Earthquakes prepare for matchup of MLS' two best teams as they welcome Vancouver to San Jose
SAN JOSE - The two best teams in Major League Soccer will face off on Saturday night at PayPal Park, and the winner will have the inside track to enter the league's World Cup break as the leader in the clubhouse.
League-leading San Jose and Vancouver Whitecaps FC will face off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday as the Canadian squad trails the Earthquakes by three points with a game in hand.
The Quakes won the first meeting this season 1-0 in British Columbia thanks to San Jose native Beau Leroux's top-corner laser in first-half stoppage time.
Should the Quakes win this time, they'd hold the tiebreaker over Vancouver should that come into play later in the season.
San Jose, which has exceeded expectations in coach Bruce Arena's second year, enters Saturday leading the league with a 9-1-1 record and 28 points. Vancouver, which was the MLS Cup runner-up last season, is 8-1-1 with 25 points.
Despite Arena saying that he hasn't spoken to the team about their spot in the standings and noting that "we don't focus on ‘It's 1 vs. 2,'" both Quakes players made available to the media on Thursday knew that San Jose is in the top spot.
Leading scorer Preston Judd even corrected a reporter who said Vancouver was the top team in the league.
"I think as of right now, we’re the No. 1 team," Judd said. "But they’re coming in, it’s gonna be a battle for that No. 1 spot."
But you won't catch Bruce Arena on the streets outside PayPal Park hyping up the match.
"It's too early in the season," the Quakes coach said. "It’s not anything to get crazy about."
In the teams' first meeting this season on March 21 in Vancouver, the Quakes snuck out of Canada with the one-goal win thanks to Leroux's highlight strike and a stingy defensive effort.
"It was a gritty game," center back Daniel Munie said. "We maybe didn’t play the best soccer, but we still found a way to win. So hopefully this go-around, we’re going to be able to get some more goals and then hold them to as few chances that they got last time."
The Quakes will have to do it without two of their top attacking players in Timo Werner and Niko Tsakiris. Werner went down with a hamstring injury in San Jose's U.S. Open Cup win over Minnesota last Tuesday, and Tsakiris suffered a leg injury on Saturday in Toronto.
Both players were ruled out by Arena on Thursday. Werner was not at practice and Tsakiris was present on a side cart but did not participate.
"We’re still getting some medical opinions, but he’ll be out for a while," Arena said of Tsakiris. "It’s not a short-term injury. Timo will be back quicker. If not by the end of the month, obviously, after the World Cup break."
Werner's absence takes some of the luster off the anticipated clash of German MLS titans, as Vancouver boasts Thomas Müller, one of the best players of his generation.
Müller missed Vancouver's last game against Los Angeles with an illness, but Arena plans on seeing the 36-year-old former World Cup Golden Boot winner out on the pitch Saturday.
"I’m sure he’s playing," Arena said. "If you followed that gentleman at all, he’s been a pretty good player in his career, so that’s what he brings. He’s a highly skilled, experienced player. We've played against him before, and it’s going to be challenging."
Vancouver also boasts forward Brian White, whom Munie called "one of the best scorers in this league," as well as United States men's national team midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, the son of former USMNT and current Chicago Fire coach Gregg Berhalter.
But San Jose has some depth to trade on as well. Though Werner and Tsakiris are two of the Quakes' top scorers – Tsakiris co-leads MLS in assists with Berhalter and LAFC star Son Heung-Min – San Jose has also gotten seven goals from Judd and five from Ousseni Bouda.
The depth scoring has been a stark contrast from last season, when Josef Martinez, Chicho Arango and Cristian Espinoza, all of whom left last offseason, scored 17 of San Jose's first 24 goals.
At this point last season, that trio also had half the Quakes' assists. This year, San Jose's top three of Werner, Judd and Bouda have led the way with 26 goal contributions, but other players have added 32.
"Timo and Niko have done a great job getting the next guy ready for the next game," Judd said.
"As far as I know, I don’t think they’re going to be out for the rest of the year, so they’ll be back too. Everybody’s gonna help them out, and they’re gonna come in and do their job."
It's a much more sustainable recipe, and one that the Quakes will rely on if they wish to remain atop the league standings after Saturday's match.
"Those guys are great talents, but it’s the next man up," Munie said of Werner and Tsakiris. "And I think we got plenty of depth to be able to slide into those roles and give the team what they need to win. So I think we got a capable group to do it."
Whatever happens, the atmosphere in the building should befit the occasion. San Jose is expecting a sellout crowd on Saturday night.
"We’re going to find out, right?" Arena said. "It’s two good teams playing, and hopefully the home-field advantage means something. But that doesn’t mean anything if we don’t go out and play well."
Subscribe to our Inside Sports newsletter for all our sports coverage, including game analysis, scores, and everything you want to know about your Bay Area sports teams, including the San Jose Earthquakes.
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 5:57 AM.