San Jose Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

San Jose Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy
2018 MLS Regular Season — Week 18
Stanford Stadium — Stanford, Calif.
June 30 - 10 pm ET
WATCH: UniMás, Twitter, MLS LIVE on DAZN (Canada)

The scene shifts to Stanford Stadium for the second California Clasico of 2018 after the teams met a month ago at StubHub Center with Romain Alessandrini scoring the lone goal in the 82nd minute to lift the LA Galaxy to a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes.

That game was the third of a current seven-match winless streak for the Quakes, who come into the game after back-to-back draws. The LA Galaxy haven’t played a league game since a 3-0 victory over Real Salt Lake on June 9.

Since the start of the 2003 season, the Earthquakes have lost just three of their 22 league home games against the Galaxy (12W-7D). They have been held scoreless in just four of those matches, per Opta.

San Jose Earthquakes

Four consecutive losses were followed by back-to-back draws for San Jose (2-9-5), which rallied to tie Real Salt Lake, 1-1, at Rio Tinto Stadium Saturday. Danny Hoesen leveled for the Earthquakes in the 64th minute, 10 minutes after Damir Kreilach put the hosts in front.

It was the 10th goal of the season for Hoesen, who has all three of his teams goals in their last two games. Andrew Tarbell was solid as well, making seven saves.

“As a striker, people look at goals and assists,” Hoesen said. “I’m having a good season numbers-wise. Ten is a good number. I don’t think my performance was any good today, but I scored again so for me, that’s a good moment.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: M - Anibal Godoy
International duty: D - Harold Cummings, M - Anibal Godoy
Injury Report: OUT: D - Shea Salinas (hamstring injury); QUESTIONABLE: D - Joel Qwiberg (knee injury)

Projected Starting XI
(4-4-2, right to left)
GK: Andrew Tarbell — Nick Lima, Jimmy Ockford, Francois Affolter, Kevin Partida — Magnus Eriksson, Jackson Yueill, Florian Jungwirth, Vako — Danny Hoesen, Chris Wondolowski

Notes: Hoesen has six goals+assists in the month of June. Only Toronto’s Victor Vazquez (seven) has more. … The Earthquakes are winless in their last six home matches in league play (4L-2D), their longest such stretch since June-Aug. 2011 (seven straight).

LA Galaxy

In a midst of a World Cup break from MLS games, the LA Galaxy (6-7-2) saw their dreams of a U.S. Open Cup title go up in flames with a 1-0 Round of 16 loss to the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on June 15.

Sebastian Blanco scored the lone goal for the Timbers on the half-hour mark.

“I didn’t think we started the game well,” Sigi Schmid said. “I thought Portland was the better team at the beginning, probably deservedly took a lead. I thought the second half we were much better. I thought even the last 15 minutes of the first half we were better. But for some reason we came out a little bit tentative. Maybe it was Portland playing in a slightly different formation and it took us a little bit of time to adjust.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: M - Perry Kitchen
International duty: F - Giovani dos Santos, M - Jonathan dos Santos
Injury Report: OUT: D - Rolf Feltscher (shoulder surgery); QUESTIONABLE: M - Sebastian Lletget (ankle injury)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK: David Bingham — Dave Romney, Michael Ciani, Jorgen Skjelvik, Ashley Cole — Perry Kitchen, Servando Carrasco — Chris Pontius, Bradford Jamieson, Ola Kamara — Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Notes: David Bingham is averaging 4.6 saves per game on the road, tied for the fifth most of any keeper this season (minimum three games played). … The Galaxy have won three of their last five league matches (1L-1D), conceding a total of four goals and keeping three clean sheets. They had kept three clean sheets in their previous 18 MLS matches (4W-10L-4D).

All-Time Series

Overall: San Jose Earthquakes 22 wins, 91 goals … LA Galaxy 31 wins, 106 goals .. 14 draws
At San Jose: Earthquakes 16 wins, 52 goals … Galaxy 11 wins, 46 goals … 8 draws
Last meeting at San Jose: San Jose Earthquakes 2, LA Galaxy 1 (July 1, 2017)