Cristian Espinoza and Denis Bouanga each scored for their sides in the first half, and the 10-man San Jose Earthquakes held on for a 1-1 draw against host Los Angeles FC on Saturday.
The draw extended winless streaks for both teams. The Earthquakes (7-7-8, 29 points) are 0-2-3 in their last five matches, and Los Angeles (9-6-6, 33 points) is 0-3-1 in its last four matches.
San Jose goalkeeper Daniel was issued a straight red card in the 56th minute on a handball charge. Daniel went way out of his box to try to cut off a Mateusz Bogusz breakaway, but Bogusz’s shot deflected off Daniel’s outstretched arm.
JT Marcinkowski entered as the substitute goalkeeper, while Paul Marie left the field to reduce the Earthquakes to a 10-man lineup. Despite being short-handed for much of the second half, San Jose played very solid defense to limit LAFC’s chances.
Marcinkowski stopped all three shots faced, including a huge save to deny Carlos Vela in the 82nd minute. Stipe Biuk and Nathan Ordaz also had close near-misses in the second half, as both LAFC strikers couldn’t put a final touch on good passes at close range.
In the 30th minute, Espinoza took advantage of some light marking from Los Angeles defender Mamadou Fall to find space within the box. Espinoza buried a left-footed shot for his 10th goal, and third in three matches against Los Angeles FC this season.
Bouanga responded with his 12th goal, converting a penalty kick in the 37th minute. The striker was tripped by defender Rodrigues in the box, leading to San Jose’s league-high sixth penalty-kick concession of the season.
A minor power outage at BMO Stadium in the 41st minute resulted in seven minutes of extra time at the end of the first half. The outage also seemingly prevented a video review of an entanglement between Diego Palacios and Carlos Akapo in LAFC’s box, as the Earthquakes felt they should have been awarded a penalty kick.
–Field Level Media