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San Jose Earthquakes’ slump continues as Paintsil’s short-handed goal lifts LA Galaxy to 1-0 victory

East Bay Times · Staff; Wire Reports · 2026-08-20T06:55:04+00:00 · nguồn gốc

CARSON, Calif. — The Earthquakes continued their stumble since the MLS restart as the short-handed Los Angeles Galaxy snapped their five-match winless streak in a 1-0 win over San Jose in the 106th edition of the California Clasico on Wednesday night. The Earthquakes (10-7-3, 33 points) dropped their third straight match and saw their winless streak reach five matches in front of 15,435 at Dignity Health Sports Park, despite playing the entire second half with a man advantage. Joseph Paintsil scored a short-handed goal in the 79th minute as the Galaxy (6-8-7, 25 points) moved into 10th place in the Western Conference, one spot behind the ninth-place Portland Timbers (27 points). Paintsil used assists from rookie defender Harbor Miller and Marco Reus to find the net for the fifth time this season. Miller’s helper was his second, while Reus collected his seventh. The Galaxy were forced to play a man down from the 45th minute on after midfielder Lucas Sanabria was tagged with a pair of yellow cards in the final nine minutes of the first half. Former Quakes goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski saved five shots for Los Angeles as the De La Salle High grad earned his third clean sheet in 16 starts this season. San Jose coach Bruce Arena bemoaned his team’s missed opportunities on Wednesday. “We should’ve scored two or three goals in the game. We have no excuses. We played well enough in both halves to win the game,” he said. Angus Gunn totaled six saves for San Jose (10-7-3) in his fifth MLS start. The 30-year-old surrendered 12 goals in his first four outings. Los Angeles snapped a 0-3-3 winless skid and won for the first time since beating the Sounders 2-0 in Seattle on May 16. “In the second half, even going down a man, it kind of clarified some things, which is you can’t really go out and press, you’ve got to stay together, which is something that I was trying to get the guys to pay attention to in the first half.” The Earthquakes came out aggressive Wednesday. They had the first opportunity to score in the fourth minute when first-time starter Luka Jovanović drew goalie Marcinkowski off his line and dished to an open Paul Marie in the box, but the Frenchman’s shot was cleared off the line by Jakob Glesnes. Five minutes later, Jamar Ricketts connected with Jovanović just outside the six-yard box, but his ensuing blast was denied by Marcinkowski. The Quakes again unleashed another shot on target in minute 12 when Jack Jasinski received a pass in the box and belted an attempt for the far post to force a kick save from Marcinkowski. There’s no excuses on our end. We easily could’ve scored three goals tonight,” Arena said. “That game should’ve been over, and you get into the 70th minute, and LA should’ve been chasing the game. No excuses on our part. We just failed to execute. Give them credit. They played hard. Their goalkeeper made a couple outstanding saves. But it’s all on us. I would’ve been disappointed with a draw to be honest with you.” San Jose, which is 0-4-1 since July 1, tried to find the breakthrough while the Galaxy was down to 10 men. San Jose’s second-half substitute Preston Judd had a pair of chances after coming on at the hour mark, but the first shot was over the crossbar and the second was saved at point-blank range by Marcinkowski. “In the second half, even going down a man, it kind of clarified some things, which is you can’t really go out and press,” said Galaxy coach Greg Vanney. “You’ve got to stay together, which is something that I was trying to get the guys to pay attention to in the first half.” Quakes defender Dave Romney admitted the losing streak is frustrating but that it’s something they can fix collectively. “We’re all extremely competitive guys and we want to win, so it’s frustrating not to get a win in a while,” Romney said. “But the group is very tight-knit and really close. It’s not like anyone’s pointing fingers, but we know collectively we need to be better as a whole. …. We hold ourselves to a high standard and we need to be better than this.” Notable - San Jose, which is in fourth place in the Western Conference, one point behind LAFC and five points back of first-place Houston, will host Minnesota United at PayPal Park at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. - The Quakes and Galaxy played to a 1-1 draw in San Jose earlier this season. - Hirving “Chucky” Lozano started in his first home match for the Galaxy after coming off the bench last time out in his debut.