After brutal slump, Quakes in unlikely spot — the playoffs
As September neared its end, the San Jose Earthquakes looked like they might never win again. Gleeful opponents poured goals into the Quakes’ net with shocking ease, part of an eightgame winless streak that sent San Jose plummeting to the bottom of the MLS standings.
There was the 71 beatdown in Seattle on Sept. 10, the only time the club has surrendered more than five goals in a game. Then came two draws to stanch the bleeding, only to give way to a 61 home loss to Portland followed by a 50 defeat at Colorado. The playoffs seemed as far away as Pluto.
“Man, just getting beat that badly is never fun,” Earthquakes midfielder Shea Salinas said. “You kind of go off the field and you don’t really know how to change it.”
Somehow, San Jose ( 896) reeled off six wins over its
final 10 games to snatch the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. The Quakes’ first postseason appearance since 2017 pits them against topseeded Sporting Kansas City on Sunday.
So what the heck happened? What changed to morph the tanking Quakes into a playoff team?
The answer, according to players: Nothing.
Head coach Matías Almeyda “literally said, ‘ We’re going to double down,’ ” Salinas said. “That made us go, ‘ OK, we better make this work because we’re not changing.’ ”
Pundits and fans called for drastic changes in management, roster construction, lineup configuration and playing style. But inside the locker room Almeyda focused on a different problem: His team just needed to do a better job keeping the ball.
When they don’t control the ball, Almeyda’s unorthodox manmarking system demands an extraordinary level of hustle to track opponents all over the field rather than patrol certain areas. That wears down players over time, especially when they’re playing a schedule compressed by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of the usual four games per month, the Quakes played eight games in September after playing only two in August.
The way Almeyda saw it, a couple of laughable mistakes in that 71 loss to Seattle eroded his team’s confidence and snowballed to the point that they could no longer possess the ball. And if the Quakes are not possessing the ball, they’re chasing it.
So San Jose doubled down on its mantra of building possession out of the back. Defenders and holding midfielders drilled relentlessly in practice on keepaway drills in their own box, working to find the open man in the face of attacking pressure. Earthquakes coaches did not tolerate booting the ball away in desperation.
Almeyda’s bet paid dividends on Sept. 27. On the road against a team they’d never beaten, the Quakes ended the first half with a 10 lead on LAFC and rejoiced.
“In the locker room it was like, ‘ Hey, we’re doing it fine,’ ” Salinas said. “We’re not losing 50, so that’s better, and we’re keeping the ball and we’ve had our chances.”
Then, three minutes into stoppage time, midfielder Jackson Yueill flicked a low cross from Cristian Espinoza into the net and sprinted toward teammates. The Quakes’ bench scattered wildly into mosh pits of jubilation, the catharsis of their 21 win palpable to all who witnessed it.
“I think that kind of reset our season and got us back to where we wanted to be,” goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski said.
A week later, Andy Rios converted an 82ndminute penalty kick to lift San Jose to a 21 Cali Clasico win over the LA Galaxy, followed by a 30 win over Vancouver. The Quakes redeemed their feeble finish to the 2019 season, when they lost their final six games and barely missed the playoffs.
The good vibes prompted San Jose’s consummate leader to change his tune about his future with the team. Chris Wondolowski, the alltime leading scorer in MLS, said this week that he still wants to play “one more year.”
Wondolowski, who turns 38 in January, signed a oneyear deal after the 2019 season, indicating his 13th season with the Quakes in 2020 would be his last goround. He’s scored a teamleading seven goals this season while primarily coming off the bench.
“Wondo wants to win.
He’s a competitor,” Salinas said. “If we win the MLS Cup, he’ll probably have an itch to win it again. If we don’t, he’ll have the itch to win it. So I think he’s going to be around for a while.”
Management won’t make a decision on Wondolowski’s future until after the season ends. Until then, the Quakes are focused on a Kansas City team sporting a 611 record since the start of October. Children’s Mercy Park will host fans at 18% of seating capacity, marking the first time the Quakes have played in front of fans since the league went on hiatus in March. Strict guidelines from Santa Clara County health officials have kept players out of their own locker room at Earthquakes Stadium, prompting the team to move its gym equipment outdoors.
The Quakes are 27 on the road, but they welcome their underdog role Sunday. San Jose thrived in the singleelimination setup of the MLS Is Back Tournament in July and August, and the chaotic nature of their playing style makes them relatively unpredictable.
“I don’t think many teams want to play us in a playoff format,” Salinas said.