Category: San Jose Earthquakes

By Matthew Harrington

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – For one last night, Candlestick Park felt the thrill of battle as two football, or rather futbol, teams took to the pitch during the venerable stadium’s farewell tour. The San Jose Earthquakes battled reigning La Liga Champions Atletico Madrid to a scoreless tie after 90 minutes of their 2014 Copa EuroAmericana contest at Candlestick Park Sunday before ultimately losing in penalty kicks 4-3 against their UEFA foe for a final score of 1-0.

The Earthquakes were one of two teams to represent CONCACAF in the tournament, and the only MLS side to take part. Neither San Jose nor Atletico were at full strength for the friendly, with the Quakes resting ailing stars like Alan Gordon and Steven Lenhart and Atleti trying to finalize its team before the closing of the transfer window and start of La Liga play.

The game itself had little impact on the Earthquakes 2014 MLS fortunes, allowing Quakes coach Mark Watson the ability to rest workhorses Victor Bernardez and Chris Wondolowski as well as energetic midfielder Yannick Djalo for the final 45 minutes. The contest did however hold a heavy dose of significance for the 15,000-plus fans in attendance. Sunday’s contest marked the final competitive event held at Candlestick Park, with only a Paul McCartney yet to come place before the facility’s demolition.

Longtime the home to the San Francisco Giants & 49ers, Candlestick finds itself without a tenant for the first time in its existence. The Giants, who called Candlestick home since 1960, moved further into the city to the modern-meets-classic AT&T Park in 2000. The Niners will be trading in the chill of the Stick for the sun of Santa Clara and Levi’s Stadium to start the 2014 NFL season for the first time since 1971. The Earthquakes, after closing down the old Gold Rush home Sunday, will open the new Niners digs later this season in MLS play against the Seattle Sounders August 2^nd.

“It meant a lot to us,” said Earthquakes coach Mark Watson. “It meant a lot to the fans. Anyone who’s been around the Bay Area knows just what a special place this is. There are so many experiences, so many championships and great things that have happened here. To the people that were here, this was a special night.”

An unlikely, or at least unfamiliar, face kept the overmatched Quakes in the match after the first 45 minutes of play. Back-up goalkeeper Bryan Meredith, inserted into the friendly appearance line-up in favor of starter Jon Busch, made a stunning save on an Atletico penalty kick in the 39^th minute.

Raul Garcia took the penalty chance, shooting to his right while Meredith dove to the forward’s left. While the shot beat Meredith, it rang off the goalpost and back out into dangerous territory. A Rojiblanco player found the ball while facing an open net with Meredith recovering from his dive. What appeared to be an easy goal instead became a remarkable save by a seated Meredith who managed to get his fingertips on the second chance bid. In total, The Scotch Plains, NJ native made six saves in his first appearance with an MLS team since July 2012 as a member of the Seattle Sounders.

“Bryan did a great job,” said Watson. “He’s not our regular so he doesn’t play that much. It was an opportunity to get him in the game. Jon Busch is our number one right now, but I think Bryan showed that, if called on in the future, he’s very capable.”

Another player with limited exposure to Earthquakes fans made his mark on the game, with 18-year-old Tommy Thompson making just his second appearance with the Earthquakes. Thomson, who made brief debut on June 7^th as a substitute in the 89^th minute against Toronto, received a far lengthier stint on the pitch tonight after being subbed in at the half for Djalo. He was responsible for the Quakes’ best ball on net, firing a shot from about ten feet out that Atletico keeper Miguel Moya was able to corral off his shoulder for his toughest save of the night.

“Tommy’s a young guy, he’s got a long way to go,” said Watson. “But you can see that he’s got some talent. He has good instincts. He’s playing against very good players, very strong professionals. He had two or three really good chances. I thought he did really well. It was his first time really playing with us after missing five months with the injury. He did really well. He’s a young kid but he’s shown that he has a lot of talent.”

Thompson has spent the majority of his season on loan with the Sacramento Republic of the USL after recovering from arthroscopic surgery of his right knee before the season. He’s the Earthquakes first player with a “Homegrown“ designation, meaning he spent at least one year in the club’s youth development program and would not be subject to the MLS Superdraft. Earlier this month, the former Big Ten Rookie of the year with Indiana was selected to play in the MLS Homegrown Game as part of the All-star festivities in Portland August 4^th.

“The last few months he’s been playing, getting stronger, getting fitter,” said Watson. “We’ve watched the games for Sacramento, we’ve watched his games with the National Team. He’s on a really good path. Once he’s ready, we’ll bring him in.”

If Thompson does soon stick with the Quakes, he’ll be expected to help San Jose find goals. Before a five-goal outburst Wednesday against the Chicago Fire, the Quakes mustered only four goals combined in their previous five games. They currently sit three points behind Chivas USA for last place in the Western Conference, and their 20 points are eight behind Vancouver for the last playoff spot.

“It wasn’t the start we wanted or expected. We’ve got a very resilient group. We’re going to keep working. I think this team is building conference.”

The Quakes will take a two-game point-streak into their Saturday match-up at Levi’s against first-place Seattle. San Jose drew the New York Red Bulls with an 85^th minute equalizer from Steven Lenhart last Saturday before Wednesday’s big victory.

By Matthew Harrington

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Perhaps all the San Jose Earthquakes needed to reach full potential in 2014, all they needed was a familiar face and the national spotlight in town. If that’s the case, Quakes coach Mark Watson might beg the NBC Sports trucks not to leave the Santa Clara University.

On the MLS game of the week, the San Jose Earthquakes trounced the Chicago Fire 5-1 Wednesday night at Buck Shaw Stadium, riding an offensive wave to snap a five-game winless stretch. Goals from Shea Salinas, Atiba Harris and Chris Wondolowski gave San Jose its first win at home since a 3-0 blanking of the Houston Dynamo, helping a team sitting dead last in the Western Conference (5-8-5, 20 points) gain some ground in the standings.

“We haven’t had the points at home that we should have,” said Watson. “That’s a big result, to back the performance up in New York. This is the time of the season where we need to pick up points quickly. This is a huge result and will give us a huge boost of confidence to move forward.”

It took a goal in the 85th minute from Steven Lenhart to draw the San Jose even in New York Saturday for the point in game where the lacked a finishing touch against the Red Bulls. In fact, over a run of six games entering Wednesday, the Quakes went 1-4-1 while only scoring four goals total. Wednesday night, five different Quakes found their way onto the score sheet, the highest scoring output San Jose produced this season and most goals in a game since a 5-0 blanking of Real Salt Lake at home July 14, 2012.

“That’s what we’re capable of,” said Quakes goalkeeper Jon Busch. “We know when we get the consistency, that’s what we’re capable of. We’ve talked about it in this locker room. We have some very talented players. Today it all came together.”

The Quakes’ dominant performance came in front of the architect of many an Earthquake victory, with former bench boss Frank Yallop facing his old charges for the first time as head coach of Chicago (3-5-11, 20 points). Before joining the Men in Red this season, the Watford native brought two MLS Cups to Silicon Valley, scaling the stateside summit in 2001 and 2003. In his time with the team from 2001-03 and 2008-13, the English-born Canadian shot-caller compiled 99 wins, earned 2001 and 2012 Coach of the Year Honors and nabbed the club’s lone Supporters’ Shield in 2012. It marks the only time San Jose finished with the most points of all MLS teams at season’s end.

“It was pretty emotional,” said Yallop. “I saw the new stadium going up, which is a great thing for the city. I was very happy for that. It’s different. It’s weird sitting on the other bench, but you move on. I have some fantastic memories and times here, so I’ll never forget those. I’m pleased for Mark to get the result tonight but I’m not happy we lost.”

“It was a little different, to be honest,” said Watson, who served as an assistant under Yallop from 2010-2013 with San Jose as well as with the Canadian national team from 2004-06. “He’s been a great friend of mine. I’ve coached with him a long time. It was a little different, but once the game starts you’re focused on the team, the game and getting points.”

A strike deep into the first half by Shea Salinas converted early promise into late success. In the 45^th minute, Salinas tried to chip a pass around a Chicago defender but instead hit shinguard. The carom landed tidily in front of midfielder Yannick Djalo who fed a lead pass to a streaking Salinas down the left side. Salinas took the ball down the sideline then advance in towards the Chicago cage. The Quakes midfielder fired a shot to the far post that beat Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson’s dive to tally his first goal of the season and put San Jose up 1-0 heading into the interval.

“That was an incredible goal,” said Watson. “Shea’s a little different when he plays on the left side. As right footed player, his natural tendency is to come inside. We’ve worked with him a little bit on situations where ‘what do you do when you come inside’ or get too far central.”

“What a goal,” said Busch. “That was a great goal by Shea. That helps a lot. We were playing well, getting a lot of chances. For him to bury that one before halftime, it really gave us a boost.”

The Quakes opened the second half with another offensive flurry, with Atiba Harris finding the back of the net in the 52^nd minute. Harris played give-and-go with Chris Wondolowski, who found himself anchored dead center at the mouth of the penalty box. Wondolowski put the ball on net, but Johnson made the save. The rebound bounced to Harris, who buried the ball in a vacated net to stake San Jose to a commanding 2-0 advantage. Just over ten minutes later, Wondlowski made it 3-0, scoring on a low liner for his seventh goal of the season and a comfortable 3-0 edge.

Grant Ward of Chicago sullied Quakes keeper Jon Busch’s clean sheet, beating the keeper in the 75^th minute to inch the visitors a pair short of the tie. That’d be all the offense the Second City squad could muster though, with the Quakes defense winning out on the day. Yannick Djalo tacked on a marker with a delicate touch to arch one over Johnson in the 79^th minute while substitution Cordell Cato added a goal of his own in the 85^th minute.

Djalo, on loan from Benifica of Portugal for his first season in the MLS, finished the night with a goal and two assists playing underneath the defense for most of the night in a role normally filled by two-time Golden Boot winner Chris Wondolowski.

“If we’re getting results like that, I’ll play wherever,” said Wondolowski. “I thought he did good. It’s a good situation.”

It may be a situation that continues in the future according to the man in charge of the Quakes lineup.

“When you’re searching for performances, results, points, you try different things,” said Watson. “Based on his performance tonight, things look pretty good. There’s a chance we’ll see that again.”

Djalo will most likely get his next shot when San Jose hosts Atletico Madrid Sunday at a special venue as the Quakes take part in the farewell tour of Candlestick Park. Some other players, like Alan Gordon or Steven Lenhart (a late scratch Wednesday night), may not take part in the exhibition against the European side in order to be back to full strength for a late-season charge.

“We’ll have to look at everything. Obviously it’s an important game in some ways. It’s a fantastic opponent and we’re playing the last event at Candle Stick. We want to play well and win the game but we also have to look at the big picture and make the best decisions.”

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

You can expect it on Tuesday the largest crowd ever to watch soccer in the United States when team USA faces team Belguim. I’m not much of a soccer enthusiast but this game is the greatest game in the world with the largest audiences watching the World Cup everyday. These games when it’s done will draw crowds larger than the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Championship or even the Olympics.

The U.S. team is doing very well with the opportunity to advance in this do or die part of the World Cup inspite of losing to Ghana in a 2-2 tie and losing to Germany 1-0 the U.S. survived to play another day. The game for Tuesday will be a very good game for this country particularily if they can win it.

Team U.S.can try to keep on advancing and we’re not sure how far their going to make it, Germany, Brazil, France and Holland has a good teams. We’ll see it’s great that the interest in the United States is terrific Mexico got eliminated and if the U.S. could go all the way that would be a real, real story, I don’t think they will but that would be a great story.

It’s good thing that the U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann said “we could not win” every country except the U.S. is a very passionate and very nationalist in this sport. If your a coach and you tell your country “were not going to win” their going to fire you. So that was his strategy to motivate his players he wants to be under the radar and no one expects the U.S.to do much.

This is not a soccer country people follow baseball more than soccer, we haven’t had really no huge names and Landon Donavon is the biggest name who didn’t make the team for this World Cup and has scored 50 goals internationally. So my point being the game is not a tradition in this country. If the U.S. keeps playing well and they recruit more people than interest in this counrty will grow.

Like I mentioned before this is a very nationalistic and very prideful game, you have your team playing and your national anthem is being played, their holding these games in the Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janiero which is the largest stadium in Brazil that seats 200,000 fans and it’s the largest sporting event.

So with these huge crowds in Rio, large audiences watching by the millions all over the world, their is a lot of nationalistic fever and when you respresent your country. I have written and spoken about this, a lot of these countries for example Brazil, that’s all they do is play soccer. That’s like in Cuba it’s baseball, Puerto Rico and the Dominican it’s baseball.

In Brazil it’s 100 percent soccer and in Columbia their doing very well in the northern part of Columbia they play a lot of baseball and in Venezuela it’s all baseball. When you get deep into South America Bolivia, Chile who was eliminated recently not to mention Argentina a big soccer country and Brazil which is the biggest you have all these countries who put all their marbles in one basket.

The game with the U.S. and Belguim could be one for the ages it should be a good one.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary for http://www.sportsradioservice.com