Cristian Espinoza, Daniel carry Earthquakes past Whitecaps
Cristian Espinoza scored his twelfth objective of the season and Daniel made seven saves to guide the San Jose Earthquakes to a 1-0 win over the host Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday.
It was solely the second street victory (2-6-4) of the season for the Earthquakes, and it got here at one of many harder away venues in MLS. The Whitecaps drop to 7-3-4 at residence.
The outcome was all of the extra unlikely provided that Vancouver (8-8-7, 31 factors) dominated the motion. The Whitecaps held a possession of 58.3 and outshot San Jose by a 19-3 margin, together with an 8-1 edge in photographs on track.
Nevertheless, the Earthquakes (9-7-8, 35 factors) made their lone goal rely, as Espinoza prolonged his scoring streak to 4 matches.
Within the forty third minute, San Jose took benefit of the Whitecaps’ strain by launching a counterattack. Jeremy Ebobisse crossed to Espinoza for the decisive strike earlier than Vancouver’s defenders have been prepared.
Daniel did the remaining, recording his fourth clear sheet of the season. Daniel held sturdy towards the Whitecaps’ fixed strain, together with saves on Sergio Cordova and Brian White within the 14th minute. The second of these stops noticed Daniel deny White’s close-range header off a well-placed cross from Pedro Vite.
The Earthquakes did not have a single shot within the second half, focusing fully on defending and limiting Vancouver to 2 photographs on objective through the ultimate 45 minutes.
Daniel once more got here up large when the Whitecaps did problem, together with one other spectacular save within the sixtieth minute off a difficult redirected shot from Cordova.
San Jose additionally acquired some assist from the goalpost within the 81st minute. Sam Adekugbe’s free kick curved across the wall towards the far facet of the web however hit the publish on the Whitecaps’ closest probability of the match.
Adekugbe and Richie Laryea have been taking part in their first matches with Vancouver since being acquired through the switch window. Laryea had two photographs within the first 45 minutes earlier than being substituted for Adekugbe at halftime.
—Area Degree Media
