History Repeats: Earthquakes tie Rapids 1-1 due to last second penalty

It's Deja Vu all over again, the immortal words of Yogi Berra sum up the Quakes season as the team once again is unable to finish a match and loses vital points after a 1-1 against the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday night.

After 92 minutes of hard fought defense and fantastic defending by Joe Cannon, the match changed after Colorado forward Omar Cummings made a great cut towards the net on the left side bypassing the San Jose defense and was cut down on a late tackle by San Jose defender Jason Hernandez. Unlike Friday's controversial penalty, the Hernandez tackle was a very clear penalty. In a deja vu moment, Connor Casey lined up against Joe Cannon again with the game on the line and slotted it past the Earthquakes goalkeeper's left side for his league leading 15th goal.

The story of the first half was dominated by the Rapids who controlled a lion share of the possession but were unable to convert any chances. Both teams lost key contributors in the 9th minute when an Andre Luiz challenge on Jacob Peterson shot left both players injured and forced them from the match. Luiz was ruled to have suffered a right ankle injury while Peterson sustained a right knee injury. The Quakes took the lead in the 67th minute after a San Jose free kick careened off the extended arm of Pat Noonan. Chris Wondolowski took the spot kick and coolly beat Rapids goaltender Preston Burpo. Following the Wondo goal, the Earthquakes had a variety of opportunities to put the Rapids away due to a number of chances by Earthquakes leading goalscorer Ryan Johnson, however, each chance was stopped by Rapids goalkeeper Burpo who had a fantastic game.

After the match, the mood in the Earthquakes locker room was very reflective, “We have not had any luck recently, but the team is playing hard and fighting for everything. We have a good group here and we play for each other. I think we played a smart game tonight and if we keep playing like that, we will start getting some wins.” said goal scorer Wondolowski.

The Quakes are now winless in their last 20 road matches while Colorado remains in the second wild card spot. San Jose continues their road swing on Sunday as they take on D.C. United at RFK stadium which will be televised on Telefutura. Check out BSB tomorrow for our preview of the match.


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In other news announced on Thursday, the Earthquakes will start off the 2010 season against the Real Salt Lake Saturday, March 27 at 6 p.m. PT at Buck Shaw Stadium. This will be the second straight year that the Quakes will open up at home. In the third week of the season, the Quakes will make their first road match against the Chicago Fire on April 10th.