The San Jose Earthquakes earned an impressive win over Club Deportivo Guadalajara—nicknamed “Chivas”—that went the full distance at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday night.
Following a 1-1 draw in regulation, the Quakes outlasted the Chivas, 4-3, via penalty shootout in front of a tournament-record 50,675 fans to open the 2024 Leagues Cup group stage.
San Jose converted four of five shot attempts, including the game-sealing score by Vítor Costa.
Quakes interim head coach Ian Russell said they’re approaching the Leagues Cup as an opportunity to turn the season around.
San Jose sits last in the Western Conference and owns the worst record in the Major League Soccer standings with 14 points.
“It’s been a frustrating year, and even conceding late again,” Russell said. “But if you look at our overall games, we’ve been in a lot of games. We make mistakes. We don’t score at the right times or miss chances. But tonight it felt different. It felt like the guys were completely bought in, so I think we can use this to go forward and get the confidence.”
The last time the Quakes played Chivas was a friendly on Oct. 14, 2003 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. Russell played as a starting midfielder for San Jose, which went on to lose to Guadalajara, 2-0.
“It was in a smaller stadium but it was packed and when we went on the field, we were the one team getting booed,” Russell said. “I got them ready for that. I told them there was going to be a massive crowd. There’s a lot of Mexicans that live in San Jose, especially a lot from Jalisco, here. So it was a great crowd. The players would love to play in an atmosphere like that every weekend.”
Both teams earned one point due to the draw after 90 minutes, but San Jose earned one extra point for the penalty shootout victory.
Quakes goalkeeper Daniel made his first start since undergoing hamstring surgery on March 27. He finished with five saves in regulation time and one crucial save in the decisive shootout.
“Daniel has a really good aura about him. He’s very confident bordering on cocky,” Russell said. “So I think the guys rally around that, but again, I don’t want to take anything away from Will Yarbrough who’s been really good for us the whole season.”
The Earthquakes struck first in the sixth minute when Cristian Espinoza crossed a ball from the right wing that was headed home by Jeremy Ebobisse.
Chivas equalized in the eighth minute of stoppage time when Roberto Alvarado finished a Mateo Chávez service in the box.
“There were a lot of emotions after that,” Russell said. “A lot of frustrations with our team, so I had to bring them together and tell them everybody needs to calm down at this point. I told them they played a great game, but we need to calm down and we need to bury our penalty kicks.”
Leagues Cup
In 2019, MLS and LIGA MX—the top tier of Mexican soccer—paused their regular seasons for the inaugural Leagues Cup tournament.
The tourney now features 47 first-division professional clubs that compete in the official Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)-sanctioned tournament.
The top three finishers automatically qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup.
The Quakes will finish Leagues Cup group stage play at PayPal Park against longtime rivals LA Galaxy on July 31 with kickoff set for 7:30pm.
