Sports Mole previews Thursday’s MLS clash between San Jose Earthquakes and Dallas, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
The San Jose Earthquakes host Dallas on Wednesday night at PayPal Park, aiming to extend the away side’s MLS struggles in the gameweek 23 fixture.
Bruce Arena’s men go into the midweek match as slight favourites in the all-Western Conference clash, even though the Quakes need to end a three-match winless streak to maintain their position just outside the playoff spots.
Match previewHaving last won a fixture in MLS at the end of June, when they defeated Dallas 4-2 in Dallas, the Quakes will look forward to this week’s game against the Bulls.
Little has worked in their favour since that six-goal thriller, highlighted by a pair of 1-1 home draws against the LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls, which was followed by a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Minnesota United at the weekend.
That loss ended San Jose’s four-match unbeaten run in the league, though Arena’s side only managed one victory during that period.
The recent defeat, which saw the Quakes concede three first-half goals, means San Jose are now looking nervously over their shoulders in the table, considering Austin FC in ninth are a point behind and Houston Dynamo in 10th are two points adrift.
Conversely, the Goonies could finish the midweek round inside the coveted top-seven places, an outcome dependent on the Rapids falling to the Seattle Sounders.
Aiming to prevent that and improve their prospects of climbing the table, 13th-placed Dallas aim to end a three-match losing streak.
Since beating Sporting Kansas City 4-2 in mid-June, Eric Quill’s side have suffered three consecutive defeats, with their inability to keep clean sheets increasingly concerning.
Since keeping a clean sheet in the goalless draw against the Philadelphia Union several weeks ago, the Bulls have failed to prevent their opponents from scoring, a run including four losses.
Even when the Quill’s men were on the right side of a result, they allowed two goals, a pattern continuing in recent losses where they conceded at least two goals, falling to San Jose (4-2), San Diego FC (3-2), Minnesota United (2-1) and Los Angeles FC (2-0).
Entering Wednesday’s match joint-bottom in the form table over the past five games, scoring nine and conceding 13, the away side, currently out of the playoff conversation, will look to find some success after four gameweeks without any points.
San Jose Earthquakes MLS form:
San Jose Earthquakes form (all competitions):
Dallas MLS form:
Dallas form (all competitions):
Team NewsExpected to miss out due to injury for San Jose are Noel Buck, Cristian Espinoza and Paul Marie, all of whom have reported upper and lower body injuries.
Daniel Munie and Benjamin Kikanovic, both of whom went off injured in the defeat by Minnesota, could be absent midweek, with Bruno Wilson and Nick Lima possibly replacing the doubtful pair.
Cristian Arango and Josef Martínez have scored 10 and eight goals respectively for the home side, accounting for 43% of San Jose’s 42 goals this season, and the forwards hope to be decisive against Dallas.
While Dallas’ Petar Musa has scored three fewer goals than Arango, the forward’s four assists bring him to 11 contributions, the same as his counterpart, whom he seeks to outperform in round 23.
The Bulls have a few absentees, with Luciano Acosta suspended and Anderson Julio, Nolan Norris and Paxton Pomykal missing through injury.
San Jose Earthquakes possible starting lineup:
Daniel; Rodrigues, Munie, Wilson; Lima, Leroux, Harkes, Costa; Bouda, Martinez, Arango
Dallas possible starting lineup:
Paes; Moore, Abubakar, Ibeagha, Farfan; Farrington, Delgado, Ramiro, Lletget; Acosta, Musa
We say: San Jose Earthquakes 1-1 DallasAlthough San Jose are unbeaten in five consecutive matches in front of their fans, four of those have ended in draws.
Given the precedent, the hosts are likely to avoid losing, but they may have to share the spoils in the fixture.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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