San Jose Earthquakes start the season with a Victory

The San Jose Earthquakes hit the ground running in their home opener against Montreal Impact. Well, at least that was the case in the first half as they came out hungry and poised to threat. In the first 7 minutes alone, the Earth Quakes had 2 clear chances to score. 10 minutes later Anibal Godoy (17 minute) would find the back of the net after a one on one with the goalie. Godoy beat Bush (Montreal’s goalie) with a friendly chip ball that slowly travelled over his head and into the goal.

As a season ticket holder it was exciting to see the Earthquakes come out so strong. Typically they work like a slow moving ship and wait to take advantage of a counter or mistake from the other team. But they came out strong, passing lanes were crafted at a high pace as the players moved in a fluid motion to get open. I only wish the Earthquakes would have played with the intensity of the first 20 minutes for all of the 90 minutes. The Quakes came back from the break moving slow and making lots of minor mistakes. The Earthquakes had trouble finding the gaps and passing lanes and it seemed like they were not necessarily tired but content with losing position. Montreal didn’t take advantage of it, even though they started threatening in the second half as they searched for the equalizer.

Hopefully this is something they work to improve on as the season moves forward. The coach, Dominic Kinnear fielded a shocking lineup as it included two players from their homegrown system (Tommy and Nick):

1 — David Bingham
23 — Florian Jungwirth
5 — Víctor Bernárdez
20 — Shaun Francis
24 — Nick Lima
27 — Fatai Alashe
30 — Anibal Godoy
49 — Simon Dawkins
22 — Tommy Thompson
21 — Marcos Ureña
8 — Chris Wondolowski

For the 2017 MLS regular season, San Jose will play 34 games, including 17 home games and 17 away games. Teams will face each of their 10 conference opponents twice during the season with one game at home and one game away. San Jose will compete in select additional games against different conference opponents three times, and they will face non-conference opponents once. As a season ticket holder the Earthquakes will host 3 bonus games at Avaya stadium. The first was announced already as they will take on Eintracht Frankfurt of the German Bundesliga at Avaya Stadium on Friday, July 14 at 7:15 p.m. It marks San Jose’s first match against a German club since the team’s first-ever international friendly on May 26, 1996 against Bayer Leverkusen.