Top image: PayPal Park in San Jose, home of the Earthquakes, during the 2025 NWSL Championship. Photo: Rylesbourne via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

The San Jose Earthquakes are going back to the postseason. A 1-1 draw with Nashville SC, the best team in Major League Soccer, before 16,425 fans at PayPal Park on Saturday night clinched the club’s first playoff berth since 2023, extended its unbeaten run to nine league matches and gave the club its highest point total of the PayPal Park era, according to the club’s match report.

Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar scored in the 34th minute, knocking in his own rebound after goalkeeper Angus Gunn made the first save. San Jose drew level in the 70th minute when Eduard Löwen curled a free kick into the box and Preston Judd got to it with a header. Gunn then stopped Elias Saad in stoppage time to keep the point. Draws by San Diego FC and the Portland Timbers elsewhere sealed the berth.

With four regular-season matches left, the Quakes sit fourth in the Western Conference at 13-8-9 with 48 points, MLSsoccer.com reported. Nashville leads the league at 20-3-7.

How a slump became a streak

The season has run in three acts. San Jose opened by winning nine of its first 10 matches, a record start for the post-shootout era, according to MLSsoccer.com, after signing German forward Timo Werner from RB Leipzig over the winter. Then came a six-match winless stretch after the World Cup break.

The turn came on Aug. 29 against Houston. That night head coach Bruce Arena switched to a three-man back line, and Löwen, acquired from St. Louis City SC, made his debut. The club counts nine straight unbeaten league matches since, three wins and six draws. Saturday’s match capped three straight draws in a week that included two road games at altitude.

“Nashville beat us up in the first half, but we came back and played a good second half,” Arena said afterward. Qualifying, he said, “was one of our objectives at the start of the year,” and the goal now is to “finish strong and put ourselves in a position to host a couple of games at home.”

A homegrown formula

The more distinctive story is who is doing it. San Jose started eight American players on Saturday, and the club says no MLS team has averaged more Americans in its starting lineup across all competitions in 2026, at 7.36 a game. Arena started seven former college players, and the club says no MLS roster has more of them than San Jose’s 19.

Judd embodies the approach. His goal Saturday, in his 100th MLS appearance, was his 16th of the season. That made him only the third player in club history to score 16 in a season, after Jeremy Ebobisse and Chris Wondolowski, the club said, and MLSsoccer.com lists him among the contenders for the league’s Golden Boot. “I grew up watching him,” Judd said of Wondolowski, “so my name next to his means the world.” Homegrown midfielder Niko Tsakiris is also having a career year, with three goals and 11 assists.

What comes next

The Quakes play at FC Dallas on Saturday, Oct. 24. The playoffs begin Nov. 18 with wild-card matches for the eighth and ninth seeds in each conference. Seeds one through seven go straight to a best-of-three first round, and MLS Cup is Dec. 18. A higher seed means home games in that series, which is why Judd said the focus has shifted “toward securing home-field advantage in the first round.”

History sets the bar. The Earthquakes won MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003, but MLSsoccer.com notes it has been 14 years since the club advanced past the first round. Arena has won five MLS Cups as a coach.

The long view

San Jose has built this team in an unusual way. It filled its lineup with American players and former college players, then added Werner and Löwen as its two Designated Players. Arena called Judd’s season a surprise: the club knew he could score, “we didn’t anticipate him performing to this degree.” Whether that model holds up against deeper, more expensive rosters in November will say something about how an MLS contender can be put together.

There is a local stake too. Saturday’s crowd of 16,425 helped push the club to its best points total since PayPal Park opened in 2015. A higher seed would put more of the postseason in front of that home crowd. The next four matches decide that seeding.

Sources

• Match Recap: Earthquakes 1, Nashville SC 1, San Jose Earthquakes, Oct. 17, 2026
• San Jose Earthquakes clinch Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs spot, MLSsoccer.com, Oct. 18, 2026