Yes, I'm tired of the "Goonies never say die" storyline. But it looks like it's here to stay, so we may as well run with it. The latest example came in the San Jose Earthquakes' 1-1 tie with the Columbus Crew on Saturday.
Columbus Crew vs. San Jose Earthquakes: Goonies thing is getting old, right?
Annoying as it may be, the trend continued with the Earthquakes pulling out another late equalizer to steal a point.
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It wasn't the best example, by any stretch, but the Earthquakes again pulled out a result after falling behind. The equalizer came in the 73rd minute on a left-footed shot from Justin Morrow that beat Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum. The goal came just five minutes after the Crew had grabbed the lead from a Glauber header that came on a Federico Higuain corner kick.
That’s four points in the last two weeks that the Earthquakes have managed to squeeze out of games in which they trailed after the 70th minute. It hasn’t been quite as dramatic as the nine stoppage-time goals they scored last year, but it does continue a rather ridiculous trend.
We had all assumed the reason they were able to get away with all the late heroics in 2012 was because of their unique ability to throw big bodies forward. Alan Gordon, Steven Lenhart and, to a lesser degree, Victor Bernardez were all guys that were capable of causing intense chaos in front of the goal. Gordon and Lenhart, at least, are still out and yet these late-game antics continue.
There was a tendency to cast a skeptical eye on everything the Earthquakes accomplished last year. To a degree, the skepticism was justified when the big-bad LA Galaxy eliminated the little-team-that-could in the playoffs.
So, maybe there are some limits to the this “formula.” But it sure works in the regular season.
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