Sounders FC begins its stretch of three consecutive road matches on Saturday night when the team heads to San Jose to take on the Earthquakes at PayPal Park (7:30 p.m. PT; Watch on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360AM).
Through the first five MLS regular season matches, Seattle has only picked up one win. The hope is to change that this weekend.
“This is an opportunity for our guys to step up and to get results on the road,” said midfielder Cristian Roldan. “And there's nothing more satisfying than coming home with three points.”
In order to secure three points, the Sounders must understand the threats San Jose poses and how to utilize their own strengths to their advantage.
The Sounders’ main focus will be to shut down San Jose’s lethal attack of winger Cristian Espinoza and strikers Josef Martínez and Chicho Arango.
“Two of the best pure goal scorers in the league,” remarked Head Coach Brian Schmetzer, Arongo and Martinez are currently two of the top seven players in MLS history in goals scored per 90 minutes (Martínez, 0.783 & Arango, 0.702). Additionally, Espinoza’s been a key source on the Earthquake’s offense since his arrival in 2019, totaling 32 goals and 76 assists across MLS competitions.
“They're the players who have the skill and have that striker's instinct of when they know where to be, when to be, and\] how to take advantage of situations,” said goalkeeper [Stefan Frei.
Along with maintaining possession, the Sounders will need to remain compact and fully focused on defense throughout the entirety of the match in order to prevent any potential chances from San Jose’s weapons up top.
“They're proven goal scorers with a lot of experience, so we're going to have to make it very difficult for them and make them earn every step, every inch and every chance,” said Frei. “I think this last game [against Houston] was good for us in terms of mentally, we were very sharp, defensively, and so I hope we can really translate that into this weekend's game and be sharp again.”
With that, the need for goals is absolute.
“This is a team that probably struggles a little bit in transition and so once we win the ball, can we look forward?” said Roldan.
“But also it's [about] the willingness of getting guys in the box and creating a little bit of havoc,” he continued. “Sometimes we want the game to be really pretty. But to be honest, if you get three, four guys in the box, and we're doing hard running, it's difficult to defend. And so can we add that a little bit to our game against San Jose.”
Last year, the Sounders were among the most consistent road teams in the league, picking up 26 points away from home. The idea is to emulate that approach as the team looks to get back to its winning ways, beginning with the upcoming battle against the Earthquakes.
“Look, we struggled at home really early on last year. We struggled to score goals. It seems like the same story from last year. And then you add injuries on top of that, that certainly seems like it's the same story,” said Roldan. “So how can we use these three next games where teams probably open up a little bit more and take advantage of them?
“We’re going to need our entire roster [to do that], and that’s what I'm most excited for.”
