June 27, 2015: San Jose Earthquakes defender Clarence Goodson (21) celebrates scoring in the second half, with the fans surrounding him, during the game between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Los Angeles Galaxy at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California, USA. The San Jose Earthquakes won 3-1.
After a perfect 2 game road trip, the San Jose Earthquakes return home to kick off MLS Rivalry Week against the Los Angeles Galaxy. With wins over Sporting Kansas City and D.C. United, the Quakes are now in a tie with Seattle for 6th in the West but sit 7th because of tiebreaker rules. The Galaxy’s current 4 game win streak has put them at the top of the Supporters’ Shield standings but still have Vancouver hot on their heels coming into the 3rd meeting of the California Classico this season.
Two weeks ago, San Jose looked to be struggling just to hold on to 9th place after an uninspiring 1-0 win over last place Colorado. Now they look like a brand new team capable of making a run into the playoffs, and it started with the addition of Anibal Godoy. Undefeated with Godoy in the lineup, San Jose have scored 8 goals in 3 games while remaining flawless in defense. They’ll need a similar performance to handle the Galaxy’s league leading attack, a goal scoring machine tallying 49 goals through 27 matches. Gio dos Santos and Steven Gerrard have added to an already dangerous attack and it will be up to Godoy and his midfield partner Fatai Alashe to slow down the LA attack.
Moving Chris Wondolowski back up top with Quincy Amarikwa has paid off for the Quakes as he scored 3 goals on the road trip and returned to being one of the most dangerous strikers in the league. While Wondo might not have the best footwork or ability to create his own shots, his knack for finding open space in front of goal and has opened up the attack for San Jose again. If there’s one area that the Galaxy lack in, it’s in defense and San Jose will need the Amarikwa-Wondolowski pairing to continue to produce chances and create problems against a shaky backline.
It’s no secret that the Galaxy have a plethora of attacking options in Robbie Keane, Gyasi Zardes, Sebastian Lletget, Juninho, Gerrard, and dos Santos. The Galaxy are more than capable of winning games by simply scoring in bunches and letting opponents try and keep up. They’ll have chances against a good San Jose defense that has been prone to make mistakes, even during their 3 straight clean sheets. With so many attacking options, expect LA to try and overwhelm the Quakes and recreate the 5-2 performance from San Jose’s last trip to LA.
So far this season the Cali Classico has been split at 1 game apiece with both home teams scoring impressive wins. San Jose will be hoping to have Matias Perez Garcia back to continue that streak and continue the Quakes’ success at Avaya Stadium. The Galaxy are no easy task though and the league leaders will look to flip the script in their second visit to the Bay Area and their first to Avaya Stadium. Historically, this rivalry has produced some wild matches and unpredictable scorelines and as both teams make a hard push towards the playoffs, expect another wild match from these two heated rivals.
The California Classico will be nationally broadcast on UniMas, Friday, August 28th at 8 p.m. PDT from Avaya Stadium in San Jose.
