New-Look Earthquakes Impress In Season Opener

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Earthquakes are out to prove the critics wrong in 2025.

The Earthquakes scored three goals in the second half to rout Real Salt Lake 4-0 in the season and home opener on Saturday evening at PayPal Park.

San Jose started the season with a win for the first time since 2018 and secured its first home opener victory since 2021. Real Salt Lake has lost to San Jose in three of its last four matches.

“It means a lot, it means a lot to us,” said Quakes midfielder Cristian Espinoza about the team snapping its losing streak to start the new season. “We’re coming off a really tough year last year. We worked really hard in the preseason to be at this level in this first game. To be honest, I’m really happy because of the team’s performance. I personally want to go and congratulate my teammates because they made a really big effort tonight.”

It was the beginning of a new era for Quakes soccer with the coaching debut of head coach Bruce Arena, who brings a winning pedigree from his success with Los Angeles, as well as the debuts of newly acquired strikers Josef Martínez and Cristian “Chicho” Arango, both proven goal scorers throughout their MLS careers.

San Jose (1-0-0) struck first in the 28th minute. Beau Leroux dribbled in from the right wing before centering the ball into the middle of the box. Midfielder Jamar Ricketts, making his first career MLS start, one-timed the ball between two Real Salt Lake defenders into the back corner of the net past goalkeeper Rafael Barbosa for his first career MLS goal. Ricketts was San Jose’s first-round draft pick last year in the MLS SuperDraft, selected 13th overall.

“Playing wingback, you gotta be up and down the field,” said Ricketts regarding his goal. “But as I saw the ball and saw Beau (Leroux) driving inside the box, I knew I had to crash the back post and be aggressive. So, once I saw the ball come across, I thought, ‘I gotta be the first to win the ball.’ And that’s how I got my foot on it.”

Leroux, who signed a first-team contract just yesterday, recorded his first MLS assist. He was not only making his first MLS start for the Quakes but also his MLS debut. A San Jose native, Leroux scored five goals last season for the Quakes’ MLS NEXT Pro team, The Town FC.

The Earthquakes had a chance to double their lead in the 38th minute when Ricketts sent a ball into the box for Arango, but Chicho’s shot sailed high over the net.

Sunnyvale native Diego Luna led the attack for Real Salt Lake (0-1-0) in the opening 45 minutes. He had three shot attempts, but all sailed wide right of the net. RSL registered its first shot on goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Tyler Wolff’s free kick deflected off the wall of San Jose defenders just outside the box. The rebound fell to Alexandros Katranis, who fired a shot on target that Quakes goalkeeper Daniel leapt high into the air to deflect over the net.

San Jose had a goal disallowed in the 51st minute after Cristian Espinoza chipped the ball past an RSL defender and centered a pass to Arango, who sent the ball into the back of the net. However, the sideline judge deemed Espinoza offside, nullifying the goal.

Real Salt Lake had chances to score the equalizer through Pablo Ruiz and Nelson Palacio in the 63rd and 64th minutes, but Daniel denied all three attempts on goal.

“We made some mistakes we have to get better at, but the nice part about this team is that when we started to rebuild our roster, we wanted the team in place all preseason instead of bringing in guys this week, last week, or two weeks from now. So, we’ve had a month to try to become a team,” Arena said.

The Quakes doubled their lead on their first set piece of the season. Espinoza’s free kick sailed into the middle of the box, and Rodríguez headed the ball over the outstretched arms of Barbosa into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.

San Jose added a third unanswered goal four minutes later. On a counterattack, Espinoza sent a long ball from just beyond midfield into the center of the box. Justen Glad misplayed the ball in the air, and Ousseni Bouda, who had come on as a substitute in the 67th minute, collected the ball and calmly slotted it past Barbosa for his first goal of the season.

Left back Vitor Costa closed out the scoring for San Jose in the 83rd minute, finishing off a centering pass from Mark-Anthony Kaye as the Earthquakes kept their foot on the gas in the onslaught.

Daniel finished the match stopping all seven shots he faced to earn his first clean sheet of the season and the seventh shutout of his MLS career. Barbosa made five saves on nine shots on target in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES

• San Jose finished with six corner kicks, while Real Salt Lake had five.
• The 4-0 final margin is the Quakes’ largest victory in a season opener in club history.
• Espinoza’s three assists marked his 10th career multi-assist game in MLS play, giving him 74 total helpers to extend his club record.
• Espinoza extended his streak of consecutive MLS regular-season games played to a league-high 110 (Oct. 2, 2021 – present). The streak is not only a Quakes record but also the fifth longest in MLS history and the second longest among all field players in MLS history, surpassing 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).
• San Jose is 18-15-12 in the all-time series against Real Salt Lake.

UP NEXT

• San Jose travels to the Midwest to take on Sporting KC on Saturday, March 1, at 5:30 p.m. at Children’s Mercy Park.