The San Jose Earthquakes have been eliminated from the MLS postseason picture, and St. Louis City is close to joining them as playoff outsiders.
The two worst teams in the Western Conference share the same field Saturday night when St. Louis City visits San Jose.
St. Louis City (5-11-13, 28 points) are the only winless team (0-6-8) on the road, and they would like to halt that troublesome skid against the Earthquakes, who have allowed a league-most 67 goals.
“This is a blemish for sure that we haven’t won on the road,” St. Louis interim coach John Hackworth said. “Every player in this locker room wants to win an away game.”
St. Louis fancied making a late playoff push with a three-match unbeaten stretch (1-0-2) out of the Leagues Cup break, but momentum evaporated with Wednesday’s 3-1 home loss to Minnesota United. Cedric Teuchert scored the St. Louis goal in the fourth minute before Minnesota controlled the rest of the match.
The setback leaves 13th-place St. Louis 11 points behind Minnesota for the ninth and final playoff spot.
Now the visit to San Jose looks tougher after the Earthquakes (5-21-3, 18 points) played the host Seattle Sounders to a 2-2 tie on Wednesday.
“They don’t look like a team that should be last in the West right now,” Hackworth said. “They have a lot of fight in them.”
San Jose earned the draw on Paul Marie’s tying goal in the 89th minute, and Amahl Pellegrino also scored for his team-leading seventh of the season.
“We have to take the positivity because we have to build something so we can start on different terms for the next season,” Pellegrino said. “This season has been tough, so now it’s just how we want to end this season.”
Cristian Espinoza had two assists against Seattle to raise his count to 13, tied for fourth in MLS.
The Quakes are just 3-10-1 at home.
St. Louis has won all three meetings with San Jose by a cumulative 7-1 score. In this year’s previous match, St. Louis outshot the Quakes 23-7 in a 2-0 home win on July 3. Eduard Lowen and Hosei Kijima scored the goals and Indiana Vassilev had two assists.
“They’re a team we haven’t beaten,” San Jose interim coach Ian Russell said. “We played them three times. We lost three times. We’re going to have a chip on our shoulder. We need to get three points at home against St. Louis. It’s a team that’s going to press. They are physical. We need to not just match that, we need to exceed that.”
–Field Level Media