Stephen Lenhart scored the Quakes 5th hat trick Saturday night against DC United. The 3 goals push his season total to 4, and Simon Dawkins scored his second goal in two straight games and Dawkins also has 4 goals on the season for the Quakes. The Quakes are the hottest team in MLS right now having earned 13 of 15 points in their last 5 games.
In the past 4 games the Quakes have started slowly and started to offensively click during the second half. On Saturday San Jose came out of the gate firing and for the first 2 minutes had DC pinned down in their defensive third and had 3 good shots on goal. The game settled down a bit for the next few minutes but DC was able to score in the 13th minute. Andy Najar got his right foot on a cross that skipped by 4 San Jose defenders. Every San Jose player could have gotten a foot on the ball but they all looked frozen like statues. Lenhart quickly responded with his first goal of the night in the 14th minute by dribbling around Bill Hamid at the top of the box. He added his second 7 minutes later on a rebound off Hamid. Blake Brettschneider scored DC’s second in the 34th minute. Brettschneider turned Bobby Burling around and put his left footed shot past Jon Busch.
The Quakes started the second half with the same intensity they brought to the beginning of the first half. Lenhart and Dawkins linked up in the 49th minute and Dawkins put away his 4th goal of the season and 2nd in 2 games. But San Jose wasn’t done, as Lenhart tallied his third of the night in the 60th minute. After a poor clearance by DC, Steven Beitashour skied the ball towards the top of the 18 yard box. Hamid hesitated a second too long and was unable to punch the ball away before Lenhart got his head on it and put it in the back of the net. The Quakes held firm for the last 30 minutes and were able to escape DC with 3 points.
The win gives San Jose 19 points and propels them past Chivas USA and Portland into 6th in the West. Once again the West is stacked and if you compare the two conferences, the Quakes would be 3rd in the East. The Quakes are back in the playoff hunt as they currently have enough points overall to be one of the 4 wild card teams for the playoffs. It’s going to be tough to break into the automatic berths that the top 3 teams in each conference qualify for. But if San Jose can successfully meld the scoring touches of Wondo, Lenhart and Dawkins after the Gold Cup, this could be a magical year for the Quakes.
National Team Corner
Wondo has featured in all 3 of the USMNT’s group games in the last week. He was used as a sub in the 1st and 2nd games and despite missing an easy – for Wondo – tap in on Saturday against Panama, he has been playing well for the US. In tonight’s game against Guadaloupe Wondo got the start and had a couple good shots on goal but was unable to put his shots away or they were blocked.
Conversely, Ryan Johnson has continued his spectacular league play for the Reggae Boyz. Johnson scored in last night’s win against Honduras and scored in the first game against Grenada. Jamaica, along with Mexico, was able to win their group with a perfect 3-0-0 record.
In an interesting turn of events for San Jose fans, the US will face off against Jamaica in the Quarterfinals on Sunday at RFK Stadium in Washington DC. I wonder if we’ll see Wondo vs. Johnson at some point in the match.
GO QUAKES!
GO WONDO!
