Chicharito dazzles as Galaxy earn critical late-season win over San Jose
SAN JOSE — During warmups before the California Clásico between the Galaxy and Earthquakes on Saturday, fans at the south side of Stanford Stadium unveiled a tifo of a pair of clowns, a jab aimed at the visitors.
Twelve minutes into the match, the Galaxy had a 1-0 lead and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez was dancing after scoring, putting both his hands up to his ears to emulate a clown. It was the first of two goals for Hernandez, who put together a masterpiece MLS performance in front of 44,200 fans days after being left off Mexico’s World Cup roster.
That set the stage for a critical 3-2 win for the Galaxy to solidify their playoff positioning with two games remaining. The Galaxy (13-12-7, 46 points) pulled ahead of Minnesota and Portland and into fifth place in the Western Conference.
The Galaxy entered the game holding the seventh and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. This was their game in hand, with other teams playing in the international window this week.
And they took full advantage, with two first half goals from Hernandez and Gastón Brugman.
Hernandez took a cross from Julián Araujo, deftly stopped it with his left foot to shake the Quakes’ defender Rodrigues and then buried it into the left corner of the goal.
There were fireworks postgame, but Brugman started them early in the 42nd minute, taking a pass from the edge of the box and ripping a screaming drive off the crossbar and past goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski before he could even react. Brugman scored his third goal in two games.
Hernandez’s second goal came in the 69th minute. Hernandez delivered a right-footed score on a feed from Efraín Álvarez and on the run into the area.
He followed that up with another dance. When Hernandez left the match for Nick DePuy in the 84th minute, he was roundly booed as the mock-clapped to the fans.
Hernandez now has 17 goals on the season and four against San Jose since coming to MLS.
The Galaxy outshot the Earthquakes 5-1 in the first half, but San Jose had several scoring chances in the second half to outshoot the Galaxy 13-11 for the match.
Cristian Espinoza got San Jose on the board with a goal on a penalty kick in the 74th minute. Nathan added the Earthquakes’ second goal in stoppage time, but the referee blew the whistle immediately afterward.
The game was rescheduled from June 24 due to a power outage at Stanford Stadium from a nearby fire. The Galaxy end the season with matches against Real Salt Lake and Houston.
The Galaxy won consecutive MLS matches for the first time since April, entering Saturday breaking a four-game winless streak with a 4-1 win over Colorado last week. They also handed San Jose just its fourth home loss of the season.
The Earthquakes may have entered Saturday last in the West, but they’ve played the Galaxy tough, winning seven of the last 10 matches coming into the match.
The Galaxy were without midfielder Douglas Costa, who received a red card against Colorado. Defenders Martin Cáceres, Kelvin Leerdam and Eriq Zavaleta were out due to international duty.