San Jose’s Turnaround Complete
Five matches unbeaten and climbing the Western Conference table, San Jose arrives at this weekend’s fixture against Portland looking nothing like the team that opened August with four straight losses. Bruce Arena’s group sits fifth in the West, only two points off the second seed, a swing few would have predicted a month ago.
The turnaround crystallized last Saturday. Down two goals at home to a 10-man LAFC side, the Earthquakes came back to draw 2-2, Preston Judd scoring his team-leading 13th goal of the season before Reid Roberts equalized in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time. “Through that bad stretch, it almost felt like we would’ve probably lost that game,” Judd said afterward. “But I think we’ve turned it around.”
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Portland Arrives Short-Handed
Portland’s playoff position is more fragile than San Jose’s surge suggests. The Timbers hold the ninth and final Western Conference berth by the width of a tiebreaker, ahead of Seattle only on total wins after a 1-0 home defeat to Atlanta United last weekend. Manager Marti Cifuentes now has to solve a center-back puzzle without either of his usual starters: Finn Surman is out four to six weeks with an MCL sprain suffered in Tuesday’s training, and Joel Waterman serves a one-match suspension for yellow-card accumulation.
“I don’t like the mentality about feeling sorry for ourselves,” Cifuentes said this week. “I don’t like the mentality of thinking everything is dark.” It is the kind of message a coach delivers when his roster options have thinned considerably with three games left to shore up a playoff spot that has looked secure and shaky in the same week.
Records Tell Two Different Stories
San Jose sits at 12-8-6 for 42 points; Portland is 9-12-5 for 32. The gap in the standings mirrors the gap in confidence heading into Saturday night, even if Cifuentes’ sides have made a habit this season of grinding out results with a patched-together back line. For the Earthquakes, one-goal wins over San Diego and second-place Houston in their last three matches suggest the summer collapse is finally behind them, not just papered over for a week.
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