The Earthquakes have picked a great time to figure this thing out.
They will enter a four-game homestand in glistening Avaya Stadium fresh off a massive road sweep of MLS powers D.C. United and Sporting Kansas City by a combined 7-0.
Chris Wondolowski and Shea Salinas scored with pinpoint precision in Saturday's 2-0 triumph over D.C. United at RFK Stadium. Target man Quincy Amarikwa menaced the United back line, and David Bingham had two huge stops among four saves.
Toss in a 1-0 win over Colorado on Aug. 14, and the Quakes will enter Friday's rubber game of the California Clasico against the LA Galaxy at Avaya Stadium on a three-game winning streak. San Jose is tied with Seattle for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
"We have seven of nine at home now and are very much in touch with the playoff spot," said center back Clarence Goodson, a Virginia native who enjoyed a successful homecoming against D.C. "It is an unbalanced schedule with so many home games at the end. To be where we are is good."
The midfield partnership of Anibal Godoy and Fatai Alashe is quickly evolving into something special. It helps soften the blow of the absence of injured designated players Matias Perez Garcia and Innocent.
"It is good," Alashe said of teaming with the Panama international. "He is a great player and makes the game really easy. It is nice to play with someone who can break up plays as well, and he is really good on the ball. I think playing with him has been great."
Amarikwa doesn't look like your average target forward, but he makes up for the size factor with a massive work rate, athletic ability and confidence on the ball. The 5-foot-9 former UC Davis star had an assist on Salinas' goal in the 52nd minute, giving him three helpers to go with four goals in eight games.
"He is a worker," Alashe said of Amarikwa. "You can see we play balls up top, and he is able to hold them up and play out of it, and that is something you need when you are taking pressure sometimes."
Just as they did in Kansas City, San Jose scored a pivotal early goal, forcing United to chase the game.
In the fourth minute, a pushed-up Shaun Francis received a pass from Amarikwa, and his low shot was parried by goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra. Alashe's rebound attempt was deflected to Wondolowski, who read the scene like a chess master, calmly slotting the ball into the far corner for his 105th career goal. He moved past ex-Quake Dwayne De Rosario into sixth all-time in MLS goals.
United responded with fierce attacking pressure in which they lobbed cross after cross into the box, taking seven corner kicks in the first 30 minutes. Marvell Wynne, in his 250th career game in a 10-year career, broke up a counter attack in the 16th minute to prevent a goal, and Goodson and Victor Bernardez cleared out numerous crosses to keep D.C. off the board.
The Quakes weathered the storm as United's frustration continued to mount.
On the clincher, Amarikwa made a stunning 30-yard run after hitting his first touch by a defender near the center stripe. With Cordell Cato on his right and Salinas on his left, Amarikwa drew four defenders to him before dishing to Salinas, who fooled the defense with a feint and a quicker-than-expected delivery into the far corner.
In the 80th minute after a Quakes give-away, Bingham made an impressive 1-on-1 stop on midfielder Davy Arnaud from the left. The confident Bingham rushed out off his line and made himself big before deflecting the attempt. Goodson then cleared the loose ball out of danger.
It was a resourceful performance by the Quakes in another very impressive road shutout.
"We talked about needing to get zeroes defensively at the start of this stretch," Goodson said. "The front six are playing really well right now, getting into attack and creating chances. They are making it hard on the opposing teams' defenses, and then it is kind of down to us in the back to close up shop. Each one of these games, one goal would have been enough."
Now it's a matter of taking care of business against the star-powered Galaxy, who beat the Quakes 5-2 in the teams' previous meeting, scoring five straight goals after Amarikwa struck in the 22nd and 25th minutes.
The Quakes will face six conference opponents in their final nine games, so it's all in front of them.
"Obviously, we have always had confidence that we are able to play with anyone," Alashe said. "Some of the results were not really going our way for a while, but we are showing that we stick to it and stay positive with each other. Now we are starting to turn things around and, hopefully, we keep that momentum going into next weekend."
