Rally in Toronto lifts Quakes' spirits
San Jose shows grit, spirit in draw with Toronto FC
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Their morale-boosting last-second miracle came courtesy of a gritty effort by hobbled Trinidad and Tobago international Cornell Glen, who entered the field of play for midfielder Shea Salinas in the 78th minute.
Running with an obvious limp, Glen then saved his team from what appeared to be their 14th loss of the season with a dramatic stoppage-time equalizer.
"He is not game-fit but it was just great to get him on the field," said Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop. "He is dangerous around the goal -- when he does get chances he tends to score."
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After a goalmouth scramble, San Jose defender Chris Leitch played the ball back into the area and Toronto defender Nana Attakora attempted to clear the ball out of danger.
But the deflected cross fell straight to Glen, who stepped up and fired home the tying goal from the top of the penalty area.
"I thought that maybe if I just cheat a little bit and stay off to the left of the play and in the gap something might happen and it might come to me and that's exactly what happened," said Glen.
As Glen sat in a corridor outside the San Jose lockeroom nursing his knee injury with a bag of ice, the member of the Soca Warriors squad in the 2006 World Cup felt his team had finally turned the corner.
"This lifts the team's spirits a great deal -- for the whole season things weren't really going our way," said Glen. "Even the bounce of the ball was going the other way so it was great tonight to finally get some luck. It's a good motivation to carry on to the next game and to next season."
Glen played just three minutes in Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Dallas and didn't train with the team all week.
Yallop was also impressed with his team's ability to dig for the tie despite the absence of five regulars due to international duty and injury.
"We have a good spirit here, the squad is growing, the confidence is starting to get there," Yallop said. "What's more the players on the team actually like each other and get along which is at times unusual (on a professional squad). The chemistry is good here and they want to do it for each other and I think that is huge and it showed tonight when it counted most."
The former Canadian national team manager noted that both teams have been in the habit of giving up late goals this season with Toronto allowing 15 goals in the final 75 minutes of games this season while the Quakes have conceded 12 goals in the final 15 minutes of play in matches this year.
Yallop feels Saturday's result is proof that San Jose have something to build on for next season and things can move forward.
"We didn't give up," he said. "There wasn't any blame that we were losing 1-0, and this team is now in great spirits from now being able to see it is possible to achieve what we want to achieve in this league."
Veteran goalkeeper Joe Cannon couldn't be blamed for Attakora's 47th-minute strike where he raced into the box and first-timed a volley past Cannon.
Some lax defending on Toronto midfielders Dwayne De Rosario and Julian de Guzman led to the goal, while Cannon was left in no-man's land on the resulting cross and had little chance to make a stop on an unmarked Attakora, who netted his second goal of the season.
Midway through the first half, Cannon came up with a remarkable two-handed diving stop on a fierce close range header by Attakora. After pushing the blast aside, the 'keeper was then rescued by a goal-line clearance from Salinas on the rebound.
"At this point in the season those kind of breaks have been going against us and the rebounds have been falling to the other team -- luckily Shea was there and just cleared the ball out of danger," Yallop said.
Toronto outshot the Earthquakes 7-3 in a match where they clearly had the early share of chances before the visitors began to apply the pressure late in the game. Antonio Ribeiro and Chris Wondolowski narrowly missed putting their shots on target in the 76th and 77th minutes.
"We had some dangerous moments and it looked like we were going to score," said Yallop. "I just felt like something was going to happen and it did."
News on the injury front grew worse for San Jose after Saturday's tie as it is feared defender Jason Hernandez could be lost for the rest of the season after twisting his ankle in the 57th minute. The injury occurred off the ball during a wild goalmouth scramble as Leitch and De Rosario tussled for the ball along with Cannon. Hernandez was taken off the field on a stretcher. News of the Hernandez injury status won't be known until X-rays of his ankle are reviewed by team doctors.
Peter Mallett is a contributor to MLSnet.com
