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New-look SJ Earthquakes to rely on old morals against Philly

By on September 4, 2015

Once again, American soccer turns its gaze toward an international break, doing so with a fondness commonly reserved for the likes of Sepp Blatter, or in the case of Major League Soccer, referees. The break itself isn’t the problem, even if it serves the primary purpose of giving Wayne Rooney a sense of fulfillment (he deserves it though, doesn’t he?), or Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Liechtenstein a newfound shot at glory in UEFA’s ever-expanding Euros.

In the US, the problem is that MLS continues to simply ignore FIFA international dates, leaving some of their bigger clubs in the lurch, without their big-name players who get called up to represent their respective nations. Despite their lack of big-name players, it just so happens that the San Jose Earthquakes have been one of the clubs hit the hardest this year.  In June, their main man up front, Chris Wondolowski, missed an entire month of club action during the US Men’s National Team Gold Cup campaign. His last game before joining the USMNT’s camp was a 3-1 Cal Clasico win over the LA Galaxy, in which he scored a goal. The game was also, not coincidentally, the Quakes’ last win for a month-and-a-half, as Wondolowski’s absence clearly helped take the wind out of the team’s sails.

For September’s fixtures, the Quakes’ have lost four key players: Anibal Godoy, Marc Pelosi, Sanna Nyassi and Cordell Cato. Given Fatai Alashe’s questionable fitness (in fact, Alashe didn’t join the US Under-23s with Pelosi due to his injury), the Quakes’ only central midfielder to speak of is Jean Baptiste-Pierazzi, who hasn’t made a league appearance since March. As such, the Quakes’ move to a 4-4-2 formation that sparked their current run of form is clearly unfeasible.

Not even the table-topping LA Galaxy last weekend posed as big a threat to the Quakes’ current winning streak than the club’s own player absences in the current break. Dominic Kinnear’s men dominated LA last weekend in a lopsided 1-0 win at Avaya Stadium and proved that different team members could win in the 4-4-2 as Pelosi replaced Alashe in the starting eleven.

However, Philadelphia Union, the Quakes’ opponents tomorrow, are missing not a single player from the international call-ups. And while they sit second to bottom of the Eastern Conference, the matchup is less a matter of Philadelphia’s quality and more about the Quakes adopting to circumstances with limited squad depth. No team has been able to beat the Quakes’ 4-4-2 lineup on their current run of form, it’s just a question of what Kinnear’s men can muster in a different formation. Without Godoy and Pelosi to serve as midfield lynchpins, season standouts such as Shea Salinas, Quincy Amarikwa and Wondolowski will be needed more than ever.

Furthermore, without the defensive cover of midfielders, the Quakes will likely rely on their defense to keep them in the game. Their wingers, including Salinas and Cato’s replacement (likely Matias Perez Garcia), will have more defensive responsibility and thus it could suit the Quakes to revert to the counter-attacking style of play they resorted to early in the season. A new-look Quakes team will rely heavily on old tactics and morals (such as their motto: “Goonies Never Say Die”) to keep their win streak alive tomorrow night.

Photo credit: By Noah Salzman, via 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.