Two days before the San Jose Earthquakes were scheduled to begin the 2024 MLS season on the road against FC Dallas, Quakes general manager Chris Leitch was asked if there’d be one more big acquisition.
His club still has a designated player spot available, meaning it could add a player whose total compensation exceeds the maximum salary set by MLS, and the Quakes have a need at the No. 10 position.
“There’s always another addition,” Leitch said by phone Thursday. “Everyone always says, ‘there’s another player coming,’ or, ‘two players coming,’ or they don’t say anything at all. Depends on who you ask.”
If there are no more additions, the Quakes, owned by A’s owner John Fisher, expect to open the year with a similar payroll as they did last year, when their $14 million payroll ranked 18th out of 29 teams.
The roster is largely the same as it was last season, when the Earthquakes finished 10-14-10 while securing the ninth and final playoff spot.
But there was one change that, if successful, could end up shifting the way the Earthquakes look on the attacking end.
Cade Cowell, the 20-year-old United States youth national player who has long been viewed as a budding star, was sold to Chivas for a $4 million transfer fee, plus additional compensation tied to Cowell’s future.
In San Jose, Cowell showed only flashes of brilliance working primarily as a No. 11 on the left wing. He was not chosen to start their lone playoff game against Sporting KC (though he did impress after being substituted on in the second half). And he finished his MLS career with 10 goals in 104 matches over four years.
To replace him, the Quakes spent less money (about $270,000) to acquire a far more proven goal-scorer: Amahl Pellegrino, a 33-year-old from Norway who totaled a ridiculous 75 goals in two seasons playing in Eliteserien, the top Norwegian league considered somewhat comparable to MLS.
“Pellegrino was a late developer,” Leitch said. “He wasn’t lighting it up before 25. He’s coming on later on than most players, which is fine. We have a legend of our own in Chris Wondolowski, who came on a bit later in his development.”
Wondolowski wasn’t a regular starter until he was 27. He then scored double-digit goals in 10 straight seasons.
The Earthquakes see great value in their new left winger, Pellegrino, who is left-footed and can both create and score goals from the left side. The club already has MLS All-Star Christian Espinoza on the right wing. He’s coming off a season in which he scored 13 goals and added 13 assists.
The threat from the wings could take pressure off Jeremy Ebobisse, the 27-year-old striker who saw his goal production drop from 17 in 2022 to 10 in 2023 while being asked to play a more defensive role under first-year coach Luchi Gonzalez.
Everything under Gonzalez, the former assistant for the United States Men’s National Team, looked more defensive, but also more under control, more composed and more organized.
While the Earthquakes tightened up on the defensive end, cutting their goals allowed from a conference-high 69 in 2022 to 43 in 2023, they also looked tighter on offense, scoring just 39 goals, second-fewest in the conference.
In the end, the Earthquakes weren’t quite good enough to turn close games into wins on a regular basis. It’s why they led the conference with 14 ties and came up one point short of hosting a playoff game for the first time in PayPal Park’s existence.
On the upside, the fact that Gonzalez inherited a new team and immediately guided them to the postseason play-in game is a good sign. Their cautious playing style allowed them to stay close in games against teams with arguably more talent.
It’s exactly what happened in the playoffs, when they lined up against a strong Sporting KC side that wanted to attack. KC had most of the chances, but the Earthquakes held them to a 0-0 draw for the entirety of regulation before losing in penalty kicks, 4-2.
Looking back, that game looks like an example of the entire season: the Earthquakes played better than the sum of their talent, but they were cautious and didn’t look threatening until late in the game.
Leitch agreed with that assessment. He also said MLS teams tend to play passively while on the road in the postseason.
His hope this year is that the Earthquakes position themselves to host their first-ever playoff game at PayPal Park. If so, it’d be a magical year for the stadium, which is also the new home of Bay FC, the expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League that will play its first home game on March 30.
The Earthquakes have their home opener on March 2 against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Here’s a sobering thought from The Athletic: all six of their MLS writers picked the Earthquakes to finish no higher than 11th out of 14 teams in the Western Conference. As of Thursday, DraftKings sports book ranked the Earthquakes 13th with long odds of plus-2,500 to win the conference.
Will they at least be better than they were last year? A lot depends on the impact of Pellegrino and the potential of a new acquisition at some point this season.
On defense, expect the Quakes to be solid yet again, this time with the addition of Portuguese center back Bruno Wilson and Brazilian left back Vitor Costa to protect the net in front of Brazilian keeper Daniel.
Watch out for these future stars: 18-year-old Niko Tsakiris and 17-year-old Cruz Medina, a pair of homegrown, Bay Area kids who are poised for breakouts at some point this year.
Here’s the club’s projected starting XI:
GK: Daniel
Defenders: Costa, Rodrigues, Wilson, Carlos Akapo
Midfielders: Jackson Yueill, Carlos Gruezo, Jack Skahan
Forwards: Pellegrino, Ebobisse, Espinoza
