San Jose Earthquakes Open Up 2026 Season With Win Vs. SKC
- Jose Rocha
- Feb 21
- 2 min read
The San Jose Earthquakes went under big change during the off-season as they saw departures of three top scores from last season including Josef Martinez, Chico Arango, and club legend Cristian Espinoza. The trio scored a total of 31 goals for the club, and having all those contributing players leave the club in a single off-season was hard to ignore.
The San Jose Earthquakes took the pitch, under Bruce Arena's management for the 2nd season, and were poised to showcase a new lineup with familiar young faces such as Niko Tsakiris, Bouda, Beau Leroux, Jamar Ricketts and such with Preston Judd leading the charge at striker.
While the fans packed the park, they were a little hesitant at the games early moments, but you could see the players starting to build their attack as the game progressed. The game was an even 50/50 throughout the entire first half until a deflected ball off of Sporting Kansas City's Goalkeeper John Pulskamp found Daniel Munie for a tap in to open the scoring for the game and for the 2026 MLS Regular Season.
The Quakes turned the momentum quickly into another scoring opportunity as a swift pass was able to find Jamar Ricketts, who then made a perfect pass to a sliding Preston Judd for a second goal just minutes after the first. San Jose was able to go into the halftime break with a steady 2-0 lead.
The Quakes continued the pressure coming out of the break as they kept the pressure with the ball moving through Niko Tsakiris, who San Jose just signed to a long term contract through 2028-2029, and through other young stars such as Beau Leroux and Jamar Ricketts. This faith from Arena proved to be worth it early so far, and the Quakes were able to continue to apply pressure throughout the remaining of the game.
In the 54th minute, 2025 Rookie of the Year candidate Beau Leroux was able to provide the ball into the a leaping Daniel Munie who was able to head his way into scoring a 2nd goal of the night extending the San Jose lead 3-0. After scoring, it was clear than San Jose was hungry for more goals as they had a few more opportunities to add to the lead although it was not to be.
In other notes, we did see the Earthquakes debut of Jonathan González as well in the 81st minute as he was subbed in alongside Paul Marie who returns to the team after being in with the Quakes II / The Town FC and from a short-loan with Tampa Bay Rowdies of USL.
San Jose kept the game clean as they came up with the 3-0 win against Sporting Kansas City.
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