Since returning from the Club World Cup and Gold Cup hiatus, the San Jose Earthquakes have established a clear pecking order within their dressing room.
Cristian Espinoza, Cristian Arango and Josef Martinez are at the top, leading the charge in Bruce Arena’s 3-4-3. The three South Americans — who have All-Star berths, a Golden Boot, and a MVP between them — drive the majority of the league’s second-leading offense.
There is a balance and straightforwardness to the rest of the depth chart. Rookie sensation Beau Leroux usually partners with Ian Harkes in the midfield; David Romney deputizes a back three; Goalkeeper Daniel signed an extension in February; and the newly acquired DeJuan Jones and Vitor Costa have free reign to bomb up the sides and put in crosses.
Even the first names off the bench have become predictable in a good way. Preston Judd gives the number nine role a needed change of pace, part battering-ram and reliable option for an out-ball. Ditto for the speedy Ousseni Bouda, who has finally found his footing with the Quakes under Arena this year, and also just signed a two-year extension last month. Thirty-five Amahl Pellegrino has even been trusted when Martinez and Arango have missed time.
That’s six forwards and two midfielders before we get to the name of Hernan Lopez, who came into this year expected to be San Jose’s best, most important player. After beginning the season penciled in as a starter, the 24-year-old Argentine missed two months with a shoulder injury. By the time he returned to the team in May (just in time to face Lionel Messi), his teammates had already played their way into their demanding coach’s trust. The last time Arena played Lopez in a game was in a 2-1 loss to St. Louis just before the break.
Now, he’s no longer on the team, reportedly going out on loan, back home, to Argentinos Juniors. Even if the move was not surprising, it still amounted to an about-face for an organization that, just last year, broke its club-record transfer fee for the player.
When asked about Lopez after San Jose’s 1-1 draw to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, a terse Arena refused to comment on the pending transaction, but he needed not to. For weeks, his team, through its performances, spoke for him.
In their last 12 games, the Quakes have picked up points in 11 of them, which by last year’s standards is a success in its own right. With just over a dozen games to play in the regular season, San Jose has seven wins, seven draws, and seven losses — which places them right in the thick of the Western Conference’s playoff berths.
They’re not only a tough team to beat but aesthetically pleasing to watch, as evidenced by the 17,580 fans that showed up for Match Day 21 at PayPal Park on Saturday. This despite the congested soccer calendar which brought two other competitions to the region.
Simply put, the Quakes create chances, and plenty of them. According to FBref, San Jose now leads the entire league in both shots (330) and shots on-target (117). While cynics could argue that a handful of lop-sided results might skew the stats, the sample size is to the point now where it can no longer be considered trivial. The Quakes xG (41.2) is also four points higher than any other team in the league.
Arena’s system is a great fit for this collection of players. Under his instruction, the team doesn’t much prefer passing side-to-side, but rather looks to attack vertically as often as it can. The three forwards play tucked in, and combined with the high-line of everyone else behind them, are able to create the little triangles and two-on-one moments that create goal-scoring looks.
Even when the Quakes went a man down in the 63rd minute against New York, the coach stayed aggressive and brought on three attacking-minded players (Judd, Bouda and Benji Kikanovic) to continue to chase the game. “We play to win the game,” Arena told me afterwards.
While his tried and true methodology is a surefire way to stack up regular season points, still, there are concerns about whether the best players on this team have enough game-breaking talent in them to get results in tight games or in the postseason. Arango, Martinez and Espinoza are all north of 30 years old.
They got a reminder of that in the 18th minute, when New York’s Swedish star Emil Forsberg crossed up two defenders in the box and scored. Same thing for star Marco Reus, who equalized for the Galaxy a week before that, in front of 50,000-plus fans at Stanford Stadium.
The Quakes spent big to bring in a magician of their own too. But in the end, found that they didn’t need him anymore.
About the Author: Kevin V. Nguyen is a business and sports journalist based in the Bay Area. Follow him on X/Twitter @KevinNguyen_89 or on Bluesky @kevinvnguyen.bsky.social
