MLS awards breakdown
By Jeff Carlisle · October 31, 2008
MLS announced the finalists for their end-of-season awards. Here’s the breakdown of where my votes went, and how I think it will play out.
Beckham loan conference call highlights…
By Jeff Carlisle · October 30, 2008
The conference call with LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena regarding David Beckham’s loan to AC Milan was almost as notable for what he didn’t know as what he did. Here are the highlights:
Los Earthquakes concluyeron temporada con mesura – triunfo sobre Toronto FC 2-0
By David I. Gálvez, Sr. - “Saque de Meta” · October 28, 2008
El San José Earthquakes concluyeron con la temporada 2008 de la Major League Soccer (MLS) con un récord de 8.13.9 y 33 puntos goles a favor 32 y en contra 38; partidos ganados en casa lograron seis, empataron cinco y perdieron cuatro. Mientras que de visita no tuvieron el mismo éxito ganaron dos, empataron ocho y perdieron cinco. Podríamos decir que los Quakes para haber sido un equipo de expansión de la liga estadounidense en su 13va temporada no les fue tan mal en comparación con otros equipos que entraron de la misma forma en otras temporadas como Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake, Toronto, etc. Read more…
Los Earthquakes hundieron a Toronto 2-0
By Jeff Carlisle · October 27, 2008
Shea Salinas forja un tiro penal fuera del alcance del arquero Greg Sutton del Toronto. Foto: Joe Nuxoll, centerlinesoccer.com, isiphotos.com
Center Line Soccer cobertura completa incluye:
· Entrevistas de audio (en ingles) con el tecnico Frank Yallop y jugadores Darren Huckerby, Ronnie O’Brien, Shea Salinas, Ryan Johnson, Ramiro Corrales, y Joe Cannon
·Entrevistas de vídeo, tambien en ingles, con Shea Salinas, Ryan Cochrane, Nick Garcia, Jason Hernandez, y Scott Sealy
· Una enorme galeria de fotos de la final en casa
SANTA CLARA, California. - El telón se cerró de la temporada de expansión de los San José Earthquakes el sábado, y mientras una débil aroma de fracaso del equipo de llegar a la liguilla, se quedo en el aire, la disputa total fue positiva, cuando los Quakes hundieron al equipo 2007 de expansión los Toronto FC, por un resultado de 2-0. Read more…
SPSB, schadenfreude edition
By Jay Hipps · October 27, 2008
In case the word “schadenfreude” is new for anyone, we’ll provide a quick definition before we get started today. It’s a German word meaning, “satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.” Normally, we don’t really get into it here at the Solar Powered Soccer Blog — “there but for the grace of God go I” and all that — but we’re giving in to our baser instincts today.
Of course, our ability to do so has been lessened greatly by FC Dallas defender Aaron Pitchkolan, who managed to earn himself a second yellow by taking down Landon Donovan about three miles from goal when Dallas was ahead, 2-1, and up a man. L.A. eventually scored on a Donovan PK and were thereby spared the ignominy of finishing in last place, despite the fact that they’re level with the Quakes on points and behind them on goal differential.
But what the heck — let’s delve into the Galaxy’s numbers a bit more. L.A.’s high-water mark this year came on June 14, when their victory over San Jose left them with a 6-4-2 record — 20 points after 12 games. After that, they plummeted down the standings by going 2-9-7, earning just 13 points from 18 games. How bad is that? Well, 13 points over 18 games is equivalent to earning 22 points over an entire, 30-game season, and that’s three points less than Toronto earned last season, their first in the league.
The Galaxy must be improving under Bruce Arena though, right? Well, no, not really. Ruud Gullit got fired after a seven game winless streak, with L.A.’s 3-2 loss to San Jose being the last nail in his “sexy football” coffin. Under Arena, the Gals went 2-5-4 for 10 points in 11 games, still well off the pace needed to make the playoffs.
By comparison, after San Jose’s big influx of talent in the summer transfer window, the Quakes went 5-4-5, earning 20 points from 14 games or the equivalent of 43 points over a 30-game season, which would be more than enough to put the team in the playoffs. (Too bad for L.A. that they never had a coach like Frank Yallop. Oh, wait, that’s right — they did. They just didn’t let him do his job.)
It gets worse for Los Angeles, though. In today’s L.A. Times, Grahame Jones reports that Landon Donovan, coming off his best individual season ever, wants to go play in Europe. Yes, we’ve heard this before, but it just may be real this time.
“In my situation, I can’t be super picky, but if it’s the right offer and makes sense and if it’s the right team… from my standpoint, I’m ready to take that step and I want to. Competitively, I have that itch and I want to do it, and I’ll make that very clear to people.”
So, after posting numbers worthy of an expansion team for the last two-thirds of 2008, how bad would the Galaxy be without Donovan? We may get to find out next season.
• • •
Speaking of schadenfreude, how perfect was it to see the final moments of Carlos Ruiz’ MLS career played out at Buck Shaw? Even with the further dilution of the talent pool from the addition of Seattle next season, we’d be very surprised to see him back in the league. And to think Alexi Lalas almost brought him to the Quakes during his tenure as general manager…
Quakes v TFC Shea Salinas Post-Game
By Harvey Rañola · October 26, 2008
{vidavee id=”15725″ w=”320″ }
Quakes v TFC Ryan Cochrane Post-Game
By Harvey Rañola · October 26, 2008
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Quakes v TFC Nick Garcia Post-Game
By Harvey Rañola · October 26, 2008
{vidavee id=”15724″ w=”320″ }
Sunday morning and all is right with the world
By Jay Hipps · October 26, 2008
Is it just us or did everything just seem right last night? Yes, the playoffs would have been nice, but 33 points is still the best finish for an expansion team in a decade.
Even more importantly, though, it didn’t feel like we were watching an expansion team. While Toronto may have been a bit disinterested at times, San Jose dominated the match from start to finish. Ramiro Corrales was back patrolling midfield, looking not at all like someone who had just missed two months with a knee injury, and Darren Huckerby and Ronnie O’Brien terrorized the TFC defense from the flanks, although in different ways, with Hucks taking on players at every opportunity and O’Brien doing just enough to free himself to send in a cross. We’re not sure what it is that is so enjoyable about watching a sweetly struck ball curl towards its destination, but whatever it is was on abundant display last night. Shea Salinas, coming on for Huckerby in the 67th minute, provided a splendid imitation of the Englishman as he continued to challenge defenders and eventually earned a PK — San Jose’s first of the season — and then scored it.
We have to save some praise for Ryan Johnson, too. He left it all out on the field again — harassing defenders on both sides of the ball, fighting to win every header, creating some dangerous opportunities for both himself and his teammates, and always making sure that he wouldn’t be outworked by an opponent. In essence, he played like a real Earthquake.
That’s really the overriding impression from last night. This whole business of being an expansion team while also not being an expansion team has been an awkward fit at times, but now, the continuity between the Quakes of old and the present-day team feels intact. This team has a championship heritage and there are champions here now, both in the coaching ranks and in the locker room. Here’s to the team we have now and the championships that are yet to come.
• • •
On to the day’s news:
- As Jeff Carlisle reported yesterday, the housecleaning at Tottenham included sporting director Damien Comolli, whose friendship with Billy Beane was instrumental in setting up the Earthquakes’ new partnership with Spurs. Meanwhile, Harry Redknapp has been hired to replace outgoing coach Juande Ramos.
- At the beginning of the season, we ran a reader poll that asked, “How will the Quakes finish in 2008?” The leading choice, with 47 percent of the vote, was “Who cares so long as they finish higher than L.A.?” If FC Dallas beats the Galaxy today (noon, Telefutura), San Jose fans will get their wish.
- Elliott Almond of the Mercury News wraps up the game and the season, talking with Lew Wolff, John Doyle, and Frank Yallop in the process. Almond’s big scoop: “Wolff, who also owns the A’s, indicated he is interested in buying a European soccer team, but declined to identify which ones he is eyeing.”
- We have match reports from MLSnet.com and the Chronicle. (The Toronto papers ran wire service reports, so we’re going to leave them out.) Video highlights are here.
To answer an unasked question, our coverage here will probably be slowing down a bit, but there’s a lot of activity coming up that we’ll be reporting — the expansion draft, contract renewals, and so forth — so please continue to check Center Line Soccer for the latest news on the Quakes. Oh, and if you’ll be shopping for holiday gifts at Amazon, please support CLS by accessing Amazon through the links on our page. It doesn’t cost you anything and the commissions help keep us going. Thanks!
Quakes v TFC Jason Hernandez Post-Game
By Harvey Rañola · October 26, 2008
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