SANTA CLARA, CA— The San Jose Earthquakes walked away from Levi’s Stadium with a point Saturday night to make it a 2-2 draw against LAFC, with Reid Roberts delivering the equalizer for what seemed to be the last few seconds of the second half. This Nor Cal / So Cal battle saw LAFC play most of the night with 10 men, but they still managed to build a two-goal advantage before San Jose got aggresive on the offensive side and startrd to create chances. LAFC opened the scoring in the 34th minute through Son Heung-min. The South Korean superstar carried the ball forward before cutting inside and firing a low shot past Earthquakes goalkeeper Angus Gunn to give LAFC a 1-0 advantage. As San Jose kept lookoing to tie it up and make iot a 1-1 game, LAFC defender Aaron Long was shown a straight red card in the 36th minute after bringing down Niko Tsakiris and denying San Jose a potential scoring opportunity. LAFC was forced to play the remainder of the match with 10 men.Despite being down a man, LAFC doubled its advantage in the 53rd minute. Son helped create the opportunity on the counterattack before finding Denis Bouanga, who finished the move to put LAFC ahead 2-0. The goal was Bouanga’s 79th career MLS regular-season goal for LAFC, moving him past Carlos Vela for the most in club history.San Jose refused to go away.Earthquakes head coach Bruce Arena turned to his bench, and the changes helped bring new energy into the San Jose attack. In the 70th minute, Timo Werner delivered a ball into the penalty area that found Preston Judd, who powered a header past former World Cup-winning goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to cut the deficit to 2-1.The goal was Judd’s team-leading 13th of the season. From there, San Jose continued to apply pressure as LAFC dropped deeper in an attempt to protect its lead. Lloris came up with several important stops and finished the night with seven saves. The Earthquakes also generated 17 corner kicks as they searched for an equalizer. Then comes the EQUALIZER!! In the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time, Reid Roberts controlled the ball outside the penalty area and blasted a long-range left-footed strike past a diving Lloris and into the net. The goal sent the Levi’s Stadium into screams of celebration and secured a 2-2 draw for the Earthquakes. It was Roberts’ third goal of the season. The result extends San Jose’s unbeaten run to five matches and moves the Earthquakes to a 12-8-6 record on the season. LAFC moves to 11-8-8. San Jose will now return to PayPal Park, where the Earthquakes host the Portland Timbers on Saturday, Sept. 26.
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