San Jose’s reserve striker Alan Gordon took advantage of some slack defending by his former team, the LA Galaxy, to nod in a dramatic, 94th-minute goal and lift the Earthquakes to a come-from-behind 3-2 win at the Home Depot Center last night.
The Galaxy took a 2-0 lead on goals by Hector Jiminez and Mike Magee, and held that advantage into the 75th minute, despite being down a man after Jiminez was red-carded at the hour mark for a studs up challenge on San Jose defender Steven Beitashour.
But in the 76th, San Jose turned the tide.
Highlights here:
In his previous two games, Gordon bagged tying goals in the 88th and 90th minutes. This latest last-gasper marks the fifth time this year that the Quakes have scored in the 88th minute or later, with four of those games ending in either a win or a tie.
As Lenhart told Soccer by Ives:
“We just like to make the game exciting. Goonies never say die. I think we are prepared this year. We have put in the work in training and we like each other, we show up every day and we all know we are committing to the 90 minutes, to play together and work for each other. It may not look that pretty but we know we are going to get the most out of our guys at the end of the day.”
We appreciate that Goonies reference:
Wonder if he and Jimmy Conrad have discussed this before.
In any event, the Quakes, who were missing U.S. national teamer Chris Wondolowski, roll on with the win, taking over sole possession of first place in the West with an 8-2-3 record.
For LA, which fielded a reserve-heavy lineup in this one (Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane are both with their respective national teams), things can hardly get worse: The Galaxy drop to 3-7-2 with the defeat and continue to prop up the Western Conference table.
They’ve officially entered crisis mode.
