MLS Footnotes: LA-San Jose ‘California Clásico’ headlines rivalry week

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

Editor’s Note: MLS Footnotes takes you inside the major talking points around the league and across American soccer

The Luchi Gonzalez era in San Jose is off to an encouraging start.

Almost a third of the way through Gonzalez’s first season at the helm of the Earthquakes, the former FC Dallas coach and U.S. World Cup team assistant has 5-3-3 San Jose — which finished dead last in the Western Conference in 2022 — sitting comfortably in the playoff places going into perhaps the marquee match of Rivalry Week: Sunday’s “California Clásico” against fellow MLS original LA Galaxy (9:30 p.m. ET, FS1/FOX Deportes).

San Jose’s turnaround under Gonzalez has been swift. The high point came last weekend, when the Quakes handed defending MLS Cup champ and current CONCACAF Champions League finalist LAFC its first loss of the regular season.

“We’re not doing things consistently enough yet,” Gonzalez told FOX Sports on the eve of the derby in Carson. “But now we’re showing flashes of our potential.”

That potential is part of the reason he took the job. Despite San Jose’s struggles last year, Gonzalez liked what he saw from afar.

“If you just watched them without looking at the table, they were competitive,” he said. “They had technical, creative players who could score. And they didn’t give up.”

The Quakes’ fighting spirit had been ingrained over the previous four years under former coach Matías Almeyda, whose man marking system required it. Defensively they were still terrible, though; in 2022, just one of MLS’s then 28 teams allowed more than San Jose’s gaudy 69 goals against.

“They had intensity and pressure on the ball, but if the pressure is broken, they could concede,” Gonzalez said. “So my thought was how can we organize them?”

The tweaks have been working so far. The Quakes have been demonstrably stingier this year, with 14 goals allowed through the first 11 games. And while the Quakes are actually on pace to score less often than they did last season up front, Gonzalez has helped unlock the game-changing ability of designated player Cristian Espinoza.

Now in his fifth season in San Jose, the Argentina native already has a career high eight goals. The new coach has urged Espinoza to find openings in the space between opponents’ back Iine and midfield. That’s helped the 28-year-old Espinoza pop up in more dangerous positions — one reason why 75 percent of his shots have been on target this season, up from just 34 percent last year.

“There’s been little modifications that he’s been really open to,” Gonzalez said of Ezpinoza, MLS’s player of the month of April. “He’s a model professional.”

While San Jose looks like a club on the come-up, the Galaxy is off to the worst start in its decorated 28-year history. With just six points from 10 games, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez & Co. desperately need a victory at home.

The Galaxy did get a badly needed confidence boost Wednesday, though, by eliminating the high-flying Seattle Sounders from the U.S. Open Cup. And there’s no doubt they’ll be up for Sunday; while noisy, nouveau riche neighbor LAFC has emerged as the Galaxy’s chief rival, the bad blood with the Earthquakes goes back decades.

“It’s the LA Galaxy, the club with the most MLS Cups,” said Gonzalez, who played for San Jose as a rookie pro in 2002. “Look at their roster. Are you kidding me? That team can beat anybody.

“Their midfield can move the ball, play through you,” he added. “We have to be really organized and compact in how we defend. Our back line has to be ready for the moves that Chicharito and their wingers make.

“If you judge anybody by the table in this league, that’s a big mistake.”

Quakes fans surely appreciate the sentiment. But after missing the postseason for the fourth time in five years last fall, you’d forgive any San Jose supporter who doesn’t agree.

MLS FOOTNOTES

1. Puig the key for the Galaxy?

How’s this for a stat: Galaxy attacker Riqui Puig has been involved in the buildup to an MLS-high 75 shots this season, including 12 in last week’s humiliating 3-1 home defeat to the Colorado Rapids. Just three ended with the ball in the net.

While Puig has looked like Vanney’s most dangerous attacking player all year, he’s also often looked like a one-man show. The chemistry between the 23-year-old Barcelona product, winger Douglas Costa and forwards Chicharito and Dejan Joveljić is still sorely lacking. The production from the Spaniard hasn’t been there, either; Puig has just one goal and one assist in nine games.

Any Galaxy turnaround this season likely depends on Puig converting some of those scoring opportunities into end-product.

2. Rivalry week highlights

Chicago and St. Louis are huge rivals in other sports, but Saturday’s matinée at Soldier Field marks the first meeting between the Midwest cities in MLS. It’s also the first game for the Fire under interim boss Frank Klopas, who took over (for the third time in his career) after Ezra Hendrickson was let go last week.

The New York Red Bulls will also have a new coach, Troy Lesesne, on the sideline Saturday when they host New York City FC in the first Hudson River derby of 2023.

Meantime, Hernán Losada’s seat in Montreal is considerably less hot than it was a month ago following four straight wins, the most recent being Tuesday’s Canadian Championship triumph at Toronto FC. The teams meet again in league play Saturday at Stade Saputo.

Austin also hosts Dallas, Atlanta faces Charlotte and Portland travels to Vancouver.

3. U.S. summons 14 MLSers for U-20 World Cup

United States under-20 men’s national team coach Mikey Varas on Wednesday named 14 MLS players to his roster for the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina. Former MLSers Gaga Slonina (Chelsea) and Kevin Parades (Wolfsburg) were also included on the 21-man list.

Several age-eligible MLS starters weren’t released by their clubs, Galaxy center back Jalen Neal most notably.

“In terms of the MLS clubs, we had ongoing discussions with every single club,” Varas said when FOX Sports asked if he expected less pushback from the league’s teams, which historically have been more cooperative than their European counterparts.

“We’re disappointed that some players weren’t released, but at the same time our number one priority here is individual player development. So we’re also proud of the fact that these players have become so important during the cycle that they’re no longer viewed as releasable for this type of tournament.”

The Americans open group play May 20 against Ecuador.

4. Another Cupset

Seattle wasn’t the only Supporters Shield contender to get knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup midweek, as the current MLS pacesetter New England Revolution fell to the second tier Pittsburgh Riverhounds in Foxborough.

The Revs became the third MLS rep to lose to a lower division side in the 108th edition of the tournament, after Atlanta and San Jose. An El Tráfico matchup between the Galaxy and LAFC highlights the round of 16, which will be contested May 23-24.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports, and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter at @ByDougMcIntyre.