Tag: mls

The San Jose Earthquakes Starting XI posed for a group shot just before kickoff in their match against the Houston Dynamo at PayPal Park on Saturday MAY 24, 2025. (San Jose Earthquakes)

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — In a match that saw fireworks in the second half in terms of goals scored, the San Jose Earthquakes drew 3-3 with the Houston Dynamo on Saturday evening at PayPal Park.

San Jose is unbeaten in its past seven overall matches (4-0-3), including five in MLS play. Houston is winless in their past three matches but earned a point after two straight defeats.

San Jose (5-6-5) had two quality chances early in the first half by Josef Martinez. First in the seventh minute, Martinez’s attempt from 10 yards out was stopped by Dynamo goalkeeper Jonanthan Bond. Then in the 20th minute, Martinez’s point-blank chance from inside the box was knocked away with a two-handed save by Bond.

Houston (4-6-6) drew first blood in the 31st minute. Ondřej Lingr’s counterattack found Griffin Dorsey down the right wing. Dorsey crossed the ball in the box where Ezequiel Ponce headed the ball into the far corner of the net past Quakes goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. for his team’s leading fourth goal of the season.

The Dynamo doubled its lead seconds after a corner kick in the 50th minute. Lingr centered the ball from the right wing over to the back post. An unmarked Felipe Andrade tapped home the ball into an open net for his second goal of the season.

The game seemed to have been judged one-sided to the benefit of the Dynamo from referee Sergii Demianchuk who missed some obvious fouls committed by the Dynamo throughout the match.

“I give our players a lot of credit for coming back down from two goals and basically have the game won at the end,” said Quakes head coach Bruce Arena. “We didn’t manage the game very well at the end….I think we could have done better on all the goals. We could have scored more goals. We should have come in at halftime ahead. We had some very good chances. We just have to be a little bit cleaner.”

San Jose cut the deficit in half in the 66th minute. Beau Leroux got the ball down low to DeJuan Jones near the right goal line. Jones centered the ball to Preston Judd who one-timed the ball past Bond with a right-footed shot for his first goal of the season.

Judd recorded his brace in the 72nd minute. Fullback Ian Harkes centered the ball squarely into the box where Judd got behind two Dynamo defenders and headed the ball over Bond into the upper left corner of the net for the equalizer and second goal of the season.

“Josef (Martínez) helped me out there because they paid a lot of attention to him, so I was able to get on their back shoulders, and they didn’t know where I was at, so I took advantage of that and finished those chances when I got them,” Judd said.

The Earthquakes gained its first lead of the match four minutes later. Once again it was Harkes setting up the goal. After a Cristian Espinoza corner kick, Harkes gathered the ball along the left side line. The Quakes fullback deked out a Houston defender before centering the ball into the middle of the box. An unmarked Daniel Munie made a diving header into the far corner of the net for his first career MLS goal in the 76th minute.

Houston scored the equalizer in the first minute of stoppage time on a fluke goal. Jack McGlynn had the ball just outside the box. McGlynn found Franco Escobar along the right wing. Escobar made a quick back pass to Dorsey whose right-footed shot deflected off of Dave Romey and into the back of the net for his second goal of the season.

Bond finished the match with five saves on eight shots on target and was mainly responsible for Houston earning a point in the contest. Edwards Jr. did not record a save on the three shots on target.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished the match with 11 corner kicks. Houston had seven.

The Earthquakes are currently 10-19-5 all-time vs. Houston Dynamo FC with an 8-6-4 home record.

Heading into tonight, the Quakes’ attack led all MLS with 29 goals. To celebrate, the club gave away 2,900 hot dogs to fans before the match. With another three goals tonight, the Quakes stayed atop the league leaderboard with 32 goals and 34.13 expected goals. 

Judd scored his fifth and sixth goals of his career. Combined with his goal and assist in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play, he’s up to four goal contributions in all competitions (2g/2a).

DeJuan Jones, recently called up to the U.S. Men’s National Team for June training camp ahead of the Concacaf Gold Cup, amassed his fourth assist of the season and 26th of his MLS career.

The Quakes stayed unbeaten (3-0-3) in all games started by recent acquisition DeJuan Jones, who joined the team via trade with the Columbus Crew last month.

Ian Harkes had his first two assists of the MLS season tonight, running his career total to eight. He also had a goal vs. Inter Miami in his last league outing, giving him three goal contributions in his last two matches.

Edwards Jr.’s shutout streak in all competitions ended at 197 minutes after conceding Ezequiel Ponce’s 31st-minute goal.

Luca Ulrich, acquired via short-term loan earlier today from the Quakes’ MLS NEXT Pro team, The Town FC, was an unused substitute backing up Earl Edwards Jr. at goalkeeper.

UP NEXT: San Jose travels down south to take on their SoCal rival Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday May 28th at 7:00pm at Dignity Health Sports Park

Cristian Espinoza and Cristian Arango of the San Jose Earthquakes celebrate Espinoza’s first goal of his brace against the Portland Timbers at Pay Pal Park on Saturday MAY 3, 2025. (San Jose Earthquakes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — Cristian Espinoza scored two goals and DeJuan Jones had two assists in his first start of the season as the San Jose Earthquakes blasted past the Portland Timbers in 4-1 victory on Saturday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose snapped its three-match losing streak and has won two of its past three at home. Portland had its seven-match unbeaten streak snapped as it suffered its first loss since March 8th against Nashville 2-0.

The Earthquakes (4-6-1) drew first blood 16th minute. Cristian Arango sent a long ball out to the right wing. Dejuan Jones, who made his first start in a Quakes kit and in his second game since being acquired from the Columbus Crew, centered the ball into the box over to Cristian Espinoza and the Argentine hit a low shot into the left corner of the net for his third goal of the season.

“It was really important to start the game that way. We knew that we needed this victory. We need the three points tonight. We were preparing ourselves the whole week for this moment. We know when we stay together, we keep the compactness inside the field, the result will come. Tonight was a great answer,” Espinoza said.

Jones first point as an Earthquake was the assist that gave Espinoza third place on the franchise’s all-time career club scoring list as he passed Jeremy Ebobisse with his 35th (and later his 36th) for the Black and Blue.

Espinoza recorded his brace in the 24th minute. Espinoza had a nice give and go with Ousseni Bouda as the Quakes captain got behind the Timbers defense and dribbled in all alone before firing a right footed shot past Timber’s goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau for his fourth goal of the season.

San Jose scored its third unanswered goal of the first half on a counterattack. Chico Arango fed a pass up the right sideline to Jones who quickly returned it back to Arango with a nice touch pass. Arango raced down the right wing before rifling in a right footed strike for his team leading seventh goal of the season in the 27th minute.

“Whenever you can get to a new club and make an impact with the scoring right away, that’s helpful. And I’m building chemistry quickly with my teammates. They make it really easy. It’s fun playing with them, so to get the 4-1 win is good. We use the momentum to keep getting more wins,” Jones said.

Portland (5-3-3) broke through with its only goal just before halftime in the 42nd minute. Anthony Santos made a drop pass over to David De Costa just outside the box. De Costa centered the ball over to Felipe Mora who beat Quakes goalkeeper Daniel with a chip shot for his team leading sixth goal of the season.

In the second half VAR played a pivotal role in taking away two potential goals for San Jose. In the 58th minute, Arango thought he had his own brace when his one-timer off of a Vitor Costa centering pass was kicked into the back of the net. However, after a VAR review, Arango was ruled offside.

Crepeau stoned Arango’s second chance at a brace when stopped a point-blank chance after Espinoza centered the ball into the box.

A minute later Beau Leroux made a move around David Ayala inside the box. Ayala apparently tripped Leroux with his leg that resulted in referee Fortis Bazakos ruling it a penalty. Once again VAR called down for a review and the penalty was overturned frustrating the Quakes faithful.

Third time was the charm for San Jose as they finally earned its fourth goal of the match in the 88th minute. Arango crossed the ball into the middle from the left wing over Bouda who finished off the pass with a one-timer into the right corner of the net for his 2nd goal of the season. Espinoza, who had the secondary assist on the goal, recaptured the league lead with his seventh helper on the season and 78th in MLS play, extending his club record.

“It’s a good win against a very good team. I thought Portland was dangerous throughout the game. Our guys responded. The three goals in the first half are huge. We knew they would come at us real strong to start the second half and we weathered the storm. In the last 15 to 20 minutes of the game, we settled in the right way to try to just protect our lead and get out of here with three points. We did a good job with that. They’re a very good team, so we’re pleased with the win,” Quakes head coach Bruce Arena said after the match.

Daniel finished with four saves on five shots to earn his fourth victory of the season. Crepeau made four saves on eight shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with two corner kicks. Portland had six.

Earthquakes move to 7-19-10 all-time vs. Portland, with a 7-5-6 record at home. 

Espinoza became the 21st player in MLS history with 15 career game-winning goals and 15 career game-winning assists. He also extended his consecutive games streak—a club record and the longest active run in MLS—to 120, good for third all-time and second among field players.

Pay Pal Park celebrated Colombian Heritage Night with food stands and vendors that featured items and food from the Colombian culture.

UP NEXT: San Jose takes on Sacramento Republic FC in the Round of 32 of the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday May 7th at 7:30pm at Pay Pal Park.

by Marko Ukalovic

San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Beau Leroux attempts a shot on net that deflected off of Seattle Sounder defender Jackson Regan for his first career MLS goal at Pay Pal Park on Saturday MAR 29, 2025. (San Jose Earthquakes)

SAN JOSE — Albert Rusnak’s late match heroics allowed the Seattle Sounders to earn a point against the San Jose Earthquakes in a 1-1 draw in the first installment of the 2025 edition of the Heritage Cup on Saturday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose snapped its three-match pointless streak with the draw. Seattle has points in three out of its past four MLS contests after bowing out from the CONCACAF Champions Cup by Liga MX’s Cruz Azul in a 4-1 loss back on March 11th.

Earthquakes head coach Bruce Arena made changes to his backline and formation after losing to Charlotte FC last week by a score of 4-1. Out were Nick Lima and Jamar Ricketts and in was Rodrigues. Arena went with a 3-5-2 formation as opposed to the 4-2-3-1 he employed in Charlotte.

Seattle (1-2-3) had the match’s first quality scoring chance in the 18th minute. Alex Roldan headed the ball from the center of the box but a leaping save by Quakes goalkeeper Daniel to knock the ball over the cross bar kept the game scoreless.

San Jose (2-3-1) responded six minutes later with its first descent scoring chance. Beau Leroux’s diving header attempt from three yards out was easily saved by Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei in the 24th minute.

“The first half we played well, but the second half we did not. Give Seattle a lot of credit; they have a good team. [They’ve] been together a long time, very experienced and obviously put on a lot of pressure. To get a point is a fair result,” Arena said.

The Earthquakes broke through and drew first blood in the 32nd minute thanks to a turnover by the Sounders. Leroux intercepted a pass from Roldan and his shot deflected off of Jackson Regan up into the air, past the outstretched reach of Frei and into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.

“I kissed the badge,” said the San Jose native Leroux. “This club means everything to me. You know they took a chance on me. I just love this club. I love San Jose and the people. I definitely feel some weight off my shoulders but still have a lot to work on. So, we still have a lot to do to get these results and go for three points.”

San Jose kept the pressure on in the final 5 minutes of the opening 45 minutes. Leroux nearly had a brace when his shot was saved by Frei the center of the box in the 41st minute. Then two minutes later Preston Judd’s right footed shot from a similar spot inside the box sailed just wide.

The Sounders regained the momentum earlier in the second half with back-to-back scoring chances on the same possession. Pressure inside the Quakes box forced Daniel to make two big saves with both shots by Nouhou Tolo in a 15 second span in the 51st minute.

A bit of controversary ensued in the 75th minute when there was an apparent foul inside the box committed by Ragen against Josef Martinez was uncalled by referee Guido Gonzales Jr. despite Martinez beating Ragen to the ball with Ragen impeding Martinez’s progress and knocking him to the ground.

Seattle scored the equalizer in the 80th minute when Cristian Roldan crossed the ball from left to right over to Rusnak. The left winger dribbled in before firing a shot past Daniel into the lower left corner for Rusnak’s second goal of the season in the 80th minute.

“It’s certainly something that we know has to get better. Against this team tonight, they’re a good team. I think they scored five or six goals a couple weeks ago. We have to get [Josef] Martínez and [Chicho] Arango on the field together. We had to be careful with Josef tonight because of his traveling [due to international duty]. I think we really need to see our team through the first half of the season to really be able to analyze correctly where we’re at and where we need to go,” Arena said.

Daniel had a great night in between the pipes as he stopped nine of the 10 shots on goal, with the majority of those coming in the second half. Frei made two saves on three shots to earn his side of the draw.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with four corner kicks. Seattle had 12.

Espinoza extended his consecutive game streak to 115, the longest active run in MLS.

San Jose is 5-0-3 vs Seattle in all competitions since 2021 and are 3-0-1 at home during that stretch.

UP NEXT: San Jose hosts D.C. United on Sunday April 6th at 2:00pm at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose Earthquakes forward Chico Arango (#9) plays the ball up high while being defended by Minnesota United’s Morris Duggan (#23) during the United’s 1-0 victory at Pay Pal Park on Saturday MAR 8, 2025. (San Jose Earthquakes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE —Kelvin Yaboah has been all of the offense for Minnesota United FC.

His lone goal in the first half proved to be the winner as United shutout the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 on Saturday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose has lost for the first time this season after starting the season 2-0. They attempted to make franchise history by starting the season with consecutive wins in MLS play. It was Deja vu for Minnesota United as they won for a second consecutive week by a score of 1-0.

“[Minnesota United FC] defended very well. They dealt with a lot of crosses quite well. We obviously made a mistake on the goal, not clearing the ball properly, and not doing a good job stepping to the player who finished. I don’t even know who finished the goal, but bad defending on our part on that particular play, I’m not concerned about a couple of chances they got at the end of the game, because we were very exposed trying to get the goal. We opened ourselves up. We were well aware that was going to happen. I give our keeper [Daniel] credit. He made a lot of good saves,” Quakes head coach Bruce Arena said.

Minnesota United (2-1-0) drew first blood in the 33rd minute. A failed clearing attempt out of the box by San Jose led to Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi collecting the ball out of the air. Oluwaseyi found Michael Boxall inside the box on the right side. Boxall quickly passed it over to Kelvin Yeboah who beat Quakes goalkeeper Daniel with a shot to far corner for his second goal of the season. Yaboah has scored both of Minnesota United’s goals this season.

San Jose (2-1-0) had pressure inside Minnesota United’s zone early in the first ten minutes of the opening 45 minutes. Their best scoring chance came in the 29th minute when Jamar Ricketts centered a ball into the box for a Josef Martinez shot attempt. However, Martinez’s shot was blocked by a United defender and cleared out of the box.

In the 62nd minute Morris Duggan had a great scoring chance to double Minnesota United’s lead, but Daniel made a diving save to his left to keep the ball out of the net.

The Earthquakes won a free quick just outside the box in the 65th minute. Cristian Espinoza’s bid to even the score with his free kick curled just to the right of the net out of bounds.

“Yes, absolutely yes,” said Espinoza when asked if he thought he had scored once he kicked it. “As soon as I saw the ball going over the wall, I was almost expecting that it was going to end up inside the net. It was very close, but unfortunately, I didn’t score the goal.”

Then in the 78th minute, Mark-Anthony Kaye’s right footed shot from outside the box in the center was blocked by Hassani Dotson. San Jose’s best attempt to score the equalizer came in the 80th minute when full back Dave Romney’s (San Jose Earthquakes) with right footed shot from the central position outside the box was knocked away by Minnesota United goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.

St. Clair finished the match with two saves on the evening to earn his second clean sheet of the season. Daniel made five saves on six shots on goal in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with 10 corner kicks. Minnesota United had four.

Midfielder Niko Tsakiris made his season debut when he came in as a substitute for Rodriguez in the second minute of stoppage time.

San Jose is 7-7-4 in the all-time series versus Minnesota United.

UP NEXT: San Jose hosts the Colorado Rapids on Saturday 3/15 at 7:30pm at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose Earthquakes wingback Jamar Ricketts is emphatic after scoring his first career MLS goal in his first career MLS start against Real Salt Lake at Pay Pal Park on Saturday FEB 22, 2025. (San Jose Earthquakes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Earthquakes are out to prove the critics wrong in 2025.

San Jose scored three goals in the second half to route Real Salt Lake 4-0 in the season and home opener on Saturday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose started out the season with a win for the for first time since 2018 and first home opener win since 2021. Real Salt Lake has lost to San Jose three out of its last four matches.

“It means a lot, it means a lot to us,” said Quakes midfielder Cristian Espinoza on the team snapping the losing streak to start the new season. “We’re coming off a really tough year last year. We worked really hard in the preseason to be at this level in this first game. To be honest, I’m really happy because of the performance of the team. I personally want to go and congratulate my teammates because they made a really big effort tonight.”

It was a beginning of a new era of Quakes soccer with the coaching debut of head coach Bruce Arena, who brings a winning pedigree with having had success with Los Angeles as well as the debuts of newly acquired strikers Josef Martinez and Cristian “Chicho” Arango, both proven goal scorers throughout their MLS careers.

San Jose (1-0-0) drew first blood in the 28th minute for the game’s first goal. Beau Leroux dribbled in from the right wing before centering the ball into the middle of the box. Midfielder Jamar Ricketts, who made his first career MLS start, one-timed the ball between two Real Salt Lake defenders into the back corner of the net past goalkeeper Rafael Barbosa for his first career MLS goal. Ricketts was San Jose’s first round draft pick last year in the MLS Super Draft taken 13th overall.

“Playing wingback, you gotta be up and down the field,” said Ricketts regarding his goal. “But as I seen the ball, seen Beau (Leroux) travelling inside the box, I knew I had to crash the back post and be aggressive. So, once I seen the ball come across, I was like, I gotta be the first to win the ball. And that’s how I got my foot on it.”

Leroux, who signed a first-team contract just yesterday, dished his first MLS assist. He was  not only making his first MLS start for the Quakes but also his MLS debut. A San Jose native, Leroux scored five goals last season for the Quakes’ MLS NEXT Pro team, The Town FC.

The Earthquakes had a chance to double its lead in the 38th minute when Ricketts centered a ball into the box for Arango but Chicho’s shot attempt sailed high over the net.

Sunnyvale, Calif. native Diego Luna led the attack for Real Salt Lake (0-1-0) in the opening 45 minutes. He had three shot attempts but all sailed wide right of the net. RSL registered its first shot on goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Tyler Wolff’s free kick was deflected off of the wall of San Jose defenders from just outside the box. The rebound leaked out to Alexandros Katranisa who fired a shot on target that Quakes goalkeeper Daniel jumped high in the air to deflect the ball over the net.

San Jose had a goal disallowed in the 51st minute after Cristian Espinoza chipped the ball past a RSL defender and centered a ball out to Arango who shot the ball into the back of the net. The sideline judge deemed Espinoza was offsides wiping out the goal.

Real Salt Lake had chances to score the equalizer from Pablo Ruiz and Nelson Palacio in the 63rd and 64th minutes but Daniel stoned away the three total attempts on net.

“We made some mistakes we have to get better at, but the nice part about this team is when we started to rebuild our roster, we wanted the team in place all preseason, instead of bringing in guys this week or last week, two weeks from now. So, we’ve had a month to try to become a team,” Arena said.

The Quakes doubled their lead on its first set piece of the season. Espinoza’s free kick sailed into the middle of the box and Rodriguez headed the ball over the outstretched arms of Barbosa into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.

San Jose scored its third unanswered goal four minutes later. On a counterattack, Espinoza sent in a long ball from just beyond midfield into the center of the box. Justen Glad misplayed the ball out of the air and Ousseni Bouda, who came into the game as a substitute in the 67th minute, collected the ball and calmly kicked the ball past Barbosa for his first goal of the season.

Left back Vitor Costa closed out the scoring for San Jose in the 83rd minute when he finished off a centering pass from Mark-Anthony Kaye as the Earthquakes kept their foot on the gas pedal in the onslaught.

Daniel finished the match stopping all seven shots he faced to earn his first clean sheet of the season and also his seventh career shutout in MLS play. Barbosa made five saves on nine shots on target in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with six corner kicks. Real Salt Lake had five.

The 4-0 final margin is the Quakes’ largest victory in a season opener in club history.

Espinoza’s three assists marked his 10th career multi-assist game in MLS play, giving him 74 total helpers to extend his career club record.

Espinoza extended his run of consecutive MLS regular-season games played tonight to a current league-high of 110 (Oct. 2, 2021 – present). The streak is not only a Quakes record but now fifth longest in MLS history and second among all field players in MLS history, passing Darlington Nagbe (May 1, 2021 – Apr. 6, 2024). Goalkeeper Luis Robles holds the league record with 183 straight appearances (Sept. 29, 2012 – May 12, 2018).

San Jose is 18-15-12 in the all-time series verses Real Salt Lake.

UP NEXT: San Jose travels out to the Midwest to take on Sporting KC on Saturday 3/1 at Children’s Mercy Park.