Niko Tsakiris has goal, 2 assists to lead Earthquakes to 3-2 victory over San Diego
Niko Tsakiris had a goal and two assists by halftime to spark the San Jose Earthquakes to a 3-2 victory over San Diego FC, ending an eight-match winless streak
SAN DIEGO -- Niko Tsakiris had a goal and two assists by halftime to spark the San Jose Earthquakes to a 3-2 victory over San Diego FC on Wednesday night, ending an eight-match winless streak.
Tsakiris scored for the third time this season to stake San Jose (11-8-5) to a 1-0 lead in the third minute. Beau Leroux and Luka Jovanović had assists.
San Diego (8-10-6) keeper CJ dos Santos had a save on a penalty kick by Tsakiris in the 8th minute, but Tsakiris picked up an assist four minutes later on a goal by Preston Judd — his career-high 12th — for a 2-0 advantage. Judd had 11 goals in his first 72 appearances in the league.
Tsakiris notched his 10th assist this season on Ousseni Bouda's career-best sixth netter for a three-goal lead in the 35th minute. Bouda had five goals through his first 70 matches, and Tsakiris had three assists in 61 appearances from 2022-25.
Anders Dreyer scored his ninth goal — with assists from Onni Valakari and Elias Achouri — in the 42nd minute to cut it to 3-1 at halftime.
Angus Gunn finished with four saves for San Jose in his ninth start in the league.
Dos Santos saved three shots for San Diego, which is 3-3-0 in its last six outings.
Dos Santos was tagged with a second yellow card in the 81st minute and San Jose's Max Floriani was shown a second yellow card in the second minute of stoppage time — leading to red card exits.
Cédric Bakambu scored on a penalty kick for San Diego following Floriani's foul for his first goal in his first MLS appearance.
San Jose was coming off back-to-back draws before winning for the first time since beating the Portland Timbers 3-1 on the road on May 23. The Earthquakes had gone 0-5-3 since then.
Up next
San Jose: Hosts Houston Dynamo on Saturday.
San Diego: Hosts Philadelphia Union on Sunday.
___