San Francisco Deltas

2017 US Open Cup Round 4: Early goals lift San Jose Earthquakes to Bay Area win over San Francisco Deltas

June 16, 2017 by Thomas Hodul

The San Jose Earthquakes won their first US Open Cup meeting with the San Francisco Deltas with a 2-0 win in the Fourth Round. Photo: San Jose Earthquakes

The San Jose Earthquakes scored twice early to knock out local NASL rivals, the San Francisco Deltas, and advance to the Round of 16 in the US Open Cup. Jackson Yueill and Cordell Cato scored within six minutes of kick-off before San Francisco found any footing in the game.

Jackson Yueill found the back of the net in the fourth minute for the Earthquakes, scoring his first ever goal for the club since being drafted sixthoverall in 2017. “I thought had a good game. He moved the ball. He’s a smart player,” said Earthquakes Head Coach, Dominic Kinnear. “This is a good step for him. You can see the guys are happy for him. When he scored, they all ran over to him.”

The lead was doubled less than two minutes later when Cordell Cato cleaned up his own rebound to make the score 2-0. “We went with a 3-5-2. We just wanted to start out the game aggressive. We wanted this game to end in 90 minutes, so we wanted to come out and get an early goal,” Kinnear said following the match.

Cordell Cato made sure there was no way back for the visitors. #ForwardAsOne pic.twitter.com/4ofblIVTYd

— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) June 15, 2017

The Deltas did not let this get them down however, as they built their way back into the match. Their momentum began when defending NASL player of the week Kyle Bekker forced a big save out of Earthquakes keeper Andrew Tarbell in the 21st minute. “Their keeper was very good tonight. I think a defining moment is when Bekker has the chance to go 2-1, and the ball doesn’t go in,” said Deltas’ Head Coach, Marc Dos Santos.

The Deltas created a few more chances, as did the San Jose Earthquakes. Both sides looked very balanced after the initial six minutes of the game. “I remember some very good chances. We had free kicks. We had corners. We pushed, but unfortunately we couldn’t find the goal tonight,” said Dos Santos. “We didn’t come in with the intentions that we wanted to come in with, and then we were surprised by two goals that they took well. But I think that is the only part in the game that we actually felt inferior. All of the other 83 minutes of the game, we created as many opportunities as they did.”

The man of the match was San Jose goal keeper Andrew Tarbell, who came up with a couple of outstanding saves to maintain his clean sheet as the Deltas tried to claw their way back. Tarbell as well had several powerful punched clearances late to help clear his lines.

“I thought we relaxed at 2-0,” said Kinnear. “I think that at 2-0 we took our foot off the pedal. They stepped their game up because they are behind 2-0. They were creating chances. We were fouling close to goal, which wasn’t a great idea. But Andrew Tarbell, I thought, made some real good saves for us, and he commanded his box well too.”

The San Jose Earthquakes will now proceed into the Round of 16 final 16-team bracket portion of the tournament with the next round taking place in two weeks.

2017 US Open Cup Round 3: Late winner by San Francisco Deltas bounce star-studded Phoenix Rising out of tournament

June 1, 2017 by Bianca Barajas

The San Francisco Deltas defeated Phoenix Rising FC 2-1 in the Third Round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Wednesday night at the Phoenix Rising Soccer Complex.

Tommy Heinemann’s goal in second-half stoppage time was the winner for the Deltas of the NASL, who advanced to the Fourth Round to face another Bay Area club, the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, on June 14.

While Phoenix awaits Didier Drogba’s debut, set for June 10, Omar Bravo made a comeback into the starting lineup from an injury and was ready to play.

Early in the game, Phoenix Rising goalkeeper Josh Cohen saved two potential goals in the first seven minutes on shots from San Francisco midfielder Michael Stephens and defender Reiner Ferreira.

Deltas goalkeeper Steward Ceus was down for three minutes while he got checked out for an injury after he collided with the post but stayed in the game in the 19th minute.

Phoenix Rising had many chances to score, including when Peter Ramage almost made a header in the 35th minute that went over the bar.

An apparent goal by Bravo just before halftime was nullified by an offside call.

On another chance for Rising, Eric Avila passed the ball to Bravo but he missed wide for the goal.

“When we get Omar involved often, he does a really good job, the hard part is with Omar’s age, he isn’t ask explosive as he once was and we had to play to his feet a little bit more and this team sat back so deep, they made it kind of difficult for us. But his interchange with Jason Johnson was good,” said Phoenix interim coach Rick Schantz.

San Francisco put Phoenix in a dangerous position when Kyle Bekker curled in a free kick from an angle outside the box in the 82nd minute, which put the Deltas up 1-0.

Phoenix Rising made the most of its chance to tie. Ramage was taken down in the box off a free kick in the 84th minute, which led Bravo to step to the penalty spot.

Bravo tied the game with a penalty kick in the 86th minute and left the crowd wildly chanting, “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!”

Karl Ouimette dribbled the ball up the field and passed to the center, where Heinemann got the shot for victory.

“As a striker you always have to be ready in a split second, you never know when you’re going to get your chance so there’s always pressure in this game… But its good, it’s another step for us in the club, it’s a good progression competing in the Open Cup,” said Heinemann.

Schantz said his team looked tired after playing the last two games on the road, then having a midweek game to prepare for.

“Overall, I think we deserved to win..We respected them (Phoenix Rising FC) a lot and we knew we were coming to a tough place… Good opponent, good players, dangerous attack…I think we defended well and picked our chances and encountered good moments with good mentality from our guys,” Deltas coach Marc Dos Santos said.

2017 US Open Cup Round 2: Set piece goals lead San Francisco Deltas to comeback win in USOC debut

May 23, 2017 by Thomas Hodul

The Deltas scored two set piece goals to come from behind and avoid the Cupset against the PDL Burlingame Dragons. Kyle Bekker provided the two deadly free kicks from similar spots on the field that resulted in a goal in each half. The comeback victory propelled the Deltas to their first-ever Open Cup victory and into the 3rd round to face Phoenix Rising. The winner of that match will travel to take on the San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) in Round 4.

The PDL Burlingame Dragons did not make the game easy on the Deltas as they showed no fear early in the match. They forced the Deltas to defend deep in their own half and work for every 50-50 ball.

“I want to highlight the work of the Burlingame (Dragons) , because it’s always tough to play Cup games. In every country in the world, you always have surprises, and you have to play a team that has more to win than to lose,” said Deltas’ Head Coach Marc Dos Santos. “Burlingame created problems. They were a good team today.”

The first major chance the Dragons created was in the 26th minute when Matt Wiesenfarth was in on goal and forced a big save out of the Deltas’ keeper, Steward Ceus. Moments later, in the 28th minute, it was Dragons midfielder Khalid Arramdani’s turn to force another big stop out of Ceus.

The Dragons wouldn’t give up after these two big saves and kept the pressure up. They were justly rewarded for their team’s efforts and overall good play in the first half hour when in the 29th minute, Jamael Cox found the back of the net to give the Dragons the lead.

In the final 15 minutes of the 1st half, the Deltas climbed their way back into the match and eventually scored the equalizer near the end of the first half. Kyle Bekker whipped in a dangerous ball that was glanced into the back of the net by Reiner Ferreira to level the score at one heading into the break.

Marc Dos Santos told his players at the half: “Guys we got our warning.” He then went on to say in the interview that “two NASL teams got knocked out today by PDL teams. You know when you play one game, anybody could beat anybody. It’s a question of mentality.”

The Deltas came out of the 2nd half much more dominant than in the 1st half, and started to really control the game. “The 2nd half it was all us. They created problems, but a lot of it was long play and 50-50 balls that we knew we would have to be very aggressive on the second ball,” said Dos Santos.

The go ahead goal would come for the Deltas in the 63rd minute, when Bekker played another good free kick in that Jackson played back across the face of the goal to find Tommy Heinemann sliding in on the post for the go ahead goal.

“In soccer games, set plays are part of it and it’s something that we work a lot on and it’s something that with the patterns we have and the plays we have, we give a lot of importance to it. At the end of the day you have to find a way of getting results and that’s what we’ve been doing,” said the Deltas’ Coach.

The Deltas would then go on to hang tough and see out the 2-1 victory to advance to the 3rd round. “We knew it would be tough, but at the end of the day, again we find the way to win and that part of our mentality, that part of what we are building, and it’s just good to qualify”.

The Deltas