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SJ Earthquakes aim to get back on track against Dallas

By on June 7, 2015

The San Jose Earthquakes’ new Avaya Stadium is becoming an increasingly busy place. The venue is prepping to host the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens, the World Rugby Pacific Cup, the International Champions Cup, and recently added the 2016 MLS All-Star game. Today, Avaya is set for a doubleheader, with FC Dallas visiting the Quakes, followed by an Under-18 academy match.

For perhaps the first time this season, the Quakes are running on a stretched squad. Matias Perez-Garcia missed their 3-1 loss to Toronto FC last weekend through injury, although he looks fit for today’s match. Designated player Innocent Emeghara is out with a knee injury, while Fatai Alashe is on international duty with the US U-23 squad and Sanna Nyassi is on duty with Gambia.

Nonetheless, the Quakes are expected to remain in the 4-1-4-1 lineup they’ve adopted this season, with Khari Stephenson or Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi replacing Alashe, and Cordell Cato filling in for Nyassi on the right wing. Even if the squad is announced as a 4-3-3, as it was in the Quakes’s win over Columbus Crew two weeks ago, it functions in the same way. Dominic Kinnear isn’t exactly the coach to fret over such technical minutiae — when asked about passing percentages a few weeks back, he half-jokingly responded, “Really, we’re going there?”

Nonetheless, it has to be said that the Quakes’ passing percentage was higher than usual against Columbus. It was by far one of their best games of the season; completing dominating a Columbus team that had only lost one of their last six previous matches. Their defensive performance — shutting out a Columbus offense that had shipped ten goals in their previous three games — can largely be pinned on Mohammed Saeid’s red card and Columbus’ road woes, but the Quakes’ attacking prowess and possession style play was promising. At times, the Quakes sliced through Columbus with ease.

Against Toronto FC, they adopted the counter-attacking style of play which they had previously used for away matches; however, they looked thin from missing players. Sebastian Giovinco assisted two goals as the Quakes chased the game.

Kinnear said: “I always try to talk about the guys who are here and not about the guys who aren’t. I think it’s a little bit unfair if you concentrate on the guys who didn’t play. It was unfortunate the guys weren’t here, we were hoping Matias would have been ready, still has a bit of a groin problem, and Fatai is with the U-23’s so what can you do?”

A return home is welcome for the squad. Kinnear’s men have held a 2-4-2 away record, but are 3-1-1 at home. Is it the Avaya Stadium effect? We’ll get another hint this weekend.

The Quakes host FC Dallas, who sit fifth in the Western Conference but have played one, two, and unusually even three games fewer than those above them in the table. They beat the Quakes 1-0 with a ninety-second minute goal in the two sides’ first match of the season; this time, however, the goalscorer that day and Dallas’ top scorer so far this season, Blas Perez, is away on international duty. Dallas are winless in their last three matches as well.

Known for a possession-based style of play, Dallas are likely to force the Quakes into another counter-attacking game. “To win, sometimes you have to dig deep and sometimes play pretty,” said Wondolowski after the Columbus game.

Following the senior match, the Earthquakes’ U-18 academy will face local rival Juventus SC. Quakes president Dave Kaval told Football Every Day they’re still working out where the academy will play. “We’d like to do it (have academy teams play at Avaya) more often, and I think the key thing is whether fans turn up for it or not — if they care,” he said at the 2016 MLS All-Star game announcement a week-and-a-half ago. “I’ve had, anecdotally, people emailing me and saying they’re really excited about it, but is that 500 people, 1,000 people, 20 people? We don’t 100% know yet, but it’s very important for our academy and those kids to be able to play on the main field right after the first team. That is a major draw when we’re actually competing with other clubs in terms of drawing high-level talent into our academy. So we want to continue to do that — Chris Leitch has done a tremendous job heading our academy, setting forth a strategy and a vision for a world class academy organization that will rival anything in the world. That starts with those kind of games, expanding the facilities and community fields that are going to be built next to the stadium. All these things together will create the ability to take this organization and our young soccer group to the next level.”

Although building has temporarily been halted on the community fields nearby, Kaval said that can be the “natural location” for the academy. “We’re still working with the city — there were some issues with the site and it had to be re-architected,” he said. “We’re still working through that, obviously we’re committed to working with the city to make sure we have those types of fields near the stadium because it can be the natural location for out academy, which is huge.”

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.