You could say Preston Judd was meant to lead the line for Bruce Arena’s San Jose Earthquakes, that the die was cast way back in his childhood in Las Vegas.
When Judd was 9 or 10, Arena swung through Sin City and held a coaching clinic at a local hotel. This would’ve been early in his trophy-laden tenure in charge of the LA Galaxy, and, as is often the case with a session of that sort, a local youth team was recruited to serve as his demo group, walking through the drills and exercises the coach was describing.
Judd’s team got the call to work under the living legend, which made Arena’s arrival in San Jose last year a reunion of sorts, as Judd made sure to let him know.
“So he coached me then, and I reminded him about it, too,” the striker relayed to MLSsoccer.com on Thursday with a grin. “And he's like, 'Well, were you as big a pain in the ass then as you are now?'
“I was like, yeah, probably.”
"This team is different"
The fact that Judd felt at ease tossing some age-related teasing at his 74-year-old coach, and that Arena felt at ease tossing some banter right back, tells us a little something about the 2026 Quakes, the surprise package of this MLS season, who visit the Portland Timbers in Matchday 15’s Walmart Saturday Showdown (9:30 pm PT | Apple TV).
Though a winless (0W-3L-2D) May has slipped them down to third in the Supporters’ Shield race and eliminated them from the US Open Cup at the hands of the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday, it’s nonetheless been a remarkable year for a club which missed out on last year’s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs and have been arguably the league’s biggest strugglers over the past decade.
“This team is different than any team I've ever played with,” said Judd. “It's unexpected; maybe we didn't have the roster on paper everybody thought you needed to compete in this league. So I think in that aspect alone, it's different.
“But within the locker room itself, it's like coming into training with all your best friends. Everybody messes around, you don't really have to hide yourself or hide your personality. Everybody knows who you are, and everybody gets along. So it's really cool.”
Grit FC
Arena’s Quakes (29 points, 9W-3L-2D) have produced expansive, effective soccer with a roster dotted with bargain pickups and relative unknowns, egged on and coached up into a formidable underdog collective by a manager who – like many of them – has something to prove after his last stop, a 2019-2023 stint in charge of the New England Revolution, didn’t end the way he wanted.
According to MLS Players Association documents, San Jose rank in the bottom third of MLS salary expenditure, and drop right down to the foot of the list if the wages of their sole Designated Player, German ace Timo Werner, are taken out.
Some of them are overlooked draft picks, others unheralded journeymen. Just about all seem to play with a chip on their shoulder, none more so than Judd, the team’s leading scorer with nine league goals and two assists – and surely their top wind-up merchant, a prickly, physical presence who delights in antagonizing opponents.
It all adds up to a tenacious mindset, one Judd has coined ‘Grit FC,’ which he’s made a go-to social media tagline and even printed t-shirts. As for Judd himself? He’s the ‘Grit Reaper.’
“No matter what, [even] if I'm not producing goals, I'm going to bring that 'mother-effer attitude' to the field,” was how Judd phrased it to reporters last month, explaining his commitment to defensive pressing and selfless hold-up play regardless of his scoring form.
He says he idolized Wayne Rooney as a kid, identifying with the English icon and D.C. United ex’s combative personality, and occasionally reminded those around him of another famously hotheaded Manchester United star.
“I was a handful; saw red a lot,” Judd recalled. “People would compare me to Eric Cantona when I was growing up with just how fiery I was. I think I've maybe simmered down since then a little bit, which is kind of crazy to say!
“It's an element of my game where it's like, I enjoy it. That’s what gets me into the game, and it's fun to do. It's fun to get under people's skin.”
Overlooked & underrated
That mindset is also a legacy of his unconventional path to this point. Judd was not a highly touted youth prospect, nor was Vegas widely perceived as a recruiting hotbed at the time – overshadowed, he believes, by the sheer size and depth of the talent pools next door in California.
His progress was significantly sidetracked in his freshman year of high school when he was diagnosed with a painful knee condition called osteochondritis dissecans that required surgery and extensive rehabilitation.
“I was definitely a late bloomer,” he said. “The bone in my knee was dying, so they had to drill into it and get the blood back flowing within my knee. That was around the time where you're going through puberty, and everything started to develop and grow, and so I got a little chunky there for a little bit. Freshman, sophomore year, I didn't grow at all. I was 5-[foot]-6 sophomore year. I was late growing, so I was behind everybody developmentally.”
It might’ve helped him in the long run. Robbed of the speed and strength he had before his knee issues, Judd had to think differently and improve his technique to compensate. In the near term, though, it led him to a smaller NCAA program, Cal Baptist University, after his hometown school elected not to recruit him.
“It’s tough for players to get out of there,” he said of the Vegas scene, which he notes also produced Tristan Blackmon, Danny Musovski and Seattle Sounders alum Danny Leyva. “You really only have UNLV, and most California schools aren't really recruiting in Vegas, because you have all the kids from California right there at your disposal … And the UNLV coach at the time told me I was a D3 player at best.”
Off he went to CBU, where 22g/4a in 39 matches across two seasons convinced him he could test himself at a higher level, so he transferred to the University of Denver – rejecting a belated pitch from UNLV in the process. Though his productivity dipped in his sole season with the Pioneers – and the COVID-19 pandemic rolled in to disrupt everything soon after – he saw enough personal growth to take the leap to the pros.
Breakout season
The Galaxy drafted him in 2021. But even as he scored goals by the bucketful for Los Dos, their second team, flashing clever box movement and hold-up play, he saw the writing on the wall. LA’s starting striker at the time was Mexican legend Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez, and his backup Dejan Joveljic, who’d go on to spearhead the Gs’ 2024 MLS Cup run.
All the more fuel for the fire that was already smoldering inside him. He arrived in San Jose via a trade for $200,000 in allocation money after the 2023 campaign and has thrived, earning a new contract last fall after bagging nine goal contributions (three of them game-winners) in just 10 starts.
Judd’s taken another step this year. He sits tied for fifth in the MLS Golden Boot standings as the league’s World Cup pause looms, and this month earned a spot on The Athletic’s ‘All-Budget XI’ after MLSPA’s latest salary numbers were released.
Few observers will give Judd much of a shot in that race against bigger names like Lionel Messi, Petar Musa and Hugo Cuypers down the back half of the season. And that’s just how he likes it.
“I would say that's one of my biggest motivations, is proving people wrong,” he admitted. “Even coming out of Vegas, a lot of people didn't think I should be playing pro, and every year I proved more people wrong, and it makes me happy.
“It brings a lot of happiness to me, maybe more than it should.”
