{"id":188510,"date":"2026-02-22T07:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188510\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T07:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:05:08","slug":"munies-two-goals-help-san-jose-earthquakes-open-season-in-style-with-3-0-win-over-sporting-kansas-city-times-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188510\/","title":{"rendered":"Munie\u2019s two goals help San Jose Earthquakes open season in style with 3-0 win over Sporting Kansas City \u2013 Times-Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN JOSE \u2013 After losing Josef Martinez (14 goals last season), Chicho Arango (13 goals) and Cristian Espinoza (12 assists), the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/02\/20\/san-jose-earthquakes-season-opener-bruce-arena-timo-werner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> entered the 2026 season with questions about where their scoring would come from \u2013 especially with star off-season signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/01\/29\/timo-werner-san-jose-earthquakes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Timo Werner\u2019s<\/a> debut delayed due to a visa issue.<\/p>\n<p>In the season opener Saturday night, the offense came from an unexpected source.<\/p>\n<p>Center back Daniel Munie scored twice \u2013 matching his total from his first 44 career games \u2013 as the Quakes beat Sporting Kansas City 3-0 at PayPal Park.<\/p>\n<p>Munie was selected by the Quakes in the first round of the 2023 SuperDraft after being named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year twice while at Indiana.<\/p>\n<p>The six-foot defender opened the scoring in the 42nd minute. After striker Preston Judd headed a Niko Tsakiris corner kick toward goal, Munie pounced on the rebound.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"San Jose Earthquakes defender Daniel Munie (5) celebrates after scoring a goal in the first half during an MLS soccer match against Sporting Kansas City, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo\/Lachlan Cunningham)\" width=\"4496\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BNG-L-QUAKES-02222.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"3906754\" \/>San Jose Earthquakes defender Daniel Munie (5) celebrates after scoring a goal in the first half during an MLS soccer match against Sporting Kansas City, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo\/Lachlan Cunningham)<\/p>\n<p>The Quakes made it 2-0 just four minutes later. A through ball from Tsakiris freed Jamar Rickets down the left side. Rickets cut the ball back to Judd, who slotted the ball in.<\/p>\n<p>Munie then finished the scoring by flicking in a header in the 54th minute off a cross from Beau Leroux.<\/p>\n<p>The Quakes were never seriously threatened against a team that was picked last out of 30 teams in the MLS Preseason Power Rankings by both The Athletic and MLS Soccer.<\/p>\n<p>The Quakes outshot Sporting KC 18-7. Daniel made one save in the shutout, diving to his left in the 49th minute to stop a shot from 10 yards out.<\/p>\n<p>Werner is expected to be available for the Quakes next game, Saturday at PayPal against Atlanta United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 After losing Josef Martinez (14 goals last season), Chicho Arango (13 goals) and Cristian Espinoza&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,88,90,89,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-188510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-san-jose","10":"tag-san-jose-headlines","11":"tag-san-jose-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}