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O'Brien, Kamara propel Earthquakes past Rapids

Apr 20, 2008 - 5:01 AM COMMERCE CITY, Colorado (Ticker) -- The San Jose Earthquakes certainly didn't want to get off to a slow start offensively in their return to MLS. On Saturday, they did their part to make up for their earlier wasted opportunities.

Ronnie O'Brien and Kei Kamara each scored a goal, powering the San Jose Earthquakes to a 2-0 win over the Colorado Rapids.

Following the 2005 season, San Jose (1-2-0) was put on hiatus by the league with their entire roster fleeing to Texas to become the Houston Dynamo.

Through two games, the Earthquakes looked every bit like an expansion team when it came to the scoring column as they were held without a goal in losses to Los Angeles and Chicago.

That scoreless streak came to an end in the 43rd minute when O'Brien went into the right penalty box unassisted and fired a rightfooted line drive at Colorado (2-2-0) goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul, who deflected the attempt.

"Ronnie O'Brien is a very smart player; we are talking about somebody who plays all over the world, so he picks his times when the defense is focusing on someone else and gets open and he finally got one in," Coundoul said.

However, the rebound bounced right back to O'Brien, who sidestepped a fallen defender and blasted a leftfooted kick past a fallen Coundoul for the goal.

Kamara added an insurance tally in the 61st minute when his leftfooted attempt from about 30 feet away rolled past Coundoul, leaving the Earthquakes ahead 2-0.

"(The Earthquakes are) a good team, they've got two guys up front that battle and are physical and they gave us all kinds of trouble," Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo said.

Joe Cannon posted four saves for San Jose for his 57th career shutout while Coundoul also turned away four shots.

"Tonight was a good victory for us, I thought we played great, we defended well in the end and I thought it was well-deserved to get a victory," San Jose Frank Yallop said. "Now we can relax a little bit and just play, you know we got that win, now we can look forward to the next few games we have and try and build on this performance."