Last round, soccer fans in the Bay Area and beyond fell in love with the start of a Cinderella story in Bay Cities FC. The Redwood City team upset USL Championship side Monterey FC in a thrilling 2-1 victory. Edson Cardona’s unbelievable goal led the motivated Bay Cities side.
Bay Cities moved on to play the San Jose Earthquakes in the next round on Tuesday where their inaugural Open Cup run came to an end.
Paypal Park, the Earthquakes’ stadium that Bay Cities used to host their First Round game in, was the site of Tuesday’s game.
It was an interesting match due to the San Jose Earthquakes having fired Matias Almeyda in the days leading up to the game and replacing him with interim coach Alex Covelo.
Congrats to @Ousseni_bouda on scoring his first-ever professional goal! pic.twitter.com/KyRRT1WRhy
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) April 20, 2022
In the end, the Quakes, under new leadership, ended up winning 5-0 over a completely outclassed Bay Cities FC. With goals from five different players, this marked the first win for the San Jose Earthquakes in 2022, and the club’s first win over an amateur team in the Open Cup since 2001.
The Earthquakes scored five goals on the day and it seemed like almost everyone was on the scoresheet with five different goalscorers.
Alex Covelo had some high praise for his team after their dominant victory that saw the Quakes have 23 shots and 77% possession.
“I cannot speak about the past. I can speak about what I saw today, and I think that the guys did amazing,” said Covelo. “I interpreted what we want to do today. We spoke to them, tried to tell them what we’re looking for defensively and offensively. It was the first step. Also, we were able to give some minutes to other players, experienced players so that they can feel part of that style that we want to play. It was great. I told them all the credit to them.”
16-year-old @Nikotsakiris30 scores his first-ever professional goal! 👏 pic.twitter.com/6FmVBuVh14
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) April 20, 2022
The Earthquakes deployed a new formation and some brand new tactics under newly-appointed Covelo. The Quakes went with a 4-2-3-1 formation and with a whole new gameplan.
“The game plan, to be honest, was pretty different,” said San Jose’s Jack Skahan, who scored the opening goal in the 25th minute. “There are some different things structurally, especially when we attack, where we are positioned to stop counter attacks specifically, and you can see a lot of that with the opposite outside back coming into the middle to sit next to the six. And I thought we implemented it well. I think that we really haven’t had any time to practice it and we really did well translating as a team and we have a lot to build on.”
Skahan’s opening goal came from a free kick at the of the box in the 25th minute, beating the goalkeeper who dove to his left but was unable to keep it out.
Take a bow, @jack_skahan4. pic.twitter.com/IwloY2txvv
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) April 20, 2022
Paul Marie doubled the lead in the 37th minute when a cross from the left wing was cleared by the Bay Cities defense. The clearance fell to Marie who fired a low-driving shot into the back of the net from about the same distance as Skahan’s free kick.
Ousseni Bouda was the man of the match and it showed. At the start of the game he was extremely timid and didn’t want to take his defender one on one. Once the game went on, he took over. After halftime, Bouda ended up winning his team a penalty that Cade Cowell ended up putting in the back of the net in the 59th minute, but Bouda eventually got himself on the scoresheet in the final minutes of the game.
💥 PM3 💥 pic.twitter.com/NRKbrcNtXC
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) April 20, 2022
Another highlight of the match was 16-year-old Niko Tsakiris getting his first professional goal. Niko showed why the teenager he was on the Earthquakes senior roster. Tsakiris took on three defenders and shot it right past the goalie in the 82nd minute.
The Quakes passed their first test as if they studied this formation and tactics for years. This might have to do with the team being an extremely young team and Alex Covelo already having coached a lot of players that played in this game.
The Quakes shouldn’t celebrate this victory too much as they have a big test coming up this weekend when the Seattle Souunders come to town on Saturday, April 23. They will then play the Sounders on the road for their Fourth Round match on May 11.
Bay Cities keeps their heads up high as they faced an MLS opponent in their first year of existence in the US Open Cup.
