San Jose Earthquakes briefly appeared to find a sweet spot after managing to win back-to-back matches in the middle of March. However, they have since suffered to consecutive defeats that have left them outside the play-off places.
The 2-1 loss against New England Revolution was followed up by the narrow 1-0 defeat against Real Salt Lake at home. This does not bode well for the team, which has just six points from the opening five games. The match against table topping Vancouver Whitecaps is unlikely to help matters going into the next weekend.
One of the reasons for the club struggling to get results is the huge number of players on the sidelines. More have been added to the injury list after the latest match. Despite this setback, manager Dominic Kinnear remains confident that his team will be able to overcome the poor form. San Jose came into the match against Real Salt Lake already missing a number of key players especially in defence. The likes of Shaun Francis and Jordan Stewart have become the latest additions to the injury list. Francis had a major collision with Real Salt Lake’s Jordan Allen but he has come of much worse than his opponent. Kinnear has expressed his confidence that defender Wynne will be back for the match against Vancouver.
“[Francis] is in the training room right now, lying down in a dark room. He definitely had a good collision there, and I’m sure there’s something going on with his head, so the doctor’s with him. We’ll find out soon. But it was a pretty good collision, and obviously enough to keep him out of the game. We’re defending pretty well. I don’t think Salt Lake had a ton of chances today. [Morales] scores a wonder goal, but other than that I thought we did okay,” said Kinnear.