Seattle Sounders not looking past San Jose Earthquakes matchup before CCL Final

San Jose have a 5-0 US Open Cup Fourth Round victory over NISA’s Bay Cities FC under their belt since Almeyda’s departure. And if the tactics are different, interim manager Alex Covelo, formerly head coach for the Quakes’ MLS NEXT Pro side, insists the fear-no-one attitude his predecessor had will still be there.

“I think that the surprise is going to be that we are going to try to play the way that we want,” he said. “That’s it. I don’t have any tricks or tricky plays to show, or going to try to beat Seattle with a trick. It has to be more about our work defensively and offensively and see if the guys can understand [our game plan].”

Schmetzer fully expects a new-coach bump and maybe even an extra infusion of energy for the visitors via all-time MLS goal-scoring leader and San Jose legend Chris Wondolowski, who has taken an assistant role under Covelo along with

At a club that has won the US Open Cup on four occasions, Schmetzer is fully aware of how strong play in cup competitions can translate to the league.

“It’s going to be a fired up team,” Schmetzer said of the Quakes. “They had a good result again (this week). Lots of Open Cup runs springboard into better regular season stuff. We’ve had that happen to us in years past.”