The California Clásico reaches a milestone Sunday between the Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes.
The California rivals have met in the MLS Cup playoffs, U.S. Open Cup and this year will meet in the Leagues Cup. Sunday’s clash at Dignity Health Sports Park will be the 100th all-time meeting between the clubs.
In 2012, the Guardian said the rivalry is “perhaps the most historic and intense rivalry.”
It’s a series that has seen several player on both sides, the latest being forward Preston Judd, and even coaches (Lothar Osiander, Frank Yallop and Dominic Kinnear).
“It’s hard to believe we’re at 100 already,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said of the series. “In one of the first ones, it was actually one of my first games and I scored my first goal at Spartan Stadium.
“As I’ve said through this process, in the beginning of the season, we’ve had a lot of tough games and a lot of games that get your attention and get to see where you’re at. And I think a game with this type of hoopla and emotion, a Clásico, the 100th edition, stands are going to be full. It’s going to be a great occasion for our group, coming off of a good road win, so we’ve got to try to double down on the three points and have another good performance.”
On Sunday, the Galaxy (4-1-3, 15 points) will look for a second consecutive win in this year’s rivalry series, having beaten San Jose 3-1 in their second game of the season March 2 at PayPal Park.
“It’s another game that gets your attention because it has something to it that’s maybe just a little bit different than any other game,” Vanney said.
Vanney was in on the early stages of the Galaxy-San Jose rivalry, joining the Galaxy in their inaugural season.
“For me, the early years, the games were super intense and super competitive,” Vanney said. “Obviously the Rose Bowl games are the Rose Bowl games, but when you went up to play in Spartan Stadium and the field was small and the concrete of the stadium was about five yards off of the field, you felt like a nice, good tackle right along the sideline would put you in the wall.
“They way they played, they were whipping balls in on top of the goal and the games were always intense and could go either way. There were usually a lot of goals involved in these games, always exciting. Back in those days, it was the rivalry. I think now we still feel the importance of the game, but what used to be a lot of intensity and hard-tackling, fighting has turned into a little bit more of football (soccer), but it still matters just the same to our fan base and everybody.”
Joseph Paintsil, Dejan Joveljic and Riqui Puig scored in the prior meeting against San Jose (1-7, three points), which has lost three in a row and sits at the bottom of the league.
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“They’ve been in leads, they’ve given away leads, they had some good moments where it looks like they’re going to get results, but then their results have slipped away from them,” Vanney said of San Jose. “Last week, they lost 3-0, but they controlled certain portions of the game and had opportunities, but didn’t make due of them, so I think they’re in an interesting spot … looking at some of their performances and saying they were solid, but the results not really showing and trying to figure out what tweaks they might need to make.
“I don’t suspect we will see much that’s too different, they’ll make some decisions on how high they want to press us and how aggressive they want to be.”
SAN JOSE AT GALAXY
When: 5:15 p.m. Sunday
Where: Dignity Health Sports Park
TV: FS1; Apple TV+ (MLS Season Pass)