The Quakes jumped out to a 1-0 lead just six minutes into the match on a goal by Benjamin Kikanović. The 24-year-old San Jose native scored on a rebound from Jack Skahan’s deflected shot, putting the ball past Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes to open the scoring.

Dallas pulled even in the 25th minute on Asier Illarramendi’s first career goal, a left-footed strike from outside the box after controlling the ball when Quakes keeper Daniel punched a corner kick out from the goal mouth.

“I like a lot of the things we did for 93 minutes, but I was really disappointed with 30 seconds left to get disorganized there,” head coach Luchi Gonzalez told media members after. “We needed numbers in the midfield and gave up not just the initial shot, but multiple shots. They went for it, and credit to them.”

The Quakes’ top offseason signing, former Norwegian Player of the Year Amahl Pellegrino, came on for Kikanović in the 74th minute and had a late shot go wide of the right post.

Dallas took 22 shots (nine on goal) to The Earthquakes’ 10 (six on goal).

Dallas played without all three of its designated players. Jesús Ferreira is nursing a muscle injury. Alan Velasco is still recovering from an ACL injury suffered in the playoffs last season. Newcomer Petar Musa is in Croatia awaiting a work visa.

San Jose leads the all-time series 29-22-22, but Dallas improved to 14-12-10 at home.

The Quakes will have their home opener next Saturday in a California Clasico match against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

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

The group includes Olympic gold medal winners, league champions, record breakers, franchise architects, and MVPs. One member of the class will be the first representative from his team in the 46-year history of the BASHOF.

“We are extremely excited to induct the 2024 class into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF),” said Mario Alioto, Board Chair of BASHOF in a release. “Each of these individuals has achieved a rare level of success during their careers and helped bring worldwide attention to the Bay Area.

“It’s especially gratifying that this class also recognizes athletes in several sports that have been historically underrepresented in BASHOF relative to their positive impact on the greater Bay Area community.”

The class will be enshrined on May 6 during a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco, with a portion of the proceeds of the event benefiting Special Olympics Northern California.

Here’s a look at the Class of 2024:

Marleau is the Sharks’ all-time leading scorer and the NHL’s all-time leader in games played. Marleau played his final NHL season in 2020-21 with the Sharks. Marleau was 17 when he was the second overall pick in the 1997 draft. He was a four-time NHL All-Star and won two Olympic gold medals with Team Canada (2010 and ‘14) and the World Cup of Hockey gold medal in 2004. He’s the second Sharks player to join the BASHOF, joining Owen Nolan.

Sabean is the longest-tenured general manager in San Francisco, overseeing the franchise for 20 seasons. He was the chief architect in the franchise’s three World Series titles in five seasons (2010, ‘12 and ‘14)  and his teams reached the playoffs seven times. He was named the MLB Executive of the Year award in 2003.

Thompson starred at Stanford, amassing 19 individual and relay NCAA titles over her career from 1991-1995, earning the honor of the outstanding college female swimmer of the year in her senior season. On the international stage, the Danvers, Massachusetts native won 12 Olympic medals (eight gold) across four Olympic Games between 1992 and 2004.

Wondolowski, a Danville native and De La Salle graduate, is Major League Soccer’s all-time leading goal scorer after tallying 171 over his 17-year career, primarily with the San Jose Earthquakes. He won two MLS Cups with the Houston Dynamo and led the Quakes to two Supporters’ Shields, capturing the league’s Golden Boot in 2010 for most goals scored and tying for the lead in 2012. Wondo is the first Earthquake to be named to the BASHOF.

Taylor played key roles on the 49ers’ three most recent Super Bowl-winning teams 1988 (XXIII), 1989 (XXIV), 1994 (XXIX). He caught the winning touchdown pass from Joe Montana in the closing seconds of Super Bowl XXIII against the Bengals. Taylor was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and was named to the NFL’s 1980’s All-Decade Team.

In addition to live music, former MLS player Jimmy Conrad introduced and interviewed multiple players including Christian Espinoza, Alfredo Morales, Cruz Medina, Niko Tsakiris and Preston Judd to an excited crowd as intermittent light rain fell. Audience members were given the opportunity to ask the players questions at the end of the interview, with the band Suenatron playing music to close out the afternoon.

The Earthquakes start their season in Dallas against FC Dallas on Saturday, Feb. 24. Their first home game is against the LA Galaxy on Saturday, March 2, at PayPal Park.

Pellegrino, 33, has scored 75 goals in all competitions over the last two seasons for reigning Norweigan champion Bodo/Glimt. The forward aims to fill the left winger spot vacated by Cade Cowell, who was sold to Mexican giants Chivas last month for a Quakes-record $4 million transfer fee.

The Norweigan-born player has not played any international soccer. He was called into camp for Tanzania’s African Cup of Nations squad in December, but did not make the final roster.

San Jose this week also announced the acquisitions of Portugese center back Bruno Wilson from F.C. Vizela in Portugal, Brazilian left back Vito Costa from Portugese club C.S. Maritimo and Polish youth international goalkeeper Mikolaj Bieganski.

The Quakes are in the midst of their preseason build-up toward the Feb. 24 regular-season opener at Dallas.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday declared that a full travel ban for Erie County would go into effect at 9 p.m. (EST) when a storm that’s projected to bring two to three feet of snow is expected to blanket the Buffalo region over a 24-hour period.

By Saturday morning, nearly every flight in and out of Buffalo Niagara International Airport had already been canceled.

The Sharks initially planned to leave Ottawa on Saturday evening right after their game with the Senators, which didn’t end until 6:31 p.m. (EST). A direct flight from Ottawa to Buffalo takes less than one hour, and a Sharks spokesman said earlier Saturday that the team expected to arrive before 9 p.m.

Those plans changed, however, as the Sharks learned that the airport had been closed to travel by authorities. A Sharks spokesman added that the team will remain in Ottawa overnight and fly to Buffalo when normal air traffic resumes.

Hochul said the travel ban, which means only emergency vehicles are allowed on highways, will be revisited on Sunday at 6 a.m. (EST). The Sharks are still scheduled to play the Buffalo Sabres at noon (EST) on Monday.

The National Weather Service office in Buffalo said strong winds were expected to knock down trees and cause widespread power outages. Temperatures on Sunday morning were expected to dip into the low 20s.

The powerful storm led the NFL on Saturday to push back the Buffalo Bills’ wild-card playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers from Sunday to Monday at 4:30 p.m. (EST).

Because of that change, the Sharks’ game against the Sabres was moved up one hour from 1 p.m.

“The decision to move the game to Monday was made in consultation with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in the best interest of public safety,” the NFL and Bills said in a joint statement, “and with the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers, as the region prepares for the storm.”

After Monday’s game, the Sharks finish the road trip on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks. The forecast for Chicago that day calls for a high of 3 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cowell, 20, was in camp with the United States Men’s National Team until Thursday, when he was permitted to leave camp and is expected to sign with Chivas. The deal is pending a physical and approval of the league.

The Earthquakes will receive an initial $4 million in a transfer fee, plus add-ons and a 20% sell-on clause, according to a source. Sell-on clauses allow the original team to benefit from a percentage of a future sale. If Chivas were to sell Cowell to another club, the Quakes would get a portion of the fee.

Chivas, one of Liga MX’s most successful teams with 12 league titles, has typically had a longstanding tradition of signing only Mexican players, but Cowell is ethnically Mexican on his mom’s side and received his Mexican citizenship last week.

“He’s proud of being a dual citizen with opportunities across the border,” tweeted Alejandra Bologna, an ambassador of Mexico.

Cowell was making $600,000 in annual salary as the ninth-highest-paid player on the Earthquakes’ roster, according to the MLS Players Association annual release.

With $4 million incoming, it could give San Jose an opportunity to build on its $14 million payroll, which ranked 18th out of 29 MLS teams last season. Owned and operated by A’s owner John Fisher, the Quakes paid $1.35 million to their highest-paid player, Carlos Gruezo, last season.

Cowell represents a huge loss for the Earthquakes, who will now need to replace his speed, power and creativity from the wing. While he only scored once with three assists in 23 games last season, he often looked like the most dangerous player on the pitch.

Earthquakes coach Luchi Gonzalez didn’t start Cowell in the club’s final postseason game, a 4-2 loss to Sporting KC in penalty kicks, but Cowell came off the bench in the 55th minute and “came in with fantastic energy and confidence,” Gonzalez said afterward.

A homegrown player who began his academy career in Pleasanton before signing with the Earthquakes as a 14-year-old, Cowell became the fastest player ever to appear in 100 MLS games. He’ll finish his San Jose career with 10 goals in 114 appearances.

Cowell also led the United States in scoring during the U-20 World Cup last spring and was reportedly drawing interest from teams in Ligue 1 in France and Serie A in Italy. But the sell-on percentage offered by Serie A team Bologna last year was lower than the 20% sell-on in the deal with Chivas, according to a source.

Cowell’s younger brother, Chance, is still part of the Earthquakes organization and also plays for Mexico’s U-15 national team.

It’s uncertain whether or not Cade Cowell will continue to represent the United States at the international level.

While Chivas typically requires its players to represent Mexico, the club now has “relaxed rules regarding players needing to commit to the Mexico national team,” ESPN reported this week.

Chivas will play its first game of the new season on Jan. 13.

Located on an undeveloped part of the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds near Umbarger and Monterey roads, 16 of the 30 acres will be dedicated to four public, lighted turf fields that the entire community can access. The remaining 14 acres will accommodate four professional fields and a 35,000 square foot training and practice center for the Earthquakes’ pro and youth teams in the Earthquakes Academy. The facility will include locker rooms, a weight room, dining hall, theater, medical treatment center, hydrotherapy equipment, laundry rooms and office space for staff and more.

“This is a community place,” Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said during a press conference announcing the partnership between the county, the Earthquakes and the city of San Jose. “So putting this project there is so important because it demonstrates to the public that this area really does belong to everybody and to the neighborhoods surrounding this community how important it is to have recreation that’s safe and healthy for our kids.”

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said that “there has never been a better time to be a sports fan in the South Bay,” referencing the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2026 Super Bowl, both of which will take place in Santa Clara County.

He called the plans for the new fields “a community resource that’s badly needed in San Jose.”

“When I was a middle school teacher in the East Side, I coached soccer and I saw how transformative it was for my students to be part of a team, to learn how to communicate on and off the field, how to overcome adversity together,” Mahan said. “But far too often we struggled to find playing fields. That was 15 years ago and still the kids of San Jose today struggle to have access to adequate playing fields.”

Mahan said the city currently has a deficit of nearly 50 soccer fields relative to the need. He hopes they can expedite the permitting process to ensure the development is completed before the 2026 FIFA World Cup comes to Levi’s Stadium in neighboring Santa Clara.

Earthquakes head coach Luchi Gonzalez said the team wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the community. The Earthquakes are the professional sports team with the longest tenure in the South Bay, celebrating its 50th anniversary in San Jose next year.

“I am the product of the community,” he said. “I got to play, fall in love with this game and play on community fields. I got to be a youth coach on community fields. I wouldn’t be able to be focused on my school work, stay away from distractions, get an education in college and play the game that I love if it wasn’t for community fields.”

Soccer isn’t the only sport expected to make a debut at the county fairgrounds. The county has been negotiating with Major League Cricket to bring a $50 million, 15,000- seat stadium that would occupy a tenth of the 165-acre fairgrounds.

Playing against Sporting KC in the MLS Western Conference play-in game on Wednesday night in Kansas City, the Quakes failed to score a goal and ended up tied after 90 minutes.

But there was no extra time to be played; the play-in games are designed to go straight to penalty kicks. And Sporting KC featured a goalie, Tim Melia, who entered the game with the highest PK save percentage (42%) in MLS history.

The Quakes struggled to score from the spot as they lost to KC, 4-2, in penalty kicks to see their upstart season come to an end.

“I like how we grew into the game,” said first-year coach Luchi Gonzalez. “If we were in extra time, I have no doubt we could’ve had a good effort to win it there if there were no PKs.”

Having finished their season with four straight draws and only one win in their last 11 games, this was exactly the result the Earthquakes must’ve feared.

The Quakes’ conservative, defensive-minded approach is what allowed them to bounce back from a last-place finish a year ago to earn the nine-seed under a new head coach. But when pressed with a must-win game in which they needed to get numbers up the field and push the ball forward, the Quakes struggled to get anything going.

And instead of moving on to a best-of-three series that would’ve guaranteed them their first home playoff game since 2012, and first in the history of PayPal Park, the Earthquakes will watch the rest of the postseason from home.

They weren’t expected to win this game, it should be said. They entered as three-to-one underdogs against a KC team that had finished the year with six wins in its last nine games after starting the season without any wins in its first 10.

Featuring a starting lineup stacked with players who consistently show a quality first touch, and a coach, Peter Vermes, who has been at the helm since 2009, Sporting KC looked like a team that would be tough to break down.

San Jose’s cautious approach, in which they defend with numbers and look for opportunities on the counter attack, offered them little in the first half, when they hardly sniffed any chances at goal.

Their best player all year, Cristian Espinoza was harassed all night and struggled to get any looks at goal. He did create one brilliant chance for Carlos Gruezo with a smooth pass right on the ground towards the penalty spot, but Gruezo shanked it early in the second half.

The bright spot of the game for San Jose was 20-year-old budding talent Cade Cowell, who struggled in the club’s final regular season game against Austin FC and started this game on the bench. But Gonzalez subbed him in for Mathew Hoppe in the 56th minute and Cowell looked dangerous every time he touched the ball.

He nearly scored on a brilliant individual effort when he outran three defenders from the left side of the box through the right side, but he waited a hair too long to capitalize and his shot was deflected wide.

“Cade came in with fantastic energy and confidence,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a great game for him where we’re trying to defend in lower blocks and create space behind and in isolation. He almost scored a great goal driving across the box.”

Other than Cowell, the Quakes didn’t have many players who looked dangerous in this one.

They spent most of the game putting numbers behind the ball on the defensive side. They were out-possessed, 60-40, and outshot, 18-5. They finished the game without a shot on goal.

Gonzalez felt like his guys could’ve had more chances if they took advantage of opportunities to cross the ball into dangerous areas, but the scoring chances rarely materialized.

“I’m proud of the execution and intention,” Gonzalez said. “We can’t control the outcome and the result. We can focus on what we can control. Our attitudes were excellent. We were aggressive. We were willing to work to get behind the ball. First half we had six or seven possessions in or around their box with the ability to cross the ball and with numbers. And we didn’t execute.”

In penalty kicks, Johnny Russell buried his effort to put KC up 1-0, but Espinoza’s first shot was parried by Melia, who made a diving stop to set the tone in the PK shootout.

San Jose captain Jackson Yueill skied the Earthquakes’ second attempt way over the goal and they couldn’t recover.

Melia is “a good keeper on PKs,” said Earthquakes forward Jack Skahan, who converted his opportunity but it was too late to save his squad. “PK shootouts, it’s kind of a crapshoot. It’s tough. The conversation is to be confident, go up there with confidence, try to bury it. Bring energy. And I think we did that. PKs are just a tough way to end the game.”

Call it the Jimmy Conrad Derby.

The former United States Men’s National Team captain began his MLS career in San Jose and won an MLS Cup with the Earthquakes in 2001 before he was traded to KC. He said he’ll be watching Wednesday’s game like a “mom who just wants both teams to have fun.”

The Earthquakes infamously dealt Conrad to Kansas City for a second-round draft pick after the 2002 season. It was in KC that Conrad became an MLS legend, being named to the All-Star team six times, earning four MLS Best XI selections and being named the 2005 MLS Defender of the Year.

Today, Conrad calls the Bay Area home. He’s the technical director and an assistant coach for the San Francisco Glens, a minor league soccer team, and he’s a friend of Earthquakes head coach Luchi Gonzalez. The two played together briefly in San Jose more than 20 years ago.

But when it comes to which side Conrad favors, he’s a bit nervous to say that Kansas City has his heart.

“My time in San Jose was awesome,” he said by phone this week. “Then I got traded away. I never saw it coming. I don’t hold it against them. But when I went to KC I blossomed. I accomplished so much when I was there. I’m in their Hall of Fame. If you go to their stadium, my name is up there. As much as I love what San Jose has done for me as a player and my continued relationship now, I still have a lot of tethered to my time in KC. I have to say KC is my club.”

Still, Conrad said he’s been impressed with how quickly the Quakes bounced back from being the worst team in the Western Conference last year to making a playoff appearance this season, Gonzalez’s first as the head coach.

“Having been on the Quakes when Luchi got drafted to us, there was something about him,” Conrad said. “He was a student of the game. The details mattered to him. I really appreciate that about him then and I probably appreciate it even more now that he’s the coach. You can see his personality on the team. There’s a sense of care and a warmth to him. Luchi is a special human being.”

The Quakes will have their hands full going up against KC on Wednesday night. San Jose won an early-season matchup, 3-0, back in April, then KC got revenge with a 3-0 win at home in August.

KC is entering Wednesday’s game as one of the hottest teams in MLS, having won six of its last nine contests.

“Kansas City has done really well, and we recognize that,” Gonzalez said Tuesday. “Probably the perception and the expectation out there is that because we’re not home and they are, and with their form and their talent, that we aren’t supposed to get through. We’ll embrace that. It’ll drive our motivation and mentality.”

Gonzalez’s club hasn’t won a game since Sept. 16, having tied in four consecutive matchups to squeeze into the playoffs as the No. 9 and final seed.

“With four consecutive ties it proves that they have some resilience to them, they know how to stay in games,” Conrad said. “If they’re not playing well they can still grind out results. But can they take their chances when they come? There’s something to be said that they haven’t been beaten in a little while. You need that. You need to be tough.”

In their most recent appearance in the MLS Playoffs in 2020, the Quakes also played against KC and lost in penalty kicks, 3-0.

Wednesday night, there will be no extra time. If the game is tied after 90 minutes, it goes straight to PKs.

“That first goal is so important,” said Conrad. “If they can go get that first goal that really changes KC’s approach and I wonder what that looks like. You have to punch them first.”

The winning team will move on to play against the top-seeded St. Louis City FC in a best-of-three series that begins on Sunday in St. Louis. Either San Jose or Kansas City will host the second game of the series. The Quakes haven’t hosted a playoff game since 2012 and have never hosted a playoff game at PayPal Park.

They finished their regular season 10-14-10. Argentinian winger Cristian Espinoza led the squad with 13 goals and 13 assists, participating in 67% of the team’s goals, tied for highest in MLS this season and the highest percentage in club history.

Sporting KC, which began the year without a win in its first 10 matches, finished the season 12-8-14. They’re led by Mexican forward Alan Pulido, who has a career-high 14 goals in 28 games.

The game can be streamed globally on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV or be heard on local radio via 810 AM (English) and 1370 KZSF (Spanish).

The Quakes will also be hosting a watch party at Old Wagon Saloon in San Pedro Square.