Earthquakes Ready to Battle Timbers

San Jose meets Portland on Saturday night at the plywood-constructed stadium also known as Buck Shaw, the home of the Earthquakes. What can we expect in this showdown between two teams that are close in the MLS table?

Both teams are desperately attempting to reach the playoffs but one team is performing better than the other.On Wednesday night, Portland trashed San Jose’s number one rival LA Galaxy 3-0. With that win, we can expect the Timbers to be in top form, confident and ready to attack the Earthquakes who are winless in the last 9 games with perhaps the most dismal offense in MLS.

On a positive note, three of the top Earthquakes’ defenders Bobby Burling, Jason Hernandez and Steven Beitashour will return after a spell of injuries and suspensions. If Earthquakes head coach Yallop doesn’t solve the hollow, uncreative center midfielder problem, we can expect another poor offensive performance featuring a long-ball-fest, sadly the Earthquakes led the league in the long-ball passes. Hopefully Yallop starts Anthony Ampaipitakwong in his natural position as the creative center midfielder and paired with returning from suspension Brad Ring playing as the holding center midfielder. We also hope that Yallop has recognized his past mistakes by not starting forward “I-have-not-scored-in-two-years” Scott Sealy, but instead he has faith in his younger, hungry players.

Seeing Ellis McLoughlin or Matt Luzunaris up top and partnered with seasoned one-touch-finisher Chris Wondolowski would be ideal. Luzunaris tweeted late yesterday about what seemed as family emergency. We can assume he will not play on Saturday night. On the right side, Justin Morrow should start because he is faster and more skilled to handle the speedy Timber offense as the right back than Beitashour. Bobby Convey should move up to the left midfield role injecting offensive creativity with Ampaipitakwong.

Here is my suggested lineup, matching Yallop’s beloved 4-4-2 formation. Please note that Scott Sealy is added as a sub because there are no other available forwards on the shell of a roster. Saturday night is Chris Wondolowski Bobblehead Night. It will be a cute chotchkie. Yet the fans would rather have a win.

Go Earthquakes!

(image courtesy of sjearthquakes.com)