BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - The San Jose Earthquakes went into Friday's game against the Chicago Fire carrying a 10-game winless streak on the road, including eight matches (0-4-4) this season.
Their misfortunes away from home continued, thanks to a John Goossens' strike that gave Chicago the 1-0 win.
San Jose never looked comfortable in the game, registering just six shots, two of which were on goal. San Jose's offensive struggles, coupled with a Chicago defense that registered its fifth shutout of the season, made for a long night for the Earthquakes.
"We didn't play good, simple as that," head coach Dominic Kinnear said. "We just kept giving the ball away. It wasn't like we were under a tremendous amount of pressure, we just didn't play good."
The Earthquakes went down in the 58th minute, when a poor clearance by the back line fell to Goossens. The Dutchman shot through traffic, beating David Bingham at the near post to give Chicago the lead and eventual win.
The loss kept San Jose winless on the road this year, but Kinnear is looking at the bigger picture near the halfway point of the season rather than focusing on that.
"If we play like that at home or away, we're going to have a hard time getting a positive result," said Kinnear. "I think the overall performance of the team is more important than what stadium we're playing in. I know we're good enough to win a game on the road. We need to stop giving up the first goal and playing from behind.
"Sometimes you get a little bit of a break, a little magic on the field, and we're not getting those right now."
Complicating matters for San Jose is their makeshift back four, especially at the center back position. Injuries have ravaged the Earthquakes at that spot, and things only got worse on Friday as Fatai Alashe, who was already set to miss San Jose's next match due to yellow card accumulation, took a nasty hit when he collided with Chicago's David Accam in the closing minutes of the game.
Alashe would not return, leaving the Earthquakes to finish the game with 10 men.
"It's tough," said Kinnear. "Every team in the league has their injuries. We're not the only team that's going through some problems, but it does create an effect because it takes away from the lineup that you'd like to have. Everybody has those problems right now."
