SAN JOSE – In a season full of close losses, the Earthquakes suffered their most demoralizing defeat yet on Saturday night.
After captain Chris Wondolowski put San Jose ahead with two second-half goals, LAFC (7-4-3) tied the game in the 90th minute and scored the winner in the 97th, giving the expansion club a 4-3 win at Avaya Stadium.
The Earthquakes (2-9-3) haven’t won at home since the season opener on March 3, and haven’t beaten a team other than Minnesota. Their nine losses are by a combined 10 goals.
Wondolowski did his part to turn things around. He chipped the ball into the back post from the corner of the box to tie it in the 52nd minute, and then stole the ball from goalie Tyler Miller and scored into the empty net from 20 yards out in the 63rd minute.
Benched earlier in the season, Wondolowski scored against his MLS-record 24th club and doubled his season output for goals. He now has 138 career MLS goals, the second-most in league history behind Landon Donovan’s 145. But he exited in the 72nd minute, clutching his stomach and then throwing up on the sideline.
He would be even more sick in the closing minutes, as LAFC tied the game on the second goal from Adama Diomande and then took the three points on a deflected shot by Joao Moutinho.
“We’ve come to a part of the season now where silver linings don’t really count for much,” Wondolowski said. “It’s time to pick up points. The effort was there – it hasn’t been there in games past – and so that’s something to build on. But if we’re looking to build on something now, that’s not a good thing.”
With Warriors center and fellow Georgian Zaza Pachulia in attendance to support his countryman, Vako Qazaishvili opened the scoring in the 11th minute, one-touching a cross from Danny Hoesen (two assists).
It was a promising start for a team in desperate need of a victory, but the Quakes gave back the advantage immediately and painfully, with two failed clearances in the next eight minutes gifting LAFC a 2-1 lead.
The first mistake came from Kevin Partida, 23, who was making his MLS debut after being signed earlier in the day from Reno, San Jose’s USL affiliate.
Filling in for injured Shea Salinas on the back line, Partida headed the ball across the goal mouth to Diomande, who tied the game at 1-1. Four minutes later, a ball into the box was deflected by Earthquakes defender Jimmy Ockford right to former Quake Steven Beitashour. The San Jose native scored his fourth goal in his 199th MLS start.
Partida wound up getting his second yellow card just before the winning goal, completing a nightmare debut in what has been a season full of disappointments for the Quakes.