Back in August, I had an English friend in town. He supports Leeds United, which is shorthand for saying that he is adept at spotting jewels in the midst of mid-table, second-tier direct soccer. Naturally, I took him to a San Jose Earthquakes game (mind, this was in the middle of their month-and-a-half winless streak in July).

Before the match, I asked him to watch out for any standout players. By the tenth, minute, he had spotted Shea Salinas.

In April, I flew out to London to speak at a Sporting Analytics conference. Coincidentally, the first person I met there (who is the now the head of performance at a major rugby club in the UK) had done a statistical analysis of the Quakes a few years back and the one player that he remembered had surprisingly stood out was Shea Salinas.

Salinas, a quick, twenty-nine-year-old winger from Texas, has found a new appreciation under Dominic Kinnear in San Jose and has made more appearances this season than ever before, with two regular season matches to go. He’s also bagged the most goals in a single season, three, in his career.

But he is used to being perhaps the most overrated-underrated player in the league. “Every year I feel like somebody writes an article that says this has been Shea Salinas’ breakout season,” he told Football Every Day at the Quakes’ training session this morning. “I feel like they’ve said that every year…I just think it’s funny.

“This has been a good season for me and statistically it has been okay. I feel like I want a few more assists in the next few games and some more goals would be nice too.”

For the Quakes, it’s now or never in their playoff push heading into a crucial meeting with Sporting Kansas City tomorrow night. Lose, and they’re playoff hopes are over – it’s the same mentality they’ve carried into their last two or three games. Specifically, they need goals. They’ve successfully turned Avaya Stadium into a defensive fortress, allowing just a goal per game at home since September even though they’ve slumped in form of late, but have struggled to break down the opposition barriers. “Ties aren’t what we’re looking for, it’s wins,” Kinnear reinstated. In their draw with the Vancouver Whitecaps a week-and-a-half ago, only some incredible goalkeeping from David Bingham saved the Quakes a point.

The Quakes have a perfectly functional starting lineup, which excelled in a 5-0 win the last time they met Kansas City, but absences have in part explained why the wins have dried up since their unstoppable run of form in August. Center-back Victor Bernandez was injured for the best part of three weeks, only for his partner Clarence Goodson to suffer a suspension the very week he came back. Against Vancouver, starting midfielders Fatai Alashe and Marc Pelosi both were away for international duty with the US Under-23s while Matias Perez Garcia was suspended, forcing Kinnear to start JJ Koval in the midfield.

Tomorrow night, however, Alashe and MPG will return to their starting lineup and they’ve only got Bernardez’s absence to cover. Throughout the season, Kinnear has had Paulo Renato, Jordan Stewart (who is currently injured) and Alashe plug various holes at center-back — he’s always open to experimenting with new options.

These experiments all came together the last time the Quakes met SKC in a rampant 5-0 win for the visitors. However, it won’t be as easy for the Quakes this time. That match sent Kansas City into a slump of form in August, only for Peter Vermes’ men to rebound by winning the US Open Cup just in time to stay above the red line. With SKC having arrived in San Jose on Wednesday night, both teams are ready for another dogfight at Avaya Stadium.