Sports Radio Service


		Quakes hold on to a 3-3 tie against the Chicago Fire By Randy Leighton April 11, 2009

	Santa Clara, CA –The San Jose Earthquakes tied the Chicago Fire today in a home game at Buck Shaw Stadium to a crowd over 9,700. San Jose would struggle to hold on to a 1 goal lead at the end of the second half as they lost a man to a red card and a resurging Chicago offense to earn the tie. Darren Huckerby started the play that would break the Quakes on the scoreboard in the 14th minute. He would take a long pass on the left, at the same time beating the Fire defender for position. He carried up the left side toward the keeper and drilled a low cross to Ryan Johnson, who knocked it into goal. Play would go back and forth between both sides putting shots up, until around the 41st minute where the Quakes seemed to be losing their spark. The Fire capitalized in the shift of momentum, courtesy of Marco Pappa. Tim Ward sent a quick pass over to Pappa, who looked like he was all alone in front of the right side of the net, who brought the pass down and fired it past Cannon. Bobby Convey of the Quakes put them back on top before the half ended in the 43rd minute. Out of nowhere he rushed up grabbing a loose ball, dribbled past a few defenders to create an unassisted opening, then fired a low hard shot past Jon Busch, who was probably surprised Convey beat their defense that easily. First half ended with San Jose up 2-1, putting 6 shots on goal, to Chicago’s 3 shots on goal. Of note, Chicago’s superstar Cuauhtemoc Blanco sat the first half out and came in right at the start of the second half. Chicago energized as Blanco came in and they really took over the second half. San Jose could barely bring any shots on goal most of the second half. Chicago would score in the 56th minute as Blanco would cross the ball over the middle to #20, who quickly fired a shot at Cannon and beat him. With about 20 minutes left in the game, you could feel the intensity and San Jose fighting to come back. In the 75th minute, San Jose’s Bobby Convey would take possession of the ball right inside the box and get taken down by Chicago’s . This would get a penalty box call from the referee, which would result in Arturo Alvarez punching a goal by the keeper easily. This put San Jose up 3-2 and the momentum had shifted. Five minutes later though, Shea Salinas would get his second yellow card, resulting in a red card ejection from the game. Unfortunately for San Jose, this would give Chicago what they needed to come back and equalize. In the 85th minute, 17 fired off a high shot into the net, as Cannon just got a hand on it, but not enough to deflect it away. The game would end with San Jose and Chicago holding 3 goals each. San Jose will play at home again next week, playing at Oakland Coliseum against the LA Galaxy, their in-state rivals.