The New England Revolution hosted the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday night in a make up game from early August. New England was eliminated from the playoffs a few weeks ago, and in a strange circumstance, the Quakes needed Los Angeles to secure a win or at least draw against New York during the week to keep their playoffs hopes alive.

At a sold out Buck Shaw Stadium, the Quakes were finally able to end their 13 game winless streak last night against the Chicago Fire. In the third match against Chicago this season the Quakes triumphed where they had previously fallen short. The Fire beat the Quakes on penalty kicks in a US Open Cup game in June at home and in their first MLS meeting 4 days after the USOC match, the teams drew 2-2.

The Quakes managed to secure another point on the road last Saturday against Toronto FC in Toronto. The result marked the 13th game since the Quakes recorded a win in MLS, but the Quakes were lucky to come out of Toronto with the draw they managed. João Plata managed to slip the offside trap in the second, half thanks to a nice through ball by Ryan Johnson, and beat Jon Busch to finish, but the linesman ruled Plata to be offside.

Well, the Quakes' 11 game winless streak continued after last night's 2-0 loss to the Galaxy. The Quakes have now not won in the last 12 games, since their 4-2 win against DC United on June 24. Los Angeles' newest signing, Robbie Keane, opened the scoring in the 21st minute and Mike Magee, who stymied the Quakes in July while in goal, put the nail in the coffin in the 90th minute.

Jon Busch and the Quakes were none too happy during the game Saturday night. What looked like another 0-0 draw for the Quakes quickly turned into a bloodbath after a Real Salt Lake penalty kick brought on by poor refereeing.
The Quakes came to Sandy, Utah without Lenhart, Dawkins, or Hernandez as Dawkins and Hernandez had injuries and Lenhart had personal reasons for missing the game.

The Quakes ended their 4 game streak of being shutout by the opposing team by scoring two goals against Vancouver. Both goals were scored by Chris Wondolowski, bringing his season total up to 8, which is good enough to be tied for 4th in the Golden Boot race. Unfortunately the defense fell asleep a bit Wednesday night by allowing two relatively easy goals for Vancouver, both of those goals being scoring by Eric Hassli, who is also tied for 4th in the Golden Boot race with 8 goals on the season.

You may not be able to see David Bingham's face in that picture, but I'm sure his smile is as big as Jason Hernandez'. It's been a while since I've posted, sorry for that. In the meantime the Quakes held Philadelphia to a 0-0 draw on Saturday night, defeated the English Premier League's West Bromwich Albion in a friendly on Tuesday, and today there was some trading going on that resulted in 3 new players joining the Quakes.

There's a great Japanese movie I watched several times in the dorms in college. It was simply called Ping Pong and it was about Ping Pong (surprise!). It was the first time I had ever heard the word skunk used as a verb, and it meant when your opponent completely dominates you in a shutout or lopsided victory.

While Palo Alto and Stanford Stadium hosted an impressive 4th of July fireworks show, albeit on July 2nd, the match itself also had its share of fireworks. The Quakes came off as a bit more feisty and had the majority of fouls on the night, resulting in Bobby Burling picking up 2 yellows and being forced out of the game.

Buck Shaw was packed yesterday for the Northern California leg of the Clasico and the 1906 Ultras and the Casbah were out in force. The game provided plenty of drama as Donovan Ricketts was injured, sub Josh Saunders was ejected, and midfielder turned replacement goalie Mike Magee proved strong enough to stave off San Jose's attacks.

Sporting Kansas City was able to capitalize on a CJ Sapong first half goal to come away with their first home victory in Livestrong Park. I think the result was a combination of the heat/humidity making both teams play slower than usual, Sporting's urge to get their first home win, and the Quakes' mentality after going 6 games unbeaten.

Stephen Lenhart scored the Quakes 5th hat trick Saturday night against DC United. The 3 goals push his season total to 4, and Simon Dawkins scored his second goal in two straight games and Dawkins also has 4 goals on the season for the Quakes. The Quakes are the hottest team in MLS right now having earned 13 of 15 points in their last 5 games.

The game Saturday evening came after a couple days of intermittent rain. The conditions were not "Great Deluge"-esque, but I compared it to playing on a Slip 'n Slide. Within 3 minutes 2 Quakes midfielders and 2 Houston forwards found themselves on the ground with soaked shorts because of the slick pitch.

Photo by Joe Nuxoll of www.centerlinesoccer.com

For the second time in 5 days the Quakes and Chicago ended 90 minutes tied at 2-2, and Chicago came from behind to tie the game. We all know that the first tie was a USOC qualifier which the Quakes lost on penalties, but Saturday's MLS game provided the Quakes with a point on the road.

The Quakes lost to Chicago in their final US Open Cup Qualifying Match 5-4 on penalties. But due to a quirky schedule, the Quakes have a chance to best Chicago again tomorrow night. San Jose travels to Chicago this time in an effort to continue their 4 game unbeaten streak, while Chicago is looking to end a 5 game winless streak of their own.

The Earthquakes kept their second half scoring trend alive by scoring 2 beautiful goals against New England Saturday night for their second win in a row. The Quakes are now 2-2-2 at home. The recent good home form will hopefully translate into another win at home tomorrow night as San Jose takes on Chicago in the Final Qualifying match for a US Open Cup berth.

It's a shame that in a game where the Quakes played like they did last year as well as the first 3 games of the season, it will actually be compared to the Conference Final tragedy. Granted the result isn't as bad as the Colorado game last year, but the goal itself was the same. The Quakes played an attacking game while keeping a solid defense.

It took 120 minutes, plus stoppage time, before a winner in this US Open Cup Qualifying Match could be determined. Ike Opara managed to squeeze a header, or necker if the stories are true, past a diving Perkins for the game winning goal.
Portland had 10 starters that did not start for them when they played Real Salt Lake over the weekend.

Yallop had hinted that he was going to make some wholesale changes to the starters in response to the dispirited games against New York and Chivas USA. Well, Saturday's lineup saw 5 different starters than against Chivas last week and Yallop went back to the 4-4-2 the team used to great effect last year.

The Quakes are going to get an earful from Yallop on Monday, you can bet your ass on that. After describing this match as a must win, the Quakes played tepid soccer and only seemed to come alive after Chivas' second goal. Despite 4 mintues of second half stoppage time, the lads couldn't secure a tie.

That image pretty much sums up the Quakes' night. Lots of flailing around with nothing to show for it except being soaked. New York outplayed the Quakes in every positive aspect of the game. Their passing, possession, shooting and marking were all better. Forfeiting the match would have been a better outcome because then we wouldn't have to have watched the team's poor play.