Bruce Area is relishing the San Jose Earthquakes’ upcoming MLS fixtures in opposition to among the greatest groups within the Western Convention, however he’s not getting carried away by their blistering begin to the season.
The Earthquakes prolonged their profitable league run to 6 matches by beating St. Louis Metropolis SC 3-2 of their final league match, serving to them keep high spot within the West.
San Jose journey to BMO Subject this weekend to tackle Japanese Convention facet Toronto FC earlier than fixtures in opposition to the Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders and FC Dallas.
They end up their fixtures earlier than the break for the World Cup in opposition to the Portland Timbers, and Area needs to be in as robust a place when MLS play resumes.
“Our begin is nice, so after we hit the break in June, we’ll be in a considerably optimistic place. You may’t go within the month of Might and lose each sport,” Area stated.
“Clearly, that’ll destroy every part we’ve labored for for the time being. However we’re in an excellent place.
“Hopefully, we will grasp in there and have a workforce able to play on Saturday, after which I’ll fear in regards to the subsequent sport.
“We use this phrase with our gamers: ‘Subsequent play’. It’s subsequent play and subsequent sport. We don’t look too far forward.”
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) April 30, 2026
And the Earthquakes come up in opposition to a Toronto facet with out a win of their final 4 MLS outings (D3 L1) following a 2-1 defeat at house in opposition to Atlanta United final trip.
Aleksey Miranchuk and Tristan Muyumba’s second-half targets rendered Emilio Aristizabal’s 71st-minute strike a comfort, leaving them sixth within the East after 9 video games.
Toronto boss Robin Fraser was left annoyed on the lack of attacking fluidity inside his workforce, who generated an anticipated targets (xG) whole of simply 0.6 from their 9 pictures.
“The final 20 minutes have been good,” Fraser stated. “Previous to that, we have been too tentative. To be honest, Atlanta did an excellent job of proscribing us to little or no.
“They did an excellent job of creating it troublesome for us to construct out. However this can be a sport the place they take one thing away from us, and we now have to search out different methods to attempt to damage them.
“I believed we most likely didn’t play in behind sufficient early within the sport. The way in which they arrange defensively, the one solution to get at them was to get in behind, however we didn’t do this.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Toronto – Daniel Salloi
Salloi has 10 purpose contributions in 13 regular-season matches in opposition to San Jose (six targets, 4 assists), solely posting extra in opposition to Dallas (11 – 9 targets, two assists).
4 of these got here in his final match in opposition to the Earthquakes in April 2025 with Sporting Kansas Metropolis (two targets, two assists).
SJ Earthquakes – Timo Werner
Werner has been concerned in 9 targets (4 targets, 5 assists) in his first seven MLS appearances, together with three in opposition to St. Louis final trip.
The final Earthquakes participant to contribute to 9 or extra targets in any span of seven matches was Chris Wondolowski in 2012.
MATCH PREDICTION: SJ EARTHQUAKES WIN
The Earthquakes are unbeaten in 5 straight conferences with Toronto courting again to 2018 (D4 L1), although the final assembly was in 2023. The Reds’ final win over San Jose was a 4-0 house victory in 2017.
Area’s facet are additionally the primary workforce within the post-shootout period (since 2000) to win 9 of their first 10 matches of a daily season. The Earthquakes, who received 11 occasions final 12 months, are on the lookout for back-to-back 10-win seasons for the primary time since 2012 and 2013.
However Toronto are out for a return to profitable methods on house soil. Their 13-match unbeaten run at BMO Subject (W4 D9) got here to an finish after defeat to Atlanta. The Reds have received solely 5 of their final 28 house matches in all competitions courting again to September 2024 (D12 L11).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Toronto – 33.3%
Draw – 25.7%
SJ Earthquakes – 41%
