Earthquakes draw Nashville SC 1-1 on Preston Judd's 70th-minute header
San Jose outshot Nashville 14-6 at PayPal Park, but only 2 of those shots hit the target, and it left with a point instead of three.
The San Jose Earthquakes and Nashville SC finished 1-1 at PayPal Park, and the number that explains it is on-target shots. San Jose took 14 shots and put 2 on goal. Nashville took 6 and put 4 on goal. Volume went one way, accuracy went the other, and the scoreboard landed in the middle.
That's one game, so treat it as a hypothesis rather than a verdict. But if the Quakes want to turn a high-volume night into wins, the bug is in the final step of the pipeline: shots are being generated, and not enough of them are reaching the keeper.
The sequence
Hany Mukhtar put Nashville ahead in the 34th minute with a right-footed shot from a difficult angle on the right into the top right corner. San Jose trailed 1-0 at the break.
The equalizer came in the 70th minute. Eduard Löwen delivered a cross following a set piece, and Preston Judd headed it from the centre of the box into the top left corner. On the replay, Judd rises and twists the header into the far top corner and celebrates in front of the home fans. Löwen gets the assist, Judd gets the goal, and the Quakes got their point.
The numbers that mattered
- Shots: San Jose 14, Nashville 6
- Shots on goal: San Jose 2, Nashville 4
- Corners: San Jose 4, Nashville 0
- Possession: Nashville 53.1%, San Jose 46.9%
Beau Leroux led San Jose with 4 shots. Reid Roberts was the quiet engine, leading the team with 45 accurate passes and 11 defensive interventions. Angus Gunn made 3 saves, and Nashville's Brian Schwake made just 1.
The defending was not routine. On the replay, Elias Saad had a close-range chance stopped by a sliding block from Dave Romney, then curled a right-footed strike off the far post. Another Saad attempt was deflected and on target, and Gunn pulled off a reflex kick save to deny it. The draw looks a lot better than it might have because those three plays went San Jose's way.
Crossing was another soft spot. The Quakes completed 4 of 15 crosses, while Nashville completed 0 of 8. Neither side found much from the wide service, though San Jose's one clean delivery, the Löwen set-piece cross, produced the goal.
Discipline
San Jose collected 3 yellow cards to Nashville's 1. Leroux was booked in the 39th minute, Judd in first-half stoppage time (45'+3') and Ian Harkes in the 90th. Nashville's Shak Mohammed was booked in the 28th. The fouls count was 11 for San Jose and 15 for Nashville, so the cards came from a game that was physical on both sides.
The standings picture
San Jose is now 13-9-8 with 48 points. Nashville sits at 20-7-3 with 67 points, so holding the team with the better record to a draw is not a bad result. It also leaves the Quakes with a point they could easily not have had, given how many dangerous looks Nashville created.
What's next
San Jose travels to face FC Dallas on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 8:30 p.m. ET. The thing to watch is whether the shot volume can turn into more shots on target. If it does, a night like this one becomes a win.