San Jose Earthquakes manager Mikael Stahre defends controversy filled substitutions

San Jose managerMikael Stahre has defended a pair of substitutions he made in his team's 2-0 loss to the Montreal Impact on Saturday.

Stahre replaced Anibal Godoy in the 41st minute withFatai Alashe, with the former appearing to be unhappy at his removal and heading straight for the locker room.

Then as the second half was about to begin, Stahre took Alashe off after he'd only played five minutes and replaced him withJimmy Ockford. Stahre also looked upset about being taken off and had an exchange with the first-year coach on the sidelines.

Following the match, Stahre told reporters that Godoy had asked to be taken off and that Alashe "was injured in his groin, so I was forced to change and of course, it was so unlucky for us. He just picked up an injury and couldn't go on so we had to sub him. He was playing and reached for a ball and it happens."

Following the match, captain Chris Wondolowski took to Twitter to defend his coach amid San Jose's 10-game winless streak, writing "Sorry kept quiet long enough but can't take people who are not in our locker room blaming our coach! It's on myself and is (sic) players to step up to do the right thing. #stahrein #knowwhotoblame."

San Jose are at the bottom of the Western Conference table.