SAN JOSE – The first home win in more than three months has the San Jose Earthquakes back in playoff position.
Preston Judd scored four minutes into extra time as the Quakes took advantage of an early red card on Vancouver to win 2-1 Saturday night at PayPal Park.
The Quakes (8-10-8) hadn’t won at home in league play since May 3, but they were given a golden opportunity when Whitecaps right back Edier Ocampo received two yellow cards in seven minutes.
Ocampo bloodied left midfielder Vitor Costa in the 20th minute on a challenged header, and then pulled Costa down just outside the box in the 27th minute to get sent off.
Costa also drew a foul on Tristan Blackmon to earn a penalty kick early in the second half. Josef Martinez’s penalty kick went in off the left post to give him 127 MLS goals, second among active players (Kei Kamara, 147) and sixth all-time, 44 behind all-time leader and club legend Chris Wondolowski.
But Vancouver (13-6-6), second in the Western Conference, tied the game in the 88th minute when captain Bryan White got around Bruno Wilson and beat Daniel to the far post.
With 11 minutes of extra time in the second half, the Quakes took advantage.
Jamar Ricketts’ cross was put back into the box by DeJuan Jones and hammered in by Judd to snap a six-match winless streak for the Quakes, who were coming off a two-week layoff.
The win pushed the Quakes (32 points) from 10th to eighth in the Western Conference standings, ahead of Real Salt Lake (31) and Colorado (30). Seattle (34) sits in seventh. The top seven teams will automatically qualify for the playoffs, while the eighth-place team hosts the ninth-place team in a one-game wild card match to complete the field.
The points are even more critical for the Quakes considering their closing schedule. Six of their remaining eight games are against the top seven teams in the conference, including a home-and-home with conference-leader San Diego and a return game at Vancouver.
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