The California Clasico always brings fireworks, and the San Jose Earthquakes are preparing for just that. The Quakes are back to the basics ahead of Saturday’s annual meeting with the LA Galaxy at Stanford Stadium, practicing a more direct, compact system in order to snatch a much-needed result. Winless in eight games, San Jose are not afraid to sacrifice style points for the victory, and coach Mikael Stahre is hoping a counter-attacking approach can revive the team’s past Clasico glory.
“People want to see a nice game and nice football but, for us, the most important thing is to win,” striker Danny Hoesen told reporters at training on Thursday afternoon.
For Stahre, that means implementing a more defensive game-plan to reinforce the team’s shaky back-line, which has the joint-worst defensive record in MLS this season. “We have to play really compact and aggressive,” he said.
Against the Galaxy’s star forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, San Jose’s defensive structure is especially important. The Quakes lost 1-0 to a Zlatan-less LA earlier this season, but the Swede’s presence will change the complexion of Saturday’s match. “It was a different team without Zlatan,” said Hoesen. “He will be playing on Saturday, I believe, so it’s a different game. Now they can play more direct and with more crosses, but they still have very good players. Against us, they had a good [amount] of possession but I think if we can stop them attacking and scoring, then we have a good opportunity.”
Although the Quakes did well to hold Real Salt Lake City to a 1-1 draw last weekend, Stahre was concerned by San Jose’s lack of control. “I’m not preferring this kind of transition game, back and forth, that’s not good for us,” he noted.
San Jose attempted to build out of the back earlier this season, but their defensive vulnerability has forced Stahre to adopt a counter-attacking approach. “When you’re struggling, you must try to find new methods,” he said.
Added Wondolowski: “We were trying to do a little too much in the wrong areas.”
The counter-attacking method could also suit the Quakes going forward, with the guile of Wondolowski and power of Danny Hoesen. Said Stahre: “That style fits Wondolowski more, when you play more direct and play upwards with two strikers. Against LAFC and New England, we scored five goals, which is really good, but conceded six. For me, it was too much of a ping-pong game. [Against RSL] we played much more direct, with more pace and more balls in behind, we provoked more mistakes from them. But the team was not compact enough. On one hand, it’s good that we create more chances, but on the other hand, if you’re playing more direct and the team isn’t compact, it’s easier for the team to break us down. We must find a balance there.”
As San Jose’s leading scorer this season, Hoesen is particularly confident. With ten strikes, he credits his success to a rigorous offseason workout regime. “Normally we have six weeks off, so I take four weeks of break to recover,” he said. “Here it was almost three months, a very long time, and during the last two months I trained with a personal trainer and did different kind of workouts to get in top shape.”
“I think it was Robin van Persie who always said: ‘I need to be fitter than my defenders, because then in the last ten minutes I might get a chance to score.’ I believe in that. If you can keep running and running and you’re fitter than your defender, his concentration level might go down and yours will stay the same.”
With San Jose’s history of late goals in the Clasico, that extra kick could make all the difference for the Quakes.
