Foreign Exchange: Three questions with veteran Quakes reporter Robert Jonas
We turned to an expert on the Quakes to learn more about how Bruce Arena's doing and how Chicho Arango and Josef Martínez are complementing each other.
Ahead of tonight's Austin FC match against the San Jose Earthquakes (9:30 pm CT, yipes is right, on CBS Sports Network, CBS Sports Golazo Network, and Paramount+) in the quarterfinal round of the 2025 U.S. Open Cup – barely ahead – we checked in with Robert Jonas, a veteran Quakes reporter who also serves as the club's pool reporter. (Like me in that role, he's the one who asks referees questions when there are questions to be asked.)
Let's get to the questions and the answers he dictated into his phone and sent over!
How has Bruce Arena been as a manager so far, and how would you characterize his leadership of the team? (Is this the same Bruce Arena we know from past MLS stops, or is he different this time around?)
Bruce Arena has come into San Jose recognizing what a challenging situation it was. This is an organization that has failed to live up to any sort of expectations for many seasons. In fact, it haven't hosted a home playoff game since their stadium opened a decade ago.
He recognized, from his perspective of being the LA Galaxy coach, what it meant to run an organization successfully, albeit with more resources than in San Jose. He doesn't lack desire to find results, not just for the first team and in coaching, but also as a technical director in the organization. All of this together, that gravitas of being the winningest manager in MLS, the take-charge attitude, the player first mentality that I think he has — he really looks after his guys — has made the organization just more comfortable with winning, more amenable to success, and it's just that attitude change that has been a real big plus.
It looks like Chicho Arango and Josef Martinez are coexisting well this year ... what's contributed to them combining for 18 goals (which is more than the entire Austin FC team has scored this season)?
I'm not sure anybody expected that the Quakes would be at the top of the league for scoring, but when they did make massive investments to bring in Arango and Martínez — two guys with pedigrees and a lot of goalscoring experience — there was an expectation that this team would certainly be better than they were in season's past.
Match them with Cristian Espinoza, who has arguably been the Quakes' MVP of this team for many seasons now, and that's a very formidable trio up top who really work well together. Because you don't have one player demanding the ball —but technically almost three players demanding the ball — it actually gets distributed in a much more equitable way and guys are getting their shots.
I've always felt if you have one outfield player demanding the ball every time ,then you try to funnel it to him, and there are some opportunities. Here, we see Martínez getting the ball off to Chicho, it's going around the horn, and a midfield that's willing to feed all three of those guys makes a very interesting and sometimes unpredictable offense. I think that's been a real advantage in unlocking defenses in a way this team couldn't do in the past.
How important is Open Cup to Quakes players and fans? Does this feel winnable right now, or is it an achievement just to be getting this far?
I mentioned earlier how San Jose hasn't hosted a home playoff game in over a decade ... well, there's very little in the trophy case in recent years. That's something that, when Bruce Arena arrived, he recognized that anything that can gather attention from fans, get the players excited, and get the local media excited, like an Open Cup run, is something that he wanted to pursue.
In the previous rounds, he didn't hesitate to play starting lineups as opposed to playing reserves, and he made very clear talking to the press that he wanted his players to take this seriously. He was looking at it seriously, and they were looking at every game as an opportunity to advance and get them closer to their first hardware in what seems like many, many years.
So is it going to be important on Tuesday, absolutely, and you know there are going to be some guys in the lineup who have maybe fewer minutes than some of the other starters, but it's not going to be a bunch of names you don't know. Certainly, he'll have players like Chicho and Josef available off the bench [if they don't start] ... we're very much looking forward to an exciting game in San Jose and looking forward to seeing how far the Quakes can take their Cup run.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. You can comment here if you’re a subscriber, or reach out via Bluesky.
As far as the Open Cup goes, Austin FC waits for a semifinal match in September with a chance to host the final. But the most important wait now is for the star forward's MRI results.
On Sunday night, the U.S. lost because the offense couldn't get going and the defense had a couple of lapses at inopportune times. Perhaps that sounds painfully familiar.
Ahead of tonight's Austin FC match against the San Jose Earthquakes (9:30 pm CT, yipes is right, on CBS Sports Network, CBS Sports Golazo Network, and Paramount+) in the quarterfinal round of the 2025 U.S. Open Cup – barely ahead – we checked in with Robert Jonas, a veteran Quakes reporter who also serves as the club's pool reporter. (Like me in that role, he's the one who asks referees questions when there are questions to be asked.)
Let's get to the questions and the answers he dictated into his phone and sent over!
How has Bruce Arena been as a manager so far, and how would you characterize his leadership of the team? (Is this the same Bruce Arena we know from past MLS stops, or is he different this time around?)
Bruce Arena has come into San Jose recognizing what a challenging situation it was. This is an organization that has failed to live up to any sort of expectations for many seasons. In fact, it haven't hosted a home playoff game since their stadium opened a decade ago.
He recognized, from his perspective of being the LA Galaxy coach, what it meant to run an organization successfully, albeit with more resources than in San Jose. He doesn't lack desire to find results, not just for the first team and in coaching, but also as a technical director in the organization. All of this together, that gravitas of being the winningest manager in MLS, the take-charge attitude, the player first mentality that I think he has — he really looks after his guys — has made the organization just more comfortable with winning, more amenable to success, and it's just that attitude change that has been a real big plus.
It looks like Chicho Arango and Josef Martinez are coexisting well this year ... what's contributed to them combining for 18 goals (which is more than the entire Austin FC team has scored this season)?
I'm not sure anybody expected that the Quakes would be at the top of the league for scoring, but when they did make massive investments to bring in Arango and Martínez — two guys with pedigrees and a lot of goalscoring experience — there was an expectation that this team would certainly be better than they were in season's past.
Match them with Cristian Espinoza, who has arguably been the Quakes' MVP of this team for many seasons now, and that's a very formidable trio up top who really work well together. Because you don't have one player demanding the ball —but technically almost three players demanding the ball — it actually gets distributed in a much more equitable way and guys are getting their shots.
I've always felt if you have one outfield player demanding the ball every time ,then you try to funnel it to him, and there are some opportunities. Here, we see Martínez getting the ball off to Chicho, it's going around the horn, and a midfield that's willing to feed all three of those guys makes a very interesting and sometimes unpredictable offense. I think that's been a real advantage in unlocking defenses in a way this team couldn't do in the past.
How important is Open Cup to Quakes players and fans? Does this feel winnable right now, or is it an achievement just to be getting this far?
I mentioned earlier how San Jose hasn't hosted a home playoff game in over a decade ... well, there's very little in the trophy case in recent years. That's something that, when Bruce Arena arrived, he recognized that anything that can gather attention from fans, get the players excited, and get the local media excited, like an Open Cup run, is something that he wanted to pursue.
In the previous rounds, he didn't hesitate to play starting lineups as opposed to playing reserves, and he made very clear talking to the press that he wanted his players to take this seriously. He was looking at it seriously, and they were looking at every game as an opportunity to advance and get them closer to their first hardware in what seems like many, many years.
So is it going to be important on Tuesday, absolutely, and you know there are going to be some guys in the lineup who have maybe fewer minutes than some of the other starters, but it's not going to be a bunch of names you don't know. Certainly, he'll have players like Chicho and Josef available off the bench [if they don't start] ... we're very much looking forward to an exciting game in San Jose and looking forward to seeing how far the Quakes can take their Cup run.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. You can comment here if you’re a subscriber, or reach out via Bluesky.
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