SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Even in the San Jose Earthquakes’ new world of more possession-based attacking, Steven Lenhart can still have a large impact.
Coming on for his first action in nearly two months, Lenhart – the powerful target forward who helped define the Quakes’ Supporters’ Shield-winning incarnation of 2012 – gave a shot of adrenaline to a San Jose side that was wilting its way to a second straight desultory loss.
The Quakes’ intensity perked up greatly with Lenhart’s 63rd-minute insertion, which in turn led to Chris Wondolowski finding the equalizer in a 1-1 tie against the red-hot LA Galaxy.
“He works every second he’s on the field, and challenges as hard as he can for every ball, and I think that’s infectious at times,” San Jose coach Mark Watson said of Lenhart. “I thought he gave the team a spark when he came on.”
The Galaxy outshot the Quakes 16-2 before Lenhart, who underwent right knee surgery at the beginning of August, replaced Atiba Harris. From that point, San Jose held a 6-3 advantage in attempts, including the shot that became Wondolowski’s 13th goal on the season.
“I’ve always said that hard work and fight is contagious,” Wondolowski said. “When it’s not out there, it can also be contagious as well. When you see him come in, fighting and battling and working hard, you want to work for him. You want to work with him. It just raises that level that we need.”
There were still times when Lenhart’s bull-in-a-china-shop side shone through, such as when he picked up a yellow card barely more than a minute after checking in following an encounter with longtime foil Omar Gonzalez.
“I think everyone can see it: When Lenny steps on the field, he is all-in, all the time,” Quakes midfielder Shea Salinas said. “He plays with his heart on his sleeve, and it does fire you up, when you see him going into tackles that he probably shouldn’t be getting into. It gets you pumped up.”
There was a tactical advantage as well. With the Galaxy’s high-pressure style derailing San Jose’s nascent build-ups time after time, the visitors were threatening to simply squeeze the life out of the match entirely. They almost did before intermission, but Robbie Keane’s miss on a 37th-minute penalty kick gave the Quakes a lifeline. And Watson did his best to reel it in by removing rookie Tommy Thompson at the half, bringing on Cordell Cato to man the wing and moving Harris to the tip of his attack.
“One of the issues was, we couldn’t deal with their pressure as soon as we lost the ball,” Watson said. “We’re trying to play our way through, and at times, when they do press, you need to break that pressure by playing forward off a target player. We did it with Atiba for the first 15 minutes [of the second half] and it helped. And then Lenny came on and continued that and gave us a big spark.”
It wasn’t enough of a spark to fully topple the Galaxy, but it did keep two critical points from the Quakes’ rivals as they try to hunt down Seattle in the Supporters’ Shield standings.
“You’re never happy to get a tie,” Salinas said. “But it is nice not letting them win.”
