San Jose Earthquakes Open Levi’s Stadium With Win

Last night the San Jose Earthquakes played the first ever game at Levi’s Stadium in front of 48,765 fans. It was a perfect opening for the new stadium as the Quakes defeated the Seattle Sounders by the final score of 1-0.

Even though the score was 1-0 there was plenty of action for the fans to enjoy including the lone goal of the game which came in the 42nd minute.

It was all set up by the defense who made a few passes to get the ball out to midfield and onto the feet of Chris Wondolowski. ‘Wondo’ then made a quick turn to his right and spotted Yannick Djalo making a run at the defense. Wondo floated the ball perfectly past the defense for Djalo who then neatly rolled the ball into the goal on his first touch against the onrushing keeper.

Here’s the game recap from the MLS website as well as some shots of the newly christened Levi’s Stadium.

There was no shortage of offense from the Seattle Sounders either, but any shot put on San Jose’s keeper Jon Busch was either caught or parried away.

The closest call of the night came in the 85th minute when Sounders defender Chad Barret rose above everyone else on a corner and headed one on net only for it to be cleared from the line by Wondolowski who was guarding the near post. The shot was no doubt headed for goal and was already beyond the outstretched hands of Busch.

Clint Dempsey was his usual self as well and was pushing play all night  for the Sounders. At one point he had a decent attempt on net with a bicycle kick but could not make anything happen in the final third to result in a goal throughout the night.

All in all a great effort from the San Jose Earthquakes tonight who are slowly gathering some momentum. Even though they were out-possessed 57%-42% the Quakes had plenty of chances on goal. At one point both the goal-scorer Djalo and Atiba Harris had golden opportunities in the second half to extend San Jose’s lead but instead narrowly missed the net.

Soon after that though Djalo would exit the game due to what looked like a leg injury and he was replaced by Khari Stephenson.

With the win the San Jose Earthquakes move up to 8th in Western Conference after defeating the first place Sounders. They will try to continue to move up the standings against the L.A. Galaxy on August 8th and into a playoff spot where they are seven points behind fifth place.