Photo credit: ISI Photos / San Jose Earthquakes
There’s been plenty of praise to go around for the San Jose Earthquakes after their first four regular-season games of the year. With three wins and a loss, they currently sit second place in the MLS standings and are rapidly climbing MLSSoccer.com’s power rankings. Obviously, Cade Cowell and Chris Wondolowski have been at the center of attention because of their goalscoring performances in San Jose’s victories over FC Dallas, DC United, and Real Salt Lake, which earned them back-to-back MLS Player of the Week honors. However, a third player has also received plaudits for his exciting performances in central midfield: Eric Remedi.
Remedi wasn’t slated to play a starting role for the Quakes when he was signed from Atlanta United in mid-February. Matias Almeyda, who is highly involved in most of San Jose’s transfer business, wasn’t even in the country when the Quakes learned of Remedi’s availability and negotiated the transfer because he had to tend to his father, who passed away from Covid in Argentina a few weeks later. Originally, Remedi was expected to feature as a substitute behind Jackson Yueill and Judson in the depth chart, but was thrown into the starting lineup on opening day because Judson was unfit, having missed most of preseason while the club worked to secure his green card.
Remedi is not a like-for-like replacement for Judson, but he has done a good enough job in replicating the Brazilian’s most important job: protecting the back-line.
Last season, the Quakes were utterly helpless without Judson and Yueill playing together in the midfield, shipping eighteen goals and earning just one point in the four games that one of them was missing. Judson was particularly important for his defensive contributions, closing passing lanes, shutting down counter-attacks, and putting out all kinds of other fires in the middle of the field. Luis Felipe, their backup midfielder, was a huge step down in talent and didn’t have the mobility or defensive awareness to play the role.
My colleague at Quakes Epicenter, Colin Etnire, explained at length why Judson was so important for the Quakes last year.
All of which makes it a huge surprise that the Quakes are now able to win without Judson in there. MLSSoccer.com analyst Matt Doyle went as far as to say that it was the “best news” the Quakes have had this season.
What’s more is that Remedi looks even better than Judson in the offensive phase of play because of his ball-carrying skills. Judson, for all his defensive assets, isn’t much of an offensive threat. Most of his passes are sideways and his main role in possession is to control the ball and recycle the play. His typical passing map looks like this — a lot of passes to Yueill and the center-backs, but not much else:
Remedi, on the other hand, is always looking to charge forward with the ball and break lines.
In this example from the RSL victory, he picks the ball up under pressure and drives forward twenty yards before finding Christian Espinoza, breaking two lines of defense.
This relatively simple run gives Christian Espinoza time to check to the ball and draws out RSL’s defense, creating more space for the forwards in behind. That’s exactly what you want when you have Cade Cowell running the line. The Quakes are most dangerous when they’re playing directly and vertically, and Remedi’s attacking instinct helps them to do that. When people say that they’ve been really impressed with his performances, I think that’s what they’re noticing the most: him picking the ball up in the midfield and starting quick attacks. He is the catalyst for their offense.
When the Quakes were chasing the game against RSL and Almeyda brought on Chris Wondolowski for Tanner Beason, Remedi started dropping even further back in order to pick up the ball and start the attack. According to Matt Doyle’s column, he eliminated more defenders per touch than any other player in the last twenty minutes of the game. The Quakes haven’t really had that kind of midfield ball-carrier since Anibal Godoy’s prime in the Dom Kinnear era.
(For QE patrons, we’ve compiled a video of every one of Remedi’s touches in the RSL game. Contribute $5-a-month to access!)
Of course, it is risky to take on players in the middle, and that risk isn’t always worth it. The Houston Dynamo actually made a pretty good blueprint for how to exploit Remedi’s attacking instinct in their 2-1 win over San Jose on opening day. In the sequence that led to Houston’s opening goal, Remedi tried to step to a ball he couldn’t win, which allowed Houston to play a vertical pass down the middle and attack Florian Jungwirth 1-v-1. For their second goal, forward Maxi Urruti ran right into a pocket of space in front of the center-backs and Remedi was too busy ball-watching to recognize the danger in time.
Remedi was also caught out of position on numerous occasions against Dallas, DC, and RSL, and picked up a yellow card in each game because he has a tendency to make poor, lunging tackles when he gets beat. None of those teams were able to take advantage of Remedi’s defensive weaknesses, but stronger sides that can attack quickly down the middle will have a field day if given those opportunities.
On Wednesday night, the Quakes face one of those teams when they play at the Seattle Sounders at PayPal Park at 7:30pm. Last season, Seattle hammered San Jose 7-1 and 4-1 at CenturyLink Field, although the Quakes held their own in a respectable scoreless draw at home. Seattle might opt to rest some players on Wednesday because they faced the Portland Timbers on Sunday and will have to play LAFC this weekend. However, they will still have more pace and firepower in attack than any team the Quakes have faced yet. In defense, they will also be better equipped to stymie Remedi’s runs with their compact mid-block.
There has been some chatter already about whether Remedi is should be the permanent starter in midfield, demoting Judson to a substitute role. If he can handle those two challenges against Seattle, it’s pretty clear the job is his. However, I suspect that he will struggle, and if that’s the case, then Almeyda will have a lot of decisions to make about team selection. In closer games against more dangerous teams like Seattle, he might prefer Judson’s control in the midfield. If he’s just looking to overrun the opponent as the Quakes have in their last couple of games, Remedi is his man. Almeyda could also start Remedi and Judson together in the midfield and move Jackson Yueill to the number ten position, where the Quakes could better use his eye for goal.
The bottom line is that Remedi gives Quakes a new dimension, another weapon in their armory, and that could be what it takes to turn them into genuine contenders this year.
Huge shoutout to Quakes Epicenter Patrons Matt Richardson and Rene Bahena, who helped translate some of Matias Almeyda’s press conference while I was researching this article.
Photo Credit: ISI Photos / San Jose Earthquakes
