SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Even though they were playing under six miles from PayPal Park, the San Jose Earthquakes dealt with a hostile, dominantly Chivas crowd of a Leagues Cup-record 50,675 fans in their tournament opener on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium.
“We were playing at home but we’re not really at home,” head coach Ian Russell said. “Mostly Chivas fans here.”
San Jose (0-0-1, 2 points) scored early but conceded late, setting up a shootout ending where it edged out Chivas de Guadalajara (0-0-1, 1 point) 4-3 to gain two points in the group stage standings.
Former Quakes forward Cade Cowell returned to the South Bay for the first time as a member of Chivas and led multiple opportunities — toying with San Jose’s defense from the jump — but the Quakes held firm against the 20-year-old when it was all said and done.
Goalkeeper Daniel returned to the Earthquakes’ lineup for the first time since March 16 as he had undergone hamstring surgery and made five saves in the outing.
The Quakes wasted no time in swinging the offensive momentum. In the sixth minute, midfielder Cristian Espinoza dished a flawless cross to forward Jeremy Ebobisse, who uncontestedly headed the ball past goalkeeper José Rangel to give the MLS side an early 1-0 lead.
Ebobisse — who hadn’t previously scored since May 25 — was a bright spot for San Jose all evening, as he had multiple chances to score by getting open inside the box and elusively evading defenders.
Forward Benji Kikanović and defender Rodrigues were positive forces in the back end, often shutting down Guadalajara’s offensive rushes by exerting their physicality to protect the narrow lead. The Quakes’ defensive press often won the ball in the attacking third, creating plenty of corner kick opportunities and Chivas miscues.
But as the game progressed, San Jose’s cerebral offensive attack began to die down. The Earthquakes transitioned to playing off their back foot, just narrowly squeaking through the second half with the lead. However, as both teams scuffled down the stretch, an eight-minute stoppage time allotment set up a controversial and chippy end to regulation.
In the waning moments of the added time, the referees forced Rodrigues to remain on the sideline after he went down briefly with an injury, causing San Jose to play down a man. In the 98th minute, wide-open winger Roberto Alvarado leveled the match from inside the penalty spot — the zone Rodrigues likely would have occupied.
“I didn’t think that was fair,” Russell said. “I think you could have just added time on, but let [Rodrigues] back on the field.”
Alvarado’s goal arrived following Chivas midfielder Armando González’s shot that clanked off the post just three minutes before.
While the allowed goal felt like an injustice for Rodrigues and company, the match wasn’t over yet. The game’s points would be divided based on a shootout, in which the Earthquakes only missed one shot.
Under the bright lights and eyeing revenge in his return, Cowell’s shootout attempt ironically soared far over the crossbar for Chivas’ second miss of the shootout. As Daniel also saved Guadalajara’s first try — retrospectively proving costly for the Liga MX side — defender Vitor Costa’s successful attempt would clinch the victory for San Jose, capping off the hard-fought, dramatic upset.
Despite being booked for a flurry of cards, facing a slew of passionate, loud Chivas fans and amid a turbulent season, the Quakes got the job done. While its MLS season may appear lost and out of reach, the strong Leagues Cup opener sets up San Jose for another crucial group match against a more familiar foe: the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The Quakes will aim for yet another positive result against the Galaxy to secure a top-two spot in the West 2 group, which would allow San Jose to advance to the knockout stage. Depending on the bout’s result, Russell’s club will likely have its eyes on LA’s matchup with Guadalajara to close out the group schedule, finalizing the standings.
“We’ll see what we can do,” Ebobisse said. “We haven’t beaten the Galaxy yet this year, and we know how much that means to our club.”
While the Earthquakes’ pattern of conceding late emerged once again, the team made up for it when it mattered most. San Jose will welcome the Galaxy to PayPal Park in its second and final group stage game, which will kick off on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Kasey Kazliner is an undergraduate sports broadcaster at USC. He covers a variety of sports, but particularly loves analyzing the Quakes’ prospect pipeline. He is The Town FC’s official beat writer and covers every match for the club. You can follow him on Twitter here.
