Daniel Munie Scores Twice as San Jose Earthquakes Blank Sporting Kansas City 3-0 in Season Opener

Bruce Arena has seen just about everything in MLS. A center back scoring twice on opening night still managed to surprise him, and that brace carried the San Jose Earthquakes to a 3-0 win over Sporting Kansas City.

"If you told me Daniel Munie was going to score two goals tonight, I would have told you you're crazy," the San Jose Earthquakes coach said.

Crazy or not, it happened on Saturday night at PayPal Park in San Jose's season and home opener, with Munie scoring in the 42nd and 54th minutes around a Preston Judd strike in first-half stoppage time. The Quakes start 1-0-0 with three points in front of 16,367 fans. Sporting, in its first match under head coach Raphael Wicky, opens 0-0-1. And Arena, per the club, won his 274th regular-season MLS game, extending his league record among head coaches.

Sporting's Good 40 Minutes

For a while, the visitors looked comfortable. Sporting's lineup was built for the future: the club said all 11 starters were 28 or younger for the first time in an MLS match in 31 seasons, six players made their club debuts, and 17-year-old center back Ian James became the youngest player to start an MLS regular season opener for Sporting Kansas City in club history.

That group held its own early. Jake Davis fired a shot just wide in the 6th minute, and James headed wide off a set piece in the 27th. San Jose had its moments too. John Pulskamp made a sharp save on Ousséni Bouda in the 14th minute, and the Quakes peppered the box with corners.

Then Sporting lost right back Justin Reynolds to an injury in the 38th minute, with Kwaku Agyabeng coming on. Wicky said afterward that Reynolds had been excellent in preseason and that it looked like a soft tissue problem. In the same minute Manu García nearly gave Sporting the lead with a direct free kick that went just wide.

The Turning Point

The game flipped in the 42nd minute, and it flipped on a corner. San Jose had won three of them in barely a minute, and from the last one Judd got his head on a Niko Tsakiris delivery from the right side of the six-yard box. Pulskamp saved it. Munie was first to the rebound and poked it in from very close range.

Wicky saw the danger immediately.

"The team is pretty young, it's pretty fragile," he said. "That's the moment where we need to say, 'okay, let's go to halftime 1-0. Let's not concede the second one.'"

They conceded the second one. In the first minute of stoppage time, San Jose broke in transition, Jamar Ricketts sent a low cross in from the left, and Judd slid in to finish from the center of the box. Two goals in about four minutes, and Sporting's good start was a distant memory.

García put it bluntly: "after the first goal, I think we went a bit crazy."

Munie Doubles Up

Sporting came out with purpose and had its best chance of the night in the 49th minute. Shapi Suleymanov met a Jayden Reid cross with his head, the ball fell to Calvin Harris, and San Jose keeper Daniel saved his right-footed shot from the center of the box. Sporting's site noted it would have been a goal on Harris' debut.

San Jose answered with another wave of set pieces. The Quakes won four corners between the 50th and 53rd minutes, Bouda forced another save from Pulskamp in the 54th, and in the same minute Munie struck again. Per the Earthquakes, Reid Roberts chased down a loose ball near the corner flag and fed Beau Leroux, whose cross found Munie for a glancing header into the bottom left corner.

That was it for the scoring. Sporting's best late look fell to captain Dejan Joveljic in the 73rd minute, but his shot from the center of the box missed to the left. Jack Skahan, off the bench for San Jose, missed twice from the center of the box.

The Standouts

Daniel Munie was the Man of the Match, per the club, with two goals on two shots. The Quakes said they were his third and fourth career league goals, and he was more interested in the clean sheet.

"The goals are great, but I think most importantly, getting a shutout was probably most important, especially after last year, we didn't get many shutouts," Munie said.

Preston Judd had a goal and the header that created the first one. The club said it was his 12th MLS career goal.

Niko Tsakiris was the creative hub. Seven San Jose attempts came from his passes or crosses, per ESPN's play-by-play.

John Pulskamp made three saves for Sporting and kept the score from getting uglier.

Daniel made one save, and the club said the clean sheet was the 10th of his MLS career.

Stats That Matter

• Corners: San Jose 15, Sporting 3. That is not a typo.
• Shots: San Jose 17, Sporting 7.
• Shots on target: San Jose 6, Sporting 1.
• Possession: Sporting 55.8 percent, San Jose 44.2 percent.
• Crosses: San Jose attempted 32, completing 11.

What It Means

San Jose takes three points from its opener and stays home next weekend to host Atlanta United on Feb. 28. Arena was happy without being satisfied.

"The performance wasn't perfect, but it was a good performance," he said. "It's a performance that gives our team confidence and we can continue to grow as a team."

Sporting heads home for its own home opener against the Columbus Crew on Saturday, Feb. 28. Wicky's message was about patience with a young group.

"We've got to look at the positive 40 minutes, see what we can take out of that," he said.

Closing Take

Sporting Kansas City had the ball. San Jose had the set pieces, and on opening night the set pieces won by a landslide. Fifteen corners is the kind of number that keeps defensive coaches up at night, and Munie turned two of those dead-ball moments into a brace nobody saw coming. Not even his own coach.

Munie, for his part, summed it up like a guy who lives in the six-yard box.

"It doesn't have to be pretty," he said.

On this night, it did not need to be. It just needed to keep coming.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes and club notes as reported by the San Jose Earthquakes (sjearthquakes.com) and Sporting Kansas City (sportingkc.com).