Sizing up San Jose: Austin FC's first 2025 match against the Quakes has incredibly high stakes
We haven't seen the Earthquakes play Austin in 14 months. Things have changed a bit from last year, which their fans are grateful for.
The San Jose Earthquakes are a familiar foe for Austin FC fans.
After all, the first-ever Verde match in Q2 Stadium, back in June 2021, was a scoreless draw to the Bay Area team, and they share a wild lore. That includes:
Two 4-3 matches (including one of the most dramatic home wins in team history);
A 3-3 draw on a hot and swampy August 2022 night, which included Sebastián Driussi scoring a brace against future teammate Matt Bersano;
A 4-0 away loss in October 2021, such an apparent capitulation (from the eye test that day) that it generated a media question about the team quitting that became known in Verde media lore as the "bullshit question" (as that's what former head coach Josh Wolff regarded it as, despite visual evidence to the contrary); and then
Last time they played, which was 14 months ago, a 1-1 draw in which Brendan Hines-Ike equalized.
But they've never played in an Open Cup match before — let alone an Open Cup quarterfinal in which the winner is then just two wins away from lifting a trophy with more than a century of history behind it.
And since it's been a while since the teams have faced each other — their regular season matchups come in late August at home and on Decision Day on the road — let's briefly update you on the cast of characters.
Bruce Arena is the head coach
The 74-year-old veteran coach, who earned a reputation as "the MLS whisperer" for his multiple MLS titles with the LA Galaxy, moved to the West Coast after a stint with New England that ended on a significantly sour note involving "insenstive remarks."
He's brought some of his former Revs players with him, including veteran midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye, former Austin FC and San Jose defender Nick Lima, and boomerang England youth international Noel Buck, who went from the Revs to Southampton to the Quakes after some thinking he was off to England for good.
He's also got them playing better than they did in 2024, which given their 6-25-3 record and Wooden Spoon, is hurdling a low bar.
There's enough ball for all the strikers
One eyebrow-raising part of the Quakes roster rebuild this last season was bringing in Josef Martínez — an at-times on-point striker, but not nearly the same following his 2020 knee injury — in addition to Cristian "Chicho" Arango, a bit of a surprise move given that he was excelling with Real Salt Lake (but also missed out on the '24 All-Star Game serving an anti-harassment suspension the league issued; read into that what you will).
With 17 regular-season appearances each so far this season, Arango has 10 goals (on 76 shots, third-highest in the league), and Martínez has eight, showing that they can co-exist after all. (And Cristian Espinoza, who has added four goals, is now also tied for second in the league with 11 assists, and leads the league in key passes with 70.)
MLS being what it is this year, none of them are All-Stars heading to Austin, though cases could be made for both Arango and Espinoza based on stats alone.
Not bad for the '42nd best player'
If you haven't watched the Quakes much this year (and those West Coast games start quite late, plus a number of their games overlap with Verde matches), Beau Leroux might not be on your radar. He's got four goals (including this recent beauty against the Galaxy) and four assists in a little more than 1500 minutes.
That's particularly impressive given that he was the No. 42 pick in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft — the same draft in which the Quakes picked up rotational defender Jamar Ricketts with the 13th pick. (That's the same draft in which Austin fans got to know Nate Jones for an hour, including a bit of digging on my part to discover his favorite vegetable is "potatoes," before he was moved to the Rapids.)
Another SuperDraft pick of note, Ousseni Bouda — my pined-for Right to Dream/Stanford forward in the 2022 edition, passed over for Kipp Keller, which seemed like a good pick at the time, is finally relatively flourishing under Arena's tutelage, with three goals in about 700 MLS minutes, a decided uptick from prior years.
Watch the red cards
One intriguing trend for the Quakes to be mindful of – four of their last five matches have included sendoffs, although to be fair to the Quakes, only two of those games included red cards issued to Quakes players. That includes the Quakes' Saturday night 1-1 draw hosting the Red Bulls, in which DeJuan Jones exited six minutes on a second yellow card after his team found an own-goal equalizer to offset an Emil Forsberg opener.
Austin FC, meanwhile, hasn't had a player exit a match via ref since Julio Cascante was issued a red card on May 21 in stoppage time of the team's 3-1 Open Cup Round of 16 win over the Dynamo.
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.
Myrto Uzuni and Oleksandr Svatok start Thursday 180 minutes of winning soccer away from a trip to the World Cup. They could be facing off against each other for one of those final spots.
Calling a scoreless draw a new standard might be surprising, but in the context of how Verde played in this match, the assessment from both coach and veteran players makes sense. While most of the team now gets some rest, two players will vie for a place in the World Cup this coming week.
As 0-0 matches go, this one was full of action — including a Myrto Uzuni goal taken away by VAR. Yet, in the end, Verde wasn't able to stop LAFC's ongoing string of clean sheets.
LAFC is out to a strong start in 2026, but the MLS of it all might mean that they concede their first goal of the season on Saturday. If you need a little glimmer of hope that it happens, read on.
The San Jose Earthquakes are a familiar foe for Austin FC fans.
After all, the first-ever Verde match in Q2 Stadium, back in June 2021, was a scoreless draw to the Bay Area team, and they share a wild lore. That includes:
But they've never played in an Open Cup match before — let alone an Open Cup quarterfinal in which the winner is then just two wins away from lifting a trophy with more than a century of history behind it.
And since it's been a while since the teams have faced each other — their regular season matchups come in late August at home and on Decision Day on the road — let's briefly update you on the cast of characters.
Bruce Arena is the head coach
The 74-year-old veteran coach, who earned a reputation as "the MLS whisperer" for his multiple MLS titles with the LA Galaxy, moved to the West Coast after a stint with New England that ended on a significantly sour note involving "insenstive remarks."
He's brought some of his former Revs players with him, including veteran midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye, former Austin FC and San Jose defender Nick Lima, and boomerang England youth international Noel Buck, who went from the Revs to Southampton to the Quakes after some thinking he was off to England for good.
He's also got them playing better than they did in 2024, which given their 6-25-3 record and Wooden Spoon, is hurdling a low bar.
There's enough ball for all the strikers
One eyebrow-raising part of the Quakes roster rebuild this last season was bringing in Josef Martínez — an at-times on-point striker, but not nearly the same following his 2020 knee injury — in addition to Cristian "Chicho" Arango, a bit of a surprise move given that he was excelling with Real Salt Lake (but also missed out on the '24 All-Star Game serving an anti-harassment suspension the league issued; read into that what you will).
With 17 regular-season appearances each so far this season, Arango has 10 goals (on 76 shots, third-highest in the league), and Martínez has eight, showing that they can co-exist after all. (And Cristian Espinoza, who has added four goals, is now also tied for second in the league with 11 assists, and leads the league in key passes with 70.)
MLS being what it is this year, none of them are All-Stars heading to Austin, though cases could be made for both Arango and Espinoza based on stats alone.
Not bad for the '42nd best player'
If you haven't watched the Quakes much this year (and those West Coast games start quite late, plus a number of their games overlap with Verde matches), Beau Leroux might not be on your radar. He's got four goals (including this recent beauty against the Galaxy) and four assists in a little more than 1500 minutes.
That's particularly impressive given that he was the No. 42 pick in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft — the same draft in which the Quakes picked up rotational defender Jamar Ricketts with the 13th pick. (That's the same draft in which Austin fans got to know Nate Jones for an hour, including a bit of digging on my part to discover his favorite vegetable is "potatoes," before he was moved to the Rapids.)
Another SuperDraft pick of note, Ousseni Bouda — my pined-for Right to Dream/Stanford forward in the 2022 edition, passed over for Kipp Keller, which seemed like a good pick at the time, is finally relatively flourishing under Arena's tutelage, with three goals in about 700 MLS minutes, a decided uptick from prior years.
Watch the red cards
One intriguing trend for the Quakes to be mindful of – four of their last five matches have included sendoffs, although to be fair to the Quakes, only two of those games included red cards issued to Quakes players. That includes the Quakes' Saturday night 1-1 draw hosting the Red Bulls, in which DeJuan Jones exited six minutes on a second yellow card after his team found an own-goal equalizer to offset an Emil Forsberg opener.
Austin FC, meanwhile, hasn't had a player exit a match via ref since Julio Cascante was issued a red card on May 21 in stoppage time of the team's 3-1 Open Cup Round of 16 win over the Dynamo.
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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