Last weekend, Quincy Amarikwa was the man of the match in the San Jose Earthquakes’ win over the Colorado Rapids for his grit and bullish demeanor, work that doesn’t always get recognized on the scoreboard. “The grunt work,” Quakes head coach Dominic Kinnear acknowledged.
Tonight, however, Amarikwa won the honors for an absolute peach of a goal that gave the Quakes a 2-1 win over reigning MLS champions the Portland Timbers. It was his first goal at Avaya Stadium, in incredible fashion.
Just on the brink of the half, he clipped a lovely, lobbed shot over Portland goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey from a full thirty-five yards, by far the longest goal for the Quakes since Jean-Baptitiste Pierazzi’s strike in early 2014. There was a collective intake of breath in the stands as the ball was floating in the air and on the Quakes’ bench, assistant coach Steve Ralston muttered in astonishment
“He’s got him.”
Then the ball nestled into the top left corner and the Quakes took a 2-0 lead into the half, a lead that the Timbers could not overcome in the second period despite a late goal from substitute Jack McInerney. Portland Timbers coach Caleb Porter uncharitably called Amarikwa’s effort “fluky” while Quakes manager Dominic Kinnear said it was “special.” Chris Wondolowski pulled the adjectives unbelievable, amazing and jaw-dropping out of his hat. Either way, it was a memorable moment in an otherwise sloppy affair as players slipped and slid across Avaya’s rain-soaked pitch.
Highlights: You’re gonna want to watch these. #Quakes74 https://t.co/xHYUe9BMeG
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) March 14, 2016
“You always know he gives everything he’s got,” Kinnear said of Amarikwa. “So for him to get rewarded with a goal like that I think is just, because he does do a lot of the grunt work. It’s just great individual play, it’s a great touch, and probably it was the only place where it could have beat [Adam] Kwarasey, because I think he came close to it.”
Chris Wondolowski also popped up to poke home Anibal Godoy’s cross in the first half and it was the first time that the Quakes have scored more than a single goal in a league game at Avaya Stadium since last May.
Portland were aggressive early on, but the wet weather conditions dictated the tempo of the match. The ball got caught on the waterlogged pitch and skidded unpredictably at times.
“In the end there, I was starting to cramp in my calves,” said Amarikwa. “It’s almost like playing in sand.”
Fatai Alashe returned to the starting lineup for the Quakes from injury, slotting into the midfield alongside Godoy. Simon Dawkins started on the left and Alberto Quintero wide right, while rookie Kip Colvey started at left-back in the wake of Shaun Francis’ injury.
“Going into the game, we were a little concerned having Kip out there knowing they had Lucas Melano and Dairon Asprilla running at him,” said Kinnear.
Melano was dangerous down the right early on, rising above Covley in the fourth minute to head a far-post corner just wide of the post. Just a minute later, the Argentina midfielder found a pocket of space in behind Colvey to wind up a shot and arrowed an effort onto the crossbar. Diego Valeri came close on eleven minutes, bursting into the box from Fanendo Adi’s flick on and poking a low effort just wide.
Darlington Nagbe lined up a shot form twenty yards out in the twenty-eighth minute, but slipped before he could pull the trigger.
Yet Colvey grew into the game and looked composed on the ball for a player just two matches into his professional career. “All of his preseason games he has been capable and confident,” Kinnear told Quakes Talk on Friday. “He’s not afraid to step out onto the field and play for us.”
The Kiwi was lively on the attack, combining well with Dawkins on the overlap, and slipped Godoy in down the wing with a neat through-ball on the half hour mark. The Panamanian midfielder whipped a low cross into the near post and Wondo ghosted ahead of his marker to tuck a low finish into the back of the net. He wheeled away to celebrate and made good use of the wet pitch with a long knee slide that left a residual mark.
In the thirty-eighth minute, Clarence Goodson and Quintero both slipped as they backtracked when Valeri drove down the middle on the counter-attack and the midfielder played it wide right to Adi. However, Goodson remarkably got back to make a vital tackle.
Amarikwa’s effort then came out of nothing. Head coach Dominic Kinnear has been encouraging his team to make more runs into the box and take more shots throughout preseason, and this past week they’ve worked on finishing at the end of every training session; it’s unlikely, though, that Amarikwa’s spectacular, long-range was quite what Kinnear had in mind.
WATCH: @QuincyAmarikwa breaks down his wonder goal against @TimbersFC. #Quakes74 #SJvPOR https://t.co/7xzT28huRQ
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) March 14, 2016
In the second half, it was mostly a matter of game management of the Quakes. Wondo forced Kwarasey into a great low stop with a fizzing twenty-five yard effort, while David Bingham came up big to stop Adi. McInerey bagged a scrappy equalizer in the eighty-eighth minute, just when the Quakes looked like they had their clean sheet in the bag, but it was too little, too late for the title-holders.
“The game comes down to what you do in the box,” said Porter, and the Quakes were simply more clinical, to a spectacular extent.
