Just like that, the San Jose Earthquakes are one of the main storylines of the Major League Soccer offseason.
It’s an unexpectedly pleasant surprise for the 2024 Wooden Spoon holders, who gave up an MLS-record 78 goals and finished bottom of the league table (6W-25L-3D; 21 points) last season.
Although maybe it shouldn’t be that unexpected, given new head coach/sporting director Bruce Arena’s track record of transforming clubs like D.C. United, LA Galaxy and the New England Revolution into trophy-winning powerhouses.
After an active but unremarkable first few months in charge, Arena dropped the hammer with two blockbuster signings in the form of Cristian “Chicho” Arango and Josef Martínez.
“Clearly we were looking for some No. 9s, and I think we’ve been fortunate to get some of the best ones from the league out of the last five years or so,” Arena told reporters at Wednesday’s preseason training session.
“I think it’s a lot easier for players with experience in this league to move on to a new team and make that adjustment.”
Difference makers
Arango and Martínez are not just any players, however.
Arango, the Colombian international, who arrived via an intra-league trade with Real Salt Lake on Saturday, gave San Jose not only one of the league’s top strikers but arguably MLS’s best player during the first half of last season. His form rivaled that of 2019 Carlos Vela before a mid-July suspension derailed his momentum heading into the second half of 2024. All told, he finished with a still-solid 17g/12a.
Vela memorably scored a record 34 goals in 31 games for LAFC during that legendary 2019 season. The player whose record he broke is none other than Martínez, the iconic Venezuelan striker who joined Arango two days later as a free agent to complete San Jose’s new fearsome attacking corps.
“We came here for a new project, we came here to win, we came here to change the minds of the guys who were here last year,” Martínez, a 2018 MLS Cup champion and MLS MVP with Atlanta United, said. “We know it’s tough, but it’s step by step.
“Chicho, myself, Mark [Anthony-Kaye] - a lot of players have come here to win.”
Championship mentality
Like Martínez, Arango is also an MLS Cup champion, lifting the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy (along with the Supporters’ Shield) with LAFC in 2022.
“We have the experience that we can offer our teammates from day one,” Chicho said in Spanish. “We want to fight for a championship, we’re going to work hard for it. We also know that every other team has the same hopes, so I think that our hard work will show during the upcoming months.”
Martínez shares Arango’s championship aspirations, even if it means playing a reduced role, should Arena rotate strikers instead of playing with two No. 9s up top.
“We are a group. The most important thing is winning. We have to be ready for every game. Obviously, we want to play every game,” said Martínez, who led CF Montréal with 14 goals in all competitions last season. “That’s normal. We’re strikers, we want to score no matter what.
“… We have to compete every day and whoever’s doing best has to play. I don’t have a problem if I have to start or if Chicho has to start.”
A new dawn in San Jose?
Whether individually or as a duo, Arango and Martínez add instant firepower to an offense that could make a lot of noise this season, with talented Argentines Cristian Espinoza and Hernán López pulling the strings in midfield.
For Arena, it’s a positive first step towards restoring the Quakes to their dominant glory days that yielded two MLS Cups (2001 and 2003) two decades ago.
“We want to build a winning team and get back to that at San Jose. Traditionally, if you go back to the start of the league, they've been one of the more successful teams in MLS in the early going,” Arena said.
“There's no reason to believe that we can't build a team back into that kind of position.
However, that’s not to suggest it’s a quick fix for a side that’s missed the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs 10 times since 2013.
“It's early, just three days of preseason,” Arena said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
