Grabavoy takes knock; status uncertain for Sunday

The Quakes appear to be almost at full strength for Sunday’s match against New York, especially with the addition of forward Peguero Jean Philippe. The lone exception is midfielder Ned Grabavoy, who took a knee to the thigh at practice on Wednesday and may miss all or part of this weekend’s game.

The injury is not deemed to be serious, and despite sitting out all of Thursday’s practice, Grabavoy is expected to travel with his teammates to New York. There is even a chance that the Indiana University product may yet recover in time to play. If not, Joe Vide, who will be returning to his old stomping grounds this weekend, will take his place.

Jean Philippe officially signs; will travel to New York

Peguero Jean Philippe works out with the team in Santa Clara on Wednesday. Photo by Joe Santos/centerlinesoccer.com

The San Jose Earthquakes’ signing of Peguero Jean Philippe will be officially announced either late Thursday or Friday CLS has learned, with the Haitian international traveling to New York with his new teammates for this weekend’s game against the Red Bulls.

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Quakes taking “wait and see” approach on Zinha

The San Jose Earthquakes’ interest in Mexican international Antonio “Zinha” Naelson has cooled somewhat in recent days, with G.M John Doyle admitting that the MLS side would be adopting a “wait and see” attitude.

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And your Quakes broadcast team is…

A familiar face from the team’s past will be joining longtime voice of the Quakes, John Shrader, in the broadcast booth this year. None other than legendary San Jose defender Troy Dayak will make his broadcast debut doing color commentary for the 15 matches which will be aired on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and Comcast SportsNet West.

“Combined with our national television broadcasts, we will have every Quakes game televised in 2008,” says Earthquakes executive VP David Alioto. “We are also happy to welcome John Shrader back to the broadcast booth alongside Quakes legend Troy Dayak.”

We at CLS are happy to echo those sentiments. Shrader has been the voice of the team on either TV or radio since Major League Soccer’s inaugural season and further endeared himself to fans by serving as the emcee at Soccer Silicon Valley’s fan rallies held in support of keeping the Quakes in San Jose.

Dayak needs no introduction to Quakes fans. The Beast manned the back line for eight seasons in a ten year period, overcoming a career-threatening neck injury along the way. Dayak’s most memorable moment on the field came in the 2001 playoffs, when his goal in extra time defeated the Miami Fusion and put the Quakes in their first MLS Cup final. Dayak has since performed color commentary duties on Earthquakes radio broadcasts as well as on HDNet television.

The team’s full broadcast schedule is available on the Quakes’ web site.

Outsourcing

There’s not much in the news today, so we’re going to take a cue from the local corporations and outsource today’s blog — not to some Pacific Rim locale that provides a cornucopia of cheap labor, but to our friends over at Soccer by Ives.

The proprietor of that fine establishment, Ives Galarcep, has singled out San Jose’s Ronnie O’Brien as his MLS Player of the Week. (O’Brien is doing well on our man of the match survey, too, capturing 50 percent of the vote so far.) Despite some other good performances and goals in MLS last week — most notably Jozy Altidore’s stellar solo effort against the Revs — we didn’t see anyone on the field who was as determined as O’Brien to carry his team forward to victory. We do have to wonder, though. Now that he has acknowledged that the Quakes have some talent, does Ives still think that last place is inevitable?

Finally, we’ll direct you to Ives’ San Jose fan correspondent, Kevin Matthiessen, who provides an animated account of last weekend’s match.

Speaking of knees…

When the Quakes acquired Ronnie O’Brien in preseason, it was reported that one of the reasons his former employers, Toronto FC, gave up on him was that they were afraid his tender right knee would break down again. Given what has transpired over the last several days, those concerns were turned up a notch.

O’Brien sat out part of  last Thursday’s session, was substituted after a very productive hour on Saturday, and sat out part of Tuesday’s session as well. So are the Quakes’ worst fears being realized? Not according to O’Brien. It turns out that the Irishman recently went off some anti-inflammatory medication he was taking, and what do you know, some fluid began to build up in his knee. As a result, O’Brien began a five week course of injections on Monday in order to combat the swelling. He added that he fully expects to train the rest of the week, as well as play in the Sunday matchup against New York. Still, it’s a development that will bear continued scutiny as the season goes on.

Jean Philippe lands; physical begins

For those of you wondering why there is still no official comfirmation of Peguero Jean Philippe’s signing on the Earthquakes’ web site, the reason is simple. He has yet to pass his physical. Exactly when the Quakes expect that to happen, no one is saying and that includes general managner John Doyle who said he wouldn’t comment on Jean Philippe’s status.

Yes, the roaring silence raises the eyebrows a bit. But my take is that given the severity of the knee injury Jean Philippe sustained back in 2006, San Jose is being extra careful to make sure that the Haitian will hold up physically, and the only way to know that is to watch him train for a few days and see how he recovers.

I will say this: Jean Philippe made a good first impression based on his performance at practice on Tuesday. He looked reasonably sharp in his movements, and didn’t look like a guy coming off major knee surgery. He also looks to be a different kind of player when compared to Gavin Glinton and Kei Kamara. Jean Philippe is bigger than both of those performers, and appeared to be a bit more explosive and powerful. Again, it all comes down to how his body recovers.

Could the Quakes back out of the deal? Since it was contingent on Jean Philippe passing the physical, I would think yes, but this is MLS, and things such as voodoo and phases of the moon often dictate how they make decisions. If nothing is announced by Friday, I’d say the deal is in danger of being scuttled.

Back to your scheduled programming

There was a bit of a glitch with yesterday’s blog. We had a link to the match report from Sunday’s tilt between the Earthquakes and Rapids reserves, a story in the L.A. Loyolan about new Quakes developmental signing and Pleasanton native Adam Sloustcher, and links to the MLSnet video section for highlights of the weekend’s action. All that disappeared, though, leaving our comments on the recent Merc editorial about the stadium proposal and a headline that referenced an old tune by the Easybeats. We’ll blame the computer for now, but the real problem was probably between the chair and the keyboard.

There’s not much to pass along today, although we may have something later. The only story to catch our eye is this one about the opening of the new practice field at Santa Clara. Just in time, too — the Quakes are practicing on the fake grass there in preparation for this weekend’s match against Los Toros Rojos de Nueva York, the name we’ll be using for that team since we’re not really into the whole “let’s name our team after our corporate parent in order to expand the brand” thing.

We may have an update this afternoon, though. We’ll let you know.

Basking in the afterglow

Back when Frank Yallop was done with his first draft of putting together a roster from scratch, he took a look at the defense he’d assembled and said the Quakes should be difficult for other teams to break down. We’re seeing that forecast coming true, as the Quakes didn’t give up much against Chicago, and then kept a clean sheet in Colorado. With former MLS MVP Christian Gomez running the offense, the Rapids had scored 7 goals in their first 3 games, which (at the time) tied them for the league’s best offensive output. Well done, D!

Things happen fast around MLS. Last Sunday I wrote that the Quakes had “no new names” under consideration at forward, and by Tuesday it’s “Hello, Jean Philippe Peguero.” Not a bad addition, he’s another MLS veteran (20 goals, 13 assists in 58 MLS regular season games) and even if Kei Kamara can score goals in this league you can’t have too much offense. No word (yet) about whether or not Peguero will be ready to go next Sunday against his old ‘mates the NewYork/New Jersey /and parts of Southern Connecticut MetroRedStarBulls. As of today, the Quakes web site doesn’t mention JPP at all. So the work in progress (key word: progress) continues.

Looking ahead, the Quakes begin play in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, Apr. 30, hitting the road to take on Real Salt Lake (a 6:00 Pacific Time kickoff). The winner will advance to play the Columbus Crew in Columbus. While I’m glad MLS participates in the U.S. Open Cup (something the old NASL never did), I wish the tournament itself could get some more love from the league.

The U.S. Open Cup dates back to 1914, but MLS has spent far more time inventing trophies like the coveted “Brimstone Cup” for regular season meetings between Chicago and Dallas (it used to be Fire vs. Burn, get it?) than promoting this tournament that helps connect MLS to the greater soccer community across the country. Checking the Quakes web site, their home page doesn’t even list the Open Cup game under “upcoming matches.” (It does show up, however, on the “schedule” page. Not Good Enough.)

Here’s a thought: the folks at Soccer United Marketing could coordinate the Open Cup Final with the yearly Soccer Hall of Fame vote, and maybe schedule the match to be played in media-capital-of-the-world New York once Red Bull Park is up and running next year to help the game might seem more like an Event. ‘Til then, the league could at least give us a heads up as to when the games will be played.

(Since I mentioned the HOF, let me ask a quick question. Why, exactly, is the Soccer Hall of Fame in the middle of nowhere, a.k.a. Oneonta, New York? Baseball fans are all taught the myth about Abner Doubleday’s inventing that sport in Cooperstown, but what is the connection between soccer and Oneonta?)

Okay. Focus. Next game: Red Bulls. Sunday. Noon. Telefutura.

Enjoy!

Monday I’ve got game day on my mind

We promised some comments on yesterday’s editorial in the Mercury News, and here they are.

Frankly, we’re a bit mystified about the whole thing. Last November, the paper endorsed Wolff’s stadium proposal, saying the following:

Why is this proposal worth all the trouble? Because it may well deliver an extraordinary public benefit that’s not attainable any other way: a professional soccer stadium at no public cost.

Yesterday, the paper said this:

The city has passed a policy allowing for a zoning change to secure an “extraordinary public benefit,” and a stadium certainly would be that. But traffic and other effects of the housing plan need further study. And the precedent of deciding on zoning based on a payoff rather than the best use of the land remains troubling.

So which is it — are they endorsing the extraordinary public benefit policy or is it too “troubling” to them? They can’t have it both ways.

Meanwhile, as the paper is trying to straddle both sides of that fence, the editorial board is also bringing up questions that have already been answered. “Projections of broad economic benefits from the airport and Edenvale developments are lavish, but not all the money goes to the general fund,” says the editorial. “Before saying yes, the mayor and council have to be certain that this deal does not worsen the deficit.” That’s precisely the kind of question that the City of San Jose’s recent economic impact report (you’ll find the PDF here) was designed to answer. You may remember that report — it was unanimously approved by the City Council last month.

Apparently, the Mercury News doesn’t remember that far back, so we’ll recap it here. The report estimates the following:

• Economic impact related to the construction of the entire project of over $2.0 billion
• Annual economic impact of the soccer stadium of $62.3 million
• Annual net fiscal impact to the city’s general fund between $1.8 and $2.8 million
• Annual net fiscal impact to the city’s redevelopment agency of $7.7 to $8.5 million
• Creation of over 14,000 jobs related to construction activity and approximately 5,000 sustained jobs
• Generation of nearly $850,000 annually for arts and cultural programs through the city’s transient occupancy tax (i.e., hotel tax)

“Net fiscal impact to the city’s general fund between $1.8 and $2.8 million” answers their question. We’re not sure why the folks at the Merc are having such a hard time keeping up with the news — unless, of course, they’re relying on their own publication to provide it.

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