In Matias Almeyda’s first competitive match in charge of San Jose, the Earthquakes fell 2-1 to the Montreal Impact at Avaya Stadium on Saturday night. Ignacio Piatti and Saphir Taïder capitalized on defensive errors to earn a cagey victory for the visitors, overcoming Magnus Eriksson’s early goal.
Almeyda’s introduction had started off so well — the Quakes were composed on the ball, patiently building out of the back, and claimed an early lead when Eriksson buried a low effort in the tenth minute. It seemed fitting for Eriksson to score after all the rumors that had linked him to an off-season departure, a sign of new beginnings.
Off-the-ball, however, it was a different story. Almeyda had his team man-marking across the pitch, which demanded a frenetic work rate. At times, center-back Harold Cummings was drawn higher than the forwards to track his man, while forward Cristian Espinoza had to drop deeper than the center-backs to cover. The system aims to help the Quakes to win the ball higher up the pitch and force dangerous turnovers, but its benefits were unclear against a Montreal team that took few chances going forward and played primarily on the breakaway.
Moreover, the risks it posed proved costly. Firstly, the system relied heavily upon one-versus-one defending, and the setup was thrown into chaos when Montreal beat the Quakes on the dribble. That’s exactly what happened for Montreal’s first goal when Piatti smoked Espinoza on a short corner and drove into the box to finish.
“It’s so sloppy that we concede that goal,” said defender Guram Kashia. “Yesterday we practiced around an hour and fifteen minutes of corners, all the standard situations. And we conceded from a standard situation. Obviously, the coaches have all the rights to be pissed.”
The second goal came from open play when Montreal center-back Zakaria Diallo drove into the middle and crossed for Taïder to finish at the far post. The Quakes had trained for that play too, but suffered a momentary lapse: Chris Wondolowski didn’t spot Diallo’s run quickly enough, nobody stepped up to the defender, and Nick Lima let Taïder in behind to convert.
And that was all it took for the Quakes to lose their home opener for the first time ever at Avaya Stadium. Although San Jose pushed men forward in search of a second-half equalizer, they lacked the dynamism to break through Montreal’s compact setup.
And yet, the loss did not dishearten the Quakes players. “We want a game tomorrow,” said Wondolowski. “We want to be out there and right the ship. I can honestly say that was not the case last year.”
Almeyda acknowledged that it will take time for the team to adjust to his system, and thinks that this performance was an important part of the learning process.
Said Kashia: “We are trying to really adjust to him, but it will take some time. It’s not like a magic wand will change things in two or three games…we need to make some mistakes to learn from. We are in that process right now.”
