A moment for the third kits: I don’t know if I’ve seen a better throwback kit in ANY sport than San Jose’s Heritage kit.  It’s the perfect mix of vintage 90’s vibes in modern elegance, and it pays a wonderful homage to the club’s former Clash name (see how creative that lead is now?).  They’re easily the best of all the MLS editions and I don’t know if there’s a close second.  Okay enough of the fashion takes.

In soccer there’s a couple guidelines that are commonly communicated when it comes to timing:

The first one is self explanatory, really.  You want to start the game well and no matter if you’re leading, tied, or chasing the game, you definitely don’t want to concede in the final five minutes (there’s a bunch of scenarios that I could give you to break those down, but they seem pretty obvious).  The second one is a little more detailed.  Picture it: you’ve just scored, excellent.  One thing you know for sure is that it’s a guarantee you’ve pissed off your opponent— They’re going to come after you and they want to do it as soon as possible.  You’re also on a high! You’ve gone up 1-0 or whatever the score is, but now is when you’re at your most vulnerable.  San Jose broke this rule not once, but twice on their travels to Seattle.

It seems like everyone is adopting this new opening kickoff routine made famous by Paris Saint-Germain.  San Jose isn’t the first team to do it in MLS, and we’ll talk through that one more in the analysis (hint: it’s not pretty, but it’s effective if you do it well). After some preliminal pressure from San Jose, Jordan Morris had a golden opportunity for a dream start just 45 seconds into the game.  A breakaway chance saw his effort go wide, and Seattle would be happy with the start, however it was San Jose who broke the tie first.  Preston Judd found the end of a Jamar Ricketts cross in the 26th minute,  capitalizing on some poor marking in the box.  Judd makes clever runs, and he’s a handful.  He’s got a bit of Brian White in him, he’s big, strong, a willing runner, and he’s got a nose for goal in the box.  Immediately off the ensuing kickoff, San Jose barely touched the ball before goalkeeper Daniel was picking the ball out of his own net.  Danny Musovski rose above Dave Romney and Daniel, and connected on a teasing ball from Albert Rusnak to draw the match level.  Only a few minutes after that, Jon Bell had a chance to put the hosts ahead, but his header found the crossbar.  Daniel made a nice save deep in to first half stoppage time, getting down low to his near post to deny Rusnak a chance to put Sounders ahead before the break.

In the second half, the Moose was certainly set loose as they say, as Danny Musovski headed home his second goal of the game.  His brace wouldn’t be the winner, however, when Chicho Arango was first to react after Sounders goalkeeper brilliantly saved a San Jose set piece off the post.  Thomas has been a great fill in for recovering Stefan Frei, making big saves in big moments that have either kept Seattle in games or kept them in a winning position.  He’d have his save later in this one as well.  Within five minutes of scoring, San Jose again conceded.  Pedro De La Vega finished off a great solo run with a stunning finish, curling his effort into the far post from outside the box.  A few minutes into stoppage time San Jose had their final chance at an equalizer.  Cristian Espinoza curled a free kick off the crossbar from long distance, and an acrobatic bicycle kick from Josef Martinez was saved brilliantly by Andrew Thomas (even if it might have been offside) directly after.

Seattle rose to 4th in the Western Conference standings, even though LAFC still has games in hand.  They’ll make the long trip to Atlanta on Saturday to take on the struggling 5 Stripes.  San Jose is holding onto the final playoff spot in the West in a tight lower half of the table, with a real six pointer at Salt Lake on the docket for the weekend.  Real Salt Lake sit one spot behind the Quakes for that coveted final spot, although they do have one game in hand.

The Seattle Sounders have been a successful team in MLS for almost a decade.  They’ve won MLS Cup twice (2016 & 2019) and been in another two finals (2017 & 2020) in the last decade, and were the first MLS team to win the Concacaf Champions Cup (2022).  The Sounders have always had a competitive roster, and their system has been similar for a long time now.  Albert Rusnak turned out to be an incredible signing in 2022 after he was somehow let go by Real Salt Lake.  Their former captain, Nico Lodeiro, was still around but at that stage of his career he was mostly coming off the bench and contributing when he was needed.  The club legends Jordan Morris and Cristian Roldan have been in the Pacific Northwest for over a decade now, and have shown their ability to lead the Sounders as well.

One thing to note about the way Seattle plays is to show how aggressive they attack the opponent’s back line.  San Jose has been shaky at best at the back this season, and Seattle entered the game immediately challenging the Earthquake defenders with aggressive runs and direct balls in behind.  Jordan Morris almost put one on the board for the home team in the first 45 seconds, flipping the script on San Jose’s copycat opening kickoff routine off a direct ball in behind.  Here’s a clip.  Do me a favor the first time you watch it, don’t watch the ball.  Simply watch the forwards and count how many times they start to run in behind.  Every time a Seattle midfielder gets the ball facing forward, there’s a run in behind.  Most of the time, the runner isn’t rewarded with a pass, but watch the defenders.  They’re forced to drop with the runners, respecting that a direct ball could come at any moment, thus opening space in between the lines.

This isn’t a random trend for the Sounders either, it’s very deliberate.  Over the course of a game, teams are forced to adjust in one way or another.  Sometimes, the back line begins to drop earlier, allowing Seattle to start playing in the space between the defenders and midfielders.  More often, however, defenders start to get lazy tracking runners who never get the direct passes over the top, and then Seattle find themselves completely in on goal, like their second on the weekend.

Alright let’s take a quick moment to talk about San Jose’s kickoff routine.  There’s been many iterations of it throughout history really, but if you haven’t seen it, here’s PSG doing the same thing:

The entire idea is to pin your opponent deep in their own end and immediately set up your press.  It’s not attractive to look at by any means.  The team who elects to kick off the game literally forgoes starting with possession and gives it up to the other team, allowing them the chance to break the press and create an opportunity.  Sure, if you do it right you may create a chance for yourself, but in reality nothing much ever comes from it.

San Jose has an interesting style.  Since Bruce Arena has taken charge, they’ve built a pretty nice roster.  Cristian Espinoza is a bonafide star in the league, so it’s always nice when you can inherit him.  Arena made trades for a large group of his ex-New England Revolution players to bring with him as well.  Center back journeyman Dave Romney made the trip across the country as well as Ian Harkes, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Nick Lima, Earl Edwards Jr. and more recently, young up and comer Noel Buck.  A new look roster also includes strikers Josef Martinez and Chicho Arango.  Perhaps the brightest spot on the completely revamped squad is youngster Beau Leroux.  The 21 year old has played in all 24 games for San Jose this year, scoring four goals and adding three assists.

Wow, that’s a lot of turnover, and it’s showed at times.  The Quakes have been inconsistent to say they least, and they’re a bit of an all or nothing team.  They frequently find themselves in high scoring, back and forth matches, confirming the unbalance in the roster.  They’re third in MLS in goals per match (1.9), but 25th in goals conceded per match (1.8).

San Jose are a fun team to watch as a neutral for a multitude of reasons, but one thing is for sure, they’re never out of the game.  Per footystats.org, 24% of San Jose’s goals have been scored between the 81st and 90th minute.  Here’s another fun chart:

San Jose are nearly TWICE as likely to score three or more goals in a match than they are to score two or one.

To close all this out, I’ll simply say that I’ve seen San Jose dismantle teams on their day, but I’ve also seen them really struggle against some inferior opposition.  Down the stretch, expect that they’ll be fun, but take every important game like a box of chocolates, because you truly never know what you’re going to get.