Preview: San Jose Earthquakes vs Vancouver Whitecaps - prediction, team news, lineups

In the final MLS affair to be played on Saturday, the Vancouver Whitecaps visit PayPal Park for the first time this year to battle the San Jose Earthquakes.

Coming into this game, the Quakes are 10th in the Western Conference, one point below the playoff line following a 2-1 loss at Real Salt Lake, while the Caps are just a point back of San Diego for first, beating Sporting Kansas City 3-0 in their previous match.

Match preview

What looked like a promising bounce-back season for San Jose has gone south over the past month and a half as this team have been in a slump for quite some time.

With nine matches remaining, they find themselves on the outside of the post-season picture, going winless in their last six league contests, while winning just one of their previous nine games in this competition.

Lately, they have struggled to close out matches, netting first in four of their last six domestic affairs but failing to win any of those games, dropping 10 points in the process.

Five of their final nine regular-season contests take place at PayPal Park, where Bruce Arena’s men are unbeaten in six straight domestic affairs but have not won their previous five.

Scoring goals is the one thing that this team have done consistently all year, netting the third-most times in MLS (47) while they have only gone goalless in one league encounter at home in 2025 (1-0 loss to Minnesota United in March).

San Jose have points in five of their previous six home meetings against Vancouver in this competition, though their last one came during the 2023 campaign (2-1).

A third successive trip to the post-season is likely in the cards for the Whitecaps, though this side have much loftier goals heading down the home stretch of the season.

All year long, Jesper Sorensen’s team have been near the top of the Western Conference table and are three wins away from setting a new club record for points in a single MLS campaign, with 10 matches remaining.

Vancouver are unbeaten in their last three MLS affairs, conceding just a single goal over that stretch, while posting two convincing 3-0 victories.

On the other hand, they have just one triumph in their last four away matches in this competition, with three of their five regular-season defeats occurring as the visitors.

This season, the Caps have yet to lose a league game when netting the opening goal, dropping points in only one of those instances, at San Diego in their previous road encounter (1-1).

The Caps have won their last two matches played against the Quakes, without a single goal conceded in both games, including a 2-0 win in this exact fixture last year.

San Jose Earthquakes Major League Soccer form:

San Jose Earthquakes form (all competitions):

Vancouver Whitecaps Major League Soccer form:

Vancouver Whitecaps form (all competitions):

Team News

Against RSL the last time out, the Earthquakes were without Amahl Pellegrino, Daniel Munie, Vitor Costa and Noel Buck due to lower body issues, while Benji Kikanovic was sidelined because of an upper body injury.

For this upcoming clash, they will not have Reid Roberts at their disposal after he was red carded in the latter stages of their previous match and will be suspended.

Josef Martinez had their only goal of that contest, giving the former MLS Golden Boot winner 10 on the season, one fewer than Cristian Espinoza for the team lead.

On the Whitecaps side of things, knee injuries kept Ranko Veselinovic and Ryan Gauld out of the fold against Sporting KC, Ali Ahmed sat out with a sore ankle and Sam Adekugbe is done for the season after tearing his Achilles tendon.

The club made a huge splash during the MLS break, signing former World Cup champion Thomas Muller from Bayern Munich until the end of this season with a Designated Player option for 2026.

Emmanuel Sabbi, Jean-Claude Ngando Mbende and Mathias Laborda all found the back of the net in their victory over SKC, while Yohei Takaoka made three stops for a clean sheet.

San Jose Earthquakes possible starting lineup:

Daniel; Jones, Rodrigues, Wilson, Marie, Lima; Espinoza, Leroux, Harkes, Arango; Martinez

Vancouver Whitecaps possible starting lineup:

Takaoka; Ocampo, Blackmon, Utvik, Johnson; Berhalter, Cubas; Priso, Ngando, Nelson; White

We say: San Jose Earthquakes 1-3 Vancouver Whitecaps

For as consistent as the Quakes have been in the attacking third, they are equally vulnerable at the back, and that is something we believe the visitors will take advantage of this weekend.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.