The stage was set on Saturday night, as the sun set in Palo Alto and nearly 51,000 people packed into Stanford Stadium for a California Clasico-record attendance. The Earthquakes dug deep and squeaked out a 1-1 draw with the rival LA Galaxy, thanks to another late goal from red-hot forward Chad Barrett in the 90th minute.
San Jose were forced to rewrite the game plan early when captain and center back Victor Bernardez had to be subbed out in the eighth minute due to an injury. The early substitution led to a variety of lineup shifts, with young midfielder Fatai Alashe dropping to center back, forward Simon Dawkins replacing him in the middle of the field and Chad Barrett entering the game up top.