SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- When an offense struggles to score goals, there is a tendency to think that brains rather than brawn are needed to achieve a breakthrough. Quicker passing, and better off the ball movement are among the magic elixirs suggested.
But as the San Jose Earthquakes found out in their emotionally charged 2-1 win against the Houston Dynamo on Thursday, sometimes brute force works just as well, and in this case, the play of forward Ryan Johnson was the hammer at the forefront of San Jose's revamped attack.
It was a match with plenty of raw emotion, given that up until 2005, the Houston club had called San Jose home. This was evident at the final whistle when former teammates Ryan Cochrane and Brian Ching engaged in a shoving match.
But while head coach Frank Yallop insisted that the victory was "no different than any other game we were trying to get three points out of," he did acknowledge the play of Johnson, who was making just his second career start.
"[Johnson] is raw and rough and a bit of a rough-and-tumbler," said Yallop. "But he gets it done. He's not afraid of getting in there. He was the difference tonight to be honest."
That's not to say that there weren't any elements of guile in Johnson's play. The Oregon State product made some intelligent layoffs to the midfield, and ran the channels well. But it was his physicality that unsettled the hulking partnership of Bobby Boswell and Eddie Robinson in the center of Houston's defense. The result was an attack that, after a hectic first 15 minutes, put the visitors on the defensive.
"I always try to make [the defense] uncomfortable," said Johnson. "I'm always making them look around and see who's coming...It was just constant movement from the forwards and we really tired out their backline out tonight."
The biggest beneficiary of Johnson's presence was forward Kei Kamara, who acknowledged his teammate's contribution by calling him "my MVP." In previous matches Kamara had borne most of the responsibility for holding the ball up and battling for high balls. With Johnson on the field, that responsibility was spread out more evenly, allowing Kamara to focus more on making runs into the box.
That approach nearly worked to perfection in the 33rd minute. A ball over the top released Johnson down the left wing, giving him ample time to pick out Kamara at the far post. But Kamara could only look on in agony as his diving header bounced off the woodwork.
It was the latest in a long line of near-misses this season for the Sierra Leone native, and this close call had Kamara wondering if another frustrating night wasn't in the offing.
"I was thinking 'Here goes another one again,'" said Kamara. "I was thinking maybe I should have hit it in with my foot. But we came into the half and coach [Yallop] said, 'Just keep your head up. It's going to come.'"
That advice proved prophetic, as Kamara was finally rewarded in the 67th minute, when after receiving Ned Grabavoy's flick-on, his low shot on the turn beat Pat Onstad in the Houston goal.
"That's a forward for you," said Kamara. "You might miss one, you might miss two. But you just have to keep going and you'll get one. That's what I did."
His teammates adopted the same approach, allowing them to get a second goal in the 81st minute. Ivan Guerrero's deft pass put Johnson through on goal, and when Onstad could only get a hand to his subsequent shot, Guerrero was on hand to hammer home the rebound.
The goal gave San Jose some valuable breathing space, especially when Houston's Brian Ching pulled a goal back in the 88th minute. But the Quakes, despite a few nervous moments, hung on for their first home win of the season, one that is bound to give them a much-needed dose of confidence.
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