It’s matchday 27 of the 2026 MLS Season and San Jose Earthquakes will host LAFC for their second encounter of the season. One interesting thing about this match is that San Jose’s home games are usually played at PayPal Park. Instead, this match will take place at Levi’s Stadium, home to the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. Since 2012, San Jose hosted the LA Galaxy at Stanford Stadium for the California Clásico. Now San Jose tries to replicate that with LAFC, hosting them at Levi's Stadium instead, a tradition that's continued since 2023. As mentioned, this is the second time the two sides face off this season. The first time occurred on April 19th, when San Jose embarrassed LAFC in Los Angeles (1-4). After an uneventful first half, the second half was the opposite, as within the span of 6 minutes, San Jose scored three goals on LAFC with goals from Bouda (53’), Timo Werner (56’), and an own goal from Porteous (59’). LAFC eventually got one back through an own goal from Roberts (74'), but conceded another to Bouda (80'). This fixture historically favors LAFC who have won 14 of 23 matches against San Jose, while San Jose have won 8 of 23 matches over LAFC. There has only been one draw between the two, on July 8th, 2023 where the match ended 1-1. The Earthquakes are coming off a surprising 1-0 win over the Houston Dynamo making it their second win in a row following their eight-game winless streak. Their winless streak was broken against San Diego FC where the Earthquakes came out victorious (2-3) away in Southern California, a match that had everyone talking about San Jose homegrown player Niko Tsakiris, who registered a goal and two assists. Although he didn't have his best match against Houston Dynamo, he'll be one player to watch out for in this match as he looks to add to his goal and assist tally. After that win over Houston Dynamo San Jose Earthquakes currently sit 4th in the Western Conference table with 41 points. Unlike San Jose, the Black and Gold are coming off a disastrous 3-1 loss against the worst team in MLS this season, Sporting Kansas City. LAFC had also been on a winless streak in MLS but managed to break it with a win over RBNY (2-0). After that match, LAFC traveled to Kansas City hoping to leave with three points but instead, to everyone's surprise, they lost to the worst team in the league in embarrassing fashion (3-1). The performance and loss left many fans outraged, with many even calling for Marc Dos Santos to resign as manager. Following that loss, LAFC dropped to 6th in the Western Conference table with 40 points. San Jose Earthquakes will look to replicate their result from earlier in the season and pick up a second win over LAFC this year. Meanwhile, LAFC will look to avoid a repeat of the loss in April in front of a Bay Area crowd chanting 'Beat LA'.