Earthquakes fail to contain McSorley in St. Louis CITY's 3-1 win

SAN JOSE — Brendan McSorley picked a good time to score his first career MLS goals.

McSorley scored twice in his first ever start for St. Louis CITY SC as they defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 3-1 on Saturday evening at PayPal Park.

It was only McSorley's third appearance for CITY as the former Providence Friar started the season with St. Louis' developmental team CITY2 and signed his first professional contract just two weeks ago on September 5th.

For San Jose this loss marks its third in a row and impeded its chances of earning the 9th place and final wild card spot in the Western Conference with three matches left in the regular season. St Louis CITY has won two games in a row for just the second time this season and has points in three consecutive matches.

St. Louis CITY (7-17-7-28-points) drew first blood in the 10th minute. Chris Durkin crossed the ball into the box over to Joao Klauss along the right slot. Klauss headed the ball back into the middle where an unmarked McSorley one-timed the ball out of the air past Quakes goalkeeper Daniel for his first goal of the season.

The backline for the Quakes has had a difficult time all season long marking their opponents inside the box leaving their last line of defense, Daniel, left hung out to dry on multiple occasions. San Jose has conceded 58 goals in 31 matches, which is tied for the third worst in MLS. For the majority of the season head coach Bruce Arena has implored a 3-4-3 formation (three defenseman, four midfielders and three attackers) with his starting XI. When asked if a change in formation with having an extra fullback to help out the backline concede less goals with a 4-3-3 formation, Arena sarcastically quipped it didn't matter how many players were playing defense.

"You could put 10 back there," said the frustrated Arena. "If they don't mark anybody in front of the goal, it doesn't matter how many you have. They are all in position to make plays. I think a guy who never started a game in the league, and he scored two goals tonight. Don't take anything away from them (St. Louis), give them a lot of credit."

San Jose (9-14-8-35 points) had two set piece opportunities two minutes apart in the 16th and 18th minute to score the equalizer, both corner kicks. First in the 16th minute, Cristian Espinoza found Dave Romney inside the box, but Romey's header was easily saved by CITY goalkeeper Roman Burki. Then in the 18th minute, Chicho Arango's header from Espinoza's corner kick sailed just wide right of the net.

Marcel Hartel doubled CITY's lead in the 19th minute. A long ball in from Durkin made its way over to McSorley just outside the box. McSorley found Hartel who spun and fired a shot past Daniel for his seventh goal of the season. Hartel is second in goals for St. Louis CITY two behind Klauss who leads the team with nine.

The Earthquakes cut their deficit in half when Arango earned a penalty kick in the 29th minute after he was tripped inside the box by right wing Célio Pompeu. Two minutes later, Arango cashed in the penalty with a blistering shot to the left corner of the net for his team leading 13th goal of the season.

McSorley recorded his brace just before halftime. Hartel crossed the ball into the box from just outside the D and McSorley's diving header sneaked into the bottom left corner of the net for his second goal of the season in the 45th minute. The 23-year-old striker had San Jose's backline on its heels during the first half as they had no answer for him and the rest of St. Louis' strong attack.

San Jose turned the momentum to start the second half by creating quality scoring chances only to have those chances blocked or saved by Burki, including four saves in the first 17 minutes. Burki's best save came in the 80th minute off a right footed blast from Arango.

Burki finished with seven shots on nine shots on target to earn his sixth victory of the season. Daniel made three saves on six shots on target in the losing effort.

Only two points separates San Jose from FC Dallas, who currently hold on ninth place in the West. With nine potential points up for grabs, Espinoza believes everyone on the team must continue to stay positive and step up their play in order for them to make the playoffs.

"“I try to give a positive message and push all of us together," the Quakes captain said. "I know that my teammates are trying to do their best, but at this point of the season we need more from everybody.”

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with 11 corner kicks. St. Louis CITY had three.

Tonight's attendance was 15,337.

The Quakes remain winless (0-6-0) 4 GF, 14 GA against St. Louis in MLS regular season play with an 0-3-0 (3 GF, 7 GA) record at home.

With one goal tonight, San Jose remains in the top four in MLS with 56 team goals scored.

Arango has netted five goals in just three matches against CITY SC.

The Earthquakes celebrated Filipino Heritage Night at PayPal Park, with several Filipino-American luminaries on hand to watch the game, namely halftime musical performer and recording artist P-Lo, 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup goal scorer Sarina Bolden, 2026 FIFA World Cup Bay Area poster artist LeRoid David, UFC featherweight contender Hyder Amil, NBC Bay Area anchor Audrey Asistio and Señor Sisig co-founders Evan Kidera and Gil Payumo.

In honor of Kick Childhood Cancer Month, seven-year-old leukemia survivor Misha Gottesman was tonight's Honorary Captain and walked out onto the field with Quakes captain Cristian Espinoza. Gottesman signed a one-day contract earlier this week to be an Earthquake for a Day.

San Jose travels down to Southern California to take on San Diego FC on Saturday September 27 at 7:30pm at Snapdragon Stadium.