 1-3.
"It could have probably gone either way," said defender Ryan Cochrane of the penalty call against him.
"It's tough because at that point, the referee is deciding the game," Cochrane said. "Maybe the penalty doesn't get called if we're at home, but in the end, I don't think we played well enough to win the game. We probably should have got a tie at best. We just didn't have that killer instinct that we need to have."
Magee started the play that led to the foul by sending a brilliant diagonal through ball to Altidore, who was charging into open space behind the San Jose defense. From that point, Cochrane was always going to be in a difficult spot.
"He didn't do much (until that point) at all," said Cochrane of Altidore. "He's quick and strong on the ball, and from that range you don't want to have him touch it by you and have a shot, because he's deadly from there. He takes a touch and I stick my leg in. For a big boy, he went down pretty fast. That's a tough one to give up."
San Jose coach Frank Yallop agreed.
"When you're in good positions you can sort of defend against (Altidore). As soon as you get pulled out of position he's dangerous," Yallop said. "Because we lost the ball in the middle of the field, we were a little bit stretched. They played a ball early to him and we're on our heels in a little bit of trouble. Once you get him running at you, he's dangerous."
While Yallop wouldn't criticize referee Michael Kennedy's call, he admitted it changed the complexion of the game. Until that point, the coach felt confident his team would earn a share of the spoils.
"I didn't think we looked like we were going to win the game, to be honest," he said. "But I didn't think they really did either. You just hope to get through the game and get the point, at least."
If it looked like that was the visitors' plan early on, it became crystal clear when Yallop pulled forward Gavin Glinton at halftime in favor of defensive midfielder Joe Vide.
"We were losing the midfield," said Yallop of making the change. "At nil-nil you want to try to win the game, but we were getting a little bit overrun towards the end of the first half."
Still, Yallop did insert new signing Peguero Jean Phillipe to add an offensive spark midway through the second half. But while the former Red Bulls striker was lively, he failed to get on the end of anything meaningful.
"We didn't get the ball to him enough," Yallop said. "He doesn't know the players yet -- he's only trained with us for three or four days. He's slowly getting used to the guys."
The Earthquakes are looking forward to playing at home next weekend after three of their first four games this season were on the road. However, San Jose will have to make a stop in Salt Lake for a U.S. Open Cup match on Wednesday before debuting at Buck Shaw Stadium on Saturday. The Quakes played their home opener at Oakland's McAfee Coliseum on April 12.
"We're looking forward to going home," said Yallop. "It would have been nice to get a point to bring a bit of momentum to our next game, but we've just got to shrug it off and make sure we're ready to go next Saturday night."
Doug McIntyre is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
