A winless San Jose squad heads to Allianz Field on Saturday night to take on undefeated Minnesota United, fresh off their massive road victory at New York Red Bulls. Will those early-season trends continue? Or can a chaotic San Jose attack put the Loons on the back foot? Here are three storylines that might play a role in determining the answer.
CRY FOUL
A potential area of danger for Minnesota on Saturday is San Jose’s ability to draw fouls. The Quakes as a team have comfortably drawn the most fouls of any team in the league through three games with 59, while Minnesota is tied for fifth most fouls committed in the league with 47. San Jose has also committed just 33 fouls themselves. While about a third of the league’s teams have been fouled more times than they have committed infractions, San Jose’s gap between the two numbers is by far the largest such gap in all of MLS. Only one other team in the entire league (Atlanta) has suffered ten or more fouls than they have committed. MNUFC players will need to be cautious of consistent fouls and the attached penalties, particularly knowing that two of San Jose’s four goals thus far this season came from set pieces.
EYE ON THE LONG BALL
Another San Jose stat that pops out is their league-leading tally in accurate long balls. They have completed 121 such passes; only one other team has even completed 100 (the Galaxy, at exactly 100). More interestingly, this is not driven by their goalkeeper. In individual long-ball tracking, most of the league’s goalkeepers lead by simple virtue of taking goal kicks and clearing their lines. Seven of the top eight individuals in the accurate long-ball stat are, indeed, starting goalkeepers for their teams. The one exception, second in MLS with 28 accurate long balls, is midfielder and old friend Ján Greguš. Both Greguš and Jackson Yueill (16) are among the top ten outfield players in this stat, and Eric Remedi (14) makes three San Jose midfielders within the top eight midfielders in the entire league in this stat. For the sake of comparison, no Minnesotan outfield player has even completed ten long balls.
DUELING MASTERS
Given San Jose’s porous defense, Minnesota’s ability to push and seek mistakes in duels may be key. Of all midfielders in MLS, Minnesota has five who have entered 35 or more duels. Emanuel Reynoso leads the entire league with 75, followed by Hassani Dotson (41), Robin Lod (40), Wil Trapp (38) and Kervin Arriaga (35). Trapp and Arriaga are the only two midfielders to have done this in just two starts. No other team in MLS has more than three midfielders to hit 35 or more, while Minnesota, again, has five. How successful Minnesota is at finding (and winning) these duels without fouling may determine their success on Saturday.
