Chris Wondolowski celebrates his second goal of the MLS is Back tournament. The Earthquakes lost in the quarterfinals of the tournament to Minnesota United, falling 0-4-0 to them in all competitions since 2019. Image credit MLSsoccer.com.
The consensus in San Jose seems to be that the Earthquakes had a successful time in Orlando at the MLS is Back Tournament. They played Seattle to an awkward draw, beat the tar out of Vancouver (once you remove the self-inflicted errors), Chicago, and Real Salt Lake (the last two are probably the closest to “peer” teams that San Jose faced at the tournament), and got totally done in – yet again – by Minnesota United. Seven regular season points, two more goals for Wondo to tack to his record, and a slew of yellow shorts emojis. Not a bad haul for a summer tournament.
It was also, for many of us, a chance to learn something new about these Earthquakes. The first couple of games of the 2020 season were dreary and a long time ago, and it was interesting to see how San Jose would respond to months of education in Mathias Almeyda’s system. It was a bit of a check-up on the State of the Quakes.
1. Jackson Yueill is Ready
Nobody on San Jose stood out to me more in tournament than Jackson Yueill. The 23-year-old proved in 2019 that he could pick out a pass and dictate the tempo on the front foot. At MLS is Back, he was gritty on defense and able to transition from defense to attack in a couple of touches — and be ready to stop counters if it didn’t work out for San Jose. Check this out, 30’ into the first match and after less than two weeks of full-field practice:
The pass to release Vako is a bit off. Months away from soccer will do that. But to set up the break, and then to hold up Seattle enough for Vako to take a tactical foul and earn a reset, is the sort of cagey game management that you want to see from an elite central midfielder.
Vancouver, Chicago, and RSL all tried to rattle La JoYa (can this stick? It should totally stick), all to no avail. He was able to keep his body around some pretty aggressive challenges, and to keep possession too.
He is far from a finished product and certainly has his athletic limitations, but there is no doubt in my mind he is the most important player on this current San Jose side. Everyone else has an in-house replacement, but I just don’t see San Jose keeping 60% possession with anyone else at the pivot.
Which leads to the question: Jackson Yueill is ready for what? He is probably the USMNT’s top #6 right now and will be leading them in Olympic qualifying. At 23 he’s a bit old for a huge transfer to Europe a la Brandon Aaronson, but a great Olympics and World Cup in a Yanks shirt could change that.
Something that Joel Soria mentioned on Black and Azul last year, and something I think about a lot, is how Yueill has this very Latino style of play: he sees the game as geometry and isn’t afraid to get CONCACAF-y when necessary. He reminds me a bit of how Anibal Godoy looked when he came to San Jose at age 25. Yueill’s never going to have the defensive chops of El Samurai, but he can be the boss of a game in MLS and be a key player in Mexico or a lower league in Europe. Sascha Kljestan, another college player, left MLS at age 25 for Anderlecht in Belgium and came back five years later with dozens of Champions League appearances.
It’s easy to forget how young Godoy and Kljestan were able to absolutely take over matches. I could see the same progress for Yueill in the leadup to the 2022 World Cup, and I hope he goes to Qatar (well, I hope the 2022 World Cup happens) representing the Earthquakes.
2. This Team Needs a Plan C in Attack
For much of 2019, San Jose more or less did the same thing every game:
- Put 8-to-9 guys in front of the ball, as spread out as possible.
- Go from touchine to touchline trying to get overloads or catch the defense scrambling
- Get from touchline to endline and hit Wondo on the pullback
This, more or less, worked! Espinoza and Eriksson had a billion assists, and San Jose won what seemed, after 2018, like a billion games.
Teams eventually realized they could just double both Espinoza and Vako and neutralize this, however, so San Jose brought in Andy Rios to be a target striker. That first goal against Chicago, which started off Rios’ chest, is basically what he’s there to do (at 3:07 of the clip below):
Rios is kind of a weird center forward, and I thought he’d play for as a #10 for this team. Whatever his role, he’s not a game-changer on his own.
Minnesota was able to neutralize San Jose pretty effectively. This screenshot (which actually comes from a positive play, hitting Tommy Thompson on the touchline) shows how:
Minnesota sat in a mid-block press and stuck Robin Lod and Jacori Hayes on Yueill and Magnus Eriksson, keeping them receiving the ball with their backs to goal for much of the first half. When the ball went from the midfield to Kashia/Alanis/Vega, MNUFC snapped the press and pressured these guys. They bet that San Jose would rather hold the ball between their central midfielders, fullbacks, and center backs than to chuck long balls to Rios. They were right. Rios had the fewest touches and fewest duels he’s had all season.
Not every team has a midfield as industrious as Minnesota’s but every team watched how Minnesota just put San Jose’s attack on mute. So the Earthquakes need to figure out how to fight back.
My first thoughts, and I’m not a coach, are either they need a better ballplaying defense (to weave through the press) or a more vertical threat on the forward line (to keep the press honest). By sheer coincidence I assure you, these two strategies dovetail with two of the things Earthquakes fans are screaming for the most: replacing Vako with Shea Salinas and/or Cade Cowell, or replacing Kashia/Vega with Jungwirth/Marcinkowski. Each has its downsides, but something better change by the next time San Jose faces Minnesota.
3. This Team Needs a Plan B in Defense
A great tool that I have access to thanks to our Patreon backers is Wyscout, a statistical database of basically all soccer actions that occur on a field anywhere in the world. Judson’s statsheet basically looks like a casino slot machine:
As Colin Etnire wrote, it really is as simple as Judson.
But Minnesota was able take him out of the equation on their way to scoring four, as you can see in that spreadsheet above. As part of their strategy of man-marking Yueill and Magnus and pressing the centerbacks, they obligated Judson to step up and become a bigger part of the offense. Check out his heat map (where he was located) against Minnesota:
Compared to his heat map against Salt Lake:
This didn’t just help Minnesota because Judson is the worst passer in the midfield trio. It also meant that when MNUFC hit the counter, Judson was out of position to be a safety valve in defense because he was contributing to the attack. Judson was chasing folks downfield instead of moving laterally to snuff out counters.
Again, not every team is going to be able to pull a Minnesota. But every team wants the ball at Judson’s feet, not Yueill’s or Eriksson’s. Again, maybe a more mobile defense or a more defensive-minded replacement for another midfielder is an answer. Not to mention, expecting 80’ out of Judson every night in a compressed schedule is rather optimistic. Maybe this is a chance to give Nick Lima minutes there. Let’s remember that it totally should be.
4. Get Ready for JT
There was a weird moment early in the MNUFC match where Vega collided awkwardly with the Loon’s Michael Boxall and the camera cut to JT Marcinkowski taping his gloves on. We were all sort of…excited?
Daniel Vega gets some grief from the San Jose faithful, and I am personally of the opinion that it is 100% unfounded. In a system like Mathias Almeyda’s where you risk getting countered in a flash, and you have a defense that hasn’t played together much, you need a bilingual communicator who is familiar with the system. Vega’s done everything asked of him, saved a few PKs, and been a great on-the-field-coach for San Jose.
All that said, JT Marcinkowski is the future. He is a great passer, which this team needs to go to the next level. He is a budding international, and needs to get games to get sold and make the Earthquakes millions. I understand San Jose not wanting to feed him to the wolves and get Tarbell’d, but for the team to develop, and for him to develop, he needs to get in some games. Let’s hope that happens before 2020 is over.
5) You will miss Magnus Eriksson when he’s gone
On the last Black and Azul episode (editor’s note: episode 47), Alex Morgan put cold water on the Magnus-back-to-Djugardens rumors (he also mispronounced my name while pronouncing Djugardens correctly, but what can you do) (editor’s note: this is a fact). While acknowledging my role as a blogger and not a general manager, I think that San Jose holding up the transfer is something I don’t understand.
MLS is a selling league. For San Jose to compete, they need to be a selling club. Being a selling club is part of Jesse Fioranelli’s vision, as he has stated in comments to this very website.
While part of that is to of course sell players at the right price, part of it also is to give players pathways to brighter lights and greener pastures. Djugardens wants Eriksson as part of their UEFA Champions League selection. An open question I have is: is it more valuable for San Jose in the long term for their young players to play with Magnus Eriksson for the next few months, or is it more valuable for them to see that they could one day follow their teammate to the Champions League?
A wrinkle to this, sadly, is Covid-19. Without knowing what the winter holds, and knowing that Eriksson is from Sweden, has a young family, and probably doesn’t want to spend much more time hanging out in the country that has totally and completely botched the response to a infectious disease, why not allow your captain to follow his dream, go back home, and play in the Champions League? How does making a few hundred thousand dollars, or being slightly more competitive in the rest of this weird, broken, season, compare to fulfilling that promise to a player?
As I said, I don’t understand it. I do, however, understand that Eriksson really brings something unique to this San Jose side. He has an uncanny sense of timing and space that, while it doesn’t always look elegant, has really good results. He has been able to find Espinoza and Thompson in really good spots throughout the past season-and-a-bit, and the trio’s dominance of that side of the pitch has been at times the only source of joy for Quakes fans.
The upcoming roster churn is something we are all familiar with. It is very likely that this team’s highly-paid attackers (Vako and Danny Hoesen) are in their last season with the Quakes, and there are more spots available as well. This gives some flexibility over the summer, and there is a fair bit of excitement to see where San Jose goes with their next big signing. Not just because big signings are always fun, but because it will show where Fioranelli and Almeyda envision this side going.
No matter when he goes, though, this fanbase is going to miss Magnus Eriksson when he’s elsewhere. There are in-house replacements, and I would be curious to see what any of Gilbert Fuentes, Eric Calvillo, or Jack Skahan bring to the role (my personal choice is Calvillo, who is more tenacious defensively and more athletic, which may help shore up some of the deficiencies mentioned in #3 about San Jose’s defense).
None of them are the progressive-passing maven that Magnus has shown to be, even if they have assets he lacks. The post-Magnus Quakes will be the end of an era, even if – truth be told – I am excited to see the next version of this side.
