The San Jose Earthquakes close out their regular-season home slate in a special Saturday afternoon matinee Monster Match on Halloween against Real Salt Lake. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. at PayPal Park, with the game to air on Apple TV (English/Spanish) as well as via local radio on KSFO 810 AM (English) and La Kaliente 1370 AM (Spanish).Â
On the field, the Black and Blue have clinched their first-ever playoff match at PayPal Park since the stadium opened in 2015, but they still have some work to do to secure home-field advantage in Round One. Currently standing fifth in the Western Conference (13-9-10, 49 points), San Jose will need to leapfrog fourth-place Houston in the table to accomplish that. Â
The Quakes are coming off a dramatic second-half comeback this past Wednesday where they salvaged a point against the Colorado Rapids with a 2-2 draw. Head Coach Bruce Arena is getting all his weapons back come playoff time, as midfielder Niko Tsakiris came off the bench and delivered the game-tying assist, showing why he was an early All-Star candidate before two injuries put him on the shelf for an extended period. One slight setback will be the loss of forward Timo Werner, who recorded an assist as well against Colorado but was sent off in the second half with a red card and is slated to miss Saturday’s match. The German superstar will return before the playoffs, but until then, the focal point of the attack will be striker Preston Judd, who is just one goal away from tying Jeremy Ebobisse for third on the club’s all-time single-season list with 17. Â
Meanwhile, Real Salt Lake has everything to play for on Halloween, standing on the cusp of playoff qualification in ninth (12-14-6, 42 points), which if the regular season ended today would be good enough to make the Wild Card Round. But they want more, and they’ll have the firepower to do it, with Spanish striker Sergi Solans (14 goals) and a pair of playmakers in Morgan Guilavogui and JuanMa Sanabria who have 10 assists apiece in the absence of Diego Luna. RSL Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni is a familiar face when it comes to his counterpart across the bench; Arena not only gave Mastroeni his U.S. Men’s National Team debut as a player in 2001, he also coached him in two FIFA World Cups (2002, 2006) as well as at club level with the LA Galaxy in 2013.Â
As far as the recent series, aside from a 1-0 hiccup in 2024 at PayPal Park, San Jose has earned points in three of their last four meetings at home against RSL dating back to 2022 (2-1-1), including a 4-0 shellacking of the Claret-and-Cobalt in the 2025 season opener—Arena’s very first league game in charge of the Black and Blue. Current Quakes Jamar Ricketts, Ousseni Bouda and VÃtor Costa all netted that night.Â
Can the Quakes send their fans home happy with three points and a fighting chance to host Game 1 of Round One heading into next week’s regular-season finale on the road in Minnesota? They will certainly have a dogfight on their hands against an RSL team with playoff soccer on their minds as well.