The San Jose Earthquakes moved on in Open Cup and ground out an unpleasant draw in the last week, which would be good except for the injuries. Timo Werner came off early in the Open Cup victory over Minnesota United, and Niko Tsakiris walked off early in the second half of a 1-1 tie out in Toronto.
The two have been crucial to the early-season surge that has the Quakes atop the Supporters’ Shield standings 1/3 of the way into the season. There’s nobody on the roster – maybe nobody in MLS – who are like-for-like substitutions for the duo.
A Note on Depth
The knock on the team so far was that they didn’t have the depth to survive the middle third of the MLS season. And honestly, great call to the haters. Right now the Earthquakes have been top-heavy. I took note of 12 “key” players so far this season. Of these, 9 are on track for over 2,000 minutes – and only two of them actually played over 2,000 minutes last year (according to FBRef, which to be clear only takes league games into account).
| Player | Last Season > 2,000 min (Team) | Minutes (2026) | Minutes Projected (Minutes * 3) | Notes |
| Daniel Munie | n/a | 990 | 2,970 | 1,991 minutes in 2025 |
| Daniel | 2025 (San Jose) | 967 | 2,901 | |
| Niko Tsakiris | n/a | 907 | 2,721 | Injured |
| Reid Roberts | n/a | 900 | 2,700 | |
| Preston Judd | 2021 (Galaxy II) | 897 | 2,691 | |
| Ousseni Bouda | n/a | 885 | 2,655 | |
| Benji Kikanovic | n/a | 794 | 2,382 | |
| Beau Leroux | 2025 (San Jose) | 779 | 2,337 | |
| Ronaldo Vieira | 2017-’18 (Leeds United) | 774 | 2,322 | 1,819 minutes in 2019-’20 w/ Sampdoria |
| Jamar Ricketts | n/a | 592 | 1,776 | |
| Timo Werner | 2020-’21 (Chelsea) | 456 | 1,368 | Injured |
| DeJuan Jones | 2023 (NE Revs) | 359 | 1,077 | Injured, out for the season |
It is, frankly, a lot of trust put in a large group of players who have not proven to be able to stay on the field. And there is not a lot of faith in their backups. It could be a very long month, with three regular season matches against very tough Western Conference foes, another against Portland, and a trip to Colorado for an Open Cup matchup.
The most sensible thing to do is to try and survive in the next four regular season matches and focus on the Open Cup. This team isn’t built for a Supporter’s Shield anyway, but Open Cup is some very achievable hardware.
What Does Survival Look Like?
If Bruce Arena is reading closely and following my instructions, what does he do? I don’t think there’s anything to trying to hope Nick Fernandez turns into Niko Tsakiris. To be honest, I am not even sure who the team’s free kick takers are at this point. I would bet the team goes for a bit of cynicism in the next few matches: defending a bit deeper while still relying on a transition game to make the best out of Judd and Bouda – both of whom can run but neither are the type to beat someone on the dribble.
Something I would hope for is moving Jamar Ricketts back up to left wing. He was extremely effective early in the season before Werner got situated, and he can make a dynamic trio with the aforementioned Judd and Bouda. Romney has played left back and he’s, I guess, fine – and having Ricketts’ verticality can at least keep the Quakes out of Daniel’s lap.
May will be a lot less fun or pretty than March or April, but there is still a good chance it’s another month closer to a season with hardware.
