San Jose Earthquakes striker Josef Martinez blows a kiss to the crowd at Pay Pal Park as he celebrates one of his three goals with teammate and fullback Ian Harkes against DC United on Sunday APR 6, 2025. (San Jose Earthquakes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — Josef Martinez proved why he is still one of the league’s most dangerous strikers.

Martinez recorded a hat trick during the San Jose Earthquakes 6-1 thrashing victory over DC United on Sunday afternoon at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose has won for the first time since Week 2 against Sporting KC. DC United has lost three matches in a row.

It was a celebration of the first ever MLS game between the two clubs 29 years ago when they played at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. A game that featured the game winning goal by former Clash and U.S. Men’s National Team player Eric Wynalda in the 88th minute. Wynalda and former DC United fullback Jeff Agoos reacted the goal during a ceremony before the game.

Quakes head coach Bruce Arena made one change to his starting XI as Niko Tsakiris made his first start of the season at attacking midfield.

San Jose drew first blood in the eighth minute off of a set piece. Cristian Espinoza’s corner kick to the center of the box was headed by Chicho Arrango. The ball deflected off of Christian Benteke and into the back of the net for Arango’s team leading fourth goal of the season.

The Earthquakes struck again in the 16th minute. A pretty give and go between Niko Tsakiris and Josef Martinez helped double San Jose’s lead. Martinez headed the ball over to Tsakiris and the third-year midfielder headed it back down the line along the left wing. Martinez raced in with the ball and beat DC United goalkeeper Joonhong Kim with a laser of a shot to the near post for his second goal of the season.

Four minutes later the Quakes scored its third unanswered goal of the opening 45 minutes. Beau Leroux was fouled inside the box by Matti Petola that resulted in a penalty kick for San Jose. Cristian Espinoza cashed in the penalty for his first goal of the season with a shot to upper middle of the net.

“A good afternoon. But let’s be fair, I don’t think that’s a fair scoreline today. That’s not a 6-1 game, but I’m going to take it. If we can schedule this game every 30 years, we would be in good shape,” Arena said.

DC United broke through late in the first half to get on the scoreboard. In the second minute of stoppage time, Derek Dodson serviced a ball into the middle the box and Benteke’s header hit off the right post and into the back of the net for his team-leading fifth goal of the season.

The second half opened with DC United controlling the pace of play and created quick scoring chances. Quakes goalkeeper Daniel stopped back-to-back point-blank chances by Benteke in the 51st minute to keep the visiting team from making it a one-goal game.

Martinez’s second goal of the match iced the game for San Jose in the 81st minute. Amahl Pellegrino slid a past through one of the DC United defender’s legs just outside the box over to Martinez who kept himself onsides on the play. Martinez chipped the ball past Kim for his third goal of the season.

“Today is special,” Martinez reflected after the match. ” It’s not because of the three goals (I scored), it’s because my son was here. That’s what’s most important for me. We worked hard this weekend, we pushed a lot. We deserved (to win) this game.”

Pellegrino joined the scoring party when he finished off a beautiful looking tic-tac-toe type of goal. Mark-Anthony-Kaye sent a long ball over to Jamal Ricketts. The center back, who came into the match as a sub in the 76th minute, headed the ball into the middle of the box where Pellegrino one-touched a right footed shot past Kim for his first goal of the season.

Martinez recorded his hat trick after taking a pass off of a long ball from Espinoza. The Man of the Match made one touch with the ball before chipping the ball high over Kim into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season in the second minute of stoppage time.

“When you have the right mentality in every game and every training session, then things start to work out in your favor,” Espinoza said.

Daniel finished the match stopping nine of the ten shots on goal to earn his third win of the season. Kim made three saves on nine shots on goal in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with three corner kicks. DC United had four.

San Jose is currently 19-15-9 (72 GF, 69 GA) against D.C. United, with a 10-5-7 (41 GF, 31 GA) record at home. San Jose is now unbeaten in their last four against D.C. dating back to 2019 (2-0-2).

The Quakes scored six goals for the first time in MLS play since Sept. 19, 1999, when as the Clash, they defeated the Miami Fusion 6-1 powered by a brace from Ronald Cerritos.

With his 20th-minute penalty kick goal, Espinoza passed Landon Donovan for fourth on the club career scoring list with 33.

With his three goals, Martínez passed Bradley Wright-Phillips for sixth on the MLS career scoring list, going from 117 to 120 goals. The Venezuelan now has 12 goal contributions (11g/1a) in 15 matches vs. D.C.

Martínez also became the seventh player in club history to record a hat trick. Only Chris Wondolowski has multiple three-goal games for San Jose (5).

Assisting on Martínez’s 16th-minute goal, Tsakiris notched his first helper of the season and second of his early MLS career.

Assisting on Pellegrino’s 90th-minute goal, Jamar Ricketts notched his first career MLS assist. Kaye also assisted on the goal, amassing his second helper of the season and 28th in his MLS career.

Daniel now leads all MLS goalkeepers with 37 saves, four ahead of Charlotte’s Kristijan Kahlina with 33.

UP NEX: San Jose travels down south to take on their SoCal rival LAFC on Saturday April 12th at 7:30pm at BMO Stadium.