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December 29, 2007

London paper reports on Beane's English excursion

Way back in October, we noted that Oakland A's GM Billy Beane was scheduled to speak at a conference in London titled, "The Future of Football." Although we didn't have the opportunity to fly over and see his presentation first hand, The Guardian covers it today.

In London last month, Beane gave a masterclass presentation of his ideas to a panel at the 'Future of Football' conference. Among those who listened attentively to his views on the future of talent scouting in English football were (Sir Alex) Ferguson, Allardyce, Martin O'Neill, Alan Curbishley, Howard Wilkinson and the recently departed Fulham manager Lawrie Sanchez. In the audience were more club managers, owners and agents.

The story details Beane's approach, how he applies it to baseball, and how it might be applied to soccer. Definitely worth a click.

Posted by Jay at 07:16 PM | Comments (0)

December 25, 2007

It's Christmas in Quakesland...



...and that's what the tree looks like. (Thanks to John Jussen for the photo, and yes, that's the head of the June, 2005 Landon Donovan piñata on top of this year's tree.)

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz, four former UCSC players are waiting to hear how the Quakes' coaches reacted to their efforts at last week's player combine. Reporter I.A. Stewart of the Santa Cruz Sentinel spoke with one of the quartet, defender Jeremy Abrams, who said that all four played well, with forward Adam Smarte scoring a goal in a scrimmage. Now, they wait.

Abrams said he believes call-backs could come after New Year's, which means the players could be spending their Christmas holidays hoping their biggest present comes over the phone, and not in a stocking.

"I think it's going to be, pretty much, that if they call you back, it's going to be on a trial basis," Abrams said. "If you play well, they'll sign you. If not, they can just as easily let you go."

"We had shutouts every time I was in," Abrams said. "Hopefully that'll look good for me. Hopefully they'll notice."

Happy holidays to everyone, even if we got our gift a bit early this year.

Posted by Jay at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2007

Ryan Cochrane happy to be returning to San Jose

Today, Mark Emmons of the Mercury News has a story on prodigal son Ryan Cochrane, the first and so far only former Quake who'll be donning the blue and black in 2008.

Short of stopping to kiss the ground after his plane arrived from Houston, we don't know how he could be any more excited to be back in San Jose. Here are a few of his quotes from the article:

"It's awesome. What an honor. There are so many Bay Area fans who have been waiting for this day to come, and I'm pretty much the guy representing the old Quakes. I've got to admit that there's a little bit of pressure, too."

"I always missed San Jose."

"We had such a deep team (in Houston) and Dom had some tough decisions to make. He had asked me a couple of times what I thought about going back to San Jose. So when I was told I was going to be left unprotected, it wasn't a sad day. It was a great day."

"I want to be in San Jose, period."

Actually, after reading that, we're thinking maybe he did kiss the ground when his flight landed at SJO. What a great acquisition for the team — we're sure glad to have him back.

Posted by Jay at 06:27 AM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2007

Fisher buys shares in Celtic

John Fisher, co-owner of the Quakes and the A's, has acquired a 3.24 percent share of Glasgow's Celtic FC, according to press reports from a number of sources.

We already knew that Fisher has become a big soccer fan, but this is pretty exciting news. Three percent isn't a lot, but it's likely enough to give the Earthquakes a great resource going forward, whether it's for information or something more. We wouldn't mind seeing a Quakes/Celtics friendly, either here or in Glasgow. (Now that would be a road trip of epic proportions.)

We checked Celtic's web site but there's no mention of the team's new investor. We did find this, though. What a great idea! ;-)

Update: Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated covers the story here. His take? "Whether (the acquisition) means cooperation between the two clubs remains to be seen. Remember, Celtic already has good relations with MLS — the Scottish club was the All-Star game opponent this past summer and Celtic's Polish striker Maciej Zurawski is set to make an amicable move to the Los Angeles Galaxy."

Posted by Jay at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

More sections sold out at Buck Shaw

As you can see in the image at right, five more sections at Buck Shaw have sold out! What's even more impressive is that the Quakes haven't even contacted everyone who has put a deposit down yet. Can we have a "wow!" from the congregation?

According to the Quakes, "many season ticket deposit holders are choosing to secure their maximum of six tickets per deposit." They also add that ticket representatives are contacting deposit holders in the order they were received, so everyone will be able to pick their seats just as soon as their name comes up on the list. (In other words, if you haven't heard from them yet, don't panic! Your time will come.)

If you haven't gotten in on the action yet, you can make your season ticket deposit online or by calling 1-877-QUAKE-01.

Posted by Jay at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2007

SSVCF launched plus more details on Kinnear

The big news of the day is over here, at the site for the new SSV Community Foundation. The SSVCF is intended as a means to allow the soccer community to benefit itself through charitable means and we're pretty excited about it.

The loudest applause for this effort goes to Don Gagliardi, who came up with this idea last summer and introduced the rest of SSV's board to his vision. Some of the needs the SSVCF hopes to fulfill are well known in the soccer community, such as the necessity of financial assistance for some young players who would otherwise miss out on the chance to play on the best club teams. The talent wasted because some families can't afford this participation is an ongoing tragedy, and we hope to end it. Other areas are more "wants" than "needs," like the idea of a traveling Earthquakes museum exhibit with memorabilia from the 30-plus years of professional soccer in the Bay Area. How cool would it be to have something like that in the stadium club when opening day 2011 rolls around? In any case, SSVCF intends on being around for a long time, and with the support and enthusiasm of Earthquakes fans, we think it can accomplish great things.

As for the rest of the news, we have a couple items today. First off, we've received some additional details about this weekend's combine from the Earthquakes, and the big news is that a) they are at De Anza College and b) they are not open to the public. We'll see if we can get some reports from the front office next week but we're not expecting much — it doesn't benefit the Quakes at all to comment publicly about the best players at the combine with the MLS SuperDraft coming up in a couple months. At the bare minimum, though, we should be able to find out how the weather was during the tryouts.

Our second item is about two MLS coaches, Juan Carlos Osorio of Chicago New York and Dominic Kinnear of Houston. A story in the Houston Chronicle about Kinnear's new contract with the Dynamo notes that, prior to last month's MLS Cup, Quakes GM John Doyle "asked for permission to talk with Kinnear, but (Houston GM Oliver) Luck denied the request."

While this could be seen as a case of former Quake being held in Texas against his will, we also saw this article from the Chicago Tribune. Apparently, the first time Red Bull New York came calling on Fire GM John Guppy to get permission to talk to Osorio, Guppy turned them down.

The story continues:

Two days after the Fire rejected the Red Bulls' initial request to interview him, Osorio asked Guppy to reconsider.

The rest you know — Osorio is the new coach of Red Bull New York.

While we're jumping to a conclusion here, we think we're not jumping very far to say that if Kinnear had wanted to return to San Jose, he at least would have wanted to hear what the Quakes were offering. As far as we know, however, he didn't ask Luck to reconsider and let him talk to Doyle.

So, as a new day dawns for Northern California soccer with the birth of SSVCF, we're going to suggest that we all turn the page, at least as far as Kinnear is concerned. He's got a great team in Houston that consists largely of players he has hand-picked, he's presumably well paid, and everything is lined up so that he'll be one of the top candidates for the U.S. job after the 2010 World Cup, which is also when his contract will be up. We wish him the best of luck — except, of course, when Houston plays the Earthquakes.

Posted by Jay at 02:58 PM | Comments (5)

December 18, 2007

More names emerge for combine, the return of Ramiro, and more

Sounds like the Quakes could look a little sluggish on the field next year.

No, wait, everything's OK — it's just that four former UC Santa Cruz soccer players have been called into this week's combine, according to this story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The four are former Slugs defender Jeremy Abrams, midfielder Stefan Clemens, forward David Frank, and midfielder/forward Adam Smarte.

The story also covers some of the shared history of UCSC soccer and San Jose's MLS side.

The four Slugs benefited from a strong connection between UCSC and the Earthquakes that dates back to former Slugs coach Paul Holocher, who played for San Jose [while the team was called the Clash] in the mid-to-late 1990s. A small handful of other former Slugs have gone on to brief careers in the MLS, including Aaron Lanes and Steven Wondolowski. Lanes won a MLS Cup championship with the Quakes before the team relocated to Houston. Wondolowski won the title this year as a reserve player for the Houston Dynamo. Frank, who will be at this week's combine, also has some experience. He signed two three-day contracts as a reserve player for the Dynamo this season as well. He tried out with the Los Angeles Galaxy last week, but hasn't heard back from them yet.

In other news, Yanks Abroad has a story about the potential return of Ramiro Corrales from Norway's Brann. The story notes that Corrales' agent, Patrick McCabe, has had "initial discussion" with San Jose, but the Quakes don't sound like his most likely destination.

Although he's been out of the league since the 2004 season, Corrales' rights are still held by Houston.

"Any move back to the league would have to go through them."

"There has been interest from Toronto and some from New York," McCabe continued. "We will sit down with Brann and MLS soon so that he can be ready in January."

The story also notes that Corrales was "hampered by injury" this season in Norway, scoring once in 17 appearances. Brann won the league title for the first time since 1963.

Finally, the Torrance Daily Breeze has a story on the American soccer stadiums designed by L.A. architects Rossetti which includes a couple quotes from Quakes executive VP David Alioto.

While we have to take issue with anyone who describes the Home Depot Center as "intimate," as reporter Nick Green does, it's a pretty good read nonetheless. In addition to the HDC, Rosetti designed Toyota Park in Chicago, RSL's under-construction stadium in Sandy, Utah, and Red Bull Park, which was scheduled to break ground earlier this month. Oh, and those gorgeous renderings of the proposed stadium for Philadelphia? Those are Rosetti's work, too. Can't wait to see what they work up for the Quakes.

Posted by Jay at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2007

Dream big

It's the week before Christmas and, while the traditional visions of sugar plums are not as popular as they once were, it's still a time for dreaming.

The item of immediate interest on the Quakes' calendar is the invitation-only player combine which runs from Thursday through Saturday. There's not a lot of information out there about who will be attending — we suspect it's because the team wants to keep the names of prospects confidential — but today Embele Awipi of The Salinas Californian profiles one of the invitees, Robert Arteaga.

Arteaga is a goalkeeper but spent the first five years of his soccer career as a forward. He thinks it benefits his game:

The 6-foot-1 Arteaga said his prior field experience helps him while in goal because he can focus on the whole field.

"The stereotype for goalies is they are just guys who stop the ball," he said. "But you have to be able to read the game. I take pride in my feet work. When I play goalie, I have extra energy because I have extra confidence on the ball."

At the highest level, that translates into knowing where the ball is coming from on an attack, when to come out to take the ball from the air and where to clear it back for your teammates to start a counter-attack. Arteaga's foresight for the field speed and ballhandling is what his college coach Artie Cairel first noticed when recruiting him from junior college four years ago.

"Robert is a tremendous athlete and possesses cat-like reflexes. He is very skilled with his feet," Cairel said. "He is someone who has excelled at every level he has played and most certainly could play his way on to a roster spot."

That's a big dream, but we think we know someone who's hoping for something even bigger. The Houston Chronicle reports that the Dynamo have renegotiated Dominic Kinnear's contract. Under the terms of the new deal, he'll hold the reins through the 2010 MLS season, which means he'll be out of contract right around the time that U.S. Soccer is likely to be looking for a new national team coach.

Now that would be a nice present to find under your tree.

Posted by Jay at 07:27 AM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2007

Former Clash coach Espinoza takes job with Frogs

The most successful coach in San Jose history has returned! No, not Frank Yallop — two MLS Cups are impressive, but even his record can't compare to the 1.000 winning percentage of former Clash assistant and interim head coach Jorge Espinoza, who guided the team to two victories in two chances back in 1999.

And no, he's not coming back to coach the Quakes. He's now the head coach of the San Jose Frogs, which completed its first year in the PDL in July. Check out the Frogs' web site for a full bio of their new head man.

Posted by Jay at 06:30 AM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2007

Salinas Californian offers more info on Ibarra

We were all set to write about how Embele Awipi was becoming our new hero because there's another soccer article in the Salinas Californian today, this one about SJSU senior Ismael Ibarra and UCLA sophomore David Estrada.

Then we noticed the byline on the story — it's written by Ryan Wallace, who apparently does a weekly "Soccer Notebook" every Friday! That's two writers in Salinas covering soccer and the Quakes when the San Francisco Chronicle hasn't even bothered to print word one about the Quakes lately. Wow, Salinas — we're impressed.

Posted by Jay at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)

FIFA dubs Hernandez a "star man," KC stadium project close to fruition

When we first heard that the Quakes were picking up Jason Hernandez from Chivas USA in the expansion draft, we knew the Quakes were getting a solid defender. What we didn't know is that San Jose had just acquired the "star man" of Puerto Rico's national team, as FIFA dubs him here. Excellent!

We also wanted to pass along our congratulations to fans of the Kansas City Wizards, who are sure to be celebrating as the $1 billion redevelopment project that includes their proposed stadium was unanimously approved by the Kansas City City Council. The Wizards' media relations staff notes that the final OK by the State of Missouri should come by the end of February.

If the project is approved, the Kansas City Wizards will play in a state-of-the-art, 18,500-seat stadium that will anchor the ($949 million) development. The soccer complex, which consists of the Wizards stadium, 12 tournament-style soccer fields and a 250-room hotel, will cost $140 million and is slated to open in spring 2010 as part of Phase 1 of the three-phase project. Lane4 Property Group will lead the monumental redevelopment that has won considerable support from residents in the Bannister Mall area.

Our congratulations to the 'Zards and to longtime friend of SSV David Ficklin, a one-time member of the Clash front office who is now Kansas City's VP of development.

Finally, it looks like the newest DP to arrive in MLS will be Argentina's Juan Sebastian Verón, according to Sports Illustrated. (The Washington Post's Steven Goff says "nothing is certain yet," though.) Extra: Looks like Goff is right — Verón is staying in Argentina.

Posted by Jay at 05:51 AM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2007

Several local players invited to MLS Player Combine

Yesterday, MLS released their list of college seniors who will take part in the league's player combine from January 11-15 in Fort Lauderdale, and a number of players from local schools will be taking part.

The following Bay Area students are among the 54 seniors invited so far: Cal's Andrew Jacobson (MF) and Luke Sassano (MF); Santa Clara's Matt Hatzke (D) and Peter Lowry (MF); and Stanford's Andrew Kartunen (GK) and Scott Bolkan (D).

Posted by Jay at 08:49 AM | Comments (0)

Details on Buck Shaw, plus high schoolers reinstated

Welcome to the "Is it Friday yet?" edition of the blog, in which the answer is "No, but let's pretend it is anyway." (Hey, it's been a busy week — we're ready for a break.)

First of all, some good news. The high schoolers who attended the Quakes Tryout Tour have been reinstated by the suddenly sensible CIF. That's true of the students who have already come forward to admit they attended the tryouts — there's still some saber-rattling going on as the organization hints that those who haven't come forward better hurry up and do so. The linked story at insidebayarea.com claims that the Earthquakes have given a list of all the high-school age participants to the CIF, but then adds that, "It could be some time... before players not coming forward on their own are found," which seems to contradict the idea that the CIF has the list. In any case, the whole thing is a classic "making mountains out of molehills" situation since players had to pay to participate in the tryouts and were not in danger of losing their amateur status. The overriding lesson seems to be this: Bureaucrats don't like getting their toes stepped on, so it's best to avoid doing so — they tend to overreact.

To take a few steps back and take a look at the bigger picture, we figure that situations like this are bound to occur from time to time when an organization expands in new ways. We had an MLS team in San Jose from 1996 to 2005 and none of those sides attempted anything as ambitious as this tryout tour, which occurred just a few months after it was announced that the Quakes would return. As long as the same mistake isn't made over and over, the occasional snafu is a sign of growth, so here's to seeing the Quakes take steps in new directions.

In other news, Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney has the scoop on renovations to Buck Shaw Stadium, which will cost $1-$2 million, according to Lew Wolff.

Extensive work - including installation of additional seating sections; new concession stands, locker rooms, and restrooms; a digital scoreboard; renovation of an adjacent practice field; and upgraded lighting - is planned for Buck Shaw, which is probably going to be the Quakes' home for the first three seasons, not two as originally announced.

"We want to do everything right, whether it's renovating Buck Shaw or building our stadium [near San Jose airport]," says Wolff, who owns 10 percent of the A's and is majority operator-investor of the Quakes. "People might come out that first season for the novelty, but you want them to come back as often as possible. Hopefully you have a good team, of course, but making them comfortable and the setting enjoyable is an important part of that."

We'd be excited about the team's return in any case, but the prospect of seeing the Quakes take on MLS opponents in a venue even more intimate than Spartan Stadium is really tantalizing.

Finally, we note that San Jose State and San Jose Frogs forward Ismael Ibarra has been named to the 2007 NSCAA NCAA Division I All-Far West Region First Team. Ibarra, a Salinas native, started 17 games this season, tallying nine goals and three assists for a team-leading 21 points. Ibarra and teammate Julio Gonzalez will participate in upcoming invitation-only tryouts for the Quakes.

Posted by Jay at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2007

Quakes home opener will be April 12 against Fire

The Quakes will be announcing the home opener this afternoon, but we've got the scoop for you now. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 12 at 6:00 p.m. for a match against Cuauhtémoc Blanco and the Chicago Fire at the Oakland Coliseum. Area sportswriters, that gives you about four months to learn how to spell "Cuauhtémoc" — and yes, we're grading strictly, so we'd like to see that accent over the E.

We also had a chance to get some details from the Quakes about some other items. First off, if you haven't put down a deposit on season tickets, time's a-wasting! Quakes ticket reps have contacted about half of the people on the deposit list and, at the pace things are going, between 5,000 and 6,000 season tickets will be sold by the time they finish. Considering the team hasn't even begun their big marketing push, which is slated for next year, that's an impressive total.

We also have some details on the fallout from the Tryout Tour. Despite press reports stating that the Quakes will be turning over a list of Tryout Tour participants to the California Interscholastic Federation, the team has not determined if that will happen or not. We also learned that several high school coaches and principals were consulted before the Tryout Tour was planned and that none of them were aware that special permission was needed for students who wanted to participate, so it seems from our perspective that this whole situation caught everyone off guard.

Posted by Jay at 09:59 AM | Comments (1)

Good times, bad times

What with it being the week of the big Led Zeppelin reunion, we couldn't resist a reference to the grand old band (did we say old?) in today's headline. Plus, there's good news and bad news, so it seemed to fit.

The good news is that there's been an unscheduled Quakes news explosion, with stories appearing in three different publications as well as some items from other sources:

Man, this was a long entry. We probably could have used "Ramble On" as a headline, too.

Posted by Jay at 06:32 AM | Comments (1)

December 11, 2007

American Soccer Daily interviews Califf

One of the names that's been bandied about as a potential acquisition for the Quakes is Danny Califf, the central defender who helped solidify the defense of the record-setting 2005 team. He's currently captain of Aalborg (or AaB), a side that leads the Danish Superliga and has made a respectable run in the UEFA Cup.

He's interviewed today in the American Soccer Daily, though, and we're left with one thought after reading the story: He doesn't sound like someone who is looking for a way to get back to California anytime soon. Our fingers are still crossed, though.

Posted by Jay at 10:05 AM | Comments (2)

December 10, 2007

Glinton's school spirit plus an update from Awipi

We usually like to start these posts with a witty comment about, well, anything, but the only thing that comes to mind now is this: Is it Monday already?

Yes, it does seem to be Monday, but there's good news: the Salinas Californian has published another Quakes update from Embele Awipi. Awipi gives an update on season ticket sales and the rescheduled home opener, including quotes from David Alioto, and even passes along a suggestion for the Quakes' Thursday, April 3 trip to Home Depot to play the Galaxy:

After a hiatus of 888 days, a rematch against the last team the old Earthquakes faced is just as good as a season opener. I'm sure fans are planning a "blue flu" of sorts to be able to take a midweek road trip.

Sounds like a brilliant idea to us.

Speaking of the Galaxy, the thing we like best about them is how well their former players have performed once they've donned the blue and black of the mighty Quakes. Brian Ching, Brian Mullan, and Craig Waibel come to mind immediately, and we're sure we're forgetting some others. In any case, there's some news about forward Gavin Glinton, the latest LA to SJ convert, in the papers today as well.

The Peoria Journal Star offers up two stories on Bradley University's run to the NCAA quarterfinals and their match this past weekend in Columbus, where Bradley was shut out 4-0 by Ohio State. Glinton was one of 20 former Bradley players who attended the match.

Gavin Glinton is a former all-American forward for the Braves and current member of Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes. He was one of almost 100 Bradley supporters who gathered in the Jesse Owens Stadium parking lot two hours before Bradley faced Ohio State, which won 4-0.

This was Glinton's first trip to see Bradley during its postseason run. From their California home, Glinton and his family used the Internet to follow the Braves' previous game, a 3-2 overtime victory over Maryland.

As soon as Chris Cutshaw netted the winning goal to send Bradley into the Elite Eight, Glinton said it was a no-brainer he was going to Columbus to see his alma mater in its first NCAA quarterfinal.

"It's a family,'' Glinton said. "This means a lot. I don't know if these guys really understand what this means to the guys who came before them. I hope they do."

Sounds like a guy Frank Yallop would want on his team, doesn't it? There's more. Columnist Kirk Wessler writes about the incredible support of Bradley's fans, particularly in the light of a tragic death of a team member earlier this year.

Marchegiano is a former Bradley soccer player - a member of DeRose's first recruiting class, in fact. When the clock began ticking off the final minutes, Marchegiano made sure those moments wouldn't be silent.

"Everywhere we go!" he sang, and the crowd joined him in that echo. And when Marchegiano's voice ran out, former Bradley all-American Gavin Glinton, now playing for the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, picked up the slack, and the sing-song cheer kept right on going.

When we see these stories from the Midwest, we have to be impressed with Glinton's character. And we hope everyone who scoffs at soccer's bright future in the U.S. takes note: It already plays in Peoria.

Posted by Jay at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2007

Dayak's Dynamite, Yanks overseas

One of the things we like best about the Quakes is the way that the team benefits such a broad spectrum of the soccer community. While the team that competes on the field will always get the most headlines, people associated with the Quakes over the years are active throughout Northern California.

Case in point is Troy Dayak, who we learn today is having great success with a U-12 girls team in Tracy, thanks to an article in the Tracy Press. Dayak is coaching the Tracy United Dynamite, who are now ranked fourth in the state.

The story adds:

The 12-and-under Dynamite have dominated opponents this year under Dayak and have even held their own in tournaments in older age brackets, taking third in a tourney in Davis for 13-and-unders.

The story also features a photo of Coach Dayak in action. Good stuff.

* * *

If you've been wondering like we have who the rest of the players will be for the 2008 Quakes, Ives Galarcep of ESPN takes a look at some of the Americans playing abroad who might be interested in a return to the States.

In the article, he pairs MLS teams with potentially returning Yanks. He suggests that San Jose would do well with Berkeley native Kamani Hill, who will be looking to transfer out of Wolfsburg in January, but then adds that Hill seems to want to stay in Germany, anyway. His pick for the Quakes is Eddie Lewis, whose career has run onto the rocks at woeful Derby County, a team that is mired in a 10-game winless streak and currently resides at the bottom of the English Premier League table.

Galarcep's recommendations aside, what we really like about the article was the information on the young Americans who might be looking to come home, a list that includes Gold Cup hero Benny Feilhaber, who is also stuck at Derby County, and forward Charlie Davies, who won his first cap with the U.S. at last summer's USA/China match at Spartan Stadium.

Posted by Jay at 07:19 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2007

Quakes select 33 from Tryout Tour for player combine

When the Quakes first announced their Northern California Tryout Tour, they said that they would select one person from each of the seven stops on the tour to attend a special player combine. We remember thinking at the time, "Gee, it would be a shame if young Ronaldinho and young Kaká showed up on the same day — they could only take one of them."

As it turns out, our concerns were irrelevant because the Quakes have announced that 33 players from the over 600 who attended the Tryout Tour will be invited to participate in the San Jose Earthquakes Invitation-Only Combine.

According to Flor Rivera, the Quakes' spokesperson, these players "will compete with other players from the United Soccer League and from... top colleges in the country for a spot on the San Jose Earthquakes Developmental Team."

The San Jose Earthquakes Invitation-Only Combine will take place from Thursday December 20th, 2007 through Saturday, December 22nd 2007 at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Posted by Jay at 08:23 AM | Comments (3)

December 07, 2007

Season ticket sales, home opener update

If you were hoping to splash out some cash for the fanciest seats at Buck Shaw, we've got some bad news for you: You missed your chance. The Mercury News reports today that the team has sold out all the "Premier Midfield" seats, seen in purple in the illustration at right.

In total, the paper notes, that's about 800 seats, and Quakes executive VP David Alioto told the paper that they've sold about 2,000 season tickets so far. That figure will continue to rise on a daily basis since ticket reps are still contacting fans who've put down deposits. The paper adds that Alioto "plans on capping season-ticket sales at about 8,000 if it comes to that, to ensure that youth groups, corporations and casual fans can get in the door."

The story also sheds some light on the on-again, off-again home opener which was rumored to be on March 29 against Red Bull New York:

There was a report from the East Coast that the Earthquakes would open at home March 29 against the New York Red Bulls, but Alioto said that isn't the case. The Red Bulls and MLS wanted it to be the case, but the success of the SCU teams extended their seasons and pushed back the schedule for stadium alterations. Alioto said the team probably could have made the March 29 date, but it might have cost them a chance to show off all the bells, whistles, streamers, big-screen TV, new sound system, etc.

"When we open, we want to put our best foot forward," he said.

Expect an announcement next week that the home opener will be sometime in mid-April; the full schedule will be released in January.

Posted by Jay at 06:31 AM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2007

More player rumors

It looks like everybody wants to be an Earthquake! In addition to the rumored contact between the Quakes and former San Jose stalwarts Danny Califf and Ramiro Corrales, ussoccerplayers.com reports rumors of Eddie Lewis's potential return to the club where he began his pro career. If Lewis does return, we hope his timing improves — he was with San Jose from 1996 until 2000, thereby managing to leave just when the team got good.

But wait, there's more! Steven Goff of the Washington Post reports on his blog that Pablo Mastroeni may be leaving Colorado for San Jose. We'll leave the player evaluation to the experts, but we will note that a quick check of Pablo's stats shows that he's averaged only 17.6 starts per season over the last five years. Not exactly iron man numbers, however talented he is.

Finally, we see the Gameday blog has an interview with new Quake Joe Vide, who discusses his game, his experiences in MLS, and his reaction to his move to San Jose.

Posted by Jay at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)

Questions about the opener

We mentioned on Tuesday that Ives Galarcep of the New Jersey Herald News was reporting that the Quakes' home opener would be March 29 against les Vaches Rouges from New York.

Well, as friend of the blog Guy Gayle pointed out yesterday, Ives is changing his tune, at least temporarily:

A source within Major League Soccer has informed me that there is a very real chance the schedule could be changed and the Red Bulls-Earthquakes season opener slated for March 29th at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara could be moved to a later date, thus no longer making it the season opener (or official return of the Earthquakes).

The game was signed off on by MLS, which informed the teams that it was set to be the opener, but some logistical challenges have arisen and the game is up in the air now, at least for the March 29th date.

Stay tuned...

* * *

The Metro's Gary Singh makes brief mention of his soccer journalist persona in his column this week, while simultaneously taking a swing at media soccer bashers and one-time Quakes owners AEG. Good on ya, Gary!

Posted by Jay at 07:01 AM | Comments (1)

December 04, 2007

Road trip: Quakes to play L.A. on April 3

Steven Goff reports in the Washington Post's "Soccer Insider" blog that the San Jose Earthquakes will make their 2008 ESPN2 debut on Thursday, April 3, when they will travel to the Home Depot Center to take on the L.A. Galaxy.

Thereby, we might add, providing meaning to the Galaxy's pitiful existence. Or are we the only ones who noticed that LA has failed to make the playoffs during San Jose's two-year hiatus from MLS?

Posted by Jay at 03:10 PM | Comments (0)

Quakes to open season against Red Bull?

Ives Galarcep of the New Jersey Herald News reports that the Quakes will open their 2008 campaign against Red Bull New York on Saturday, March 29 at Buck Shaw Stadium.

This is actually different from what our sources have told us in the past, but it's possible that things have changed since then. If so, we can hear the chants beginning already: "You'll always be the Metros! You'll always be the Metros!"

Posted by Jay at 07:31 AM | Comments (3)

December 03, 2007

Former teammates of Cochrane, Goodson reflect on their move to SJ

A lot of Quakes fans haven't been paying attention to MLS for the last two years, so for them it may be difficult to evaluate the team's moves so far. While the Quakes acquired MLS veterans in the expansion draft, fans may not know exactly how these players have performed recently.

Two stories on MLSnet appear today that will help answer those questions by interviewing some of the players who know these new Quakes best: their former teammates. Jeremy Rakes talks to Pat Onstad and Eddie Robinson for his story on Ryan Cochrane while Steve Hunt focuses on the 2007 FC Dallas Defender of the Year, Clarence Goodson.

Posted by Jay at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2007

Doyle outlines next steps in interview

American Soccer Daily has an informative interview with Quakes GM John Doyle in which he outlines the strategy the team used in the expansion draft as well as the next steps the team will be taking to put together its roster. Here's a taste:

While the draft is expected to provide some fresh blood for the offense, he says the big catch will likely come through another MLS trade.

"We do have the #1 pick, and then the #2 starting in the second round, so we have high picks," said Doyle, who also grabbed Los Angeles striker Gavin Glinton in the Expansion Draft. "We can do a little bit with the draft, look to make trades with some of the picks to acquire a veteran goal scorer. We want to look in the league for a goal scorer."

The story continues:

"We also have the extra expansion money," he noted. "I'm going to visit Scotland and England to look at a lot of players. Of course, that could be a stretch financially."

"Frank will also look in Trinidad & Tobago and I'll probably be on the way to Brazil in a couple of weeks. We have also gotten 5-6 phone calls from agents with players in South America and Africa."

All in all, a good read — highly recommended!

Posted by Jay at 07:26 AM | Comments (0)