Cristian “Chicho” Arango scored his MLS lead-tying eighth goal and the San Jose Earthquakes earned a 2-0 victory over the host Colorado Rapids on Saturday night in Commerce City, Colo.
DeJuan Jones added his first goal since joining San Jose (5-6-1, 16 points) last month, one match after providing his first two assists for the Quakes in a 4-1 home win over the Portland Timbers.
Daniel made five stops to keep his and San Jose’s first clean sheet since a 4-0 home win over Real Salt Lake in the season opener.
It also completed the Quakes’ first back-to-back league wins since their first two matches, while Colorado (4-4-4, 16 points) fell to a second straight defeat and extended its winless run to four games.
Jones was excellent in his position on the right flank and did much of the setup work on his opening goal in first-half stoppage time.
It began when he anticipated a Colorado pass to intercept it in San Jose’s attacking half, then dribbled in from the right flank and played the ball to Vitor Costa on the left flank.
Costa dragged a return cross back toward the penalty spot, and Jones arrived as a late runner to power a first-time shot beyond the dive of Zack Steffen into the bottom right corner.
Arango also did the defensive legwork to set up the second for San Jose when he closed in on Chidozie Awaziem and then blocked the defender’s attempted clearance.
From there, Arango corralled the ball and drove in on Steffen, then lofted a deft chip over the goalkeeper’s head and then back under the crossbar in the 67th minute.
That pulled the Colombian into a three-way tie with Chicago’s Hugo Cuypers and Philadelphia’s Tai Baribo atop the MLS scoring list.
San Jose was content to defend its lead from there, and while Colorado did send more numbers forward, it rarely resulted in clear-cut opportunities.
The Rapids were held scoreless for a fourth time, and the first since April 5, despite playing the final minutes plus stoppage time up a man. Quakes substitute Noel Buck had to leave with an injury in the 89th minute and San Jose had already used all its substitution windows.
–Field Level Media
