AUSTIN, Texas — The San Jose Earthquakes watched their winless streak reach nine matches Saturday night when Austin FC’s Guilherme Biro scored with two minutes left in second-half stoppage time for a 1-1 draw.
With the Quakes two minutes from their first MLS victory since May 23, Austin’s Brandon Vazquez headed a ball toward Christian Ramirez, who passed to his left in the box to an open Biro for the finish.
San Jose (10-8-5) played to a draw for the second straight match following a four-game losing streak. However, Quakes coach Bruce Arena is more concerned with his squad not being able to finish strongly, which is prevent late, gut-wrenching goals.
The MLS’ winningest coach lamented his team’s recent pattern of committing crucial mistakes that have prevented either victories or points.
“We’ve wasted too many games this year at the end,” said Arena, mentioning two winnable games given away to the L.A. Galaxy since the post-World Cup break ended in July. “We should’ve had three points at home against the L.A. Galaxy and missed a penalty kick in the closing minutes. We conceded a goal in the closing minutes at L.A. We conceded one tonight. We’d be in much better shape.
“The lesson to learn is how to close a game. Disappointed with the fact we couldn’t close it out, and maybe that’s something we can learn. There are positives to take out tonight, don’t get me wrong. (But) to be a really good team, we need to close that game out.”
The Quakes opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Niko Tsakiris took a pass in the left half-space from Beau Leroux at the edge of the box, then laid it off for Leroux, who slid a low shot for the far post. The ball rolled by Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver to give San Jose a 1-0 lead.
Austin thought it had tied the match up two minutes later when Besard Sabović connected with Facundo Torres in the opposing box, but the goal was called back as the VAR review ruled a handball by Torres before his would-be score.
San Jose was able to protect its slim 1-0 lead in the 77th minute after Torres found himself alone in the box. However, Quakes goalkeeper Angus Gunn denied him with a kick save to preserve the lead.
It stayed that way until the waning moments of stoppage time as San Jose’s hopes for a victory were once again dashed.
The Quakes now sit in sixth place in the Western Conference (35 points), while Austin remains in 14th (6-10-7, 25 points), ahead of only Sporting Kansas City (4-16-3, 15 points), the league’s worst squad.
San Jose is back in action on Wednesday night in San Diego, facing a team that had won five of its last six matches before losing 1-0 to Orlando City FC on Saturday night.