A pair of teams out to help their playoff prospects will meet Saturday when the San Jose Earthquakes host Los Angeles FC in a super-sized venue at Santa Clara, Calif.
The match will be at the home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, with soaring ticket sales of more than 45,000 allowing the Earthquakes to open the upper deck to fans.
While fifth-place LAFC (11-7-8, 41 points) are just three points from a top-four spot in the Western Conference standings, the Earthquakes (9-12-8, 35 points) are clinging to the ninth and final playoff spot in the West.
LAFC saw a six-match unbeaten run across all competitions (2-0-4) end on Aug. 31 with a 2-1 home loss to West-leading San Diego FC.
In his first home match for LAFC, Son Heung-min nearly tied the match in the 78th minute when his curling, right-footed shot hit off the right post.
“This is all result-oriented, but I was happy to play in my home debut,” he said. “Obviously the results were not our night. But I’m still very proud of the team, and it was very unlucky to not get three points.”
Since that match, he scored a goal for South Korea in a 2-0 victory over the United States men’s national team last Saturday and another goal in a 2-2 draw against Mexico on Tuesday.
LAFC are expected to be without forward Nathan Ordaz on Saturday for an undisclosed reason.
The Earthquakes lost 3-1 to Austin FC on Aug. 30. Offensive-minded San Jose has 53 goals this season, second most in the Western Conference and tied for fourth in all of MLS. But the Earthquakes have allowed opponents to score 51 goals, tied for fourth most in the league.
Cristian Arango and Josef Martinez lead the team with 12 goals each, while Cristian Espinoza has 12 assists to go with four goals.
“We’re coming down to the end of the season, and it’s the playoff push,” said Earthquakes forward Ousseni Bouda, who has three goals this season. “Everybody knows what’s on the line. We want to make the playoffs, and we have a good team, a team that should make the playoffs.”
–Field Level Media
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