It's now or never for the San Jose Earthquakes, according to coach Bruce Arena.

"I'm preparing a team to try to win these last four games," he said after a 4-2 loss to LAFC on Sept. 13. "If we come out the way we did tonight, we're not going to win any of them. I'd like to say we can learn something from this, but this has been a bit of a broken record this year."

Starting with Saturday night's visit from St. Louis City SC, San Jose (9-13-8, 35 points) has no choice but to fix that broken record if it wants to stay in the West playoff table. It presently holds the last spot in the West but has a difficult finishing kick at conference leader San Diego, at Vancouver and then at home against Austin.

Defense is the Earthquakes' main concern. They're 28th in the league in goals allowed with

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