The Fire were hoping for a breakthrough Saturday night. Instead they had to settle for another tie.
Defender Cory Gibbs collected his first goal of the season as the Fire rallied to tie San Jose 2-2 at Toyota Park.
The deadlock, played before an announced crowd of 11,926, extended the Fire’s winless streak to nine games, matching a record set in 2004. They’re 1-4 with six ties.
Fire midfielder Dominic Oduru, who scored earlier in the second half, insists his team isn’t far away from success.
“I do believe the coach is doing well getting things together,” he said. “It’s just a matter of paying attention to little details. We’ve got to set things right on the field and off the field.”
With the MLS season nearly one-third complete, the Fire have only a victory in late March to their credit.
Gibbs’ goal — the second of his career — came in the 80th minute off a cross from Baggio Husidic, who had entered the game minutes earlier.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said. “I’ve been on myself the last couple weeks for missing my chances. I said if I had a chance I was going to throw my body into it.”
The Earthquakes went ahead 2-1 in the 74th minute on forward Chris Wondolowski’s header.
Wondolowski took a feed in traffic from midfielder Anthony Ampaipitakwong and popped the shot to the right of a diving Fire goalie Sean Johnson for his sixth goal of the season.
All scoring came in the second half, starting with Ramiro Corrales’ first goal of the season in the 50th minute.
Oduro replied six minutes later when he scored on a rebound. The goal, his third of the season, came after Cristian Nazarit’s shot bounced off the right post right toward the Fire midfielder.
Johnson was back in the Fire goal in an MLS contest for the first time since mid-April.
