A late comeback by the San Jose Earthquakes fell just short in a 4-3 loss at the hands of reigning Liga MX champions Pachuca in a friendly match held at Avaya Stadium on Saturday night in front of 15,011.
Down 3-0, the Quakes stormed back with three goals of their own in the second half, but a 66th-minute penalty kick by Pachuca’s Ruben Botta, who was also sent off three minutes later, made for a mountain too high to climb for the MLS side as Shea Salinas scored two goals to get the Earthquakes to within a goal, including a 90th-minute strike.
"It was a good exercise and a great comeback at the end,” Quakes manager Dominic Kinnear said after the match. "I think at 4-1 it was the score. We could've put our heads down and walked away, but great spirit by the guys to get two goals there at the end and push hard. It was a good team we played against."
It was only the second time this season that the Earthquakes had scored three or more goals, a promising sign since they’ve recently struggled to find the back of the net with only seven total goals scored in the 10 league matches since July 1.
"I felt like we held them to not many chances,” Shea Salinas said. "To be down 2-0 in the first half, I don't think was very fair, but we were down 2-0. They scored another one right at the beginning of the half, so that was tough, but I think we played well. We fought defensively, we stayed organized and scored some goals, which was nice."
"You always play to win,” Salinas said. "It's frustrating when that doesn't go your way, but I think the way we played and the way we fought being down three goals and we fought back and we played well."
The Earthquakes are currently three points out of the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with eight matches to go and they have a massive showdown against the Seattle Sounders looming on Sept. 10 (10:30 pm ET on MLS LIVE).
Goalkeeper Bryan Meredith made his second start of the season for San Jose — the other also came in a friendly against Real Sociedad — and Max Alvarez, Chase Minter, Christian Chaney and Joaquin Rivas made their Earthquakes debuts after joining the club on short-term loan agreements from USL affiliate Sacramento Republic FC.
GOALS:
12’ – PAC – Erick Gutierrez (Ruben Botta)
21’ – PAC – Raul Lopez
59’ – PAC – Raul Lopez
64’ – SJ – Tommy Thompson (Shea Salinas)
66’ – PAC – Ruben Botta (PK)
67’ – SJ – Shea Salinas (Chad Barrett)
90' – SJ – Shea Salinas
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES LINEUP: Bryan Meredith -- Kofi Sarkodie, Marvel Wynne (Joaquin Rivas, 45'; Chase Minter, 79'), Andres Imperiale, Jordan Stewart (Kip Colvey 45) -- Fatai Alashe, Matheus Silva, Innocent (Max Alvarez 90'), Tommy Thompson; Shea Salinas, Chad Barrett (Christian Cheney 86').
