California Clasico has extra hurdles for Quakes after ugly Orlando loss

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Earthquakes’ return from the two-month World Cup break could hardly have gone worse.

Coming off the worst loss of the Bruce Arena era, the Earthquakes now head into Saturday night’s California Clasico against the LA Galaxy at Stanford Stadium without leading scorer Preston Judd and captain Ronaldo Vieira, both suspended after accumulating their fifth yellow cards of the season.

The Quakes (10-4-2, 32 points) entered the break with the best start in club history. But Wednesday’s MLS restart ended in a humbling 4-0 loss to Orlando City SC at PayPal Park, where San Jose allowed early goals in both halves.

“When you concede a goal to start both halves, you’re digging a real deep hole,” Arena said. “We played poorly, no excuses.”

The defeat erased several remarkable defensive milestones.

Before Wednesday, the Earthquakes had not conceded a goal from a set piece, allowed a goal from outside the penalty area or trailed by more than one goal in any league match this season. Orlando wiped out all three distinctions before the half-hour mark.

David Brekalo opened the scoring in the seventh minute, heading home Eduard Atuesta’s free kick. Ivan Angulo doubled the lead in the 29th minute with a long-range strike, and French star Antoine Griezmann marked his MLS debut by capitalizing on a bad pass by left back Jamar Ricketts and poor marking just three minutes into the second half to make it 3-0.

While Griezmann made an immediate impact after coming over from Atletico Madrid, San Jose received little production from its designated player, Timo Werner. The German international completed just 41.7 percent of his passes — the lowest mark of any player in the match — picked up a yellow card late in the first half and was substituted in the 73rd minute.

The night also marked the debut of goalkeeper Angus Gunn, who joined the club after starting all three World Cup matches for Scotland. Gunn replaced Daniel, San Jose’s starter since the beginning of the 2023 season, after the Brazilian was traded to FC Dallas during the break.

Arena, the second-year coach of the Quakes, said that Daniel “had a desire to leave here” and that he had been recruiting Gunn for nearly a year.

“We didn’t help our goalkeeper at all tonight,” Arena said. “Angus will be fine. We hung him out to dry. He’s the least of our worries.”

The bigger concern on Saturday may be the absences of Judd at striker and Vieira at defensive midfielder. Both were booked Wednesday, triggering one-game suspensions that will keep them out of one of the club’s biggest matches of the season.

Vieira said the quick turnaround gives the Earthquakes little time to dwell on Wednesday’s disappointment.

“It motivates me, and I think it motivates the guys also,” Vieira said. “After a night like tonight, we have to go out there and grind for each other. We need to have 11 guys who are ready to fight for the result, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

A possible replacement for Judd would be Luka Jovanović, who was acquired from the Australian A-League over the break. Arena said that Jovanović’s work permit hasn’t been approved yet, but he expects it to happen this week.

Despite the lopsided defeat, San Jose remained tied with the Vancouver Whitecaps atop the Western Conference after Vancouver also lost Wednesday. The Whitecaps still hold a game in hand and own the tiebreaker on goal differential.