SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Earthquakes defeated Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2-1 in dramatic fashion Saturday night in front of 16,356 fans at PayPal Park to jump back into playoff position.
In the 27th minute, the Earthquakes would enjoy a man advantage for the rest of the match when Vancouver right back Edier Ocampo was booked for the second time in the early going, resulting in referee Timothy Ford sending him off. Though San Jose took nine shots to close the first half, the visitors kept the game scoreless.
Shortly after intermission, the Quakes achieved the breakthrough. Left wingback Vítor Costa was fouled in the box by Whitecaps FC center back Tristan Blackmon in the 50th minute and a penalty kick was awarded to San Jose. Josef Martínez subsequently converted from the spot for his 11th goal of the season to give the Quakes a 1-0 lead. However, the visitors would equalize in the 88th minute when Blackmon lofted a long ball from midfield for Brian White, who hauled it in and promptly scored.
But the Quakes would not be denied tonight, and in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Jamar Ricketts sped down the left wing and crossed the ball across the goal to the opposite wing. DeJuan Jones one-timed it back in front of goal and a streaking Preston Judd coolly slotted it home for the game-winner and all three points.
With the victory, San Jose leaped two spots into eighth place and Western Conference postseason contention, while Vancouver remained second in the table.
The Black and Blue continue their homestand next Sunday, Aug. 17, when they face first-place San Diego FC for the very first time. Kickoff from PayPal Park will take place at 4 p.m. PT and will be broadcast globally via MLS Season Pass on Apple TV (English/Spanish), as well as via local radio on KSFO 810 AM (English) and KZSF 1370 AM La Kaliente (Spanish).
GAME NOTES
The Earthquakes moved to 11-12-12 (46 GF, 48 GA) against Vancouver Whitecaps FC all-time in MLS regular-season play with a 8-2-8 (26 GF, 16 GA) record at home.
The Quakes moved up to eighth in the MLS Western Conference standings with 32 points (8-10-8). Vancouver Whitecaps FC remained second in the West with 45 points (13-6-6).
Bruce Arena won his 270th regular-season game, extending his MLS record among head coaches. The late great Sigi Schmid is second with 240.
With tonight’s result, the Quakes snapped a seven-match winless streak in all competitions and earned their first home victory in league play since May 3, a 4-1 win over Portland.
Tonight was Portuguese Heritage Night at PayPal Park, with Lisbon native Bruno Wilson starting at center back for the Quakes. Wilson played his youth football at Oeiras and Sporting Clube de Portugal before playing as a professional with SC Braga, CD Tondela and FC Vizela (2016-24). Brazilian left wingback Vítor Costa once played for CS Maritimo in Portugal (2021-24). In addition, recently signed defensive midfielder Ronaldo Vieira—who has yet to suit up for San Jose until his P-1 Visa and International Transfer Certificate (ITC) are received—came up in the SL Benfica academy (2010-11) before moving to Leeds to finish his youth football.
With his 54th-minute goal tonight, Josef Martínez has 11 on the season and 127 for his MLS career, good for sixth on the league’s all-time list. He also stayed hot against the ‘Caps, having now netted five times in just four career matches against Vancouver.
Preston Judd’s 94th-minute goal was his fifth in league play and the ninth of his MLS career.
DeJuan Jones’ 94th-minute assist was his sixth in league play and the 28th of his MLS career.
Jamar Ricketts’ 94th-minute assist was his third in league play and the third of his MLS career.
Cristian Espinoza made four key passes tonight to extend his MLS lead (86). He remains tied for second in the league in assists (12).
Daniel made two saves, running his total to 82, good for sixth in MLS.
With 48 goals in 26 matches, San Jose is currently third in MLS in total goals. Only San Diego FC (50) and Inter Miami CF (49) have outscored the Quakes in 2025.
The Earthquakes’ attack is back up to first in the league in expected goals (53.92). The Philadelphia Union trail San Jose (52.23).
Before the Earthquakes faced Vancouver Whitecaps FC, their MLS NEXT Pro affiliates met in the East Bay at St. Mary’s College in Moraga on Saturday afternoon. The Town FC came back to defeat Whitecaps FC 2 by a 2-1 margin. TTFC’s Alejandro Cano scored a first-half equalizer in stoppage time and Julian Donnery secured a late game-winner in the 93rd minute.
San Jose Earthquakes 2 – 1 Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025 — PayPal Park; San Jose, Calif.
Weather: 80°F Sunny
Attendance: 16,356
*all stats unofficial
Match Officials:
Referee: Timothy Ford
AR1: Chris Elliot
AR2: Nick Balcer
4th Official: Cristian Campo Hernandez
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez
AVAR: TJ Zablocki
Scoring Summary:
SJ (1-0) – Josef Martínez (penalty kick) 54’
VAN (1-1) – Brian White (Tristan Blackmon) 88’
SJ (2-1) – Preston Judd (DeJuan Jones, Jamar Ricketts) 90+4’
Misconduct Summary:
VAN – Edier Ocampo (caution) 19’
VAN – Edier Ocampo (caution, ejection) 27’
SJ – Daniel Munie (caution) 32’
SJ – Dave Romney (caution) 61’
VAN – Mathias Laborda (caution) 72’
SJ – Mark-Anthony Kaye (caution) 77’
SJ – Bruno Wilson (caution) 80’
SJ – Cristian Espinoza (caution) 90+10’
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: Daniel (GK); Dave Romney, Bruno Wilson, Daniel Munie; Vítor Costa (Jamar Ricketts 90+3’), Mark-Anthony Kaye, Beau Leroux (Noel Buck 81’), DeJuan Jones, Cristian Espinoza (C); Cristian “Chicho” Arango (Ousseni Bouda 81’), Josef Martínez (Preston Judd 81’).
Substitutes not used: Earl Edwards Jr. (GK), Nick Fernandez, Max Floriani, Nick Lima, Rodrigues.
POSS.: 56.7%; SHOTS: 16; SOG: 5; CORNERS: 5; OFFSIDES: 2; SAVES: 2; FOULS: 10; xG: 3.4
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC: Yohei Takaoka (GK); Mathias Laborda (Belal Halbouni 86’), Bjørn Utvik, Edier Ocampo, Tristan Blackmon; Sebastian Berhalter, Andres Cubas (Ralph Priso 75’), Jean-Claude Ngando (Tate Johnson 34’); Jayden Nelson (Jeevan Badwal 86’), Emmanuel Sabbi (Daniel Rios 46’), Brian White (C).
Substitutes not used: Isaac Boehmer (GK), Adrian Zendejas (GK); Giuseppe Bovalina, Nelson Pierre.
POSS.: 43.3%; SHOTS: 8; SOG: 3; CORNERS: 3; OFFSIDES: 3; SAVES: 3; FOULS: 11; xG: 1.2
EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On overall thoughts of the victory and Preston Judd’s game-winning goal:
“Preston’s done a great job for us this year, and obviously, it was a critically important goal. A difficult game against a good team. ... A tough game, but we’ve been in a lot of those games this year and been on the other side of it as well. I’m pleased with the win. If we’re a team that has any interest in being in the playoffs, we have to win these home games, so this is critically important. We blew a game in Salt Lake a couple weeks ago, which was critical, so we don’t have much of a margin of error at this point. So every game at home is going to be important, and obviously, we need to get some results on the road. So typical of Major League Soccer, I think everything’s going down to the last day for a lot of teams in both conferences.”
On having to host the second- and first-place teams in the West in consecutive weeks:
“It was disappointing not to walk off the field with a clean sheet, but give Vancouver credit. You can see why they’re such a good team. They’re disciplined. They work hard for 90-plus minutes. They’re a good team and we have to face them again in Vancouver.”
“To collect the three points is critically important, and hopefully that gives us a little momentum going into the next game against San Diego. I think Vancouver and San Diego are [second] and [first]. I don’t look at those things that closely. The only thing I pay attention to is San Jose, so we have obviously two difficult home games. We’re through with one of them, and next week, San Diego.”
On Vítor Costa’s performance tonight:
“Costa played well. He’s had a good year for us. He’s been banged up a little bit. He suffered a little bit that play against [FC Dallas]. He suffered a really deep gash, took a number of stitches and he missed probably two games. ... But he’s been good. I’ve been very impressed with him. Good teammate. Really good professional. So I’m happy to see he did well.”
On whether having two weeks off after a parade of games had a positive impact:
“Time off in our sport is never easy to try to figure out how to monitor days off and then train again. It’s been two weeks since our last game. We gave the players four or five days off and brought them back last Friday. We had that difficult game in Salt Lake, but the team all year has really been good mentally. I think they’ve done a good job. I think we moved them along pretty well this week to have them ready to play tonight. Mentally they’ve been good all year. I still say to date we’ve not been fair to ourselves in getting the kind of results we deserve. I think we should have had a couple more wins at this point in the season, and that’s disappointing. But the group has been fantastic to work with.”
On Josef Martínez taking a successful penalty to give San Jose a 1-0 lead:
“Josef takes a number of penalties during the week in training. I was saying we have three candidates to take a penalty: It’s Josef, it’s Chicho or Cristian. And when it happened, I said I want Josef to take it. He didn’t have much of a margin for error for that one, but it’s nice it went in the back of the net.”
On the second-half substitutions being the difference tonight:
“If it was 0-0 at the 60-minute mark, I would’ve made the subs sooner. We got the goal around the 54th minute. ... You can be a genius or an idiot when you make changes, and you never know what makes sense at the right time. There’s no real art to it. It’s a little bit of touch and feel. I think we needed some freshness up front, and I thought at the end of the game just to have a little more speed on the other side of the field may help us. We’re fortunate that [Jamar] Ricketts did a good job to create that game-winning goal.”
“We thought at the end of the game we were a little fatigued. Give Vancouver a lot of credit. They didn’t make it easy on us, and I think bringing in some fresh players up top and our on the left, as well as centrally with [Noel] Buck helped us. Gave us a little energy at the end of the game.”
EARTHQUAKES FORWARD PRESTON JUDD
On scoring the game-winning goal after entering the match as a substitute:
“I've been saying it all year. Whenever I get in, I want to make a difference. We were winning 1-0, but even then, I wanted to get the second goal to hopefully help the team win. I got in a position where I helped the team win in the 94th minute. I think at this point the season, every point is important. We needed three [points] today; we didn't need one. I just put in everything I could to get the win. I was in the right position, made the right play and I got the goal.”
On the team’s mentality after Vancouver scored the equalizer in the 88th minute:
“Giving up a goal, up a man, that late, it's frustrating. We never got out of the game. Right away we started attacking. We were pushing for that goal. We know we needed the goal. Our attitude on the field showed that we were going to score a goal. I felt it. I believed in it. I think a lot of the players believed that we were going to score a goal to win that game. It showed and it worked out.”
On facing MLS Western Conference second-place Vancouver Whitecaps FC:
“I think we've gotten a little unlucky this season, but I think it's a good steppingstone to build on. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to end the season—get a lot more wins to hopefully make a playoff run.”
On earning playing time off the bench with Josef Martínez and Cristian “Chicho” Arango starting at forward:
“Every player always wants to be on the field. The minutes will come. Behind two great players like Josef and Chicho, it's going to be hard to get minutes. So I know whenever I get a chance, I have to make it worth their while.”
