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March 17, 2008
Weekend recap
A fine, sunny St. Patrick's Day greets us with news from far and wide about Quakes past, present, and future.
We'll start with the future. San Jose's lone pick of the SuperDraft, Shea Salinas, has signed a contract and will be competing for playing time on the right side of midfield. Elliott Almond of the Mercury News has the story. Salinas has great speed and has shown a lot of promise in the pre-season with his willingness to take on defenders, so we look forward to watching him develop over the next few years.
As for the present, there's one piece of the picture that's missing right now, writes Jeff Carlisle for MLSnet.com: more talent at forward.
At present, heading into the Carolina Challenge Cup this weekend, the Quakes roster contains only two out-and-out forwards in Gavin Glinton and Kei Kamara.As a result, the opening weeks of training camp have seen San Jose burn through contestants faster than Donald Trump on "The Apprentice." Argentine winger Federico Arias has already come and gone, with "The Torpedo" sunk by what Doyle described as a lack of fitness. One-time Japanese international Takayuki Suzuki, as well as Swedish striker Martin Aslund have also been cast aside, despite each player scoring in friendlies against collegiate opposition.
Carlisle writes that the Quakes still have a few leads on potential strikers, so let's hope the Quakes have a lucky four-leaf clover somewhere that will come through for them.
Now for the Quakes' past, both recent and distant. The Canadian media has several accounts of San Jose's lightning-shortened 1-0 victory over Toronto FC in the opener of the Carolina Challenge Cup, including stories from the CBC and the National Post.
Finally, the word out of Carolina is that 2001 Quakes first-round draft pick Chris Carrieri is retiring from professional soccer at age 27 to pursue a career in IT.
Posted by Jay at March 17, 2008 10:00 AM