DC's Dwayne De Rosario and San Jose's Chris Wondolowski Wednesday night. (Getty Images)
This Major League Soccer match was well hyped beforehand, and thankfully lived up to that hype. San Jose has taken a lot of folks by surprise this year, firing atop the Western Conference. DC United continues it's own resurgence, but most of their matches had been against Eastern Conference foes thus far. Facing the Quakes at Buck Shaw Stadium was going to be a stern test of their team. Some pundits are classifying this as the game of the year in MLS to this point. I'll still take Portland vs. RSL, because it ended up being a closer margin, but this match is a close second.
DC United has really cranked up the offense this year, much of it thanks to Maicon Santos. They've also been pressuring and scoring early in matches, and that was this case in this one as well. Santos himself fired the opening salvo of the match in the 4th minute, but his shot from distance failed to hit the target. It turns out that DC was just ranging in on the Quakes' goal. In the 8th minute Danny Cruz dribbled toward the top of the penalty area, but was fouled and lost the ball. The referee played a great advantage and the ball fell to Dwayne De Rosario, who hammered the ball into the Quakes' net to make it 0-1 to DC United. Just two minutes later, they nearly doubled the lead, but Santos's free kick was well saved by Jon Busch.
Then San Jose woke up after going down a goal and woke up in a big way. In the 13th minute they sent in a corner that found the head of Steven "Sideshow" Lenhart. Unfortunately, the Quakes' forward watched it smack off the crossbar. That didn't get Lenhart down though. In the 19th minute Tressor Moreno had his shot blocked, but the ball fell kindly to Lenhart, who blasted it pats Joe Willis to tie the match at 1-1.
San Jose was nowhere near down though, their offense just exploded. In the 21st minute Simon Dawkins slipped the ball deftly to Chris Wondolowski in the box, and Wondo neatly tucked the finish home to make it 2-1 to San Jose. Then in the 31st minute, Lenhart had a shot blocked in the 18, but Justin Morrow got a hold of it and managed to put a seeing eye shot into the DC goal to make it 3-1.
DC did respond though, and in the 34th minute they nearly got one back. Dwayne De Rosario sent a Wayne Rooney-esque bicycle kick in on target from just outside the six. Busch channeled all his Jedi powers, and dove back to his far post to make a gorgeous save and preserve the 3-1 San Jose lead going into halftime.
There were more goals to come in the second half as Ben Olsen made some offensive subs for United. One of those was Andy Najar, who sent a shot in on the 63rd minute only to see it miss. However DC did get one back in the 64th as Najar sent a gorgeous cross back across the six. Daniel Woolard came diving in at the back post and sent a bullet header into the net to make it 3-2.
However, San Jose was determined to get their points at home and proceeded to put up yet two more goals. In the 70th minute Steven Beitashour sent a nice ball across to Wondo, whose header easily beat Willis to make it 4-2. Lenhart would add another in the 74th. Marvin Chavez hit the crossbar from distance but Lenhart came charging in to tap into the net for an easy one to make it 5-2.
DC would get one last consolation goal in the 88th minute, as Hamdi Salihi expertly chipped the ball over Busch to make 5-3. Still, it was too little too late, and San Jose held on through stoppage time to preserve the win and move into 1st place in the west all by themselves.
Not only was this game awesome because of all the goals, but both managers sent their teams out to play for the win. There was no bunkering in. Fans would like to see more of that in MLS, as opposed to the stinkfest that ended up being the Montreal vs TFC game in the Canadian championship. This one was two offensive minded teams going at it, and it made for great entertainment.
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