Jahn back among friends in San Jose

On Saturday night, a little more than a year after he was traded, forward Adam Jahn’s current team kicked off against his old team at Avaya Stadium in San Jose.

Jahn, 26, now in his second year with Crew SC, considered his team’s trip out west to play the San Jose Earthquakes a bit of a homecoming.

San Jose drafted him in the 2013 supplemental draft, and he played his college soccer at Stanford, just a short drive from the city. Even Jahn’s high school — Jesuit High School in Carmichael, California — is only a little more than a two-hour drive from San Jose, meaning at least a few familiar faces were in the stands to watch him.

“I have some friends and some family in the area, so it’ll be great to see them,” Jahn said Thursday. “Going back Crew SC forward Adam Jahn extends to try to reach the ball as FC Cincinnati goalie Mitch Hildebrandt, left, reacts during the teams’ U.S. Open Cup match at Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium on June 14.

to California, it’s going to be nice weather. Hopefully I’ll see the beach. Field’s great, fans are great.”

Jahn appeared in 62 games over threeplus seasons with the Earthquakes, his mostproductive season being his rookie campaign in 2013, in which he scored four goals in 22 appearances. Mixed into his tenure with the Earthquakes were a couple of loan stints with United Soccer League side Sacramento

Republic FC.

A 3 ½ -season tenure with San Jose came to an abrupt end last summer when Jahn was traded to the Crew in exchange for targeted allocation money. He said he found out about the trade on July 28 of last year and boarded a plane for Columbus the following day. The announcement came two days later.

Jahn brought with him only the basic necessities and didn’t complete his move to

Ohio until after the season. Since then, he has settled in, providing a push behind forward Ola Kamara as the club’s backup forward. He had one assist but no goals in his first 16 appearances of 2017.

Jahn entered the road game expecting a “fun night,” and it’s a moment coach Gregg Berhalter said Thursday he hoped his forward would embrace.

“I think generally you enjoy going back to your old club,” Berhalter said. “You’re extra motivated, you want to score a goal and you want to do well, so I think overall it’s a positive thing.”