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Orlando City can bring fans to San Jose Earthquakes — goals, too?

By on May 23, 2015

There’s no history between the San Jose Earthquakes and Orlando City — it’s their first ever meeting. Only once are they scheduled to meet this season and they aren’t in direct competition playing in separate divisions on opposite sides of the country.  It’s an interesting dynamic for tomorrow’s match, the one and only chance for each team to begin a competitive relationship on the front foot.

Attention in the Bay Area will be on Orlando not just for this reason, it is clear.  They feature Kaka, the highest paid player in MLS according to the latest figures from the MLS Players’ Union. That’s a key reason why this game is being played at Levi’s Stadium and is in and of itself enough to fill the lower decks (think 30,000+, conservatively).

On the pitch, however, the Brazilian is far from Orlando’s only attacking outlet. Kaka himself sung high praise of the twenty-year-old Cyle Larin, the No1 pick in the offseason MLS SuperDraft, telling Football Every Day and other reporters last night, “He (Larin) is growing so fast, and he’s got quality and works hard,” Kaka said.  “I see a lot of qualities in Cyle and he will definitely help in this next game.” Last weekend, Orlando coach Adrian Health voiced similar opinions: “He works hard,” Heath said. “He has all the tools to be really, really good. I said when he scored his first goal that this was the first of many. The way he’s playing at the moment nothing changes that.” Already, Larin has scored four in eight games (two appearances from the bench).

Kaka also said the travel (it’s around a 6,000 mile round trip between Orlando and San Francisco) poses no problems. “I’m getting used to traveling overseas a lot, so it’s not a problem,” he said.

Brek Shea has moved into midfield from full-back, providing attacking pace down the left, while Eric Avila has become a fixture on the other wing after an injury to Kevin Molino. Last weekend, Kaka paid tribute to Molino after his goal against the LA Galaxy — of which he said, “I tried to score because I wanted to do that for Kevin.  I think he deserves a celebration like that.  He needs to be strong and for sure we’ll help him in this moment because he’ll help us a lot next season.”

Given Orlando put four past LA, undoubtedly their best performance of the season so far, it’s clear something clicked. The Lions have been understandably struggling to find their form so far in this, their first season, but finally showed they do have impressive potential.  “[Now], we know what we can do and how we can play, so that Galaxy game will probably be our motto for the next few games,” Kaka said.

This weekend, the problem turns to reproducing that form against San Jose, which is another story. The Quakes’ defense has allowed only a goal per game and just two in their past four matches. In their 1-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps, goalkeeper David Bingham had not a save to make all night. Left-back Jordan Stewart returned from injury in a 2-0 win over Columbus Crew last weekend and got forward down the wing to assist the Quakes’ opening goal (Chris Wondolowski credited Stewart for “putting it on a platter”). Coach Dominic Kinnear said of Stewart’s performance: “He had a good night getting forward. [He] and Shea [Salinas] seem to work well together. It’s good to have him healthy.”

Wondolowski himself will be goal-hungry, looking to hit his landmark century mark.  Against Columbus he leapfrogged former Quakes goalkeeper Joe Cannon for second most all-time Quakes appearances and was already far in the lead for most game winning goals, hat-tricks, and goals for the Quakes.

Kaka said that Orlando were set to review video tape of the Quakes’ defense today with Heath, but he isn’t too worried about man-markers — indeed, spinning it into a positive. “I’ve never had any defender or marker who was unfair, so it’s normal. But if they try to mark me, then one of our other players will probably be open, so that is what we are trying to [optimize].”

The Quakes have adopted a 4-1-4-1 formation with Fatai Alashe rooting the midfield, Adam Jahn up front and Chris Wondolowski in the midfield, hand-in-hand with a counter-attacking style of play developed on their road trip in April. Against Columbus, however, they also showed they can play a proactive, possession-based style of play just as effectively (albeit, they were up a man for the majority of the match). Matias Perez-Garcia will be their creative spark in the midfield while Wondolowski will effectively take a forward role when the Quakes will be in possession. Although the Quakes were criticized for individualism on the pitch early in the season, Shea Salinas has offered great distribution cutting into the middle and out wide ever since replacing the injured Innocent Emeghara in the starting lineup and Kinnear said he was happy that Salinas got his reward by scoring last week. Although much of the focus will be on Orlando and Kaka, the Earthquakes’ may just have enough up front to nick another win.

For more insights into the Earthquakes and their upcoming match against Orlando, I caught up yesterday with Quakes beat reporter Colin Etnire to preview the weekend as well as to review the Quakes’ 2-0 win over Columbus Crew last weekend on The Aftershock podcast, here.

Photo credit: Usbduong33 on Wikipedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.