The San Jose Earthquakes look to extend their home unbeaten streak to 10 games this season when they host St. Louis City SC on Saturday.
The Earthquakes (7-6-6, 27 points) are 6-0-3 on their own field, outscoring opponents by a 13-5 margin. However, the road has been much more of a struggle at 1-6-3.
Most recently, the host Houston Dynamo beat them 4-1 on Wednesday, the most goals the Earthquakes have allowed in a match this season. San Jose also lost 3-0 at St. Louis City in the teams’ first-ever meeting on March 18.
“(Wednesday) just was not a good night for us, and we know we are better than this,” San Jose coach Luchi Gonzalez said. “(St. Louis is) very difficult to play, and they beat us last time, and now we want to show our response in multiple ways on Saturday.”
The victory over the Earthquakes was part of St. Louis City’s dream 5-0-0 start, but things have much rockier lately for the first-year team. St. Louis (9-7-2, 29 points) is 0-3-1 in its past four games, marking its longest winless drought.
St. Louis City’s 3-1 home loss to Real Salt Lake on Wednesday saw the two clubs tied 1-1 at halftime before RSL took the lead for good on Damir Kreilach’s goal in the 48th minute.
“Second half, (we) started and looked like an expansion team,” St. Louis coach Bradley Carnell said. “Just a little bit leggy, just a little bit slow in the thought process, just a little bit delayed in our actions. … We are looking to control games a little bit better.”
Unsurprisingly, St. Louis’ struggles have largely coincided with the loss of its two designated players. Joao Klauss has missed St. Louis City’s past nine games and Eduard Lowen the last two games, and both players will be out until at least late July due to quadriceps injuries.
St. Louis is 3-4-1 on the road.
–Field Level Media
