Gordon's Late Goal Lifts Earthquakes Past Galaxy
CARSON (CBS / AP) -- Alan Gordon scored in stoppage time as the San Jose Earthquakes rallied from a late two-goal deficit to beat the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-2 Wednesday night.
The Earthquakes (8-2-3) went into the 75th minute down 2-0, but Steven Lenhart scored off a corner kick and Khari Stephenson converted a penalty kick to tie the score. Just seconds before time expired. Gordon finished a bouncing cross for the winning goal.
"I just was following up the play, I think there may have been a little bit of hesitation on their part and I was just seeing the play through," said Gordon after scoring his fourth goal of the season. "They hesitated, I didn't, I finished it. Forwards get lucky sometimes, I got lucky, who cares, I put it in, end of story period."
Hector Jimenez and Mike Magee scored for Los Angeles.
The Galaxy went ahead in third minute when Jimenez sent a
close-range shot past San Jose goalkeeper Jon Busch for his first MLS goal.
Los Angeles played a man down after Jimenez received a red card in the 60th minute for a tackle on Earthquakes defender Steven Beitashour. Still, the Galaxy doubled their lead on Magee's goal in the 73rd minute.
In the 76th, Lenhart scored off Marvin Chavez's corner kick. Just six minutes later, Stephenson tied it on a penalty kick that was set up when referee Jair Marrufo called a handball on David Beckham in the box.
The comeback was complete four minutes into stoppage time when a Galaxy turnover led to in a Jason Hernandez cross that Gordon headed in for the game winning goal.
After extending their winless streak to six matches, the defending MLS Cup champion Galaxy (3-7-2) were left searching for answers.
"We know we played well but also we're extremely disappointed.
We can't be up 2-0 at home and they get three unanswered goals. That's just unacceptable," defender Sean Franklin said. "It just seems like we can't get any luck to go our way—a bounce, a call, something. It just seems like things aren't going the way we wanted them to go."
The Earthquakes scored in th 88th minute or later for the fifth time this season—with four of those ending in either a win or a draw.
"We just like to make the game exciting. Goonies never say die," Lenhart said. "I think we are prepared this year. We have put in the work in training and we like each other, we show up every day and we all know we are committing to the 90 minutes, to play together and work for each other. It may not look that pretty but we know we are going to get the most out of our guys at the end of the day."
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