{"id":199933,"date":"2026-03-02T02:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199933\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T02:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:10:11","slug":"werner-helps-earthquakes-beat-atlanta-2-0-in-his-san-jose-debut-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199933\/","title":{"rendered":"Werner helps Earthquakes beat Atlanta 2-0 in his San Jose debut \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Star signing Timo Werner<\/a> produced an assist 18 minutes into his debut and the San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> continued their hot start with a 2-0 win over Atlanta United FC Saturday at PayPal Park.<\/p>\n

It was the second straight shutout for the Black and Blue, who opened the season with a 3-0 home win over Sporting Kansas City<\/a>. The Quakes have allowed just two shots on goal this season after holding Atlanta (0-2-0) to one in the 89th minute.<\/p>\n

The Quakes (2-0-0) haven\u2019t had a winning record since 2013, but they\u2019re hoping to change that with the addition of Werner, which the club billed as the biggest signing in its history. The 29-year-old was acquired in late January and is signed through June 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good start. Even a better start would be scoring a goal, but you can\u2019t have everything,\u201d Werner said. \u201cHelping the team with an assist, that\u2019s why they wanted to take me here, to create chances and be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Werner only got his visa on Tuesday and arrived in San Francisco from Germany Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough to get off the plane and only sleeping six hours every night, but it\u2019s worth it to play in front of this crowd and win the football game,\u201d Werner said.<\/p>\n

\"SANSAN JOSE, CA – FEBRUARY 28: Timo Werner #11 of the San Jose Earthquakes during warmups prior to a game between Atlanta United FC and San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park on February 28, 2026 in San Jose, California.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The German international had missed the team\u2019s first match due to a visa delay and the birth of his first child just before the season. He made his debut in the 61st minute, replacing striker Preston Judd at the top of the team\u2019s 4-2-3-1 formation.<\/p>\n

In the 79th\u00a0minute, Werner received a pass from Jack Skahan and was 1-on-1 against Atlanta center back Enea Mihaj along the right sideline. He beat Mihaj and then whipped a cross to Stanford product Ousseni Bouda, who tapped the ball in to put the Quakes up 2-0.<\/p>\n

The San Jose Ultras supporters section welcomed Werner to the club with two German-language banners. He has 57 caps for Germany and 449 appearances in the Bundesliga (for VfB Stuttgart and RB Leipzig) and the Premier League (with Chelsea and Tottenham).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people were excited to see me play, and it made me very confident that this was the right decision to come here,\u201d said Werner. \u201cHelping the team with this assist today \u2014 giving something back to the fans and the people who helped me the first few days \u2014 it\u2019s a good sign for the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judd opened the scoring in the 24th\u00a0minute. Atlanta keeper Lucas Hoyos passed the ball right to San Jose left winger Jamar Ricketts, and Ricketts crossed the ball in to Judd for a tap-in header.<\/p>\n

The Quakes will next play their first road game next Saturday at Philadelphia. The Union lost its first match 1-0 to DC United.<\/p>\n

The team wore Tie-Dye-inspired \u201cDead Kit\u201d in honor of the 60th\u00a0anniversary of the Grateful Dead\u2019s first performance under that name, at an acid test party in downtown San Jose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Star signing Timo Werner produced an assist 18 minutes into his debut and the San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[402,181,7332,88,1084,90,89,1083,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-199933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-inside-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-major-league-soccer","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-earthquakes","13":"tag-san-jose-headlines","14":"tag-san-jose-news","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199933","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=199933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}