Category: MLS

Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes Twitter. Goalkeeper Daniel celebrates a goal against Salt Lake on September 16th.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- Back on home turf after their tie against Washington San Jose came out swinging and beat Salt Lake by a final of 2-1.

Attendance: 15,390

For San Jose Daniel was in goal coming off a clean sheet against Washington when he made eight saves. On the other end Zac MacMath got the start for Salt Lake.

Typically the Earthquakes get off to poor starts however, this game ended up being quite the opposite. As less than two minutes in Cristian Espinoza feed the ball through to a streaking Jeremy Ebobisse who finished the play with a well placed shot. The goal was mainly due to a forced turnover by Cade Cowell which ended up being a running theme throughout the first half.

The second goal did not take much longer as off a corner at the 15th minute kick Salt Lake failed to clear the ball and it came right to Espinoza. Not wasting much time Espinoza took the turnover and chipped it to Rodrigues who tipped it in with his left foot getting his first goal of the season.

A little before the goal at the 13th minute the first yellow of the game was given to Salt Lake’s Brayan Vera for a bad foul.

Towards the end of the first half Salt Lake did start to push back leading to a header on goal by Rubio Rubín that was saved by Daniel. The rebound though popped up in the air and Cristian Arango tapped it just across the line scoring at the 44th minute and making it 2-1.

The second half began similarly to the first with San Jose dictating the pace and maintaining possession. At the 50th minute Espinoza almost picked up another assist as he feed it to Jamiro Monteiro but it was saved by MacMath.

Another yellow was given to Salt Lake this time at 69th minute on a bad foul by Arango.

Once again Salt Lake pushed towards the end of the half but Daniel stood tall making a save at the 89th minute off of Anderson Julio.

San Jose would hold on to get the victory bringing them up to 40 points and tied for fifth with Houston and Salt Lake in the Western Conference.

Daniel finished the night with six saves totaling 14 saves over his past two matches.

Of note was San Jose’s discipline as they only fouled five times and took no yellows.

“Yea we were aggressive but we were smart and we controlled emotions and we attacked without fouls,” manager Luchi Gonzalez said after the game.

San Jose won’t have much time to rest as they play Portland this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. on the road.

Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes Twitter.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- In an important matchup against Minnesota the Earthquakes came out and fought to a tie 1-1.

Both teams came out in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Daniel in goal for San Jose while for Minnesota Dayne St. Clair was in between the pipes.

Many of the Earthquakes recent matches have been marked by slow starts and tonight would be no different. As just four minutes into the match on beautiful ball by Emanuel Reynoso he caught Teemu Puuki on a fast break. Pukki then caught and deposited the ball in the back of the net getting his second goal of the season.

That goal fueled more chances for Minnesota but thankfully Tanner Beason made a huge block and Daniel had a couple big saves keeping it at 1-0.

It did not take too long for San Jose to find a response as after a a corner kick at the 16th minute Jackson Yueill settled the ball and feed it to an open Cade Cowell. After a quick turn Cowell shot a ball that wasn’t particularly fast but seemed to had eyes for the net as it beat St. Clair to his right tying the game up at one.

The first half ended in a 1-1 tie and in the beginning of the second half San Jose’s offense came out flying. Chance after chance came at St. Clair but he could not be beaten. With his best save coming at the 66th minute when Jeremy Ebobisse got a header on from the dead centre in the box that he kept out.

Despite all the great chances Minnesota pushed back the other way and scored with Pukki once again finishing. However, the goal did go to review and was eventually called off for being a handball.

Daniel made another couple key saves towards the end of the second half totaling to six saves by the end of the match.

The game would end up in a 1-1 tie which for San Jose keeps them at eighth in the Western Conference standings with 36 points and -4 goal differential.

San Jose’s next match will be on the 9th against D.C. on the road at 4:30 p.m.

Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes. Espinoza poses with his kids as he holds up his 51 assists jersey on July 12th 2023.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- At home the Earthquakes were finally able to snap their five game winless streak over Seattle by a final of 2-0.

Previously Seattle had overcame a one-goal halftime deficit to the Whitecaps to earn a 3-2 victory. Before that match Seattle anytime they had been trailing at halftime had lost all four matches but broke that streak with their victory Saturday.

For the Earthquakes JT Marcinkowski got the start in goal with Daniel receiving a red card last match. While for Seattle they had Stefan Cleveland in net.

San Jose came out in a 3-4-3 formation while Seattle was in a 4-2-3-1.

Early on in the match Seattle controlled most of the possession as Marcinkowski was forced to make a save at only the 7th minute of the match.

Not long after the save on a good counter attack by the Earthquakes Jeremy Ebobisse drew a foul in the penalty area at the 18th minute.

Cristian Espinoza took the penalty and scored driving the ball to the bottom left corner giving San Jose an early 1-0 lead. The goal was Espinoza’s 11th of the season and previously with his goal on Saturday he had become just the 19th Argentinian player to have at least one ten goal season in MLS play.

After the goal the Earthquakes were given another good look on a handball by Seattle player Nouhou Tolo. Ebobisse took the free kick that was just outside of the penalty are but he missed very high over the goal.

At the end of the first half the Earthquakes had seven shots while Seattle registered five. The possession was in favor of Seattle at 60% to 40%.

To start the second half San Jose had some good looks and actually appeared to score just two minutes in but the goal was called off due to being offside.

At the 66th minute the ball was passed out of the box by Espinoza to Miguel Trauco who took the ball out of the air and fired it on goal zipping it past Seattle’s keeper scoring his third goal of the season and making it 2-0. On that goal Espinoza was awarded an assist giving him 51 assists and making him the new all time assist leader in Earthquake’s history.

After the goal Seattle made a couple of substitutions bringing in two midfielders and one attacker.

San Jose wouldn’t make a substitution until the 85th minute at they brought in Tommy Thompson for Jack Skahan. In extra time they also brought in Cameron Cilley who would make his MLS debut.

They were able to hold on to win 2-0 and snap their winless streak of five games bringing them up to fifth in the western conference with 32 points. With this win San Jose has also defeated Seattle for consecutive meetings the first time since 2015 that they have done that.

On top of Espinoza’s milestone Tommy Thompson also played in his 200th match of his career and as seen below the team posed for a photo for both of the milestones.

Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes. The Earthquakes pose for a team photo on July 12th 2023.

“After the kickoff I heard I was the assist leader and it made me feel so happy,” Espinoza said after the game.

San Jose’s next match will be against Portland on the 22nd at 7 p.m at Providence Park.

Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- At home the Earthquakes came up just short against St. Louis despite leading in many metrics losing by a final of 2-1.

For the Earthquakes Daniel de Sousa Brito was in goal while for St. Louis Roman Bürki was in net.

San Jose came out with a little bit of a different formation today starting in a 4-2-3-1 while St. Louis was in a 4-1-2-1-2.

The first attempt of this match came at the 11 minute mark as Aziel Jackson forced Brito to make a save early.

After that San Jose would rally back with two attempts of their own one from Jamiro Monteiro and the other from Jeremy Ebobisse but both were saved.

At the 30 minute mark Jackson would get his second attempt on net of the first half but once again Brito was up to the challenge.

Then at the 40 minute mark St. Louis was awarded a corner that was conceded by Daniel which lead to Rasmus Alm taking the corner. It was a good one as he got it right to Samuel Adeniran who headed it in making it 1-0.

San Jose was not able to formulate a response in the first half but early on in the second they would do just that. The goal came due to sloppy work by St. Louis on their side of the field. That turnover lead to Jackson Yueill taking the ball and giving it to Ebobisse who tapped it smoothly over to Jamiro Monteiro and with a right footed shot it was tied up again 1-1.

Though Monteiro apparently showed a little to much jubilation after the goal as he was handed a yellow for excessive celebration.

That happiness was short-lived for San Jose as at the 55 minute mark as Jonathan Mensah was called for a foul in the penalty area on none other than Jackson. Taking the penalty would be Adeniran who made not mistake depositing the ball in the back of the net giving St. Louis the lead right back 2-1.

Jackson was also given a yellow only a minute after his goal but that was for a bad foul.

Towards the end of the match the Earthquakes made a real push to tie the game back up as both Carlos Akapo and Cristian Espinoza had good looks.

San Jose was given an additional nine minutes of extra time but both attempts from Rodrigues and Tommy Thompson were saved as St. Louis held on to win.

As previously mentioned the stats in this match favored San Jose in many areas as possession was in their favor at 62.9% to 37.1%. Shots also were in their favor at 14-9 and they managed to nine of those on target.

San Jose’s next game will be the Cali Clasico against LA Galaxy on Saturday July 1st at 7:30 p.m.

Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- The Earthquakes welcomed the Timbers to their home and played a tight match leading to a 0-0 tie.

In between the pipes for San Jose was Daniel de Sousa Brito and for Portland David Bingham was the starting goaltender. The Earthquakes came out in a 4-3-3 formation while Portland started in a 4-4-2 formation.

Early on in the match the blue-and-black got close to getting a goal as Tanner Beason just missed a header from in close that went wide left.

Just four minutes after that attempt Judson Silva Tavares got a right footed shot off from outside the box that went just high.

At the 18th minute mark of the first half a yellow card was handed out to Portland as Santiago Moreno was called for a bad foul.

Just a couple minutes after the card Daniel had to make a save as Franck Boli got a shot on goal from the centre of the box.

Christian Espinoza responded with a shot of his own from the right side of the box that Bingham saved. Boli also got another shot on goal but that one was saved as well by Daniel.

At the 36th minute of the first half San Jose was awarded a free kick on a foul by Dairon Asprilla. The free kick was right at the top of the box and looked to be a great chance for the Earthquakes. Jeremy Ebobisse took the kick and dinged it off the bar and out keeping the score at 0-0.

Right before the end of the first half Dario Zuparic was given a yellow card for a bad foul bringing Portland’s total cards in the first half to two.

The second half was kicked off by a fantastic save by Daniel off a header by Evander da Silva Ferreira that came from extremely close range.

Later in the second half San Jose got their first yellow as Cade Cowell was given on for a bad foul. Then only three minutes later Paul Marie got a yellow card as well.

After a couple attempts on both sides the Earthquakes made a sub brining in Tommy Thompson for Judson. A minute after the sub Portland got another yellow as Eric Miller this time was given on for a bad foul.

Then at the 67th minute of the second half San Jose hit another post as Thompson hit the right post from the centre of the box.

There would be seven minutes of added time in this match and Portland did not let it go to waste. As at the 93rd minute Asprilla also hit the right post with a right footed shot from outside of the box.

Even with three posts being hit during the match that did not matter as the game ended in a tie 0-0.

At the end of the match possession favored San Jose at 54.8% to 45.2% while shots favored Portland 16-12.

San Jose’s next match will be on Wednesday on the road against Houston at 5:30 p.m.

Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes Twitter. The Earthquakes celebrate their victory after their win over LAFC at Levi’s Stadium.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme) and Marko Ukalovic

SANTA CLARA- The battle for the bay between the Earthquakes and LAFC was an exciting one that went down to the wire with San Jose ending up on top 2-1.

San Jose went into this match with a 4-3-3 record while LAFC came in with a 5-0-3 record.

The attendance at Levi’s Stadium was a solid 45,112 while the weather was slightly overcast with no rain during the game.

Both teams started in a 4-3-3 formation as JT Marcinkowski faced off against John McCarthy in goal.

The match got off to a great start for San Jose as just eight minutes in Cristian Espinoza received a beautiful pass from Jamiro Monteiro which Espinoza struck from the centre of the box into the net. The goal sent all 45,000 plus fans into a frenzy with the goal being Espinoza’s eighth of the season.

The goal gave the Earthquakes a solid spark of momentum as right after Espinoza had an attempt on net and Paul Marie had an attempt go wide.

At the 29th minute mark of the match Mateusz Bogusz was given a yellow card on a bad foul. Despite the foul Bogusz put a shot on target that Marcinkowski saved however Dénis Bouanga picked up the rebound and scored tying the game at one.

The rest of the first half saw LAFC put the heat on the Earthquakes with Marcinkowski having to make two big saves one off of Bouanag and the other off of a strike from Denil Maldonado.

Despite the pressure San Jose held on to the tie at half 1-1. At the end of the first half the total shots favored LAFC 10-6 as well as possession at 57.7%-42.3%

The beginning of the second half saw LA continuing their pressure with a couple missed attempts.

At around the 76th minute mark as there was a delay in the match because of an injury to both Paul Marie and Aaron Long though thankfully both were able to continue to play.

Not long after the delay Jeremy Ebobisse drew a foul in the penalty area brining the fans at Levi’s Stadium to their feet. Taking the penalty of course was Espinoza who converted on the penalty hitting the bottom right of the net.

A little after the goal Maldonado was given a yellow card on a bad foul continuing their foul trouble.

For LA it was crunch time as they pushed hard for a goal throwing everything at San Jose. The most threatening moment being when Timothy Tillman missed a header over the net. San Jose was able to hold on and win the match over LA by a final of 2-1 at Levi’s Stadium.

“I think we can always be dangerous at any point it’s almost a little unpredictable and I love that because I think it’s one of our strengths,” head coach Luchi Gonzalez said after the match.

San Jose plays LA Galaxy next this time on the road on 5/14 at 6:30 p.m.