Santa Clara, CA – The San Jose Earthquakes return home to game winless streak when the club hosts the Chicago Fire on Saturday.
On one hand, San Jose has to be pleased that it was able to take a point from its last match, a 1-1 draw with Toronto FC, considering Chris Wondolowski's equalizer came in the final three minutes.
However, coach Frank Yallop is starting to believe that his team has simply been the victim of bad luck.
"For some reason, maybe we stepped on a black cat or whatever the saying goes, but we don't seem to get any kind of fortune in games," Yallop said. "We played well the last few games and we keep tying."
Wondolowski's goal was his first in more than a month, but despite his recent struggles, he still has nine goals on the season and can really help San Jose get back on track with a return to his early-season form.
The Chicago Fire has struggled to collect wins all season, and up until the middle of August, the team had accumulated just two. However, Chicago has won its last two games, marking the first time all season that coach Frank Klopas has seen his side claim back-to-back victories.
The recent success of the club came after a 10-game winless run, but it has also coincided with the improved play of striker Dominic Oduro, who has tallied four goals in the Fire's last five games.
"We have two wins in a row. I'm not saying that we're happy right now, we only have four wins on the whole season, but right now we just take the positives from the game, take those into the next game and hopefully get a few wins at home and on the road, and then we'll see where we stand on the table," said Oduro.
Both teams will be missing a player through suspension on Saturday with San Jose's Bobby Convey out, while Chicago will be without Gonzalo Segares.
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