Home   >   Previews   >   Colorado Rapids stand in the way of ending SJ Earthquakes’ rut

Colorado Rapids stand in the way of ending SJ Earthquakes’ rut

By on August 13, 2015

The clock is ticking: the San Jose Earthquakes have now gone eleven matches without a win. There have been friendlies, the US Open Cup, and eight Major League Soccer fixtures: forty-six full days and twenty squad members used. But zero wins.

The Quakes ended their 2014 campaign on an infamous fifteen-match winless streak. Deja vu?Colorado veteran midfielder Sam Cronin is returning to San Jose for the first time since making an offseason move to the Rockies, but the team will be very different than he would remember.

Last year, the Quakes were clearly a disjointed, jumbled mess; but this time around, the Quakes are a completely reinvented team. They know they can compete at a playoff level because they played at that level just a few months ago. Lady luck had an impact this time around. Lady Luck alongside Jurgen Klinsmann, who whisked away top scorer Chris Wondolowski for the US’ Gold Cup campaign. Wondo’s leave for national team duty during the US’ Gold Cup campaign completely took the wind out of the Quakes’ sails and he scored in his last match before leaving. It was also the Quakes’ last win, a 3-1 drubbing of the LA Galaxy.

Long story short, the Quakes are stuck in a rut. Even Wondolowski’s return and the signing of youngster Marc Pelosi from Liverpool’s academy hasn’t been able to spark Kinnear’s men back into action.

Major tactical shifts seem unlikely. Kinnear is open about using statistics and numbers sparingly, and he has featured roughly the same lineup throughout this season — recognized as a 4-1-4-1 but also called a 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 diamond. Or more recently, perhaps best described as an incoherent blob.

Kinnear’s next card should be dealt coming into the club’s home meeting with the Colorado Rapids tomorrow. Panamanian midfielder Anibal Godoy should be available for the first time after signing for the club earlier in August, coinciding with a one-game suspension of Fatai Alashe, who has been Kinnear’s preferred defensive midfielder this season, following a red card in the Earthquakes’ loss to the Houston Dynamo.

By this point, though, Kinnear admitted after the loss to Houston, he cares only about ending the losing streak. He said: “the obvious answer is to win. And you know, a little bit of luck. You know we’ve had absolutely no luck, sometimes you make your own luck too. We’re doing a lot of things to try to keep pressure on ourselves.”

It doesn’t have to be pretty — it’s not like many of the Quakes’ twenty-six points so far this season came that way. Batten down the hatches, put in a defensively solid performance (the Quakes have shut out four of their past five opponents at Avaya Stadium), and then one moment of brilliance could end the rut. Captain Chris Wondolowski mentioned, “We’ve got to play a full ninety minutes. You can’t fall asleep for five, ten minutes here and there, and make mistakes. You’ll get punished and rightfully so.”

If the coming match against Colorado is to be that match, then see you on the other side. The Quakes’ mentality will be significantly different, not the least because the simple brand of a losing streak is devastating to confidence. Put simply, they need to remember how to win. “The only thing that makes you feel better is winning games,” Kinnear said per the San Jose Mercury News’ Elliot Almond.

A draw against the Portland Timbers two weeks ago was a mild improvement, but Colorado, the only team below the Quakes in the Western Conference, provide a ripe opportunity to end the streak. Although the Rapids have been on patchy form, a win for Pablo Mastroeni’s men would leave the Quakes at the bottom of the Western Conference and send more clouds over the glistening arena that is Avaya.

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.