The Official 2026 San Jose Earthquakes preseason games thread [R]

I'm hoping to see more trialists like Gonzales.

We need some warm bodies. If we could snag a Liga MX player or two (even if not stars) that would be good. I bet there are bargains to be had in Argentina, maybe Venezuela too. And scouring the Eastern European leagues for players is also a good idea. But places where we can find bargains would be good. Maybe some Asian players? (I hear that a lot of those guys are really expensive too.)

We are still several players short of a full squad, so let's get some good dudes!!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Just watched the game...interesting look. First impression was a 4 back, but with a fair amount of freedom for our outside backs Benji and Jones to overlap and interchange with Bouda and Ricketts. At times we had crazy numbers across the midfield...also looked like our outside mids were really tucked in defensively compressing the middle. Also, looked nice in defensive transition....getting major numbers back...5-4-1 and 4-5-1 looks...i think Bruce is really drilling the focus on D.
I think Benji will be our starting RB or RWB..he looks good...i think Bruce will switch Jones to LB. Roberts looked good. I think he and Munie are the starting CBs...Roberts has a great pass out of the back...like a baby Tim Ream.
I agree with Jazz, Fernandez looks good...a quality player. First look, but i'm not crazy about the leftside Jones behind Ricketts...i'd like to see Bouda in front of Jones on the Left...or possibly Roberts behind bouda on the left...if Floriani steps up his game. and Jones behind Benji on the right. We'll see what Bruce rolls out against Portland. Imo, he likes his roster.

 

I was reading it something like this but things looked pretty fluid in general:

-----------------Judd---------Bouda----------
Ricketts---------------Niko-------------------Benji
--------------------Beau-------Vieira------------
-------Jones----------Munie------Roberts

 

I think that's how we started. BUT, it was fluid as you say. On defense we shifted to a different formation or at least guys had different assignments.

As Chris says, "Bruce is really drilling the focus on D."

That's good, but we need more CB's.

I like Benji behind Bouda. That gives us a lot of offense on that side. We need to do better than Ricketts on the left side. I'm not sold on Niko as our #10. We need an upgrade for Viera. He's just not good enough to be an everyday starter.

And I want us to replace Daniel and Junior. Daniel is fragile and Junior just plain sucks.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I think when Timo arrives he'll probably take that spot where Ricketts was playing - on the left side behind Judd. But I like Bouda on the left as well. He's got such a strong shot when he cuts in.

 

I think that Bouda is better on the right.

Question, do you think that Judd will continue to start at the #9? And if he does, wouldn't Timo play behind Judd? In a withdrawn striker position?

I expect us to play a 3-5-2.

- - - - - - - - - - - Judd
- - - - - - - Timo
Jones? - - - - - Niko - - - - - Bouda
- - - - - Viera - - - - - - Beau
- - - Roberts - - Munie - - Benji
- - - - - - - - - - - Daniel

Something like this? And I expect it to be fluid. Lots of movement and shifting roles. And I don't think that Jones has that spot locked down, but he might. We don't have a lot of options there.

Wait!! We could sign three or four more players!! Yeah!! <not holding my breath>

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I guess the other argument made about JoGo a few years ago is that he was always a player with limited upside who got lots of hype for playing big minutes for a strong Monterrey team but didn't display the underlying attributes to scale to a national team regular. Think of all of the downright mediocre figures who have received senior USMNT caps....

 

That's the national team stuff. But since then seems like he can't even stick with a club team. Juarez is about the worst team in Liga MX and he didn't stick there. I haven't heard much in terms of his shortcomings. If he's not good enough, what about his game is not good enough? Someone mentioned not getting on the ball enough. He's a d-mid - how willing is he to get stuck in? Have injuries made him a little gun shy? Just spitballing here because I'm not seeing much of anything specific other than "he was hyped and turns out he's not that good!".

He did fine in the game yesterday. It was hard to figure out sometimes who was on the ball - between him and Fernandez and Harkes but looks like he did pretty well. Not much to defend because we were controlling the game at that point. In the last 2 minutes of the game he did a nice turn to go past a defender. I think the game is still up It's about around 87-89 minutes I think. I think he'd be fine as a depth player but 1) not sure how happy he'd be sitting on the bench with the Quakes, and 2) it takes away potential looks / minutes for Edwyn Mendoza for yet another year.

Also, I think Bruce has a thing about players' size and strength. He likes the bigger guys - not just height, but overall sturdiness, especially dmids. Vieira is pretty sturdy and Bruce loves him. Harkes, Kaye, all a little on the bigger side. He benched Beau last year because he thought he was getting pushed around too much. Gonzalez is on the smaller frame side, and MLS is generally a bigger league than Liga MX. So this makes me wonder about fit on an Arena team.

Then there’s need. We’ve got 5 guys at the 8/6 already: Vieira, Beau, Harkes, Buck, and Kaye if we re-sign him. Do we need a 6th, for 2 positions? Not to mention Edwyn Mendoza. If we sign Gonzalez I don’t think we should re-sign Kaye. It’s too many guys - 6 veteran guys for 2 spots.

 

We shouldn’t re-sign Kaye no matter what. It’s time to move on.

Let’s give Jonathan G a trial. If he works out, great. If not, it’s worth a chance. And cutting Kaye means there’s more of a chance for Mendoza to get minutes. Giving Kaye any minutes is a waste. He’s not good enough anymore. He’s lost a step or two. He makes mistakes, partly because he’s too slow.

We should move on from Harkes and Romney too.

And Niko and Buck, we need to figure out quickly if they have the right stuff or not. I’m unimpressed with both of them. Clock’s ticking on those two.

And why did we re-sign Jack?! I mean, I like Jack, but I can see several reasons to trade him to a USL side.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

As far as I know we haven't signed Kaye. So he could be trialing along with JGo, and they are competinig for the same spot. Maybe... JGo is only 26 so that would be another reason to keep him over Kaye. And he's a pseudo-local guy (from Santa Rosa originally).

 

No reason to get excited about either Kaye or Jonathan Gonzalez. Kaye we have already seen. Gonzalez played 8 games for Minnesota United in 2022 on loan. He was forgettable as he's been throughout his career ever since his breakout rookie season when he made LigaMX best xi. The only thing JoGo has going for him is that he's from Santa Rosa so it would be a nice return home. Personally I don't care about things like that, "nice story" doesn't matter when the team sucks.

If either makes the team it's not because we're expecting them to be difference makers, it's because we have half a dozen empty roster spots and need warm bodies to fill them.

 

https://basportsnation.com/2026/02/09/the-connecting-piece/

 

I guess he's advocating for Vieira to play center CB, replacing Munie (who presumably would move to the right in a 3-man back line). Yeah, that's not gonna happen.

 

Yeah, i think Viera is an impact player for us at Dmid. He drops into the back line when needed...and i think he'll be noticeably better than last season. But we don't need him in the back, especially if that means Harkes would then be the primary mid to protect the back line...that would suck. I think the writer is way over selling Harkes' importance to the midfield. Honestly he's the most likely to turn the ball over. Imo, the locks are Viera and Beau...and Niko is improving and has really good chemistry with Beau. Niko probably should have had a couple assists against Charlotte if his teammates could finish...he hit an absolutely sublime curled pass to Ricketts. We'll see if we add an experienced high quality attacking mid to play with Beau...with Viera behind them...in my mind, Harkes is a back up mid at best.

 

So worse than I thought is what you’re saying? Par for the course. We aren’t even looking for good players. Maybe GoJo came to us?

We need good players! We need upgrades, not has beens.

But it’s what I’ve come to expect from this shitty, no-ambition team.

Thanks for the heads up!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Whoever wrote that was smoking good weed.

I like the way we played the 3-4-3 last season, but we don’t have enough forwards to do that this season, and going 3-5-2 allows Vieira to play as a true d-mid.

But Harkes needs to sit, or sell tickets.

In a 3-5-2 we can play Niko, or Buck (?), or Skahan eek at the attacking mid spot. — Or better yet, dump all three of those guys and get a real attacking mid!

Unless we sign a bunch more starting quality forwards in the next couple of weeks, I expect us to play a 3-5-2, or maybe a 4-4-2. It’s going to be ugly and we’re going to lose a lot!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I hope that Vieira is better than he was last season, because last season he did not impress.

Maybe he’ll shine more in a 3-5-2?

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Don't think we'll play a 3-5-2. It's gonna be 4 in the back I think. All I know is that Bruce absolutely loves the guy, and he was captain against Charlotte. No sense fighting it; It's Ronaldo Vieira's team / world and we're just living in it.

 

Yeah, Bruce thinks that Vieira is great, so he’s going to play. Again, I hope he’s better than last year.

IF we assume that Niko was a forward in a 3-4-3, and that’s plausible, then 3-4-3 is how we’re going. That would be fine by me. And of course, Bruce isn’t taking my calls. So I’m going to have to be good with that, or whatever crap Bruce runs out.

Our team is showing zero ambition. We need to sign some Good new players. As it stands we’re going to suck, unless we get a lot of help from the refs, which is not in the cards.

F-word!!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

As I keep saying, we're not gonna play 3 in the back unless we add more CB's. You can't play 3 in the back with 4 viable CBs on your roster. Well, you can but it's not wise. And we didn't play 3 in the back against Charlotte. And we have lots of outside backs: Jones, Benji, Costa, Ricketts, Marie, Jasinski. Six guys for 2 spots vs. 4 guys for 3 spots (if we were to play 3 CB's).

 

Yeah, so maybe a 4-5-1, so that we can get all of our least mediocre midfielders on the pitch. Also, it was our midfield being porous last season that allowed a ton of enemy attacks. So I half expect Bruce to play with five midfielders.

Also, Bruce plays shifting formations. If we assume that the outside players are wing-backs, then we should have four or five guys on the backline when we're on defense.

I'm thinking 3-5-2 when we have the ball and 5-3-2 when we don't. I hope that makes sense.

And YES!! We need more CB's!! And yes we have too many outside players, whether they are defenders or wing-backs, whatever you want to call them.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I think we'll end up in a skinny diamond 4-4-1-1...with Timo underneath Judd...Timo as a quasi attacking mid/drop forward running off a 9. Hopefully Beau as the 8 and Viera as the 6. I also think Bruce will play very aggressively with our flank backs...with Viera dropping in and out of the back depending on how pushed up our flank backs are...there were times when both backs were really high and wide...Munie and Roberts were split wider with Viera between them. I don't think we'll play Timo as the 9...i'm not crazy about Judd at the 9 with Timo underneath him, but i think that's what it will be at the start of the season. I would prefer a 3-5-2. I know we're thin on CBs, but i wouldn't put it past Bruce to consider Viera or Benji at RCB as emergency back ups. I actually think Benji has all the tools and potential to be an outside CB in a three back.

 

Timo said he likes to play more centrally and be part of the buildup. We can call it a withdrawn forward or false 9 or 9/10. The problem with 4-4-1-1 is that there's no room for Niko (or Nick) as a #10. So it could look more like a 4-2-3-1, which is what I felt we were more or less playing against Charlotte. In that case Timo would probably be on the left in the 3, with Niko in the center and Bouda on the right. But Timo doesn't have to be stuck out on the wing. He can drift centrally and the LB can provide the width. This was essentially Chicho's role last year. He was ostensibly a left side wide forward but he tried to play more like a CAM much of the time.

If Timo's ready, this might be our starting lineup against SKC. Timo and Bouda can both play either side, so they can also switch at times.

--------------------Judd------------------
----Timo----------Niko-----------Bouda
------------Vieira---------Beau------------
Jones----Roberts----Munie----Benji
--------------------Daniel------------------

 

I hear what you're saying Chris, but as @JazzyJ says, a 4-4-2 leaves no room for Niko, and it looks like we're betting the farm, or at least a large garden, on Niko.

IF we play only 4 in the middle, Beau will be on the bench. Not where I want him.

I think that some of our "outside defenders" will play as wing-backs in a 3-5-2, with Timo playing a withdrawn striker role to Judd's #9. Not really what I want either, but then, it's up to Bruce what we do.

Let's look at it this way. Who are the "lock" starters on the squad?

Timo
Judd, probably
Vieira, certainly
Munie
Daniel

Likely Niko?
Probably Bouda and Benji?
Dejuan maybe?

It suggests a certain lineup. Bruce is going to want Niko, Vieira, and hopefully Beau on the field, and then we'll need either four defenders and three forwards -- Ooops! We don't have three forwards! -- Or three defenders, two wing-backs, and two forwards.

I'm not saying this because I want it, but it's how I see the team shaping up.

Go Quakesfans!!