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KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The streak has come to an end.
The San Jose Earthquakes defeated Sporting Kansas City 2-1 on Saturday night in front of 16,277 fans at Children’s Mercy Park. It marks San Jose’s first win at Kansas City since 2015 and the Earthquakes did so despite playing a man down for most of the second half.
“The early goals were certainly a big part of the game, as was the red card, but I think the story of our team today was the fight and determination they had playing with 10 players for 30-plus minutes,” said San Jose coach Bruce Arena. “They did an outstanding job in that regard. These are games that are generally extremely difficult to walk off the field with three points, and typically teams lose these types of games, so I can’t tell you how proud I am, how hard they fought, how they did everything they could to get us a result tonight. Very impressive performance by our guys. The soccer wasn’t delightful on our end in the second half due to the fact that we were playing shorthanded, but the determination the guys had and the defensive mentality was outstanding. I thought our last 10-15 minutes was extremely good defensively. So I’m proud of our guys, but we have to get better. There were a lot of mistakes made today, and hopefully in another week we can eliminate some of those mistakes."
San Jose – off to a 2-0-0 for the first time since 2017 – got on the board in the third minute when Hernán López’s through ball in transition bounced off forward Josef Martínez and right to Cristian “Chicho” Arango, who slotted clinically to give the Earthquakes an early 1-0 lead. The Quakes doubled the advantage in the 19th minute when Cristian Espinoza’s corner kick was initially parried away by SKC goalkeeper John Pulskamp, but Martínez pounced on the rebound to put San Jose up 2-0.SKC pulled one back in the 27th minute when referee Sergii Boiko determined a handball occurred in the box and subsequently awarded the hosts a penalty kick. Quakes goalkeeper Daniel got a hand on Dejan Joveljić’s attempt, but the forward converted to cut the San Jose lead in half, 2-1.
In the 52nd minute, López accrued his second yellow card after a sliding challenge and was sent off. Playing with 10 men the rest of the way, the San Jose defense valiantly stood their ground, turning away barrage after barrage until the final whistle for the victory.
“Typically, when you lose a man to a red card, often the striker has to come out of the game,” said Arena. “We did that and Arango stepped up in that position. Josef had to take one for the team. I thought Mark-Anthony Kaye and (Ousseni) Bouda did an outstanding job coming into the game and helping us protect the lead and walk off the field with three points, The effort from the guys was outstanding today. We know the technical part of the game wasn’t perfect, but tactically they did an outstanding job and showed a lot of fight and determination.”
As for the start, San Jose is playing inspired soccer in the earl going of the 2025 campaign.
“I’ll need a little bit more time to be able to size up this team in comparison to some of the others I’ve had,” said Arena. “But my early six to eight weeks with the team have been nothing but rewarding. I've been impressed with their attitude and their desire to be a good team. So hopefully we can get better and be a team that’s tough to play against and a team that can win more games that we have in the last couple years, and hopefully, be a good team by the end of the year.”
The Earthquakes will now head home to take on Minnesota United FC next Saturday, March 8. Kickoff from PayPal Park will take place at 7:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcast globally on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV (English/Spanish), as well as on local radio via KSFO 810 AM (English) and 1370 AM La Kaliente (Spanish).
COURTESY PHOTO / SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES COMMUNICATIONS
Sporting KC's Dejan Joveljic and San Jose Earthquakes' Beau Leroux collide mid-air to win that ball during Saturday's MLS clash.
GAME NOTES
San Jose moved to 27-32-10 all-time vs. SKC (88 GF, 94 GA) with an away record of 9-24-2 (38 GF, 59 GA).
With the win, the Earthquakes snapped a four-game losing streak to KC in all competitions and earned all three points in Kansas City for the first time since Aug. 19, 2015 (5-0). Cordell Cato and Chris Wondolowski scored braces, while Anibal Godoy also got on the scoresheet for San Jose.
Tonight’s victory almost marks the first time the Quakes won their road opener since March 24, 2012, a 3-0 win over Toronto FC.
Tonight’s result also marks the first time the Earthquakes have gone unbeaten the first two games of the season since 2017, when they opened at home and beat the Montréal Impact (1-0) and Vancouver Whitecaps FC (3-2).
The last time the Quakes won despite being down to 10 men for a majority of the second half was May 4, 2019, a 1-0 win over FC Cincinnati. Cristian Espinoza got a red card in the 51st minute.
Cristian Espinoza extended his run of consecutive MLS regular-season games played tonight to a current league-high of 111 (Oct. 2, 2021 – present). The streak is not only a Quakes record but now fifth longest in MLS history and second among all field players in MLS history, passing Darlington Nagbe (May 1, 2021 – Apr. 6, 2024). Goalkeeper Luis Robles holds the league record with 183 straight appearances (Sept. 29, 2012 – May 12, 2018).
Chicho Arango scored his first goal for San Jose in the third minute, his 54th in MLS regular-season play. He later earned Man of the Match honors. With his 19th-minute goal tonight, Josef Martínez tied Bradley Wright-Phillips for sixth on the MLS all-time scoring list with 117. Quakes legend Chris Wondolowski sits atop the list with 171.Tonight’s win gives Bruce Arena his 264th in MLS regular-season play, a league record. The late great Sigi Schmid is second with 240 victories, while Arena’s counterpart tonight, SKC coach Peter Vermes, is third with 203.
Sporting Kansas City 1 – 2 San Jose Earthquakes
Saturday, March 1, 2025 – Children’s Mercy Park; Kansas City, Kan.
Weather: 40°F Partly Cloudy
Attendance: 16,277
Match Officials: REF: Sergii Boiko AR1: Andrew Bigelow AR2: Stephen McGonagle 4TH: Calin Radosav VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Jozef Batko
Scoring Summary: SJ (0-1) – Chicho Arango (unassisted) 3’SJ (0-2) – Josef Martínez (unassisted) 19’SKC (1-2) – Dejan Joveljić (penalty kick) 27’
Misconduct Summary: SKC – Tim Leibold (caution) 5’ SKC – Jacob Bartlett (caution) 16’ SKC – Jake Davis (caution) 45’ SJ – Hernán López (caution) 45+5’ SJ – Hernán López (caution) 52’ SJ – Hernán López (ejection) 52’ SKC – Nemanja Radoja (caution) 67’
SPORTING KANSAS CITY: John Pulskamp (GK); Joaquín Fernández, Robert Voloder, Tim Leibold (Logan Ndenbe 56’), Jake Davis (Andrew Brody 56’); Jacob Bartlett (Nemanja Radoja 56’), Manu García, Zorhan Bassong (Memo Rodriguez 77’); Erik Thommy (Dániel Sallói 77’), Shapi Suleymanov, Dejan Joveljić.
Substitutes not used: Ryan Schewe (GK), Ian James, Dany Rosero, William Agada.
POSS.: 64.3%; SHOTS: 15; SOG: 3; CORNERS: 6; OFFSIDES: 3; SAVES: 4; FOULS: 13; xG: 1.9SAN JOSE
EARTHQUAKES: Daniel (GK); Rodrigues, Bruno Wilson, Dave Romney; Jamar Ricketts, Ian Harkes, Beau Leroux (Nick Lima 76’), Cristian Espinoza, Hernán López; Chicho Arango (Ousseni Bouda 81’), Josef Martínez (Mark-Anthony Kaye 61’).
Substitutes not used: Earl Edwards Jr. (GK), Vítor Costa, Max Floriani, Niko Tsakiris, Daniel Munie, Amahl
Pellegrino.
POSS.: 35.7%; SHOTS: 7; SOG: 6; CORNERS: 2; OFFSIDES: 1; SAVES: 2; FOULS: 15; xG: 0.8
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(Have a story suggestion for the Premier Media Group and the National Soccer Network regarding club/youth soccer, high school varsity, amateur soccer, collegiate soccer or professional soccer involving teams, players or coaches with ties to a particular state or states, contact Web and Content Editor/Director of News Dan Stickradt via email at dstickradt@thepremiermediagrp.com and news@nationalsoccernetwork.com, or call 248-525-2349. Dan Stickradt is a 32-year veteran of the Michigan and national media circles and recently joined the staff full time at PMG in March of 2024. Want to schedule a broadcast game or live show, contact PMG/NSN Director of Broadcasting Jonathan Turner for availability and pricing at jonathan@thepremiermediagrp.com.)
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