Real Salt Lake put Saturday’s season opening win over LA to bed on Tuesday, beginning to prepare for this Saturday’s MLS match at San Jose Earthquakes with a workout at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Saturday’s game will be San Jose’s MLS regular season opener, as the Quakes were one of three teams to have a bye on opening weekend. Of course, San Jose had a good reason to take last weekend off, with the team avoiding what would’ve been a tricky bit of schedule congestion ahead of Tuesday’s first leg of its CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal series against Mexican Club Toluca.
San Jose is taking its matchup with Toluca very seriously, and Quakes Head Coach Mark Watson is expected to run out a first-choice lineup for Tuesday’s first leg at Buck Shaw Stadium. Regardless of their attitude, advancing out of the quarters will be a tough ask for the Bay Area side, which will have to get by a Toluca team flying high through two months of the Liga MX Clausura season.
Tuesday’s match could affect how the San Jose lineup looks on Saturday against RSL, with a good result possibly prompting Watson to give some of his starters a breather on Saturday ahead of next Wednesday’s second leg in Toluca. A bad result tonight will likely shift San Jose’s focus back to MLS play, and would probably prod Watson to put out a full team on Saturday against the Claret-and-Cobalt.
Long story short, RSL fans: Pull for San Jose against Toluca tonight. Not only will you be showing solidarity with a fellow MLS club, but you’ll also be rooting for RSL on Saturday, if only indirectly.
San Jose will take on Toluca at 8:00 p.m. MT tonight on Fox Sports 2. Brian Dunseth – everyone’s favorite color commentator – will be on the call with excellent play-by-play man John Strong.
