A depleted San Jose Earthquakes side held off Western Conference leaders Sporting Kansas City in a scoreless draw Saturday night at Avaya Stadium.
As they're known to do, the visitors dominated possession in the first half, and out-shot the Quakes 10-0. However the stingy San Jose defense - which saw Andres Imperiale making his season debut in place of the injured Florian Jungwirth - held strong. SKC were a bit unlucky, too, as a shot from Benny Feilhaberhit the post and a header from Roger Espinoza was cleared off the line by Cordell Cato.
Goals
- None
Three Things
- STEPPING UP: It was already expected to be a tough match against the Western Conference leaders, but San Jose had to approach the game without regulars Florian Jungwirth, Darwin Ceren (suspended), Marco Urena (suspended) and Fatai Alashe (injured). The Quakes only had four field players available off the bench, including rookie Jackson Yueill, who made his MLS debut when he entered in the second half. So, credit to them for holding off a strong SKC attack.
- ROAD POINT: It's no secret that SKC has struggled on the road this year, winning just once in now nine games - and scoring only three goals. But the road shutout tonight was the team's first clean sheet away from home since that 1-0 win at Portland back on April 15. It was also Tim Melia's ninth shutout of the year.
- BINGHAM'S BIG SAVE: Quakes goalkeeper David Bingham had a couple of early hiccups - see both plays above, where he came off his line both times but didn't come up with the ball either time. Having weathered those attempts, he made the biggest play of the game in the dying seconds. In the 93+ minute, SKC's Graham Zusi got into the box beyond everyone, only to see Bingham step up and make himself big near the penalty marker. Zusi shot to Bingham's right but the goalkeeper made the low save to preserve the shutout - and point.
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