The San Jose Earthquakes were able to sneak in one final player addition ahead of the MLS transfer window’s closing — and it was a rather noteworthy one, too.
The Quakes acquired forward Matthew Hoppe on a 12-month loan from Middlesborough, a club in England’s second-tier Championship.
Hoppe, 22, has played in eight matches for the U.S. men’s national team already in his career, including playing in two matches in 2023. He has one goal with the USMNT so far.
“Matthew is an exciting, young player who has already gotten a lot of experience in a number of different leagues,” Earthquakes general manager Chris Leitch said in a statement. “He has also played at the international level and was a big part of the U.S. Gold Cup victory in 2021. With his ability to play multiple positions, he is going to be an important addition to our attacking core.”
Hoppe is under contract with Middlesborough and played for the club in the EFL Championship during the fall of 2022, but most recently played with Scottish side Hibernian on a loan, tallying a goal and an assist in nine appearances during the spring of 2023. He started his senior club career at German club Schalke, where he became the first American player to score a hat trick in the Bundesliga on Jan. 1, 2021.
A native of Yorba Linda in Southern California, the 6-foot-3 forward played for one season with the LA Galaxy’s academy at the beginning of his youth career at 13 years old. He will make his return to the United States to play for the Galaxy’s NorCal rivals.
Hoppe’s signing, which had to occur before the MLS summer transfer window closed at 10 p.m. PT on Wednesday night, adds another option to Earthquakes’ suddenly deep stable of forwards. San Jose recently inked 2023 MLS All-Star Cristian Espinoza to an extension and added Ayo Akinola on loan from Toronto FC to join Jeremy Ebobisse and Cade Cowell as options up front. Cowell and Hoppe have played together for the national team before, sharing the pitch for 10 minutes during a January match against Serbia.
The additions could be signs that San Jose is ready to make a playoff push and bring a long-awaited postseason match to PayPal Park, which opened in 2015. Since finishing as the top team in MLS in 2012, San Jose has only made the playoffs twice (2017, 2020) and lost in the first round on the road each time.
The Quakes currently sit tied for sixth place in the Western Conference with 32 points. In the MLS’ new playoff format, nine teams make the playoffs, which has the eighth and ninth place teams playing a Wild Card match before a best-of-three first round.
In that round, the matches will have a home-away-home format, meaning San Jose is guaranteed its first playoff match at PayPal Park if they can finish the regular season in the top seven. The remaining rounds after the first round are single elimination, all the way to the MLS Cup.
The Quakes are currently on a month-long break from MLS regular season action to allow MLS and Mexico’s top professional league Liga MX to play the Leagues Cup. San Jose lost both of its Leagues Cup group stage matches, to Portland and Tigres, to be eliminated from the competition.
