{"id":614346,"date":"2026-04-19T11:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/614346\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:36:11","slug":"lafc-faces-big-test-against-coach-bruce-arena-and-earthquakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/614346\/","title":{"rendered":"LAFC faces big test against coach Bruce Arena and Earthquakes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

No one has coached or won more MLS games than Bruce Arena<\/a>, so when Arena speaks about the league, it\u2019s probably wise to listen. Except, maybe, when he\u2019s trying to downplay his own team<\/a>, the San Jos\u00e9 Earthquakes, which is off to the best start in franchise history heading into Sunday\u2019s game with LAFC at BMO Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know, it\u2019s very early in the season,\u201d said Arena, whose team is 6-1-0 and entered the weekend tied for the MLS lead in wins and points. \u201cYou don\u2019t get too crazy in the early going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wins in April count just as much as wins in October, however, and Sunday\u2019s matinee against LAFC<\/a> (5-1-1) looms as an important test for Arena\u2019s team, which has just two victories over teams with winning records.<\/p>\n

When Arena returned to manage in the league for the fourth time last season \u2014 he has never actually retired \u2014 he took over a team that last had a winning record in 2013 and one that was put up for sale midway through that first season, which only added to the instability around the franchise.<\/p>\n

Yet the coach has been able to block that out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that are going to probably happen here in the next year,\u201d Arena said. \u201cThere\u2019s a possibility of having new ownership and who knows where that takes us. So my focus is on this team at this time and the next game. I\u2019m not trying to dictate a five-year plan at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Arena\u2019s most successful years with the Galaxy, where he won three MLS Cups and two Supporters\u2019 Shields in five seasons, the team was stout defensively and that\u2019s also true of this San Jos\u00e9 team, which has given up a league-low 20 shots and only two goals, tied with LAFC for fewest in MLS.<\/p>\n

Arena was also successful in luring former German World Cup player Timo Werner to San Jos\u00e9, signing him to a multiyear contract worth a reported $5.4 million a season. That makes him the best-paid player in franchise history, a significant investment for a team whose payroll was second-lowest in MLS before Arena\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

Now comes the test against LAFC, a team that opened the season with a league-record six consecutive shutouts<\/a> while ranking third in the league in scoring with 15 goals in seven games. In addition, LAFC has advanced to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, leaving it one win shy of becoming the first MLS team to reach the final of region\u2019s most important club tournament three times.<\/p>\n

But as he has done with his own team, Arena cautions against making too much of LAFC\u2019s early success.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould they possibly be one of the best teams in MLS history? Yes. But I would say that they haven\u2019t won that much that you can make that statement,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have the best team in the league at the moment. I have no doubts about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

LAFC coach Marc Dos Santos, whose team will play five games in the next 13 days, was equally complimentary of San Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery difficult opponent to play,\u201d he said. \u201cDefensively, very compact. A team that doesn\u2019t give much. They\u2019re a team that work collectively together. They know what they want to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest game of our season again is Sunday against San Jos\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No one has coached or won more MLS games than Bruce Arena, so when Arena speaks about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[14987,231111,49,48,231112,64066,1112,78295,2002,231110,231113,16524,6903,561,82,30128,2341,7479,21683],"class_list":{"0":"post-614346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-arena","9":"tag-big-test","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-coach-bruce-arena","13":"tag-franchise-history","14":"tag-game","15":"tag-lafc","16":"tag-league","17":"tag-mls-cups","18":"tag-own-team","19":"tag-san-jose-earthquakes","20":"tag-season","21":"tag-soccer","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-sunday","24":"tag-team","25":"tag-time","26":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}