Matias Almeyda: San Jose Earthquakes will 'compete until the end' for playoff spot

San Jose Earthquakes head coach Matias Almeyda has promised his side will keep battling for a playoff spot as long as it is mathematically possible.

The Quakes followed up their dramatic 4-3 win over Austin FC last week with a 2-0 victory against California rivals LAFC on Saturday thanks to goals from Benji Kikanovic and Javier Lopez "Chofis".

But San Jose are still stuck down in 10th in the Western Conference, three places and three points below Real Salt Lake in the final playoff spot.

The Quakes face some tough ties against the likes of Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and RSL across their final eight regular-season games. Even so, Almeyda insists his side will keep fighting for a playoff spot right until the end.

"For us, as long as the math is there, we will try to be competitive, and we will compete until the end," he told reporters after Saturday's win.

"They know the mentality I try to transmit to them. Sometimes we see that reflected, other times we are missing a bit, but we are generally happy with it."

Almeyda's sentiment was echoed by midfielder Jackson Yueill.

"I think there are still a lot of games left. It's still really close and these two games were important for us," the United States international said.

"We've narrowed it down to the last third of the season. We learned from our first year to last year of when to push and when to hit our stride. We hit a really good stride last year going into the playoffs and that helped us a lot."

Despite the daunting task ahead of them, Yueill revealed that morale is high among the San Jose squad. The hope is that positivity can give them the edge at this critical point of the regular season.

"I think the team is in a really good spot," the midfielder added. "Collectively, as a group, how we're interacting, the motivation and dialogue in the locker room are really positive and great and it showed tonight that the guys have a desire to win.

"Even though it's going to be close up until the end, the guys have the desire to push for the playoffs and try to get up in the table as high as we can and play as best as we can."

Next up for the Quakes is a home tie against the Sounders on Wednesday before they travel to Canada to face the Vancouver Whitecaps next weekend.