TORONTO - An 87th-minute goal by Chris Wondolowski gave the San Jose Earthquakes a 1-1 tie with Toronto FC in MLS play Saturday night.
The San Jose forward knocked in a ball headed back from a throw-in, securing a point for the slumping Quakes. Eric Avila's first-half goal had given Toronto a lead that looked like it would stand.
Toronto goalie Milos Kocic had had little to do on the night and came up big when needed in the first 86 minutes. But he had little chance of stopping Wondolowski at his front door.
The tie still extended the Earthquakes' team-record MLS winless streak to 13 games.
The Quakes (5-10-11) had lost four of their last five outings and until the tying goal had shown little sign to the 21,117 at BMO Field that there is light at the end of their current dark tunnel.
For Toronto (4-12-12), the tie will be a bitter pill to swallow before two weeks off.
The game was a matchup of two teams mired in the depths of the league. Coming into the match, San Jose and Toronto had two wins in 24 combined league matches since June 11.
The Quakes have been blanked in eight games during their winless run. The slump has seen San Jose go 0-6-7 and be outscored 19-7 since beating D.C. United 4-2 on June 11.
Toronto hasn't been much better over the same time period, going 2-7-4 in the league although that stretch has also included a 3-1-0 run in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Toronto took the lead in the 33rd minute when the ball squirted to Avila after Peri Marosevic collided with a pair of defenders as he crashed the box. Avila accelerated and slotted a right-footed shot past Busch for his first goal with Toronto FC.
Neither team had looked very menacing up to the goal. But Toronto grew in confidence after going ahead and pushed the action the rest of the first half. San Jose failed to put a shot on target in the first 45 minutes.
Avila needed some repair work at halftime after taking a blow to the face.
Toronto lived dangerously in the early going with some loose passing but the visitors were unable to punish them for it.
San Jose forward Simon Dawkins' shot was deflected high in the 12th after an errant Torsten Frings pass.
Marosevic tried to chip the ball past Busch in the 29th after the goalie ventured to the edge of the area but Busch got back in time.
The second half was uneventful for the most part.
Busch stopped a dangerous shot from Frings in the 52nd minute and San Jose substitute Khari Stephenson failed to make contact on a raking cross in the 67th.
Toronto fullback Ashtone Morgan came close in the 69th minute after a slashing run. Kocic was finally called into action in the 72nd minute when Wondolowski's shot from long range was on target.
A goal by Toronto's Joao Plata in the 75th minute was ruled offside.
Kocic stopped Wondolowski from close range in the 83rd minute but the San Jose forward got his revenge minutes later.
Kocic got the start in goal again for Toronto, which kept Stefan Frei in reserve, but there was no place even on the bench for Dutch striker Danny Koevermans (hamstring).
Former Toronto FC players Sam Cronin, Jacob Peterson and Nana Attakora started on the San Jose bench while Alan Gordon continued his recovery from abdominal surgery. Peterson came on midway through the second half.
In Gordon and Steven Lenhart (family leave), the Quakes were missing two forwards with 10 goals between them.
Notes: The crowd observed a moment of silence for the late NDP leader Jack Layton before the game ... In seven previous all-time meetings between San Jose and Toronto, the home team won just once: a 2-0 Earthquakes victory in San Jose on Oct. 25, 2008.
