{"id":477517,"date":"2026-09-27T16:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477517\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:32:08","slug":"preston-judd-guides-san-jose-into-western-conference-contention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477517\/","title":{"rendered":"Preston Judd guides San Jose into Western Conference contention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night’s 3-1 win<\/a> over the Portland Timbers<\/a> at PayPal Park has them soaring to third in the Western Conference. It also extends their unbeaten run to six games.<\/p>\n

“I think the good thing about our team is that we\u2019re very interchangeable. We have a lot of depth, so no matter who you put out there … two forwards, three forwards or four forwards, it doesn\u2019t really matter,” said star striker Preston Judd<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re going to play to the best of our ability. What Bruce [Arena] always tells us is that, at the end of the day, it\u2019s 11 versus 11. It doesn\u2019t really matter what formation we\u2019re playing in. It\u2019s about playing as a team, being more intense than the other team and outworking them. That worked tonight, and we\u2019ll keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n San Jose stars shine<\/p>\n

Judd, who added his 14th and 15th MLS goals during the victory, was at the center of the action. It’s been an unexpected career year for the 27-year-old, who has more goals this season than his previous four seasons combined and currently sits eighth in the Golden Boot race.<\/p>\n

Both goals showcased Judd\u2019s quality. The first was an excellent header to open the scoring in the sixth minute, capitalizing on a near-perfect cross from Eduard L\u00f6wen<\/a>. He rounded out San Jose\u2019s scoring with a first-time finish in the box in the 29th minute, then leaped into the stands to celebrate with the rowdy home crowd.<\/p>\n

“Of course, scoring goals always feels nice, especially when I\u2019m expected to score,” the Quakes star forward said. “The celebration wasn\u2019t planned at all. I just knew my first celebration wasn\u2019t up to my standard, so I had to match it with the second one. It worked out.”<\/p>\n

In addition to his early assist, L\u00f6wen added a goal of his own. The German midfielder \u2013 brought in via a trade with St. Louis CITY<\/a> just a month ago \u2013 recorded his first goal and assist since moving to the West Coast, highlighting that he too will be an important player in San Jose\u2019s postseason aspirations.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s a great player and an even better person in the locker room,” Judd said of his teammate. “He\u2019s always joking around, and you can\u2019t hate the guy. He\u2019s one of the nicest guys I\u2019ve ever met. It was a great goal, and we all wanted to celebrate with him.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, he gets a couple more throughout the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Flying high<\/p>\n

With the Audi 2026 MLS Cup playoffs seemingly just around the corner, San Jose are finding themselves at the perfect time of the season.<\/p>\n

After starting 2026 among MLS\u2019s hottest teams, the Quakes hit a mid-year slump, sliding down the standings after going winless in eight matches following the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But their fortunes have now dramatically shifted with three wins in their last four.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s result \u2013 against a Portland Timbers team fighting to reach the postseason \u2013 demonstrated the Quakes\u2019 momentum shift.<\/p>\n

Up by three goals within half an hour, the hosts were able to cruise to a fairly straightforward win that, remarkably, puts them within five points of the first-place Vancouver Whitecaps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of difficult games ahead. So hopefully we can win a few more and position ourselves to be in the playoffs,” head coach Bruce Arena told reporters postgame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our goal this year is to qualify for playoffs. We’re not there yet. … It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a hectic month.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday night’s 3-1 win over the Portland Timbers at PayPal Park has them soaring to third in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[11413,16465,88,1084,90,89,6532,187355],"class_list":["post-477517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-match-reaction","tag-preston-judd","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sendtonews","tag-sjvspor-09-26-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477517","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=477517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}