SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Moments after his team beat the New England Revolution 4-0 Saturday night at Buck Shaw Stadium, San Jose Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop was all smiles.
"I'm obviously very happy with the win," he said. "The team's been building to a good performance and a bunch of goals, so it feels real good to finally get it and have a clean sheet as well against a very good team. It's only one game, but I'm very pleased. (San Jose) looks like it's starting to believe in itself."
The win marked the first time since rejoining the league that the Earthquakes have won consecutive games, and they now are unbeaten in their last five matches. In addition, the Quakes have scored seven goals in their last two games, after tallying only six in the 10 games prior to that.
Yallop called their win against New England, which came into the match owners of the league's best overall record, his team's "best performance of the year."
"It'd be hard to beat it," he said.
The Earthquakes took advantage of a New England team depleted by injuries, Olympic team call-ups and a red card suspension to midfielder Shalrie Joseph to dominate the midfield and stretch the Revolution's defense from sideline to sideline throughout the match.
"I thought New England might play a three-back (defense), so we worked most of the week and talked about spreading the play," Yallop said. "Darren (Huckerby) and Ronnie (O'Brien) want the ball wide, too, so it's part of our game plan anyway to get those guys lots of touches and get them into space.
"I thought Darren was electric tonight, and Ronnie with his two goals was great," he continued. "It was a good performance for both those guys."
San Jose opened the scoring in the 11th minute, when Francisco Lima, at the top of the restraining arc, found Ronnie O'Brien coming into the penalty area down the right side. From a tough angle, O'Brien hit what looked like a soft volley to the far post that fell just inside the woodwork for a 1-0 San Jose lead.
The Earthquakes held on from there, getting through what Yallop called "a little sticky patch in the 20 minutes right after halftime" before breaking the game open with three late goals. That offensive explosion came after Ryan Johnson came on for Arturo Alvarez in the 63rd minute.
"I thought the physical game was getting away from us," Yallop said. "The longer passing from the back wasn't getting challenged like I'd like. Arturo isn't a physical type of player in the air, so I thought it was a change that needed to be made to ruffle (New England's) feathers a bit."
The move quickly paid off. In the 71st minute, Scott Sealy, at the top of the penalty area, slipped a backheel through to Johnson, and his blast from 10 yards out easily beat New England goalkeeper Doug Warren.
"Ryan did a terrific job off the bench tonight," Yallop said. "He took his goal great, and I thought he was good. He made the difference in the game."
San Jose then put the game away with two more goals, one by Sealy in the 76th minute, and another from O'Brien in the 87th to close out the victory.
"To beat (New England) quite handily at home was a good result for us, mentally as well," Yallop said. "We started eight months ago with no players, no tickets sold, no stadium, nothing, and to come to this point it's pretty good. It feels good that we have built a team that can compete."
Next up for the Earthquakes is a trip down to Los Angeles to play Chivas USA next Saturday. Yallop called the upcoming match "a big game."
"We need to get something out of the game, not lose it, and hopefully we can win it," he said. "Then obviously we're looking to try and catch that third place, or at least end up in the top eight.
The top eight clubs make the MLS Cup Playoffs, and like his team, Yallop is starting to believe in his Earthquakes' chances.
"We have a chance to make the playoffs, but we have a tough run in (the rest of the schedule) and we're still behind," Yallop said. "So we have to make sure we don't get carried away with this one result."
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