The San Jose Earthquakes opened their 2018 MLS campaign with a 3-2 victory over Minnesota United at Avaya Stadium and these are our three main takeaways:
Hoesen thriving in No. 9 role
Chris Wondolowski told us so. At San Jose’s pre-game media day, the Quakes captain drew some chuckles when he predicted that Danny Hoesen will win the MLS Golden Boot this season. At the time, it was difficult to tell if he was being totally serious.
Hoesen’s brace erased those doubts. The Dutch forward struggled to make a consistent impact on the wing last season but is now thriving in his preferred center-forward role and his goals were an immediate reward for the trust he has been granted by new coach Mikael Stahre.
“For me it’s positive, I want to play the number nine role and I didn’t see much of that last season,” Hoesen said. “[Stahre] a people’s person and so he wants to make everybody feel comfortable, and I think that’s working for me and the rest of the team.”
The forward spearheaded San Jose’s dynamic attack on opening night, offering a direct route forward with good hold-up play and incisive runs. Both of Hoesen’s goals came from one-twos with Vako, exactly how the pair drew it up. “We’ve been talking about working together and on away trips we’re roommates so we have a lot of time together to talk about things and we hope to keep it this way,” Hoesen said of Vako. “He’s a fantastic player, I knew him from back home in Holland. He’s strong, he doesn’t lose any balls, and he has good vision.”
As Vako is somewhat more softly spoken, his praise of their partnership spoke volumes. “I know he’s the goalscorer. I just give him the ball and he scores,” the Georgian told Quakes Talk.
Hoesen also combined well with Wondo, whose runs opened space for Hoesen’s second goal of the night. In addition, the captain nearly found Hoesen with a low cross late in the first half but the ball skimmed across the goal-line for Vako to convert at the far post.
In previous seasons, Wondolowski singlehandedly carried the burden for scoring goals and is grateful for Hoesen’s growing influence. “I had him for a hat-trick, to be honest,” Wondo smiled after the match.
Midfielder Florian Jungwirth, who was introduced to the San Jose media alongside Hoesen last season, also expects big things from the twenty-seven-year-old. “I saw it from the first day that he is a great striker,” said Jungwirth. “I think that it was not easy for him last season because he was benched for the first half of the season and when he played, he played on the left side and that is not his strength. Now, he has a great partnership with Wondo and they are doing so well. I’m sure that he’s a fifteen-plus guy.”
Defense still a step slow
As impressive as San Jose were going forward, defensive lapses nearly cost them the victory. Stahre’s back-line was vulnerable to balls in behind as Shea Salinas was caught cheating forward on occasion, and neither center-back had the pace to match Minnesota’s forwards. Andrew Tarbell made a big stop early on to cover for Salinas but better opponents could have made the Quakes pay for such lapses.
Although Stahre praised his team’s offensive transitions, their defensive transitions were sometimes lacking. Vako’s defensive work-rate has drastically improved under Stahre but he got a chewing out from assistant coach Alex de Crook in the first half after he lost the ball in the middle and let a dangerous counter-attack unfold while he was back complaining to the referee.
San Jose’s lack of defensive options was also laid bare when center-back Yeferson Quintana was forced off with an injury in the second half, thrusting Jimmy Ockford into the match at a crucial juncture. The Quakes debutant appeared a step behind the pace of the match, understandably, but he was the only defender option on the bench as Francois Affolter and Joel Qwiberg were left out of the game-day eighteen. Should full-backs Shea Salinas or Nick Lima have gone down, the Quakes had no obvious replacement available.
Game-management needs improvement
San Jose’s skittishness at the back was exacerbated as they dropped deeper to protect their 3-0 lead late on. Their tactics had, in fact, the opposite effect, allowing Kevin Molino to score two goals to bring Minnesota back into the game.
Stahre lamented a lack of defensive focus in a similar situation against the LA Galaxy in preseason and their game-management once again belied their offensive strengths.
Said Jungwrith: “We are not satisfied, especially with the last twenty minutes of the game. The first half was impressive, we were compact and didn’t allow a lot of chances…but in the second half we sat a bit back and we scored a really great goal and then we were too passive. It was one from the left to the right and we were not really aggressive. It’s always a little dangerous when you have in your mind to sit back, you think you don’t have to attack [the ball]. We have to handle that better.”
Stahre, however, says it’s a normal behavior. “It’s quite normal, you’re a little bit afraid to lose the game,” he said. “That’s normal.”
The Swede managed to plug the holes by dropping Jungwirth into a back-three and subbing on Fatai Alashe, but he may be grateful to have two weeks off to address such issues before the Quakes travel to Sporting Kansas City for their next outing.
