While on World Cup duty for Costa Rica in June, Marco Ureña missed a chance to return to the epicenter of his MLS experience.
Instead, following a pre-tournament friendly between The Ticos and Belgium in Brussels, the 28-year-old center forward caught the result on his MLS app when he awoke the next day.
Goals in the 90th and 97th minutes had pushed LAFC to a frantic 4-3 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes.
“It’s pretty nice when you’re on a new team and they are better than where you were last year,” said Ureña, who made the MLS Cup playoffs with the Earthquakes in 2017, scoring five goals in 25 appearances in league play.
Among them was a game-winner against Minnesota United FC in the final minute of the regular season that lifted his team into the playoffs.
“It was an amazing moment,” he said.
The tap-in finish registered a 2.17 on the USGS seismograph that is installed on-site, making it the top soccer-related seismic moment in Avaya Stadium history.
Ureña and sixth-seeded San Jose bowed out 5-0 to Vancouver in the knockout round, and a little more than a month later his name was left off of San Jose’s protected list of players ahead of the 2017 expansion draft.
LAFC selected Ureña with its third pick, which he didn’t realize until returning from vacation.
San Jose, one of California’s three MLS teams, has been awful during what is shaping up to be the worst season in franchise history.
The out-of-contention Earthquakes’ four wins (two at home and two away) and 20 points are the least in the MLS.
Ureña, meanwhile, has been a workhorse for LAFC despite surgery to repair a broken orbital bone and the World Cup limiting his availability.
LAFC (13-7-8) enters Saturday’s match with 47 points and a plus-12 goal differential as it remains in the fight for a top-two seed in the Western Conference.
Facing a must-win situation against a side that has conceded 16 more goals than it has scored, LAFC continues to carve out its identity while San Jose (4-17-8) keeps blowing up its own.
Following a 5-1 drubbing at home by Sporting Kansas City, San Jose fired first-year head coach Michael Stahre on Monday, giving assistant Steve Ralston – its fourth head coach since June 2017 – the keys for the rest of the season.
Ralston’s debut came Wednesday in a quick turnaround against Supporters’ Shield leader Atlanta United FC, which engineered another 4-3 comeback over the Earthquakes with a stoppage-time winner.
All of that makes last-place San Jose, which went to Western Conference-leading Dallas in August and walked away a surprise 3-1 winner, “tricky,” LAFC defender Steven Beitashour said.
“Guys are playing for their jobs, really that’s what it comes down to,” Beitashour said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a cakewalk if their season is done or not.”
The former Earthquakes ball boy and player scored in the game Urena missed.
LAFC head coach Bob Bradley declined to say if Ureña was in line to start Saturday’s midday encounter at Banc of California Stadium against his former team – Adama Diomande has nursed a bad hamstring to health, and Christian Ramirez is available – but he looks like a solid choice coming off his first league goal for the Black & Gold.
LAFC vs. SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
KICKOFF: Saturday, 12:30 p.m.; Banc of California Stadium
TV: Univision
RADIO: 710 AM, 980 AM
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