Photo Credit: Aaron Morgan / Quakes Epicenter
A month ago, I wrote that it would be extremely cool if the San Jose Earthquakes got eight points from their next four matches. Well, instead they got three from five. Not even slightly cool.
It has been a deeply agonizing and frustrating four-game losing streak. San Jose has been respectable in the xG battle in all four losses after pulling out a comeback in Salt Lake, but Los Quakes have just been tormented by an inability to put the ball in the net.
| San Jose xG | Opponent xG |
| 1.03 | Seattle: 1.31 |
| 1.56 | Portland: 1.29 |
| 2.19 | Kansas City: 2.16 |
| 1.76 | 1.82 |
Fans have become accustomed to these brutal home losing streaks unfortunately, and some of it is weird cyclical bad runs of form. For example, Cristian Espinoza and Chris Wondolowski are 4th and 5th respectively in ASA’s G-xG, true, but that is as much due to missed penalties as anything. Part of it is also personnel, and because you were thinking it, Andy Rios is 15th in the same category. San Jose is creating good opportunities but, since Real Salt Lake, they simply have not scored. Why is that?
The Accordion Press has worked
The San Jose winning streak was marked by goals in transition, and why not. With Cade Cowell leading the attack, a defense on their heels meant the Earthquakes at their most dangerous. But the Accordion Press that Real Salt Lake’s Freddy Juarez deployed – and others have continued – has forced Cowell to play like a back-to-goal center forward and turned Jackson Yueill into a ball-carrying Vako clone. In other words, it has forced San Jose’s greatest talents to do what they’re worst at.
Tactic 1: Setpiece Like It’s 2019
The traditional way to deal with this sort of defense is to slow the game down and treat them as a bunker. A bunker is defeated with set pieces and disorganization. Back in 2019, San Jose scored on goofy and effective set pieces: guys would run in a clockwork formation, and Nick Lima would be open on the far side with a look at goal. The Earthquakes got away from this in 2020 – most likely just because there wasn’t the practice field time to work on them – but their Literal Only Goal Since Salt Lake:
(side note: there are four offside San Jose attackers when Chofis connects. Nobody’s ready for a rebound if it hits post or Melia gets a hand to it. Wondo would never.)
That shot is clearly something San Jose is leaning on in the early going of the season. “La Chofis” Lopez can work magic from the top of the box:
The stats HATE this, since there are so many bodies between Chofis’ left foot and the goalmouth. ASA has him at only 0.47 xG for the year. But you can’t look at his two goals and help but think, whew, we could use more of that.
All the same, these Earthquakes are not going to be a setpiece team. And the accordion press is different. It’s betting that the defense can respond to the transition before the offense. Best way to beat this is, maybe, just ramping up the transition.
Tactic 2: Send Cowell blindly
So SJ has the best athlete on the field in any MLS match? A guy who thinks he’s the next Kylian Mbappe? Well, make him earn the title.
Maybe the Earthquakes could just lob the ball into Cade’s attacking channel and watch him torture defenders. If he drags 2-3 with him, trust him to find the open guy. If he drags 1 defender, watch that defender get eaten alive. You can mix this with a bit of Tactic 1, which was SJ’s opening strategy in the Cali Clasico:
You can practically see the Galaxy defenders all with little The Sims “!” symbols above their heads. This instance may not have been terribly high-percentage (Wyscout gave Lopez’s attempt a scant .02 xG), but you are basically betting that Cade can out-athlete anyone on the pitch and develop as a chance creator. I, for one, think that is a good bet.
Tactic 3: Wrap around the endline
Dear leader/colleague Jamon Moore loves cutbacks, and it is worth mentioning why they work so well: they get the entire defense off-balance in one fell swoop. Definitionally, a defender can’t see both their man and the ball when the ball is on the endline. Meanwhile, the person with the ball can see everything in front of them. This puts the attack at a tremendous advantage, but it relies on smart off-ball, backside, runs from the ballcarrier’s teammates
This is something else SJ tries a lot, cf., this sequence from early in the Sounders match (starts at 3:00):
There’s a lot to like there, but also a few things to critique: the soft lob from Chofis to Remedi (this team seems to love soft lobs in a way that baffles me. Sure, they look cool, but they also let off-ball defenders reset), Cowell’s sub-optimal footing…it’s the sort of thing that takes organized reps. Particularly of that Tommy Thompson/Chofis/Espinoza triangle that I make so much about. Tommy had a great match with the captain’s armband against Galaxy, and the more he gets to the endline, and the more passes into the penalty box he gets, the more space he makes for his fellow attackers and the better looks San Jose is going to get.
Tactic 4: Just…make weird runs and find them
I have now been writing for Quakes Epicenter for long enough that I’m comfortable quoting myself from a simpler time (January 2020):
In San Jose’s attacking system, it’s the role of the wingers to accrete gravity and draw folks to them. Both Vako and Espinoza excel at drawing defenders. The fullbacks provide interplay to the endline …The CAM has the responsibility to quickly tilt the field away from the winger once they draw defenders, switching the attack and drawing the defense off balance.
This little bit of quantum physics…shifting opponents’ gravity, tilting the field, and keeping defenders on skates. It simply hasn’t happened yet.
There hasn’t been the off-ball running to keep defenders swiveling, there have been too many interchange passes that are simply goofy lobs rather than balls into space, and there just hasn’t been the sort of magic that we’ve seen time and time again from Almeyda offenses.
Much of this could simply be reps in practice: identifying the attacking patterns and off-ball movement that gets people open in the box. The best example and the only actual successful attacking pattern in the past five matches was the equalizing goal in the Real Salt Lake match:
It’s worth taking a second to look at how this works.
Salt Lake has their 2 banks of 4 set up while San Jose just has a ton of weak side attackers. When Fierro makes his weak-to-strong run, he doesn’t do it to run to the pass, he runs away from the next pass, to soak up defenders from Espinoza.
When Espinoza gets the ball, he has three open guys in the box: Paul Marie, Andy Rios, and Wondo. He flips the ball to Rios who – despite everything ill said about him, is good at pivoting the ball to an attacker in space.
There is now only one RSL defender covering both Fierro and Cowell, and he’s behind both. Wondo is taking up multiple defenders (and still scores!) while Fierro and Cowell’s diverging runs give Paul Marie good angles for the low, driven, cross
Attackers on the near post, spot, and far post, RSL in panic. David Ochoa makes a decent reaction save but Wondo hammers in the rebound. Tie game.
The goal wasn’t scored off Marie’s cross or the rebound, really – it was scored when Fierro saw how he could turn the screws on the Salt Lake defense by running the wrong way when they didn’t expect it. Generally speaking, the Earthquakes are not making these smart off-ball runs to open up space. Or, if they are, they’re not being found.
Concluding: All of the Above
Look, I’m not at practice, I don’t know what’s happening. Maybe the team got so fat off of their transition goals early on in the season that they haven’t been able to figure out their run-of-play foci. Just like the old coach’s adage that every goal conceded comes from at least two mistakes, it probably takes at least three acts of brilliance to score in modern soccer.
It might be tempting to point to Chofis, who was brought in to unlock defenses but has yet to tally an assist. Chofis has this Vako-y body language that is very unfair to judge (see: the pre-LAFC stage of Carlos Vela’s career), but it seems clear he hasn’t found his role yet. The Jackson Yueill-less Galaxy match was begging for La Chofis to become a ball-dominant force in the middle of the pitch, but he didn’t play markedly different than he did against SKC or RSL. One hopes to see more of his ability after the break.
It could be even easier, and perhaps more accurate, to say that Cade Cowell hasn’t been able to match Wondo’s off-ball movement. Which, no, no striker in MLS can do that. With Cowell’s physical gifts, he doesn’t have to match Wondo’s movement. He just has to learn how to terrify defenders when he’s standing still like he does when he’s sprinting. That new development may be enough to get this attack to the next level.
Another option, Said Haji really broke out and looked aggressive against LA Galaxy. He looked uniquely willing to take defenders on, put pressure on soft spots in the defense, and keep the ball hot that often seems Esponoza-esque. Even still, it’s worth splashing some cold water: the game state down 0-1 plays to his strengths (in that he doesn’t have to defend). And even though he has clarity of vision, he could be well-served with better depth of vision:
A winger for the San Jose Earthquakes simply HAS to hit Wondo at the far post here, with Shea Salinas rushing into the left back’s field of vision. Haji took the shot. :-/
There’s a temptation to want to put Fierro (who has been great so far, and often the only one making those game-changing runs in static situations) in the #10 role, and Haji and Espinoza on the wings. But there’s so much magic left in Chofis that you can’t write him off as he tries to get settled. On one hand, you look at this offense and think something has to change. On the other hand, maybe time together is the one thing that will change.
Concluding by shrugging and suggesting that we all be optimistic and have faith in the power of practice is…underwhelming. But then again, these days, so are the Quakes. The goals will come, and the connections will grow as confidence comes. With hope and optimism, that will begin on Saturday at Austin.
