After an incredible start to the season, the Quakes entered a bit of a lull in recent weeks: a potent attack and solid defense experienced regression.
However, how much of this promises to be long-term?
Arena’s first few weeks gave fans a glimpse into this team’s potential. Coinciding with the absence of López, the team continues to struggle without the Argentine.
While the Argentine drifted from impactful to anonymous, his positional importance opened up the team’s offense. Without an adequate replacement, Arena opted to push Arango into that role and partner Bouda and Judd up top. Bringing Arango into the central role hurts his production, but Judd has looked great since his reintroduction.
Despite the reinforcements, the defense remains a work in progress. The lack of any real depth forces Arena into having to patch over issues whenever there’s any absence. Additionally, the recent poor form of Dave Romney hamstrings the potential of this backline.
The game against Charlotte remains the low point of the season thus far, but there’s hope that this will be a one-time event.
However, the question remains in most fans’ minds: What is the real Quakes team?
Having started the season as hot as they did, most expected the Quakes’ offense to power this team forward. Absences hurt this team, but for the most part, the attack is still the team’s strong suit.
Asking Arango to be the team’s creative hub was always a tough task, and it has hurt Arango’s production. Forcing them to drop back and connect the midfield to the attack makes the striker almost a nonfactor. Rather than being able to take on defenders, his current way to threaten backlines is to crash into the box.
Outside of a penalty against Charlotte, since moving into López’s role, Arango has yet to register another goal or assist. The threat posed by having a true double-digit scorer is neutered by his having to be a creator. Arango isn’t a terrible creative hub, but his true skill set is not being used properly.
Again, this highlights another issue with roster construction, which is that the team lacks depth in crucial positions. Niko Tsakiris profiles to be the only player with shades of López, but Arena has yet to fully place trust in him.
With all that said, there remains one positive from the changes that Arena has made: the new striker partnership. In part due to injuries and international duty, Arena chose to play Bouda and Judd as a striker duo. To be fair to the manager, the two forwards match up really well with each other.
PHOTO: San Jose EarthquakesAfter a somewhat underwhelming first season in the Bay last year, Judd found his best role. Judd’s ability to be a physical threat and open space up for Bouda allows the youngster to take on opponents with his speed. This continues to allow Bouda to be more fluid and drift in the zone between Arango and Judd.
If the team hopes to find a way to survive these next few weeks, it will be through that partnership.
Eventually moving Arango back into the front two will elevate this club, but one of Bouda or Judd may be his ideal partner.
As the team kicked off their season, they looked revived defensively. While fans hope that the drubbing by Charlotte is an outlier, they have looked shakier since that great start.
Similar to their woes in the attack, the lack of real depth forces Arena into some tough choices with his team selection. Notably, when Rodrigues missed time a few weeks ago, Lima, who hasn’t really played center back since college, was forced into replacing the Brazilian. To no one’s surprise, he struggled to keep track of runners and was hooked against Charlotte for Rodrigues.
This issue becomes compounded, especially whenever there needs to be a change in defensive strategy, especially against frontonlines against Charlotte, which feature pacy attackers who thrive on latching onto long balls. The backline struggles with this type of attacker constantly.
As exposed against Charlotte, in particular, attacking the team through the middle exposes the team. While Wilson remains the only defender able to read these moves, Romney struggles with keeping up with his marker in these attacks. Too often, forwards beat him with pace or baited him into biting way too early.
Rodrigues helps in these moments, but the Brazilian ventures too far forward often, leaving massive gaps of space behind him. The three-man backline works best at stopping plays either on the cross or by playing higher up. However, the moment a team plays through the middle, the backline crumbles.
Luchi and Russell gave Munie runs last season, but the former Quakes’ draft pick has yet to establish himself under Arena. Especially with any potential absences or regressions, the manager needs to find a way to get him involved or find an adequate replacement.
Despite a positive start, defensive issues remain the calling card for the San Jose Earthquakes.
Fans hope that the destruction at the hands of Charlotte remains an outlier, but the team needs to convince them of it.
The season is still way too early to make full proclamations on this side. However, especially after that great start, it’s natural to feel worried about how sustainable it was.
As the team enters a tough stretch of their schedule, they hope that the start wasn’t a sort of fool’s gold.
PHOTO: San Jose Earthquakes
