One game in 100 words: Much like the Colorado Rapids-Real Salt Lake 0-0 draw that occurred earlier in the day, both sides in this game had their fair share of shots (10 each) but had trouble getting their scoring prospects between the pipes. The real story here was the amount of red cards given out; there were three—one to Mark Sherrod, the second to Je-Vaughn Watson and the third to J.J. Koval in the 88th minute. By definition of what referees look for in a red, all of them made sense, though Sherrod’s seemed like a mistimed hop-and-land. FC Dallas remains in the top six. San Jose stays outside of the Western Conference’s playoff contention in eighth place.
Three moments that mattered
20’ — Bingham the stonewall— Michael Barrios broke free down the left wing and approached the net looking to fire one home. He nearly did just that, cutting inside the box past Quakes defender Victor Bernardez, but goalkeeper David Bingham was quick on his feet for the save. It wasn’t a very steep angle taken by Bingham to parry away the seething right footer; rather, he relied on sheer reflex as he had plain vision of the strike.
53’ — First red — San Jose midfielder Cordell Cato ran up the left wing and sent in a standard cross when he approached the end line. Forward Mark Sherrod was covered well by FC Dallas defenders, and goalkeeper Dan Kennedy fell on his side to swallow up the attempted assist. After the play, though, Sherrod kept moving, jumped in the air and his right foot smashed Kennedy in the head.
75’— Second red — Je-Vaughn Watson should have approached this tackle more cautiously, no doubt, although you could argue he did so competitively, not out of malicious intent. Cato slid into the loose ball that Watson was chasing and the Dallas defender hoped to chip the ball over him; instead, the Earthquakes man beat him to the ball and was hit “studs up” with Watson’s foot. An automatic red card. Now both teams were down to 10 men.
Lineups
San Jose: Mark Sherrod; David Bingham; Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Clarence Goodson, Jordan Stewart; Fatai Alashe, Cordell Cato (J.J. Koval 82'), Chris Wondolowski; Matias Perez Garcia (Adam Jahn 59'), Shea Salinas (Shaun Francis 89')
Dallas: Tesho Akindele, David Texeira; Dan Kennedy; Atiba Harris, Walker Zimmerman, Matt Hedges (Moises Hernandez 80'), Je-Vaughn Watson; Michel (Fabian Castillo 60'), Victor Ulloa, Mauro Diaz, Michael Barrios (Ryan Hollingshead 75')