PHOTO: San Jose Earthquakes

It is fair to be confused over Mikael Stahre’s comments to reporters after last week’s 3-2 loss at Orlando.

“I was actually really pleased with the performance in the first half, but we were still 2-0 down,” Stahre said in the club’s press release. “Without being too optimistic, I believe that was the best road performance by far.”

But Stahre has a point: San Jose did everything well, except for giving up three easy goals. They moved the ball well and created plenty of dangerous opportunities, but were crushed on the counterattack. The counter was available because San Jose gave up a wildly easy early goal. Don’t give up those sorts of goals and you don’t put yourself in these sorts of situations.

Central midfield stellar

Last week was certainly the best game so far for the Anibal Godoy-Florian Jungwirth pairing. They kept the attack connected, bailed out the defenders and Andrew Tarbell with passing options, and, of course, Jungwirth got himself two goals off of set pieces. Save for the two defensive miscues — Godoy’s penalty gift that Tarbell managed to swat away, Flo getting caught flatfooted on Orlando’s third goal — the duo performed magnificently.

Godoy only had two missed passes, and Jungwirth had six. And the ball was sprayed all around the park. Here are their usage maps from last week:

On the other hand, Jahmir Hyka was fairly passive in his first start of the season. For people angry at Vako for doing too much, Hyka’s back-passing may be a plus. But outside of one very nifty cross, he was a non-factor:

Questions remain in defense

Even with the remarkable midfield work, there were three goals given up. Chris Mueller may be an impressive apple-cheeked rookie, but he’s no Alberth Elis. The first defensive miscue was very much Salinas going for a Victor Bernardez-esque home-run tackle and ending up watching the goal from the ground. The second was because nobody tracked Mueller’s 60-yard run:

Jungwirth is certainly caught in the spin cycle there, and Hyka’s trailing the play by about a million miles. It is easy to get frustrated about, but also shows the strength of what a skilled center forward can do against San Jose’s counterpress: Dwyer’s nice turn allows the play to get flipped while the Earthquakes are chasing the Orlando City lead.

A lot of this is a lack of organization. The hope is that when Cummings returns, he can read the field and help Quintana figure out when to go ahead, or tell the midfielders who is making runs behind them. That doesn’t solve the current hole at left back, but it hopefully can staunch the bleeding.

There’s some grumbling online about moving Lima to left back and playing Flo at RB, but that is not more than a stopgap solution. First, why weaken two strong spots to fix one? And second, Lima and Magnus Eriksson have been developing a chemistry that’s really become a fulcrum of this team’s attack.

Magnus’ hold-up and passing creates lanes for Lima to run through and create problems in the box.

Shea Salinas may not be a great defender on the left side, but what he does is give the offense spacing. Salinas on the touchline gives space to the left midfielder and prevents teams from pinching in on Vako or Hyka. Note how much higher the fullbacks are in this spacing chart from last week, versus the one from Houston.

Joel Qwiberg may be a better defender, but he doesn’t have Salinas’ ability to create space. The other issue, however, is that Salinas playing so wide means more space for the centerbacks to cover — and asking any unnecessary questions of the centerbacks right now seems an enormous risk. The best course to take for now might be to keep on with the 4-2-2-2, but with more defensive help from Godoy on the opposing right wing while expecting Jungwirth to track runners and hold down the central area. And anyway, right wing is not a position of strength for Columbus.

Progressing in Columbus

Columbus plays so similarly to Orlando that this away match may serve as an opportunity to build off of the progress Stahre sees, especially with Harold Cummings returning. The gameplan ought to be similar on Saturday: don’t let Wil Trapp or Frederico Higuain have time on the ball, and keep Gyassi Zardes in front of the back line. These aren’t novel concepts, but the Black and Blue has just been lacking in execution.

On the attack, the Quakes will need to find a way to get more work inside the opponent’s box. It’s a balance: I half-expected Hyka to start wide and Vako in the second striker spot, where he’s much more dangerous. But Stahre wanted Chris Wondolowski in the attack to key the counter-press and keep pressure off of the San Jose centerbacks.

It may be a bit unorthodox, but Magnus could also play underneath Danny Hoesen in that spot. He could be a tenacious presser and still take on more forward responsibilities in terms of dribbling and passing than Wondo’s been able to execute on so far, and that could leave space on the right wing for Hyka. It all depends on how the Earthquakes want to both create pressure on Columbus’ big, immobile centerbacks and frustrate both Trapp and goalkeeper Zack Steffen (who has lost a lot of confidence in distribution over the past few weeks). Hoesen has been lacking service for the past month, and San Jose has to find a way to feed him the ball in dangerous spots while still maintaining shape and possession.

How the Earthquakes solve that puzzle depends what sort of team they decide they are. MLS teams are generally more cynical on the road, and San Jose has to start grinding out points.

Plenty of teams have gone back from worse starts to get into the playoffs in the past. But so far, San Jose has looked a notch slower and less confident than their opponents. There is potential in this team, and reason to be patient as they cohere. At the same time, they likely can’t wait for the cake to set around the World Cup. This team has to get itself within striking distance and form an identity. Some road points this week would be a long way towards getting there.

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