SAN JOSE — Sitting on one knee just outside the penalty box, Luchi Gonzalez positioned himself far enough from his team to make it clear that his voice wasn’t needed.
He sat calmly with his whistle, blowing it only when necessary, but rarely saying much as his players finished their training session Wednesday morning at PayPal Park.
As he wraps up his first season as the head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes with a must-win game against Austin FC on Saturday, Gonzalez hopes he created a culture that prioritizes stability and process, one that encourages development and believes success isn’t always linear.
“I’m going to go to sleep at peace knowing I’m trying my personal best and the players are trying their best,” he said. “I think we’re close to our potential. That’s where I’m hopeful.”
A win on Saturday and the Earthquakes would clinch a playoff berth and secure an opportunity to host a postseason game for the first time since 2012, before the opening of PayPal Park.
“We know the stakes, but we can’t overthink it,” Gonzalez said. “We have to be focused on the moment.”
Under previous coach Matias Almeyda, things had gotten ugly around PayPal Park. In his final year, Almeyda was caught on video in a screaming match with fans at the stadium, began regularly skipping league-mandated postgame interviews and was reportedly trying to get fired so that he could continue getting paid while pursuing other coaching opportunities.
The Quakes finally parted ways with Almeyda early in the 2022 season after parts of four disastrous seasons in which they never finished with a positive goal differential.
General manager Chris Leitch, a former Earthquakes defender who took over the job in 2021, got his first chance to hire his own manager.
“I think the guys here were ready and needed someone to come in and set a higher standard,” Leitch said Wednesday. “To be quite honest, they weren’t going to want to be here unless we raised that standard.”
To Leitch, there was nobody better suited than Gonzalez, 41, who took over the club after finishing the 2022 World Cup as an assistant coach for the United States Men’s National Team, which advanced to the Round of 16 before a decisive 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands.
“Lucci’s standards are very high,” Leitch said.
Gonzalez’s job was a difficult one: Inherit a club in disarray, create a new culture that prioritizes player development while also providing a much-needed upgrade to the on-field product.
Making the postseason is “a minimum standard and minimum expectation for us,” Leitch said.
But if Gonzalez’s first year is going to be judged on whether or not the Quakes make the postseason, that judgment will have to wait until Saturday, when they have a win-and-you’re-in scenario against Austin, a scrappy club that’s out of playoff contention.
It’s fair to wonder if his first year in the Bay Area has already been a success. The Quakes scrapped the chaotic, wide-open style of play they had last season and rebuilt the back line, opting to create a secure style that relies on structure and sound defensive play.
In 33 games this year, they’ve allowed just 42 goals, fourth-fewest in the Western Conference, while nearly halving their total for last year, when they allowed a league-high 69 goals on their way to a last-place finish.
Disappointment could be found in their attack. They’ve scored just 38 goals while fielding a roster without any big-name international stars.
At a time when Messi set a new MLS record with his compensation at Inter Miami checking in at over $20 million this season, the Quakes, owned and operated by A’s owner John Fisher, have an entire team payroll of about $14 million, 18th out of 29 teams. Their highest-paid player is Jamiro Monteiro, who is making $1.2 million.
Leitch understands that modern soccer fans crave a more attacking-minded style of play, “but part of being attractive is winning,” he said.
Take 25-year-old striker Jeremy Ebobisse, for example. He scored 17 goals last year, but has scored just 10 this year. In Gonzalez’s system, he had to learn how to be a different kind of striker, one who spends less time waiting to make attacking runs and more time being active on the field, pressuring the defense and trying to create turnovers.
“Different systems and different needs are going to require different expectations of that striker to be more complete and more helpful in different aspects of that game,” Ebobisse said. “What we do is force turnovers in the attacking half, force longballs that our defenders are eager to gobble up and send back for our attacking players to finish off.
“We just need a couple more moments of magic to compliment what has been a very sturdy foundation.”
Winger Cristian Espinoza leads the team with 12 goals and eight assists while being involved in 65% of the team’s goals, enough to earn a finalist position for this year’s MVP award.
The Quakes are also feeling good about their youth development program, which sent more academy players to the U-17 national team than any other club in MLS.
Do they need to win Saturday for this season to be considered a success? Leitch declined to answer that question.
“I think it was unrealistic to think it was just going to turn, to be a complete 180 and a huge, complete change,” Gonzalez said. “No, these players are evolving. We have an awesome foundation with our stadium, our club, our players, our staff. Now it’s about building on that foundation.
“We haven’t reached our potential yet.”
