Photo by Kelley L Cox/USA Today Sports

By FRANCO PANIZO

Trailing by one point with no games in hand, the San Jose Earthquakes know they are up against it in terms of reaching the postseason.

Their confidence in getting there still has not wavered, however.

The Earthquakes are down to the final four games of their campaign, and in need of results, likely wins, in order to have a shot at making the playoffs in Dominic Kinnear’s first year back at the helm of the club. Currently, San Jose is under the red line in the Western Conference by just a single point, but the sixth-placed Portland Timbers have the advantage of having one more game on their schedule than the Earthquakes.

Even so, San Jose knows that games in hand do not necessarily mean points in hand, which is why the focus right now is on taking care of its business. The Earthquakes need to not only claim as many, if not all, of the 12 points that remain on the table, but also have to improve across the board after hitting an inopportune rut that has seen them fail to pick up a win in four straight games.

“It’s a very determined group,” Kinnear told SBI. “We obviously went through a real hot spell and then we kind of cooled off a little bit, but in saying that there’s playoff spots to be taken. Right now, we’re on the outside looking in, but everyone’s playing each other, there’s lots of points to be taken or taken away, so we feel we have just as good a shot as anybody.

“We have three out of four at home, and we’re just really looking forward to how it ends up.”

The Earthquakes have the benefit of playing the majority of their remaining matches at home, and also will take on three opponents who are ahead of them in the standings. Games with the Vancouver Whitecaps, Sporting Kansas City, and FC Dallas remain, and prevailing in those as well as in Sunday’s showdown with fellow postseason hopeful Real Salt Lake could ensure that San Jose prolongs its season for the first time since 2012.

Easier said than done, of course, especially since the club has struggled to pick up results as of late. The Earthquakes went from being one of the hottest teams in the league in August — a month that saw them win four straight via shutouts — to one of the coldest. They have gone from having a seat at the dinner table to wondering if they will even get to eat.

San Jose could still change all of this during the final month of MLS’s regular season, but has to turn things around immediately.

“We’ve got to get back to the way we were playing before,” midfielder Fatai Alashe told SBI. “I think it’s just kind of the little things that are getting us right now, little lapses of concentration, little simple focusing. We’ll definitely look to hone in on those things throughout the week so we can correct them.

“I think we maybe went seven games or something without getting a win in July. From there we went on a winning streak. It’s tough, but I think it’s something that we feel we can bring ourselves up from. Hopefully we’ll be able to flip the script again here in the last four games.”

The real problem for the Earthquakes is that there has been no one particular area where they have struggled during this recent skid, but rather a bunch of them.

In last weekend’s 3-2 loss to New York City FC, the Earthquakes let themselves down by failing to score on some good chances. Two weeks prior in a 2-1 defeat against the Philadelphia Union, it was the lack of focus from the group in the final quarter of an hour that proved costly. The other two matches sandwiched in between — a pair of 1-1 draws with the Seattle Sounders and Montreal Impact — saw San Jose surrender leads.

Even with the lack of results, there still does not seem to be a sense of panic from the Earthquakes. Instead, they appear to be quite calm and confident despite being fully aware that they cannot depend too much on other results to go their way.

“You can scoreboard watch all you want, but if that’s all you plan on doing you’re not going anywhere,” said Kinnear. “It’s important to win the games ahead of you. If we win on Sunday, obviously we’ll see how the results go in other places, but you can’t rely on that. You really have to rely on what you’re doing because if you’re looking for help, no one is going to give you any help.”

Fortunately for the Earthquakes, they do not need too much of it. Portland and fifth-placed Sporting KC have been very hit-and-miss in recent weeks, and if their poor form continues then the door could be open for the Earthquakes to surge up the standings in the West.

Still, San Jose has to do its part if it plans to end a two-year drought and make the playoffs.

“You don’t want to be watching it on TV or getting reports online or whatever. You want to be involved,” said Kinnear. “There’s questions out there. You can say the teams at the top are kind of pretty assured of what’s going on. I think the last two spots possibly, there are four, five teams vying for them.

“You really want to be involved, it’s the best time of year. I love being in the playoffs. It adds a little bit of excitement to the club, the front office, the fans, and it would be a great accomplishment for us if we could do that.”