After failing to take care of business at home, the San Jose Earthquakes hit the road for the first time in three weeks to will face Charlotte FC on Saturday.
San Jose (2-2-0, 6 points) had one of the league’s hottest starts, taking its first two matches by a combined score of 6-1, but then fell 1-0 to Minnesota United and 2-1 to the Colorado Rapids, both at home. In the second of those losses, the Earthquakes’ Cristian Arango scored in the 45th minute to knot the game at 1-1, but Colorado’s Calvin Harris netted the go-ahead score in the 71st minute.
“On the night, we played well enough in this game to come out with at least a point,” first-year San Jose coach Bruce Arena said. “We’re doing well, but we’ve got to be a little bit more consistent. You look at the two losses we’ve had, those are games where we could have walked off the field with at least a point. We can’t be jumping for joy at this point.”
Coming off his 17-goal season with Real Salt Lake last season, Arango leads San Jose with a pair of goals through four games.
Charlotte (2-1-1, 7 points) enters play a confident group following a 2-0 home victory over FC Cincinnati last weekend. Two goals in the span of three minutes from Liel Abada and Patrick Agyemang to open the second half proved to be all Charlotte needed. Its defense has allowed just one goal in the club’s last three contests.
“We’ve worked as a team defensively all season,” Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith said. “I’ve just seen the numbers for the physical data, and it’s a step up even from where we were three weeks ago. That’s what we needed, especially (against Cincinnati). I thought we got bodies around them really well throughout the game.”
Agyemang is away from the club while playing for the U.S. national team in the CONCACAF Nations League final four this week.
Charlotte has seen five players score goals this season, while Kristijan Kahlina has recorded two clean sheets since a season-opening 2-2 draw at Seattle.
–Field Level Media
