San Jose Earthquakes’ game Sunday vs. LAFC postponed

The strange twists and turns of 2020 continue, as the San Jose Earthquakes’ first game of the year has been officially postponed for coronavirus reasons.

Three players have tested positive for coronavirus this week at LAFC, the Earthquakes’ scheduled opponent on Sunday at Earthquakes Stadium, and as a result the league has announced the game is postponed.

The game could ultimately get cancelled, but at this point it’s up in the air. According to a club release: “While the remaining players and staff have continued to test negative, including yesterday, out of an abundance of caution, the match has been postponed to allow for additional testing and evaluation. Major League Soccer is evaluating whether the match can be rescheduled prior to Decision Day presented by AT&T, which takes place Nov. 8.”

That means the only open window to play the game would be midweek. To be determined if that will happen or if the game itself will be cancelled in the end.

Aside from this game that is up in the air, San Jose have one final matchday in the regular season, Nov. 8 against the Seattle Sounders, and in some ways, if the LAFC game is cancelled this week, it could (emphasis on could) help the Earthquakes in their quest to reach the playoffs. While a win over LAFC would boost the Quakes’ hopes, having fewer games played means that points per game, the metric that will be used this year to determine the places in the standings and ultimately the playoff qualifiers, would be calculated differently with one fewer game to play.

So we’ll see what happens. But the Quakes now have a bye weekend, essentially, and then we’ll see if they have one game or two left to play in the regular season. It’s still a very interesting time in a very strange year.

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