With an opportunity to pull out of the bottom spot of the Western Conference, the San Jose Earthquakes went on the road to face a Real Salt Lake side that has been undefeated at their fortress that is Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Three goals in the second half were enough to bury the Quakes and keep them at the bottom of the table.
Despite a solid first half on the defensive end, including a penalty kick save from Joe Cannon in the third minute, RSL seemed to score at will during the second period. Two goals from the run of play and then a second RSL penalty that Cannon could not save capitalized a frustrating night for the Quakes.
San Jose head coach Frank Yallop seemed content with the effort during the opening half, except for that he felt his players didn't seem to push forward until after Salt Lake scored a couple of goals.
"We didn't really show any urgency until it went to 2-0, and then all of the sudden we started to get going," said Yallop. "Yeah, their third goal goes in, but at least we played a bit better when it was at 2-0."
The attack that was so prevalent for the Earthquakes in their previous match was noticeably missing against Salt Lake. Because of international duty and injuries, Yallop had to make adjustments to his lineup. Kei Kamara and Ivan Guerrero, who each found their way on the score sheet in the previous match, were both called up for national team duty for Sierra Leone and Honduras respectively.
Even though Yallop feels that their replacements did well, there was still something lacking when the first team isn't all together.
"It's not so much the guys coming in, but the guys you're losing," said Yallop. "Kei Kamara and Ivan Guerrero scored our two goals in our last game, and we played real well. Ronnie [O'Brien] could play also tonight. You're losing three players from the team that did well.
"The guys that came in gave everything they had, but it's just the chemistry when everything was going well, and then all of a sudden it slips away from you and you've got to play again. You get a little disjointed."
Central defender and Earthquakes captain Nick Garcia puts the loss mostly on the shoulders of himself and his teammates. It was because of his team's mistakes and lack of effort that the Quakes lost, not so much that RSL is that much better.
"We fell asleep," said Garcia of the Earthquakes' efforts. "First half we were fortunate for Joe [Cannon] to come up big on the penalty kick. The second half was just a lackluster effort, and we were punished for it. The steady, slippery slope began from that point on and we were punished.
"I don't think Salt Lake is three goals better than us."
One of the few highlights that San Jose took from their visit to Utah was the goal scored by John Cunliffe in the 84th minute. Cunliffe came in off the bench in the second half and was the recipient of a well-played backheel from Ramiro Corrales. Cunliffe then spun around his mark and buried his chance past RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
"He looked lively; got a good goal," said Yallop of Cunliffe. "He nearly got another one. That was a bright spot for us in the last 20 minutes, or so, that he got."
Coming away from their second disappointing result in Salt Lake City, their first coming a few weeks before in a 4-0 loss to RSL in U.S. Open Cup play, the Earthquakes know they will be returning to the Wasatch mountains in a few short weeks.
In order to get results in this expansion season for San Jose, Garcia feels the Quakes are the ones who need to take the game to other teams right from the opening whistle.
"We've got to get it going from the beginning," said Garcia. "It can't be one of those things were they score a goal or two and then we get going. We've had a little bit of a roller coaster ride here this season, with some wins and some ties and some losses, and for us we got to get the ship on course.
"We're almost a third of the way through the season ... we've got to get some results. Whether it's home or away, we've got to start to win. Losing is never fun, and we've got to get that bitter taste out of our mouth and make the most of it."
Scott McAllister is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
