Atlanta United: 3 questions about San Jose

Atlanta United will host San Jose on Tuesday, the Fourth of July.

The Five Stripes (8-7-3) have won two consecutive and posted two shutouts, while the Earthquakes (7-6-5) have also won two consecutive games. Neither team has posted three consecutive wins this season.

Ahead of the game, Elliott Almond, who has been covering San Jose since its return to MLS as an expansion team in 2008, answered three questions. He is the Bay Area News Group’s Olympic and soccer writer and has covered 12 Summer and Winter Games. Follow him on Twitter at @elliottalmond.

Q: How has San Jose won seven games when it scored just 20 goals? In other words, where’s the offense?

A: The offense has come from the run of play, led by star Chris Wondolowski’s team-leading seven goals and five assists. For the first time since 2012, however, Wondo has help. San Jose’s attack is more versatile than any time since its return to MLS 10 years ago. The qualifier is 2012 was an outlier year for a team that has reached the playoffs only twice in that span.

Although it has scored just 20 times, seven players have at least two goals. That’s a promising sign. But the numbers also are disappointing, leading to the stunning midseason firing of legendary coach Dominic Kinnear. Management believes it has enough quality players for more production. For instance, Danny Hoesen of the Netherlands is finding his form and has a chance to have a big impact over the summer and fall.

A statistical breakdown reveals the Quakes struggle with set pieces. San Jose has scored only once off a free kick and twice from corner kicks. The set piece play must improve in the second half of the season. Another glaring issue is the lack of scoring from promising Tommy Thompson, who hit the crossbar late Saturday that would have been a game-winning strike. The team’s first homegrown player got his initial career MLS assist this season on a fluky play. He still hasn’t scored. Thompson, 21, needs to start contributing to add a new dimension to the offense.

Another aspect in answering your question involves the science of soccer. Winning is not simply a product of scoring. Earthquakes goalkeeper David Bingham has six shutouts this year as he adjusts to a revised backline. Kinnear emphasized team defense that proved successful in his storied runs to four MLS Cup finals in Houston. His lineup was built to defend and take calculated risks going forward. Under new coach Chris Leitch the Quakes are pressing more often — at least on paper. In his professional coaching debut Wednesday against Seattle in a U.S. Open Cup game, the team “was a little more aggressive,” Hoesen said of the 3-5-2 formation. San Jose used the 3-5-2 again in rallying to defeat the L.A. Galaxy 2-1 on Saturday night.

Q: What is that matchup to watch on Tuesday?

A: Coach Tata Martino probably won’t say it publicly but he has to be salivating when looking at the possibilities for his team. This game isn’t going to be about individual matchups. Instead, it could hinge on how San Jose’s new coach can figure out a way to patch together a central midfield that could slow down the impressive attack of Miguel Almiron and perhaps Josef Martinez.

The Quakes just don’t look good without Anibal Godoy (Panama) patrolling the midfield. Godoy is with the national team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. So is fellow central midfielder Darwin Ceren (El Salvador). Former starter Fatai Alashe (knee) probably won’t be ready and promising center mid Marc Pelosi (knee) hasn’t played since 2015. If San Jose had a deeper roster it could employ German Florian Jungwirth into the midfield as it is his natural position. But he is desperately needed in the central defense in the patchwork backline. This could lead to rookie Jackson Yueill out of UCLA to get the call. Yueill made his first MLS start over the weekend.

Another matchup question is fitness. This is a brutal trip for the Earthquakes, who will be playing their third game in a week. Atlanta had a relatively short trip to Columbus on Saturday whereas San Jose will be traveling across the country after an emotional week that ended with their biggest regular-season home game in front of more than 50,000 fans. Tired legs won’t do well in the simmering South.