Match PreviewFriday September 12th, 2008 Unbeaten in their last 8 MLS games, the San Jose Earthquakes will try tomorrow to conclude their 3 consecutive home games with a third win. Before the first of these three game (2-1 win against Kansas City), seven points out of nine seemed to be a difficult but necessary goal to reach for San Jose. Two weeks and six points later, ambitions have been reviewed. The Quakes have confirmed the good performances shown since Darren Huckerby, Francisco Lima, Scott Sealy and Arturo Alvarez have joined and reinforced the team and their good results, combined with some disappointing results by their direct competitors for the third place in the Western Conference, Chivas, LA and Dallas have put them in a favorable position. A win against Houston tomorrow would put them in the third position of their conference with only 6 games to go, a place that would qualify them directly for the Playoffs. The Playoffs are now an official objective for the Earthquakes (listen to Joe Cannon and Ronnie O'Brien below) and not reaching it would be disappointing. However, it won't be easy. The 4th place of the Western Conference will probably not be enough to qualify. It means they absolutely need to hold on to the gap with Colorado, Dallas and Los Angeles behind them and to pass Chivas or Colorado (2 and 3 points ahead of them). Houston, 10 points ahead, is out of reach. If only one team could stop them, Houston would probably be the one. Before traveling there next week, the Earthquakes receive the leader of the Western Conference tomorrow and need to earn the 3 points. To do so they will need to be able to resist a bigger pressure than they had to face in the last games and to finish their chances. Lack of finishing could have cost them 2 points last week against DC United (2-1 win) and the week before against Kansas City (2-1 win), two games they could have made easier for themselves if they had not missed several good opportunities. Instead, they had to fight until the last minute to keep the result even though they looked superior to their opponents. They will probably not dominate the game so easily tomorrow and should have fewer chances, which means they can't afford to miss them. Not winning wouldn't be a disaster for San Jose, but now that their ambitions are clearly announced, it would put the team under a huge pressure for the final games. There is a great opportunity to take the third place tomorrow, and they don't want to miss it! Thierry Heumann (email) *Important: note the new kick-off time: 7pm (instead of 1pm as originaly scheduled)
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