Bruce Arena believes the San Jose Earthquakes have a long way to go following their crushing 5-3 defeat to Sporting Kansas City last Saturday, with a clash against a well-oiled Columbus Crew awaiting this weekend.

The Earthquakes went into that clash as favourites on home soil, but a spectacular performance from Daniel Salloi saw them slump to an embarrassing defeat.

Salloi scored twice and provided an assist, while goals from Logan Ndenbe, Manu Garcia, and Erik Thommy sealed an emphatic win for Sporting.

Arena's side found themselves down three goals early, but Josef Martinez got them back in the game in the 30th minute, and Cristian Arango added another before the break to make it 3-2 at half-time.

But the Earthquakes failed to muster much of a second-half response as Sporting added two more, while Arango slotted home a penalty in stoppage time to reduce the deficit.

Reflecting on the game, Arena admitted his side suffered a poor outing and that there were no excuses.

"If you concede five goals and three goals, I don't know, inside the first 30 minutes, you don't deserve to win," Arena said.

"But I give our team a lot of credit. At half-time, I felt we were in a position to win the game.

"But we continued to make some errors that were costly in the second half. And you know, overall, it's a poor performance on our part. There's no two ways about it – we were poor on the day."

When asked if this result was a step backwards for San Jose's season, he added: "Well, it's not a step forward. I don't think this is the point where you could give an answer to that question. We have 24-25 games left, so there's a lot ahead of us."

The loss saw San Jose drop down to 10th in the Western Conference, though the visitors might take some solace from the fact that Saturday's opponents, Columbus Crew, also suffered a loss last weekend.

Wilfried Nancy's side lost 1-0 to Inter Miami, with a first-half Benjamin Cremaschi goal resigning the Crew to their first MLS defeat of the season.

Daniel Gazdag, Max Arfsten, Jacen Russell-Rowe, Diego Rossi, and Aziel Jackson all squandered good chances throughout the match as Columbus failed to find a way through Miami's defence.

But Nancy's side still remain fourth in the Eastern Conference, just one point off table-toppers Charlotte FC.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Columbus Crew – Diego Rossi

Diego Rossi has eight career goal contributions against San Jose (five goals, three assists) – tied for his most against any opponent in regular-season MLS play.

Rossi has had multiple goal contributions in four of his eight matches against the Earthquakes. He has found the net five times in nine MLS matches this season.

San Jose Earthquakes - Cristian Arango

Arango scored two of San Jose's three goals on Saturday against Sporting KC, marking his 10th career multi-goal match in MLS.

Only Hany Mukhtar (11) has scored multiple goals in more matches than Arango since his MLS debut in August 2021.

MATCH PREDICTION: COLUMBUS CREW WIN

Columbus Crew are heavy favourites ahead of Saturday's clash. They suffered just their first loss of the season against Inter Miami last weekend.

The Crew have not lost consecutive regular-season matches in nearly two years, since losing to FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC in late May 2023.

This weekend's match will be San Jose's first visit to Columbus in almost exactly seven years, since April 28, 2018. The Crew are unbeaten in six straight home matches against San Jose (W3 D3), with the Earthquakes' last win in Columbus coming in June 2008. 

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Columbus Crew – 74.1%

Draw – 15.2%

San Jose Earthquakes – 10.8%