The San Jose Earthquakes played their final home game of the MLS regular season tonight. It was their first annual Italian Heritage night, and also Fan Appreciation Night. Other than announcing it was Italian Heritage night, I didn't notice anything else they did. There had been some mention if you wore an Italian National team jersey you could go on the field before the game, but I didn't see any of that. Was it that no one showed any interest? Or, that they switched away from that.
The game itself was a 2-1 loss to FC Dallas. Dallas open the game with having the better control of the game for the first 30 minutes. They enjoyed more possession, but didn't really generate a lot of quality chances. The slow start from the Quakes may have come from the patchwork lineup they had. With Jason Hernandez unavailable due to a hamstring injury, Cornell Glenn not in the starting lineup (again injury), and Simon Elliot, Arturo Alvarez, and Ramon Sanchez off on national team call ups, adding to season ending injuries to Darren Huckerby and Andre Luiz, the Quakes were left with a very shallow bench. They had just four field player substitutes available.
The Quakes were able to step it up in the last 15 minutes of the first half, controlling play more, getting chances, etc. However, neither team capitalized before the half time whistle. I noticed the crowd seemed awfully quiet. While the attendance was announced as over 9,000, that's tickets sold. I'm sure the number of people that showed up was much less.
Early into the second half, Dallas was able to get the first goal of the match to take a 1-0 lead. About 10 minutes later, the Quakes countered with their first sub off their thin bench, bring in Quincy Amarikwa for Antonio Ribeiro. Amarikwa went to forward and Chris Wondolowski came back into attacking midfield. Just 12 minutes after coming in, the change paid dividends. Shea Salinas sent a ball forward, springing Amarikwa. Quincy looked around, but decided to chip it over the onrushing goal keeper for his first professional goal. Video of that can be found on the MLS website here.
Unfortunately for the Quakes, Dallas was not through, and scored the go ahead goal in the 82 minute. Cunningham was offside when the ball was sent through to Dax McCarty who was flying up the field. Cannon came out to challenge, but McCarty laid the ball off to Cunningham who put it in the empty net for his league leading 17th goal.
The Quakes brought in an ailing Cornell Glenn in the 87th minute, taking off defender Michael Zaher. At this point, they switched from a 4-4-2 into a 3-4-3 with Glenn joining Amarikwa and Ryan Johnson up top. Their best chance to equalize came 2 minutes into stoppage time. The only Quake not in the box was Salinas, and that was because he was taking the corner kick. Both defenders who normally hang back and Joe Cannon came up into the play. Brandon MacDonald got his head on the corner, nodding it down off the turf. Cannon and Dallas keeper Dario Sala then came together, with Cannon getting his head on the ball. Wondolowski then followed up,m knocking heads with a Dallas defender, but to no avail. The ball was cleared out, and the Quakes didn't get another chance.
With the loss, the Quakes are now officially eliminated from the playoffs. Prior to the match, the Quakes announced their awards. Shea Salinas got the humanitarian of the year, Chris Leitch got the defender of the year, and the team MVP was Ryan Johnson.
So, for Fan Appreciation Night, the Quakes gave away as you entered the game - programs, just like every other game. Mine had a picture card of retiring star Darren Huckerby stuffed in it, but that was it. There was a raffle for a Huckerby signed banner or jersey for season ticket holders at the season ticket holder tent. They did the t-shirt toss at halftime, but it appeared to be the same number of t-shirts as last year. No other in game raffles. It looked like several players came over to the stands and gave away jerseys. I'm not sure if that was semi-organized or not, but it seems if it was, it could have been better done to spread the jerseys out to more folks than just the ones that crowded up to the rail. After that, there was autograph alley. I went over, saw Ryan Johnson coming, set myself up to get him to sign the front of my program because he was on the cover. I also saw Chris Leitch and got a chance to congratulate him on his great year. Otherwise, it could have been just another game. Last year, there seemed more of a to do about getting autographs, and there was something the Quakes gave out that was good for signing if I remember correctly. Maybe it's because this was on a Wednesday night.
I think they got hurt by having a mid-week game for their last game of the season. They draw fewer fans, and for something like a fan appreciation night, you want folks to want to stick around, not go home because they have work/school/etc. the next day. Still, I really feel they could have done more. More to show appreciation to their fans. More to make Italian Heritage night something other than a line item. I really think there should have been some sort of giveaway to everybody. More things should have been raffled off during the game. The giving away of jerseys could have been made more formal, and done in a jerseys off the players back. You get a photo opportunity, and the players can sign the jersey for the person getting it.
Full game highlights from the MLS web site here.
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