After the MLS 20th Anniversary celebrations last week, the San Jose Earthquakes hit the road to take on league leaders FC Dallas in Frisco, Texas. Dallas took seven points of a possible nine from San Jose last year and the Toros are on a tear to start the 2016 campaign with 10 points through five matches and a current three match unbeaten run. The Quakes were left disappointed after dropping points at home to D.C. United last week and will have a difficult task to take home three points this week.
Simon Dawkins was missing from last week’s match for San Jose, serving a red card suspension from San Jose’s 3-0 loss in Los Angeles, and will return to the lineup this week. Where he’ll start the match though could be in question after strong performances from Tommy Thompson, Matias Perez Garcia, and Alberto Quintero. It’s possible that coach Dominic Kinnear will start Dawkins on the bench but it seems more likely that he’ll replace Quintero or Thompson in the starting lineup.
Dallas should have Mauro Diaz back from injury after missing one match due to leg tightness which will add another attacking option to an already deep squad. Maxi Urruti, Michael Barrios, Victor Ulloa, and Tesho Akindele, who came off the bench to score the Toros’ lone goal in the draw against Columbus, are all capable of scoring in bunches and the addition of Diaz to the lineup will only make them more dangerous. Expect Diaz to set up multiple chances and be the main facilitator for Dallas against San Jose.
The Quakes will also need to improve on their set piece and cross defense against Dallas. The absence of Clarence Goodson and Jordan Stewart to injuries has a lot to do with this issue, but a running issue for the Quakes seems to be defenders losing their marks on balls crossed into the box.
D.C.’s goal last week was a perfect example of this as Patrick Nyarko made a wide open run through the center of the box to give United an early lead in San Jose. With the offensive firepower that Dallas has, San Jose could end up conceding multiple goals if they can fix those issues.
It will be interesting to see who Dallas coach Oscar Pareja will start in goal against San Jose after Chris Seitz put in a fantastic performance against Columbus to add to his shutout the match before. He was initially filling in for starting ‘keeper Jesse Gonzalez who was resting after returning late from Portugal after playing with Mexico’s U23 squad but may have earned the starting spot with his latest performance.
On the other side of that coin the 20-year-old homegrown player, Gonzalez, has shown that he can be one of the better keepers in the league, registering seven shutouts in 14 starts for Dallas. But he’s also shown he can be rattled; on the road in Houston, Gonzalez gave up five goals to the Texas Derby rivals thanks to unrelenting pressure from the Dynamo. He’s recovered well since then, posting a shutout against Montreal before leaving for international duty, but sometimes an absence is all a backup needs to take over the starting spot.
Dallas will host San Jose at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas Saturday, April 9th at 6 pm PT and will be broadcast on TXA-21 in Dallas and CSN-CA in San Jose.
San Jose Earthquakes
FC Dallas
