{"id":467133,"date":"2026-09-17T20:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467133\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T20:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:22:15","slug":"san-jose-earthquakes-lafc-battle-for-playoff-positioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467133\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Earthquakes & LAFC battle for playoff positioning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> will call Levi’s Stadium home for Matchday 27’s Walmart Saturday Showdown, welcoming\u00a0LAFC<\/a> for a marquee Western Conference clash with serious Audi MLS Cup Playoffs implications.<\/p>\n

4th in Western Conference
\n41 points (12W-8L-5D)<\/p>\n

San Jose earned a 1-0 victory<\/a> over second-place Houston Dynamo FC<\/a>\u00a0to complete a six-point week, building off their 3-2 win<\/a> at San Diego FC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Center back Daniel Munie<\/a> scored the lone goal, and Angus Gunn<\/a> posted a five-save shutout.<\/p>\n

Niko Tsakiris: The 21-year-old homegrown midfielder is enjoying a breakout year with three goals and a team-leading 10 assists.
\nBeau Leroux: Leroux<\/a> has proven he’s no one-hit wonder, tallying a career-best 4g\/7a following his emergence last season.
\nEduard L\u00f6wen: This summer, San Jose acquired the German midfielder from\u00a0St. Louis CITY SC<\/a> and made him their newest Designated Player.
\nDaniel Munie: The 2026 MLS All-Star set a club record for a defender, scoring his fifth goal of the season against Houston.<\/p>\n

Despite star forward Timo Werner<\/a> missing time to injury, the Earthquakes have gone unbeaten in their last four games and snapped an eight-match winless streak.<\/p>\n

That rebound is underpinned by Niko Tsakiris<\/a>, who recently returned from a long-term groin injury. The US youth international has produced 1g\/3a in his last three matches, including a sensational trivela assist in his Man of the Match performance at San Diego.<\/p>\n

Aside from L\u00f6wen, San Jose also added Gunn in the summer transfer market after he was Scotland’s starting goalkeeper at the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

6th in Western Conference
\n40 points (11W-8L-7D)<\/p>\n

LAFC are looking to rebound from a 3-1 defeat<\/a> at last-place Sporting Kansas City<\/a>.\u00a0Denis Bouanga<\/a> scored the Black & Gold’s only goal in the match.<\/p>\n

With that result, LAFC have won just one of their last eight games (1W-3L-4D).<\/p>\n

Son Heung-Min: The South Korean icon and MLS-record signing is one assist behind the league leader (Lionel Messi<\/a>) with 5g\/12a this season.
\nDenis Bouanga: The perennial Golden Boot presented by Audi contender is chasing a fourth consecutive season of at least 20 goals. He has 13g\/8a this year.
\nArmindo Sieb: The former German youth international forward introduced himself to LAFC fans in style with a stunning first goal against Red Bull New York<\/a>.
\nHugo Lloris: The 2018 World Cup winner is a Goalkeeper of the Year candidate, posting a league-best 12 clean sheets during his third MLS season.<\/p>\n

LAFC harbor ambitions to win silverware every season, and won’t be satisfied with dropping to sixth in the West.<\/p>\n

But the Black & Gold have the star power needed to turn things around, and remain just three points back of second-place Houston Dynamo FC.<\/p>\n

Now, they head to an NFL venue with hopes of building momentum towards the postseason.<\/p>\n

LAFC are favored on the road, commanding 44% of the market compared to 34% for San Jose.<\/p>\n

Market insights shared are current as of Thursday, Sept. 17 at 9 am ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Earthquakes will call Levi’s Stadium home for Matchday 27’s Walmart Saturday Showdown, welcoming\u00a0LAFC for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[35910,11414,88,1084,90,89,125093,6532,183976],"class_list":["post-467133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-los-angeles-football-club","tag-priority-match","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-saturday-showdown","tag-sendtonews","tag-sjvslafc-09-19-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467133","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=467133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}