The Earthquakes traveled back from Kansas City after a 2-1 loss against Sporting Kansas City, into a head to head match-up against the Seattle Sounders. Both teams have struggled to open the 2024 MLS Season, but both teams were coming into this game to hoping to leave their mark. On a rainy day in San Jose, both teams were looking to add any type of points to try and right the course of the early season.
The Earthquakes have been shuffling their lineups, and they have been trying to find a formula to put points on the board, and in their point column. Before the game, San Jose were without any points due to losing four straight games to start their season. The team looked frustrated with their performance, and they were desperately looking for anything to spark their team. Some of the changes in their lineup included Preston Judd starting over Jeremy Ebobisse, and William Yarbrough over Daniel who was ruled out due to an injury. With the changes on the field, San Jose looked ready to take their new approach into action. The skies opened up right as the teams walked onto the field, and it set a unique tone to the game that was about to take place.
The Seattle Sounders and San Jose Earthquakes have a history that is best connected to Heritage Cup which can be dated back to the 1970's. This matchup is their first meeting in the 2024 MLS Season, and it proved to be one of the matchups of the week. The game seemed to be pretty even at the beginning with both sides not being able to capitalize. Seattle held possession of the ball steadily throughout the first half being able to stop majority of the San Jose advance. San Jose finally found the spark they have been needing with switching up the lineup for this match as Preston Judd seemed to be a bright spot for this game is terms of moving the ball throughout the game, but it was Vitor Costa who was able to get the ball in the net first with a quick assist from Bruno Wilson. Judd was apart of the sequence that got the ball in position for Cristian Espinoza a few minutes later to give the San Jose Earthquakes a 2-0 lead going into the half.
Both teams continued to battle into positions throughout the early second half, but it was a call for a penalty that gave Seattle's Raul Ruidiaz the chance to get the Sounders on the board. Ruidiaz converted his penalty attempt, and in similar fashion as earlier in the game, Seattle, this time, quickly scored another goal. With some congestion in the box, Danny Musovski was able to beat defender Paul Maie in order to head the ball into the left corner of goal, and tie the game up at two.
San Jose quickly got the ball to the middle of the field, and answered back right away. Not even a minute after Seattle tied the game, it was Jeremy Ebobisse, who entered as a sub in the 76' minute, who gave San Jose their advantage back scoring his first goal of the season. This proved to be the game winner giving San Jose their first victory of the season, and finally showcased a lot of the hardwork the team has been putting in throughout the season this far. Although the team has seemed in a different form compared to last year's team, this was one of the first times this season the team seemed to be playing as a unit with chemistry. It was obvious that the team was going to be different since they had some players depart in the MLS offseason, but vs. Seattle they seemed to have had the correct approach in order to finish the game with three points.
