Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting San Jose Earthquakes 🔎
Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting San Jose Earthquakes 🔎
FC Dallas has to find a win on the road.
The regular season is getting close to its end for FC Dallas. This week begins an important stretch that sees them hit the road for two do-or-die type of games against conference opponents.
Up first, is a trip to Northern California to take on the new Wooden Spoon winners for 2024, the San Jose Earthquakes.
The Quakes are coming off a pretty ugly 3-0 loss last weekend to Montreal and are looking to avoid some history in the final three games of their season.
Key Player: Cristian Espinoza
In a season where things have gone really bad for San Jose, Espinoza still remains one of the more consistent players in MLS. At four goals and 13 assists, the attack will still flow through him.
Key Matchup: Hernán López vs Asier Illarramendi
Dallas looked absolutely lost in the midfield and in defense last weekend versus Orlando with Illarramendi suspended. He’ll be back for this one and will be tasked to shut down the Quakes newest Designated Player, Lopez, who was signed after these two met earlier this season.
Availability Report1:
Suspended: none
Out2: Michael Baldisimo (lower body injury), Ousseni Bouda (lower body injury), Preston Judd (upper body injury), Benji Kikanović (lower body injury), JT Marcinkowski (lower body injury), Will Richmond (lower body injury), Jamar Ricketts (lower body injury), Bruno Wilson (lower body injury)
Questionable: Daniel Britto (lower body injury)
On Loan: none
International duty: none
Quick Notes:
Wooden Spooners: San Jose has 18 points on the season. Yeah, 18 total points. With three games left, they only need a win to avoid hitting the league’s all-time worse mark of 20 points that FC Cincinnati set in 2021.
Futility History: Along with the rough record and point total this season, San Jose is also close to becoming the worst defense in league history. They’ve given up 72 goals this season. That is a little over two goals given up a game. Just…yikes.
Recent run against FC Dallas: FC Dallas picked up a super late win in their previous meeting with the Quakes, way back at the season opener. Dante Sealy (yeah, remember him?) scored a last-minute goal to seal a come-from-behind win for Dallas.
Potential Lineup:
The Quakes are now playing for contracts, so all bets may be off on who they may actually start in this one.
Daniel; Costa, Rodrigues, Munie, Akapo; Tsakiris, Gruezo; Pellegrino, Lopez, Espinoza; Ebobisse
Keys To Three Points over San Jose
Use the pressure of the moment - We’ve talked a lot already this week about how FC Dallas needs a miracle to reach the playoffs this season. They have to win here and hope other teams lose to continue having a shot at things. With that will come some pressure on the players to perform at their best. For a change, FC Dallas needs to lean into that pressure and find ways to make the most of this opportunity.
Pressure their crappy defense - The Quakes give up goals. Lots of them. Dallas finally has their three-headed attack of Petar Musa, Alan Velasco and Jesus Ferreira available. It is time to really see what those three are able to do together in a game like this.
Don’t get stretched - We’ve seen far too often this season that the Dallas defense can get stretched out in and around their penalty box. Even though the Quakes have been a dumpster fire this season as a team, they do still have some attacking players that can cause a ton of headaches if given the space. We saw in the previous meeting back in February how good Espinoza can be at pulling defenders wide. If Dallas doesn’t limit what he is able to do, don’t be shocked if the Quakes sneak in a goal or two.
Note: MLS has a new injury report deadline: the day before each game. For now, I will include last week's injury report in our weekly scouting reports.
Yes, this is how San Jose displays their injury report. Not a ton of details from them.