{"id":269774,"date":"2026-04-15T23:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269774\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T23:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:01:10","slug":"lafc-vs-san-jose-earthquakes-everything-to-know-for-sunday-night-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269774\/","title":{"rendered":"LAFC vs. San Jose Earthquakes: Everything to know for Sunday Night Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supporters’ Shield contenders clash when LAFC<\/a> host the San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> for Matchday 8’s Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire.<\/p>\n

3rd in Western Conference
\n16 points, 5W-1L-1D<\/p>\n

LAFC took care of business in the Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> quarterfinals midweek, eliminating LIGA MX titans Cruz Azul with a 4-1 aggregate victory.<\/p>\n

Denis Bouanga<\/a> scored in Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw<\/a>\u00a0at Estadio Cuauht\u00e9moc, and Hugo Lloris<\/a> made eight saves to knock out the reigning CCC champions. That built on LAFC’s 3-0 home victory<\/a> last week, where\u00a0David Mart\u00ednez<\/a> netted a stunning brace and Son Heung-Min<\/a> opened the scoring.<\/p>\n

Those results framed the Black & Gold’s first defeat this year, a 2-1 setback<\/a> at the Portland Timbers<\/a> last weekend. Head coach Marc Dos Santos deployed a heavily rotated lineup, with an eye on their CCC series.<\/p>\n

Now, LAFC return home with the chance to climb the Western Conference table.<\/p>\n

Son Heung-Min: The South Korean superstar hasn’t scored in league action this season, but he leads MLS with seven assists.
\nDenis Bouanga: LAFC’s all-time leading scorer (110 goals) has 4g\/4a as he looks to record his fourth consecutive MLS season with at least 20 goals.
\nDavid Mart\u00ednez: The rising Venezuelan international is in the midst of a breakout season, with several standout league and CCC performances.
\nHugo Lloris: Rested during Matchday 7’s visit to Portland, the legendary French goalkeeper has yet to concede a league goal this season and leads MLS with six clean sheets.\u00a0
\nRyan Porteous: Amid Aaron Long<\/a>‘s long-term injury, Porteous<\/a> has stepped in at center back to command an LAFC defense that’s allowed a league-low two goals.<\/p>\n

Does LAFC field something resembling a first-choice starting XI? They have four days of rest after playing in Mexico midweek.<\/p>\n

2nd in Western Conference
\n18 points, 6W-1L-0D<\/p>\n

One of MLS’s biggest surprises this year, San Jose sit firmly among the league’s top sides nearly 20 percent of the way through the 2026 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is despite losing their top stars from last season. Cristian Espinoza<\/a> is now with\u00a0Nashville SC<\/a>, Josef Mart\u00ednez plays for LIGA MX’s Club Tijuana and Chicho Arango<\/a> is on loan at Atl\u00e9tico Nacional\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even more impressively, they’ve gotten results lately without blockbuster winter signing Timo Werner<\/a>. The German star has missed their last two games due to injury.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Bruce Arena’s side cruised to a 3-1 victory<\/a> at Sporting Kansas City<\/a>. And with Werner expected back this weekend, the Earthquakes are looking to keep the good times rolling in SoCal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Timo Werner: In just 200 minutes, Werner has already contributed two assists and given San Jose a proven difference-maker in the final third.
\nNiko Tsakiris: The homegrown midfielder has stepped up this year, producing 2g\/4a in seven games. He also leads MLS with 28 key passes.
\nBeau Leroux: After a breakout 2025 season, Leroux<\/a> has started all seven matches this year and contributed 1g\/2a.\u00a0
\nDaniel: The Brazilian veteran ranks second among MLS goalkeepers with five clean sheets while conceding just two goals.\u00a0
\nPreston Judd: With 3g\/2a, Judd<\/a> is San Jose’s leading scorer and has taken over their starting striker role.<\/p>\n

Arena recently told reporters that Werner “should be ready this week.” But is the German playmaker ready to go the full 90 minutes?<\/p>\n

San Jose are perfect on the road this season, with three wins in as many games.<\/p>\n

However, LAFC have been just as dominant at home, going 6W-0L-1D while outscoring opponents 17-1 in seven games across all competitions.<\/p>\n

If the Black & Gold can keep BMO Stadium a fortress, they’ll have the edge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supporters’ Shield contenders clash when LAFC host the San Jose Earthquakes for Matchday 8’s Sunday Night Soccer presented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[117405,35910,11414,88,1084,90,89,6532,98582],"class_list":{"0":"post-269774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-lafcvssj-04-19-2026","9":"tag-los-angeles-football-club","10":"tag-priority-match","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-earthquakes","13":"tag-san-jose-headlines","14":"tag-san-jose-news","15":"tag-sendtonews","16":"tag-sunday-night-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269774","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=269774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}