The Vancouver Whitecaps got stung early but fought hard through the full 90 minutes to grab an eventual 1-1 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes.
Preston Judd scored in the first five minutes for the home side, but the Whitecaps never once let their foot off the pedal. It took a while, but Sebastian Berhalter found the back of the net with about 15 minutes left in the match to secure the draw.
There’s the old saying of going to a fight, and a hockey game broke out? Well, change that to football because this one had grudge match written all over it.
Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sørensen called it a “great game.”
“It was a game at a high pace and two teams that wanted to come out and send a good signal to each other and to the league,” he said.
Not wasting any time, it took only four minutes for the Earthquakes to jump on an early lead. Beau Leroux started the quick transition to the right to Paul Marie. The Frenchman put the ball in a dangerous spot in the box for Preston Judd, who made no mistake with his first touch of the game.
“It was a good goal they scored. They caught us high up the pitch and went direct,” Sørensen said of the effort.
The Whitecaps upped the intensity in the second half. Not much changed by way of the game plan, but the added push to be first on loose balls and to challenge defenders 1v1 served to push the Earthquakes deeper into their half.
It came close to paying off in the 54th minute. Overloaded pressure on the right enabled Édier Ocampo to put a dangerous ball into the 18-yard box to Emmanuel Sabbi, a halftime replacement for Cheikh Sabaly.
The initial effort was blocked, but the ball fell to Andrés Cubas. The stalwart midfielder took the rare shot, but it was palmed away by Daniel.
Daniel was forced into service again minutes later as another ball came in from the right for Bruno Caicedo. Caicedo’s effort was saved by a sprawled Daniel. Jeevan Badwal picked off the rebound, but he waited a bit too long, and the Earthquake goalkeeper was able to get back in front of the midfielder’s shot.
But the Whitecaps forged on. Their constant onslaught finally paid off in the 76th minute.
Cubas chested the ball down at the edge of the 18-yard box as the Earthquakes attempted to clear it. He played it quickly ot Sabbi on the inside, who protected it well, and played it out of his feet to Berhalter.
Berhalter cut in from the right, all alone on Daniel. From there, it was a simple, hard shot beyond the goalkeeper.
The Whitecaps kept pushing for the winning goal, but the Earthquakes placed everyone behind the ball, fighting to hold onto that point.
And that’s how this one ended, with a couple of points shared and another one lost to the ether.
Whitecaps find themselves in a tilt
Perhaps the memory of the first meeting of these two back in March played a role, but this was a match marked by its physicality and strong challenges, which at times, threatened to boil over.
A total of 29 fouls were awarded by referee Malik Badawi (a 14-15 split in favour of the Earthquakes). However, only four yellow cards were handed out, with Berhalter picking up the lone one for the Whitecaps.
But for Sørensen, we said, “I love those games.”
“You have to enjoy it. That’s part of the competitiveness. That’s part of what this game is about, that you want to come out of every action on top of the situation. It’s great. San Jose is a very strong, physical team. It’s a very good team and very well coached and structured. But on top of that, it’s also a team that’s very relentless in the way they want to fight for every ball and in how they want to get into all duels with full force.”
Up next
It’s a quick turnaround for the Whitecaps as they continue their road trip, this time with a midweek match against FC Dallas on Wednesday, May 13.
Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m.
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