Other than a win, a clean sheet is the best thing the San Jose Earthquakes could have asked for in their first outing of a four-game road trip in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night.
After getting trounced by a combined seven goals at the hands of Real Salt Lake in their last two visits to Utah, a shorthanded Quakes side held RSL scoreless while playing the entire second half with 10 men. However, the Earthquakes weren't able to score any goals of their own.
Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop was proud of his players as they battled hard, playing a man down in the second half after Jason Hernandez was dismissed just before the break with his second yellow card. Yallop pointed out that getting ties against teams in the Western Conference helps to keep those teams within reach in the standings.
"What it does, it allows Salt Lake to not get three points," Yallop said about getting the draw. "And in our division, as we know, it's tight as anything. On the road, in division games, we don't want to lose. A tie is fine. Then in your home games against the division you want to try and get a win.
"Salt Lake will be upset that they didn't win, but it evens itself out in the end. They might not have been lucky tonight, but we've been unlucky in games and haven't won. That's just the way it shakes down."
The abrupt artificial surface at Rice-Eccles Stadium has not been kind to the Quakes this season. In their first visit, back in April, they were shellacked by four goals in a U.S. Open Cup play-in match. Then a few weeks later they returned for a league contest and were RSL hit the back of the net three times.
For San Jose goalkeeper Joe Cannon, there wasn't a huge change in the way his team defended in front of him to not allow any goals, but it was more of a heightened mental concentration. He pointed out that especially when a team goes down a man, their focus on the game changes.
"I think we did the little things a little better," said Cannon of the Quakes' performance. "And when we go a man down I think the focus goes completely on not letting in a goal. Where before you're trying to get the game-winner, you're trying to stretch."
Midfielder Ronnie O'Brien agreed with his goalkeeper that success is heavily linked to how their team approaches the game. O'Brien has seen that the Quakes are capable, but sometimes don't come mentally prepared for games.
"It's been a problem all year," O'Brien said about the Earthquakes leaking goals. "If we don't fight, and don't scrap with teams we don't get anything. All in all, if you watch a lot of our games we're a good footballing side. But, we have to earn the right to play. The games where we've been beaten very badly we haven't earned that right.
"Like, L.A. last week. We were second to every ball; we didn't get stuck in, and we get walked all over. Columbus the week before and tonight we were pretty physical, we get in, we do what we have to do to get on the ball. We were a hard team mentally and hopefully we're playing a bit better football."
Late in the second half the clean sheet looked to be in doubt as Kyle Beckerman tapped in a corner kick for RSL while standing on the post. San Jose contested heavily for an offside decision, as it appeared that Beckerman was behind the two Quakes defenders who stepped up off the posts during the play. The corner was first headed down by Robbie Findley, making Beckerman behind the line of defense when the ball was last touched.
The referee's assistant initially did not signal for offside. However after consulting with referee Jasen Anno, it was decided that Beckerman was offside and the goal did not count.
In a written statement following the match, it was revealed that the referee's assistant did not think Beckerman played the ball, thus he wasn't involved with the play and not offside, and he kept his flag down. Once he learned that Beckerman touched the ball it was decided that he was offside.
"Fortunately the referees got the offside call correct," Cannon said. "That could have been a huge turning point for us. Those are good breaks, and I think tonight that was the difference."
As Yallop said, getting a point on the road, especially when playing teams within your conference, is always a positive result. Quakes defender Kelly Gray warns that teams through out the league shouldn't be surprised by the results his team gets in their first year. Gray says that San Jose has what it needs to get results, and they shouldn't be overlooked.
"Being an expansion franchise everybody expects us to lose every game," Gray said. "But, we've got the players and we can do it -- we can win a lot of games this year. We've shown it in some of the games that we've played. It's just an attitude. We've got to bring in the right attitude day in and day out. We're turning that corner, we're getting close."
Scott McAllister is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
