¡Viva España! and other thoughts on the weekend

There’s no guarantee that the best team will win any given tournament, but that’s exactly what happened with this year’s European championships. Spain played the most attractive, skillful soccer, and eventually received their just reward. Their youthful talent — Fernando Torres is 24, David Villa is 26, Cesc Fabregas is just 21, and the average age of their 23-man roster was 26 — means they have become instant favorites for World Cup 2010.

One of the best things about the tournament was the relative lack of diving and other elements of gamesmanship that plagued World Cup 2006, where an internal FIFA study showed that 58 percent of players who were treated on the field, causing a stoppage in play, were not really injured. While there was a bit of negative football on display, teams in general tried attain victory by playing soccer, not by playing the referee.

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Here on the solar-powered soccer blog, we keep hearing from readers who are ready to throw in the towel on the Earthquakes’ 2008 season, but it says here that the playoffs are still within reach. We don’t think this is just blind optimism talking, either; we think the boys have a genuine shot, thanks to a number of factors.

Consider this:

• Home and away: 14 games have been played so far, nearly half of the 30-game season. San Jose has only earned 12 points from those matches, good for last place in the Western Conference. Sounds pretty bleak, right? But the picture changes when you look at the home and away stats.

  The Quakes have already played nine games on the road and have earned a respectable 8 points from those outings, including two road wins. It turns out that only one other team in the West has as many road wins as the Quakes, and only three teams in the entire league have more. With the Quakes playing 10 of their last 16 at home, the team could make up ground in the standings quickly.

• The weakling West: This year’s MLS playoff format sees the top three teams from each conference going through, then the two teams with the best records. First place in the East is occupied by New England, a side that has amassed 30 points from their 16 games. That’s 18 more than San Jose, and the Quakes have 10 points less than DC United, now in third place in the Eastern Conference.

  Climbing the charts in the Western Conference is a lot easier. The first-place Galaxy have just 21 points, and the Quakes are just seven points behind Real Salt Lake and Houston, the two teams that are tied for second place — and San Jose has a game in hand on both of them.

  Take a look at last weekend’s results. No team from the West managed to bring home all three points. In the only match between two Western Conference teams, Dallas and Houston tied, 1-1, and only the Quakes and Chivas USA were able to earn a point against Eastern Conference competition, with RSL, Colorado, and L.A. losing. It seems like every effort is being made to keep the playoff door open for San Jose.

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The team’s situation makes what happens in the summer transfer window even more critical. We spoke with Earthquakes GM John Doyle for an hour yesterday and will publish our story later this week. We’ll say now, though, that the team would like to make as many as three signings.