The San Jose Earthquakes (7-10-5, 26 points) and Colorado Rapids (5-8-9, 24 points) are set to face off in the 2015 Major League Soccer regular season on Friday at the Avaya Stadium in San Jose, California.
Both teams are currently at the bottom of the packed Western Conference and are in danger of missing the playoffs if they can't get a string of victories starting with this matchup.
The Quakes are coming off a six-game winless streak, including their stint in the recent International Champions Cup friendlies. Their last game was a 1-2 defeat in the hands of the Houston Dynamo on the road last Saturday, via SB Nation.
Dynamo struck first in the 55th minute before Goonies midfielder Fatai Alashe was sent off with a second yellow at the hour mark. However, the one-man disadvantage did not deter Dominic Kinnear's boys as they leveled the match at the 70th with forward Quincy Amarikwa's rebound play. But still La Naranja escaped with the three points.
The Rapids were also out of luck in their recent game, a similar 1-2 beating versus Columbus Crew SC also last Saturday right at their home stadium, as per NBC Sports' Pro Soccer Talk. Pablo Mastroeni's men could not stop forward Kei Kamara from scoring a double to lead the Crew to the victory.
The predicted result is a 1-0 win by the Rapids. The Quakes are playing without inspiration these days and there are no indications that they can wake up from their football nightmare anytime soon.
San Jose Earthquakes starting lineup (4-5-1 formation): Bingham; Wynne, Bernárdez, Stewart, Francis; Alashe, Cato, Wondolowski, Pelosi, Salinas; Amarikwa
Colorado Rapids starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Irwin; Moor, Burling, Sjoberg, Burch; Sarvas, Watts, Cronin; Eloundou, Doyle, Sánchez