Real San Jose earned a dramatic 1-0 victory over the Oakland Stompers on April 29 at Oakland's Raimondi Park. The match was an intense affair from start to finish and with everything on the line in the last minute of extra time it was goalkeeper Jonathan Arellano saving a penalty kick to secure San Jose's first victory of the 2018 UPS L Fall Season.
"To get a shutout on the road against the Stompers was huge for us. We did what we had to do to get three points in that situation. We knew it was going to be a tough game and we stepped up to the challenge," said Arellano.
Real San Jose's earlier big moment came in the 68th minute when Bader AlMustafa scored the game's only goal. Just three minutes earlier AlMustafa and Mike Tomsic came on as substitutes. Tomsic started the play by dispossessing a Stompers player in midfield. He then pushed forward and played the ball to the right to Akash Kothari. Kothari continued forward and then deftly put the ball over the Stomper's goalkeeper into the path of the hard-charging AlMustafa to head into an empty net.
"I saw AK had the ball on the wing, I took the defender on the inside. When he came close to me I sprinted in the box and screamed for the ball. AK played the ball that was rather hard to miss then hard to score," explained AlMustafa. "Very happy to score my first goal for the club. We got three crucial away points which is the most important thing right now."
This result is the second shutout for Real San Jose in two games this season, and in both of those, they finish the game with only ten men on the field. As the Stompers pushed forward, midfielder Naveed Ettefagh was whistled for his second yellow card in the 85th minute. Oakland pressed hard forcing Arellano to make to big-time saves before getting the penalty kick opportunity. The penalty call came when the ball crashed against the arm of Tomsic and some called for a penalty while others claimed the arm was against the body. The referee pointed to the spot.
RSJ is 1W-1T-0L after two games and returns to PAL Stadium on October 7 for 4 PM kickoff against San Leandro United.