In the first match on Thursday night, in the preseason tournament at Portland’s JELD-WEN Field, it was the San Jose Earthquakes taking on Sweden’s AIK in the second match of the tournament for both teams. San Jose had battled the host Portland Timbers to a 1-1 draw in the late match on Monday, while AIK had topped Chivas USA by a 2-0 score.
It was a match that saw very few scoring chances, but AIK would go up a man in the 60th minute when San Jose defender Jed Zayner was called for a foul as the last defender, and was therefore sent off and AIK would play the final 30 minutes with the man advantage. But they would really only have one quality scoring chance, which came in the final few minutes when Ghanaian forward Kwame Karikari’s header off an AIK free kick by Daniel Gustavsson was saved by Earthquakes goalkeeper Evan Newton and off the crossbar, and sat dangerously in front of the San Jose goal for a moment before it was finally cleared, but neither team would find the goal on this night and ended in a 0-0 draw. Former Timber Rodrigo Lopez played the second half for San Jose.
Match reports:
San Jose Earthquakes:
http://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/2012/03/recap-quakes-aik-draw-0-0-portland
MLSSoccer.com:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/01/recap-10-man-quakes-aik-play-scoreless-draw
InsideBayArea:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/other-sports/ci_20085062
