Recap: Gordon’s clutch finish earns 1-1 draw vs. CLB

Alan Gordon came through in the clutch for a second-straight week for San Jose
Giovanni Albanese Jr.

John Todd / ISIPhotos.net

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — San Jose has made a knack of scoring late, and they did it again on Saturday night as second-half substitute Alan Gordon beat the seemingly unbeatable Andy Gruenebaum in the 90th minute to for a 1-1 draw at Buck Shaw Stadium.

In scoring his third goal of the season, Gordon brought the Earthquakes total goals to 23, six of which have come in the final 15 minutes of a match. Gruenebaum had a career night, stopping a personal best seven, but could not get behind the Long Beach, Calif., native’s shot.

FULL BOXSCORE

San Jose was relatively quiet in the second half after dominating the chances in the first half. It wasn’t until the final 10 minutes when they put pressure on the Crew goal.

University of Michigan product Justin Meram seemed to put a damper on San Jose’s efforts in the waning moments of stoppage time in the first half. Making his first start of the season — and third consecutive appearance overall — Meram tallied his second goal in as many matches. The second-year pro put Columbus up 1-0, beating veteran San Jose ‘keeper Jon Busch with a superb finish, finding the far side netting from just outside the left corner of the box.

Prior to Meram’s goal, the first 45 minutes were controlled by the home side. In the 21st minute, the Earthquakes strung a number of passes together, leading to Steven Lenhart getting in the box before Eric Gehrig took him down for a penalty. Gruenebaum made his first remarkable save of the night when he stopped MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski’s penalty with an outstretched leg.

OPTA CHALKBOARD: Quakes out-possessed the Crew

All told, Gruenebaum made three stops from point-blank range in the first half, including denying Simon Dawkins twice — once in the 23rd off a corner and again in the run-of-play in the 26th. Both of Dawkins’ chances came from inside the penalty stripe.

Columbus, now 3-4-3, jumped to seventh in the Eastern Conference standings with 12 points. The Crew heads to Seattle to face the Sounders on Wednesday.

San Jose (7-2-3), meanwhile, remains in second in the Western Conference with 24 points. The Earthquakes will look to rebound against the LA Galaxy in the California Clasico on Wednesday.

MLSsoccer.com’s Men of the Match

Rank Player What We Saw
1 Andy Gruenebaum Crew ‘keeper stoned Wondolowski on a PK and made a handful of impressive saves before Alan Gordon finally put one past him.
2 Alan Gordon Big striker comes through again for San Jose, scoring late to help his team snatch a point and avoid being stunned by the Crew.
3 Justin Meram Second-year striker scored a beautiful goal that was just minutes away from giving Columbus their second straight victory.

San Jose Earthquakes

VIDEO: Moment of the match – Salihi's goal

Andy Najar and Hamdi Salihi combine in the 73rd minute to seal the victory
May 20, 2012

Sebastian Salazar and Lee Burrows / dcunited.com

DC United News

Match Recap: Crew vs. Earthquakes

Geoff Lepper

San Jose has made a knack of scoring late, and they did it again on Saturday night as second-half substitute Alan Gordon beat the seemingly unbeatable Andy Gruenebaum in the 90th minute to for a 1-1 draw at Buck Shaw Stadium.

In scoring his third goal of the season, Gordon brought the Earthquakes total goals to 23, six of which have come in the final 15 minutes of a match. Gruenebaum had a career night, stopping a personal best seven, but could not get behind the Long Beach, Calif., native’s shot.

FULL BOXSCORE

San Jose was relatively quiet in the second half after dominating the chances in the first half. It wasn’t until the final 10 minutes when they put pressure on the Crew goal.

University of Michigan product Justin Meram seemed to put a damper on San Jose’s efforts in the waning moments of stoppage time in the first half. Making his first start of the season — and third consecutive appearance overall — Meram tallied his second goal in as many matches. The second-year pro put Columbus up 1-0, beating veteran San Jose ‘keeper Jon Busch with a superb finish, finding the far side netting from just outside the left corner of the box.

Prior to Meram’s goal, the first 45 minutes were controlled by the home side. In the 21st minute, the Earthquakes strung a number of passes together, leading to Steven Lenhart getting in the box before Eric Gehrig took him down for a penalty. Gruenebaum made his first remarkable save of the night when he stopped MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski’s penalty with an outstretched leg.

OPTA CHALKBOARD: Quakes out-possessed the Crew

All told, Gruenebaum made three stops from point-blank range in the first half, including denying Simon Dawkins twice — once in the 23rd off a corner and again in the run-of-play in the 26th. Both of Dawkins’ chances came from inside the penalty stripe.

Columbus, now 3-4-3, jumped to seventh in the Eastern Conference standings with 12 points. The Crew heads to Seattle to face the Sounders on Wednesday.

San Jose (7-2-3), meanwhile, remains in second in the Western Conference with 24 points. The Earthquakes will look to rebound against the LA Galaxy in the California Clasico on Wednesday.

MLSsoccer.com’s Men of the Match

Rank Player What We Saw
1 Andy Gruenebaum Crew ‘keeper stoned Wondolowski on a PK and made a handful of impressive saves before Alan Gordon finally put one past him.
2 Alan Gordon Big striker comes through again for San Jose, scoring late to help his team snatch a point and avoid being stunned by the Crew.
3 Justin Meram Second-year striker scored a beautiful goal that was just minutes away from giving Columbus their second straight victory.

Columbus Crew News

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Los Angeles Galaxy News

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Fox Sports Ohio
(AP) — Alan Gordon scored in the 90th minute to give the San Jose Earthquakes a 1-1 tie with the Columbus Crew on Saturday night. Gordon scored for the third time this season, connecting six days after he scored San Jose's only goal in a 1-1 tie with

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Chivas USA News

Second-half surge helps Union earn 1-1 draw vs. FCD

Nowak believes players are “starting to believe in the way we play”

Photo Credit:
Getty Images

The Philadelphia Union traveled to FC Dallas fully intending to leave with three points. That’s always the goal.

They left FC Dallas Stadium with one point following a 1-1 draw Saturday night.

They also left the stadium realizing three points could have been had. After a slow first half, the Union (2-6-2) dominated for stretches in the second half with Gabriel Gomez equalizing in the 56th minute.

Still, they road points are always valuable,

“I think it’s a very positive result for us after a disappointing loss against New York,” Philadelphia manager Peter Nowak said. “We all felt bad thinking that we had played our best game of the season (against NY but still lost), so it’s a good sign of the continuation that the guys are starting to believe in the way we play. As I’ve said, there’s still work to do, but we are moving forward as a group and we are going to keep fighting.”

The Union earned the draw without midfielder Freddy Adu (suspension) and goalkeeper Zac MacMath (concussion symptoms). Defender Carlos Valdes left the match and needed stitches, according to Nowak. Gomez also left following a collision with Kevin Hartman. The FC Dallas goalkeeper came in for a late challenge after Gomez had beaten him to break the shutout.

Chase Harrison did an admirable job in his first career MLS start in place of MacMath.

“It’s been a long road getting here,” said Harrison, who rolled his ankle during second half stoppage time but remained in goal. “I’ve been on several different teams, and to have the coaching staff here believe in me, that I can get the job done, it means a lot that the coaching staff has my back and I’m glad we were able to come out and get the result.”

Harrison displayed remarkable poise after Blas Pérez’s goal in the seventh minute gave FC Dallas a quick 1-0 advantage.

“Sometimes when that early goal gets in you have to say, ‘Alright that’s done,’” Harrison said. “There’s nothing else I can do about it, so let’s just play hard for the rest of the 82 minutes left in the game. Let’s recoup and move on to the next play of the game.”

In the second half, the Union were especially aggressive. And opportunistic.

They got one goal and probably could have notched one or two more.

“I think in the first half we just couldn’t get a rhythm,” said midfielder Michael Farfan. “We weren’t possessing the ball too well. But in the second half we came out and spread it out a little more. We adjusted well and we got a good amount of chances. I think we put more pressure and we came out a little stronger. We were able to get out on the flanks and create a couple chances here and there, so I think we did a lot better in the second half.”

HIGHLIGHTS: Union 1, FC Dallas 1

Philadelphia Union News

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Toronto FC News

Sporting focused on positives despite giving up lead

Despite giving up a 2-0 lead, Kansas City able to come away with some positives
SportingKC.com

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Getty Images

On the one hand, Sporting Kansas City’s 2-2 draw against the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park Saturday snapped what had been a three-match losing streak for the club. On the other hand, it was the second time in as many matches that Sporting had given up a lead in the second half, and KC are still winless in their last four games.

For his part, though, head coach Peter Vermes is inclined to take the more “glass-half-full” look at the night.

“It was a good result for us on the road,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com by phone. “We’re getting out of here with one point. We wanted to get out of here with three, but this was still a good result for us.”

Despite the disappointment of the draw, there were plenty of positives for Sporting – now 7-3-1 on the season – to take out of the match. Perhaps the most obvious was the play of striker Teal Bunbury

Making his first start since Sporting’s season opener, Bunbury scored his first two goals of the season, heading home a cross from Seth Sinovic with just over a minute gone and then adding a scrappy finish in the 14th after Matt Pickens mishandled a Matt Besler throw-in.

HIGHLIGHTS: COL 2, SKC 2


“That first goal was a great buildup by the entire team, and he made a great, great, great finish,” Vermes said. “The second one, he was very opportunistic to stick it in the back of the net.”

Sinovic, returning from a two-game absence because of a broken right hand, played the entire 90 minutes at left back with his hand and forearm in a cast.

“He was decent,” Vermes said. “I think he was a little bit off in his timing, and a little bit of fitness. I think that was a question of not playing for a couple of weeks, aside from the reserve game last week.”

Also on the plus side of the ledger – for the most part, at least – was the play of Sporting’s subs, especially midfielder Peterson Joseph.

Joseph, making his first appearance of the year after an extended absence to deal with his mother’s death in Haiti, played 13 minutes in relief of Paulo Nagamura – who was himself filling in while Roger Espinoza served a one-game red-card suspension.

Joseph’s footwork showed why he’s been dubbed the “Haitian Xavi,” but Vermes said the midfielder’s match fitness is still far behind schedule.

“He can’t go 90 minutes,” Vermes said. “He’s in form in regards to his play, though.”

But despite the positives, Sporting are still saddled with yet another second-half collapse. Goals from Tyrone Marshall and Kosuke Kimura in the 52nd and 60th minutes, respectively, canceled out Bunbury’s brace. Both goals came after restarts deep in Sporting’s defensive half.

“I think you’re always trying to look at the number of set pieces you give up in your own half,” Vermes said. “We’ll take a look at those and see what happened. I only get one look at them during the game. I don’t see the replay. But we’ll look at both of those.”

Sporting KC News

Gabriel scores to help Union tie FC Dallas 1-1 – Yahoo! Sports

Gabriel scores to help Union tie FC Dallas 1-1
Yahoo! Sports
AP – 7 hours ago FRISCO, Texas (AP) Gabriel Gomez scored in the 56th minute to help the Philadelphia Union tie FC Dallas 1-1 on Saturday night. Blas Perez scored for Dallas in the seventh minute. Philadelphia (2-6-2) stopped a three-game losing,

FC Dallas