Avaya Stadium: The San Jose Earthquakes 3-2 victory over Minnesota United FC in the 2018 MLS Season opener.
It was an Opening Night to remember for the San Jose Earthquakes and one to mostly forget for Minnesota United. The Earthquakes carried their strong preseason momentum into Avaya Stadium and knifed apart a Minnesota United defense that was coming off an inaugural season in which they allowed an MLS record 70 goals.
Anyone who was in attendance for that 3-2 Earthquakes win, which was not nearly as close as the score might indicate, would look at you in disbelief if you told them that at the two team’s next meeting Minnesota United would be sitting in the middle of the table in the Western Conference while the Earthquakes would not have won another game since that night. That look of disbelief would get even bigger if you told that person that Minnesota would be doing it without Kevin Molino, who scored two late goals in the opener to make things interesting, or Ethan Finlay, both with torn ACL’s.
That is the scenario the two squads find themselves in when they come together on Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium in their second and final meeting of the season.
The Loons come into the match off a midweek loss to Los Angeles FC, that saw Coach Adrian Heath roll out a new formation that was built with the double game week in mind. With a depleted midfield and a travel week, the Loons went to a 4-3-3 that featured Miguel Ibarra and Alexi Gomex up top with newly acquired Darwin Quintero while leaving Ibson at home and Colleen Warner on the bench. The results were mixed as the team struggled to adjust to a new formation, but did make it difficult on the LAFC attack. With this match marking the first of a three game home stand, expect the Loons to back to their familiar 4-2-3-1.
Avaya Stadium: The San Jose Earthquakes 3-2 victory over Minnesota United FC in the 2018 MLS Season opener.
The Earthquakes come limping into the match having taken just two points from the seven games they’ve played since that Opening Night clash. In their last match, the Quakes battled valiantly before giving up a late free kick outside the box to Diego Valeri, which the reigning MLS MVP put into the back of the net to extend the Quakes misery and leave the team struggling to find answers, as last Saturday’s game was the first time the Quakes have been shut out in MLS play this season and their -4 goal differential is less than the -6 that Minnesota comes into this match with.
After last Saturday’s match, the message delivered by Earthquakes Coach Mikael Stahre said that they had to analyze the match and make the adjustments from there. The Quakes have the talent, but have not been able to put anything together that should scare anybody since after the 60th minute of opening night, now more than two months ago.
Avaya Stadium: The San Jose Earthquakes 3-2 victory over Minnesota United FC in the 2018 MLS Season opener.
Minnesota, meanwhile, was expected to continue to contend for the Wooden Spoon once again after a less than spectacular debut season last year. But Adrian Heath has built a squad that has developed a decent chemistry and pulled some surprising results in the first part of this season. The Loons have added Designated Player Darwin Quintero, who has two goals in his first five matches since joining the team in mid-April from Club America.
It’s hard to find much optimism for San Jose in this match with the kickoff scheduled for an earlier than normal on their bodies 11am Pacific Time kick and a road form that hasn’t seen them get blown out as badly as they were last season, but has still found only one point. It’s still too early for Minnesota to be turning many heads, but the longer they can hold down a spot in the top six, that could change sooner rather than later.
San Jose Earthquakes
Minnesota United FC
