On the boot wall in the tunnel of the San Jose Earthquakes’ new Avaya Stadium reads the motto: “Eleven playing as one.” Despite this motto, the Quakes were at times too individualistic on the pitch today, as coach Dominic Kinnear experimented with a new 4-3-3 formation and adapted to multiple injuries. “We’ve sometimes got to be a bit less selfish,” Kinnear said, while Chris Wondolowski similarly lamented, saying: “At times we were too individualistic.”

When asked how he thought his changes — namely, dropping Wondoloski into the midfield and starting Adam Jahn up front to fill a 4-3-3 — Kinnear simply said: “Well, we lost.” That goes a long way to telling the storyline today. The Quakes struggled to break down Real Salt Lake’s resolute defense, and while Kinnear said he’d like to model the team after Barcelona, today’s side too often resorted to sending long balls to Adam Jahn. Chris Wondolowksi also struggled getting on the ball in midfield (later, he also admitted such, although he said he liked his new role), while Innocent Emeghara was almost invisible.

Credit goes to RSL, however, for maintaining a resolute defense. Kinnear said: “They defended the box well; they closed down the space in their half of the field pretty good. Desperate defending goes a long way, and that’s what worked for them. They ground out a victory.”

The Quakes set up in perhaps their most attack-oriented lineup, with both Chris Wondolowski and Adam Jahn on the pitch — the latter dropping to spearhead a midfield diamond — but struggled to create chances. Perez-Garcia’s set pieces were dangerous and Kinnear praised his team’s drive, with the Quakes dominating stretches of the match. Although Kinnear’s men maintained the majority of possession, neither side had a single shot in the opening half hour.

Ultimately, the first effort on goal found the back of the net. Forty-three minutes in, Morales slammed a twenty-five yard free-kick into the Quakes’ wall, but sliced a beautiful side-volley in off the crossbar. For the first time in Avaya Stadium’s history the ultras, stunned, momentarily stopped signing. The chants quickly resumed, but the Quakes were tasked with a new challenge at Avaya: coming back from behind.

Salt Lake looked dangerous on the break, but didn’t spot the goal all that often, either; however, with Alfredo Morales at the heart of their attack, their final touch was marginally better than the Quakes’.

They were known for that very skill at Buck Shaw, but despite nonstop chants and support from the supporters’ section, the side still had trouble creating chances. Jahn came close with a back-flicked effort from Nyassi’s low cross late in the first half (“I used my trail leg to try to Cruyff it in. I just didn’t get the contact I wanted,” he said), but the chances faded once Real Salt Lake sat back in the second period and absorbed pressure, with Kyle Beckerman and Luke Mulholland sitting in front of Real’s back four. “At times we swung in some good balls and at times we had some good looks, but sometimes a toe or body gets in the way and they did a lot of that this afternoon,” said Kinnear.

JJ Koval volleyed over from fifteen yards after Nyassi’s cross was half-cleared and Jahn headed a near-post Garcia corner just over soon afterward. They also had a penalty call, of which Kinnear said, “there is no doubt in the ball hitting the player’s hand”. However, just as RSL’s defending got more and more desperate, so did the Quakes’ attacking efforts — Kinnear said he’d like to see more movement off the ball — and as they pushed men forward were found short of numbers at the back on multiple occasions. They went three at the back, and substitute Devon Sandoval came on up front as a target man, and did well distributing the ball to overlapping runners. Luis Gil came close from twenty yards in the seventy-sixth minute and Jeff Cassar’s side so nearly stole a second on the break when Olmes Garcia got in behind JJ Koval and saw his cross loops towards the net off the head of Clarence Goodson — only a bicycle-kick from Victor Bernandez cleared the ball off the line.

Adam Jahn was positive about his performance, though, and said he was hopeful for an international call-up given USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s presence at Avaya today. Fifty-three minutes in, he muscled off Tony Beltran to connect with Goodson’s long ball, but sent his low effort straight at Nick Rimando. Koval also tested the USMNT goalkeeper when Matias Perez-Garcia’s quick free-kick set him in down the right side of RSL’s penalty area. Yet Rimando was quick off his line, and made himself big to block Koval’s volley. Fatai Alashe (Klinsmann said: “I think Fatai Alashe is a very good player.”) also came close with the final kick of the game, but saw his spectacular bicycle-kick effort fly just over.

“I don’t think it was our best ninety, but we still gave a good team like RSL a good test. There weren’t many positives but I definitely think there were thing we can grow on and learn from — I don’t think we were just played of the pitch.” — Quakes forward Chris Wondolowski

Kinnear, obviously, wasn’t all that impressed — he said he thought they did “okay” and after the match, he admitted that we may not be seeing the new system: “We’ll see, it was only for today”, he said. “(The match) was a bit of a downer.” The Quakes didn’t get the result, but at least proved that even on their worse days they can still hang in the game. Just as the Quakes are planting their roots at Avaya Stadium, Wondolowski said it was a game the Quakes “can grow on” on the pitch.