SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES v. SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC

Greetings to my brothers and sisters in Green. The history of the San Jose Earthquakes is long and winding. The NASL Earthquakes were the original, playing in the old NASL from 1974-1988. San Jose Clash ran out in the 1996 inaugural season of MLS. The Clash were then re-named San Jose Earthquakes in 1999. In 2006 the Earthquakes moved to Houston, I’m guessing because the citizens of San Jose rejected a proposal for a new football ground to be built with public money, so the corpo filth got their pants all in a twist and fucked off to Texas. Meanwhile: Back in the South Bay, Earthquakes version 2.0 were created as an expansion team. You can’t make this stuff up. I refer to the ‘Quakes as a club with an identity crisis because…this entire paragraph.

What: MLS league match, San Jose Earthquakes v. Seattle Sounders FC.

Where: Coleman Avenue, San Jose, California.

When: 4:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, Sunday 15 March 2026 CE.

At Stake: In this specific instance, it really depends on how you see it. If you see it as having to choose whether to sacrifice results in MLS vs. CONCACAF in a zero-sum kind of way, then that’s one thing. If you see it as a matter of splitting up the minutes so that no player, in theory, plays too much more than 90 minutes over two matches, then that’s another thing. This scenario is, of course, severely impacted by our six, arguably seven injured players, four of whom play at centre-half. Lopez and Kingston have been, as far as I know, called up as reinforcements from the reserve team, and that helps some…provided they actually play meaningful minutes. What’s at stake can best be expressed as a question: Is it possible to capture the points in San Jose AND win the cup tie on Wednesday, or is it not possible? Petkovic, Lopez, Gomez, Tsukanome, and Baker have all played less than 10 minutes in the league this season. I think it would be a pretty good idea to select them all in the team for this match. That said, I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. Although it’s not possible to win the league in the first four matches, it is possible to dig a deep enough hole to lose it. Conversely, if we bollux the job badly enough in Spokane midweek, we’re out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. This would be, of course, an unrecoverable result. Decisions, decisions…

Where to Watch: Apple TV.

Where to Listen: KJR 950 AM and El Rey 1360 AM.

This is what adversity looks like. Four matches in 11 days, all played on the road. Both legs of our CONCACAF Champions Cup played on the road. Over half the defence out with injury. Advancement in CONCACAF and position in the league at stake. The best clubs in the world thrive in these scenarios. It’s not like Baseball, the NFL, Basketball, or Ice Hockey. Our lads run as many as eight miles in one match. There are no starters. In the round and indisputably true football, there is a squad in which every player that wears the shirt had bloody well be ready to play up. If you’re not good enough to be selected in the team, then you have no business being in the squad. Players 21-30 have just as much to offer as players 1-11, they’ve just not had as many chances to show it. End of story.

That’s what Sounders FC mean to show in this massive test of our depth, skill, honour, and character on Sunday afternoon. Do we have what it takes to not crack under the strain? I’d say we absolutely do. Without hesitation. Twice.

If you’re headed to the ground, mind yourselves, stick together, tie your scarves proper, and link up with Fog Citeh at earliest opportunity. For those of us here in The Evergreen, you know what to do. It’s pubs and dwellings for stories and tellings. Houses and flats for pints and cats. Boats and ships for pie and chips. Time to have a go at our auld NASL rivals.

It’s MLS league football under the South Bay afternoon sun at Coleman Avenue. GO ON YOU SOUNDERS!!! GET IN!!!

Before kick-off, please join me in the auld toast: “TO THE SEATTLE SOUNDERS FOOTBALL CLUB…AND VICTORY!!!”

Fire up the cryo-tanks.

The Good News

Rothrock hitting his second goal in all competitions on Thursday, plus Arriola looking like his old self hitting a brace, shows that Sounders are very goal-dangerous this season. That is a welcome sight indeed.

Sounders’ defence are playing up and have only conceded twice in four matches.

We don’t have to line up against Chris Wondolowski, one of the best finishers in MLS history, who currently holds the MLS career record for goals scored with 171 goals in 413 matches. He scored 12 goals in 31 league matches against the Sounders, so let’s take this moment to give thanks that Wondo has retired from football.

We don’t have to line up against Cristian “Chicho” Arango either, as he’s gone on loan to Atletico Nacional in his home country of Colombia. Homesickness? A desire to get out of the United States because of the Gestapo terrorising anyone that doesn’t look like someone depicted in a Norman Rockwell illustration from the Saturday Evening Post? Either way, he’ll not return to San Jose until his loan ends on 31 December, or Atletico Nacional exercises their option to buy. End of the day, it’s one less top finisher for our centre-halves to mark.

The Bad News

Timo Werner is going to be extremely difficult to contain. The newly-signed San Jose centre-forward won 13 German Bundesliga titles, 6 German Cups with Bayern Munich, and a World Cup with Germany. This amongst a laundry list of other honours for club and country. It will take a masterclass by our defence to prevent Werner from impacting the match.

I expect player fatigue to be a factor in this match. San Jose hasn’t played a match since 7 March, which is six days between fixtures. Sounders FC played Thursday night, so it’s only two days between fixtures. Advantage: San Jose.

Both teams are averaging around two goals per match, and conceding less than a goal per match. Like many matches in the league will be this season, it will be an old-fashioned MLS crap-shoot.

San Jose in six matches, including pre-season, have only conceded two goals thus far. Their pre-season opponents in the Coachella Valley Invitational were Charlotte FC, Portland Timbers, and NYC FC. The ‘Quakes defence earned clean sheets in five of those six matches, conceding both goals to Portland. San Jose have yet to concede a goal in league play this season.

San Jose, in two matches at Coleman Avenue, have conceded zero goals. To be fair, Vancouver hadn’t conceded any goals at BC Place this season either before we trounced them 0:3 Thursday night.

The top three Sounders FC goal scorers against San Jose in the league — Raul Ruidiaz (9 goals/13 matches), Jordan Morris (7 goals/14 matches), and Nico Lodeiro (6 goals/13 matches) — have either left the club or are on injury list. Ruidiaz is currently with Atletico Grau of the Peruvian Primera Division. Lodeiro currently plays for Nacional (Montevideo), the club that originally developed him, in the Uruguayan Primera Division. Cristian Roldan is fourth on this list (5 goals/22 matches).

Ronaldo Viera looks to be the hard man in the San Jose midfield. As a pre-teen, both Portimao and Benfica saw something in him, adding him to their youth programmes. Leeds United took him on as an academy scholar at 17 years of age. He played 63 times for Leeds, and later 102 times for Sampdoria of Genoa, where he played for seven years. He won 16 caps at youth levels for England scoring one goal, and now represents his country of birth, Guinea-Bissau (1/0), in international football. Yeh, so, one to watch out for. He doesn’t really score goals, but I’ll wager he’ll move heaven and earth to stop the opposition from scoring.

MLS currently uses the following nine player classifications: Discovery, Special Discovery, Homegrown, Homegrown Off-Roster, Affiliate, International, U-22 Initiative, Affiliate Priority, and Designated. Fucks sake, MLS. They’re fucking footballers. THEY ARE LITERALLY GROWN MEN PLAYING A CHILD’S GAME AS A VOCATION. It is a work of utter stupidity that roster designations have cratered to this level of granular obscurity. In the name of God, Allah, Odin, Buddha, Zeus, The Creator, and Shiva the Destroyer, FUCKING FIX IT!

The Side I Would Select

Two days between fixtures is straight brutal. No one that played over 60 minutes in the Vancouver match should be anywhere near the pitch Sunday, unless absolutely needed. This would have been a good time to call up a left-back and left-centre-half from the Reserves so that Nouhou and Ragen could rest for the 2nd leg against Vancouver, to be played Wednesday. This is not the NFL or the NBA. Players in our league run as many as eight miles in a match; there are no “starters”. If you’re not ready to play up, you shouldn’t be in the squad.

Rationale:

Nouhou and Ragen are needed, despite both playing 90 minutes Thursday night. There’s no help for it, as four defenders are on injury list. Everyone else on this list is ready and able to deputise. If we run out this selection, we’ll have the rest back for Wednesday and for Sunday 22 March in St. Paul.

GK     Thomas

LB     Nouhou

LCH    Ragen

RCH    Lopez

RB     Baker

LDM    Petkovic

RDM   Gomez

LF     Rothrock

CAM   Tsukanome

RF     Minoungou

CF     Musovski

The Side I Think The Gaffer Will Select

I expect nothing less than a typical Sounders FC two-day turnaround protocol. Expect to see pretty much the same team you saw in Vancouver. This is my best prediction. If this is the selection for Sunday, what will become of Wednesday?

GK     Thomas

LB     Nouhou

LCH    Ragen

RCH    Alex

RB     Kossa-Rienzi

LDM    Brunell

RDM   Cristian

LF     Rothrock

CAM   Rusnak

RF     Ferreira

CF     Musovski

Intangibles

Victor Rivas will be the Referee for Sunday afternoon’s match.

SJ all-time league record with Rivas as Ref: 4-4-3

SEA all-time league record with Rivas as Ref: 3-3-1 

Sounders are the current Heritage Cup holders. For those not in the know, the trophy goes to whoever plays better between the two clubs in the same season. It is meant to mark the history of both clubs who were also rivals in the old NASL. We were born in 1974, and so were they. San Jose’s ultras will be wanting that hardware back. We aim to disappoint them.

Bruce Arena, who is currently Manager of San Jose Earthquakes, has the most league victories of any Manager in MLS history with a record of 273-139-167. Sounders FC Manager Brian Schmetzer is 9th on this list at 141-78-89. Former Sounders, LA Galaxy, and Columbus Crew Manager, Sigi Schmid, rest in peace, is second with 240-125-183.

SJ 2026 season transfer fees paid: €0

SEA 2026 season transfer fees paid: €0

General notes on personnel

San Jose transfers IN:

Crockford (FC Cincinnati) free

Allen - reserves

Werner (Leipzig) free

Jonathan Gonzalez (Juarez) free

Adimabua - reserves

Jasinski - draft

San Jose transfers OUT:

Verhoeven (San Diego FC) €304,000

Eisner (San Diego FC) free

Espinoza (Nashville SC) free

Kaye (Sacramento Republic FC) free

Josef Martinez (Tijuana) free

Rodrigues (Mirassol) free

Wilson - released

Cowell (Real Salt Lake) free

Lima - retired

Medina (Guadalajara) loan

Arango (Atletico Nacional) loan, €420,000 fee

Comparison against common opponents

n/a

Know Thine Enemy

The ‘Quakes as they lined up in their 0:1 victory over Philadelphia at Seaport Drive on 7 March.

GOALKEEPER

Daniel, 31

Brazil

Notable Clubs: Internacional (68/0), San Jose Earthquakes (66/0)

Estimated Transfer Value: €800,000

Notes: Full name: Daniel de Sousa Britto. Developed by Uniao Rondonopolis and Internacional.

DEFENCE

DeJuan Jones, 28

United States (10/0)

Notable Clubs: New England Revolution (142/6), Columbus Crew SC (15/2), San Jose Earthquakes (18/1)

Estimated Transfer Value: €3M

Notes: Developed by East Lansing High School. Played his university football for Michigan State (76/16). Won an MLS league title with New England Revolution. Won a Leagues Cup with Columbus.

Reid Roberts, 22

United States

Notable Clubs: San Jose Earthquakes (17/0)

Estimated Transfer Value: €500,000

Notes: Played his university football for San Francisco (50/2).

Daniel Munie, 26

United States

Notable Clubs: San Jose Earthquakes (47/4)

Estimated Transfer Value: €1M

Notes: Developed by St. Louis Scott Gallagher and Saint Louis FC (USL). Played his university football for Indiana (79/8).

Benji Kikanovic, 26

United States

Notable Clubs: San Jose Earthquakes (108/14)

Estimated Transfer Value: €600,000

Notes: Developed by Placer United. Played his university football for Sacramento State (34/9).

MIDFIELD

Ronaldo Vieira, 27

Guinea-Bissau (1/0)

Notable Clubs: Leeds United (63/1), Sampdoria (102/0), Hellas Verona (4/0), Torino (2/0), San Jose Earthquakes (9/0)

Estimated Transfer Value: €500,000

Notes: Full name: Ronaldo Augusto Vieira Nan. Developed by CB Portimao, Benfica, Whitley Bay Boys Club, Batley Phoenix, i2i Football Academy, and Leeds United.

Beau Leroux, 22

United States

Notable Clubs: San Jose Earthquakes (36/5)

Estimated Transfer Value: €2M

Notes: Developed by Santa Cruz Breakers and Santa Teresa High School. Played his university football for San Jose State (43/7).

Niko Tsakiris, 20

United States

Notable Clubs: San Jose Earthquakes (64/1)

Estimated Transfer Value: €1.5M

Notes: Developed by De Anza Force, IMG Academy, and San Jose Earthquakes. Has played at youth levels for United States (9/4). Won a CONCACAF U-20 Championship with United States U-20s. Won a CONCACAF U-20 Championship Golden Ball in 2024.

FORWARD

Jamar Ricketts, 24

United States

Notable Clubs: San Jose Earthquakes (23/1)

Estimated Transfer Value: €400,000

Notes: Developed by Cedar Stars Academy. Played his university football for Cal State Northridge (55/16).

Preston Judd, 26

United States

Notable Clubs: Los Angeles Galaxy (17/3), San Jose Earthquakes (58/10)

Estimated Transfer Value: €800,000

Notes: Developed by Las Vegas Academy. Played his university football for California Baptist (39/22) and Denver (19/7).

Ousseni Bouda, 25

Burkina Faso (7/2)

Notable Clubs: San Jose Earthquakes (73/7), Monterey Bay FC (2/1)

Estimated Transfer Value: €800,000

Notes: Developed by Right to Dream Academy, Millbrook Mustangs, and Black Rock FC. Played his university football for Stanford (39/10).

Familiar Faces

San Jose coach Shalrie Joseph played for Sounders FC (10/1) in 2013.

Squads

San Jose from:

Daniel, Edwards, Crockford, Montali, Ricketts, Marie, Romney, Munie, Jasinski, Roberts, Jones, Floriani, Costa, Harkes, Tsakiris, Vieira, Skahan, Fernandez, Buck, Spivey, Leroux, Rajagopal, Mendoza, Gonzalez, Bouda, Werner, Judd, Kikanovic, Adimabua.

Sounders FC from:

Frei, Thomas, Baker, Kossa-Rienzi, Lopez, Nouhou, Ragen, Alex, Brunell, Cristian, Dotson, Kingston, Petkovic, Rusnak, Arriola, De Rosario, Ferreira, Minoungou, Musovski, Rothrock, Tsukanome.

Notes: I have included both Lopez and Kingston in the squad, based on the assumption that their short-term loans have not yet expired from Thursday night’s cup tie. It would be useful to have a contract lawyer on retainer to explain the labyrinth complexities of MLS roster regulations.

Injury List

(as listed on mlssoccer.com at press time)

San Jose -

OUT: none.

MATCHDAY DECISION: none.

Sounders FC -

OUT: Gomez Andrade (hamstring), de la Vega (knee), Hawkins (quadriceps), Sailor (knee), Morris (quadriceps), Kim (calf).

MATCHDAY DECISION: Dotson (head).

Discipline

(as listed on mlssoccer.com at press time)

No players suspended from either team.

Fun Fact

Sounders FC and San Jose have never faced each other in an MLS Cup tie.