Eleven years after they opened PayPal Park, the San Jose Earthquakes will finally get to host a postseason game in their home stadium.
Well, technically they do — because after Wednesday’s 2-2 draw against the Colorado Rapids, the furthest down the standings the Quakes can fall to in the Western Conference, after the regular season ends, is the eighth seed, which means they would host the play-in game against the ninth.
“Can we have a parade for that?” quipped Bruce Arena, whose sarcasm fittingly contrasted the giant word “CLINCHED” flashing on the stadium’s giant screens above.
After all, this is what the 75-year-old coach was hired for. To raise the team’s standards while patching up its floor. He’s won more MLS Cups than anybody. Getting to the playoffs is usually just the start. But for more than a decade and a half, Quakes fans haven’t been able to even dream that far. The team has been stranded in the league’s periphery — beaten up by rivals in the games that mattered most and passed up by bigger spending expansion teams.
In Arena’s second season at the helm, San Jose will finish with a winning record. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve been playing winning soccer consistently. In fact, the restart after the World Cup has mostly been a struggle, consisting of 3 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses, with two more games left to play.
Because of injuries, form, and opponents’ tactical adjustments — the team that started the year winning nine out of its first 10 no longer plays that way. It was scintillating in the start, watching Niko Tsakiris and Preston Judd press unwitting teams into oblivion. But the Quakes in recent weeks have shifted to a much more defensive structure, playing with three in the back and relying on more build-up play and set pieces.
Although he’d never say so publicly, Arena switched tactics in order to stem the bleeding from a putrid run of results in July and August, which culminated in an embarrassing 5-1 loss to Minnesota United at home. Following a month of losses, the Quakes went undefeated through September and early October, mostly keeping a tight defense.
But in the process, the offense dulled. Timo Werner, who was brought in to be a talismanic force a la Son Heung-min or Antoine Griezmann, struggled to influence games the same way he did before and just after the World Cup. His last goal came via a penalty in that aforementioned loss to Minnesota on Aug. 22.
The 30-year-old German shifted from a secondary striker role back to the left wing on Wednesday and provided an assist on the Quakes’ first goal. To make way for this change, Arena dropped center back Dave Romney to the bench and put Ouesseni Bouda on the opposite side.
Werner had a genuine scoring opportunity when he was released down the flank by Bouda in the 70th minute. His low, curling shot forced a twitch save from Nicolas Hansen, who nearly put it into the path of Judd.
Moments later, Werner was shown a red card for making illegal contact with the referee and was forced to leave the match. Most people in the stadium and even the Apple TV telecast didn’t even see what had happened. Just as he’s finding any semblance of form, Werner might be suspended.
“I don’t believe that’s striking a referee,” Arena said. “That’s ridiculous. We’ve got to consider appealing that.”
The Rapids, who are battling for one of the West’s play-in spots below San Jose and are undergoing larger roster change, returned the favor in the 74th minute with their own red card, issued to Kosi Thompson for impeding a clear scoring opportunity by Judd.
The visitors equalized in the first half, and briefly had the lead in the second half after scoring in between the red cards. Their star striker Rafael Navarro is gone (to St. Louis), but 25-year-old Morgan Whittaker, who starred for a Middlesbrough team that almost got promoted to the Premier League last year, looks like the real deal. He sliced through the Quakes’ center backs in the 25th minute in open play and scored a goal that Angus Gunn had no shot at saving.
Despite going down a man, Arena stuck with a four-man back line for the entire game. The overlapping of fullbacks and wingers created a steady steam of chances in the box. For his part, Jack Jasinski played an incredible game. The rookie defender was given rein to charge forward and roam into empty spaces.
Eventually, he scored the equalizer in the 82nd with a header assisted by Tsakiris, who is returning from yet another injury. He’s only made 21 appearances this season.
“I think we looked a bit more direct than we have in recent games,” Jasinski said.
The return of Tsakiris from injury introduces another riddle Arena and this squad must solve. In the beginning of the year, the number 10 was the creative and defensive fulcrum of the team. But since then, the team traded for Eduard Löwen, bringing the count of starting midfielders to four.
Does Arena figure out a way to fit them all into a starting lineup? Does he even want to? Will they even be available for him to experiment in order to make that choice?
These are all open questions as the Quakes prepare for their first MLS Playoffs since the David Beckham era and Buck Shaw stadium.
For now, at least the floor is a platform to do something. To make a mark in what’s otherwise been a forgettable era.
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
