The pre-pregame

Since the Quakes headed straight to DC after their scoreless draw in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night, we don’t have a lot of first-hand news for you about the team.

Well, mostly. Actually, we have discovered today that Kelly Gray is writing a bi-monthly blog for Goal.com. (For them and not for Center Line? Geez, what are we, chopped liver? The folks at Goal.com couldn’t even be bothered to find a current picture of Gray to run with his column. Humph.)

The other story in the press today, and we think it may be a mistake, actually, is a pre-game piece by Michael Erler in the San Mateo Daily Journal.  It’s a good story but there is this bit here:

The Earthquakes’ grueling trip continues tonight at our nation’s capital against the D.C. United…

It’s not tonight, the game is tomorrow, and the words “the D.C. United” just shouldn’t appear together. (We suspect his editors played a part in that since Erler is a pretty knowledgeable writer.)

That’s it for today. We’re off to watch the Holland/Russia match and recommend that any soccer fan do the same. Hmm, there must be an orange shirt around here somewhere…

The return of the Rowdies

The name “Tampa Bay Rowdies” will bring back all sorts of memories to Earthquakes fans from the NASL era. Starting in 2010, a new generation of soccer fans will get a chance to watch the Rowdies play soccer.

The team will compete in the USL-1, according to the league’s press release. The team’s ownership has hired former Rowdie player and Tampa Bay Mutiny coach Perry Van Der Beck and plans to build a privately-financed stadium as well.

Center Line Soccer’s Tim Hanley actually played for the Rowdies back in 1980-81 and has a number of humorous stories about his time with the club. Here’s one:

When Frank Worthington came to the Rowdies for the ‘81 outdoor season, the press conference was held at the Bay Harbour Inn, a nice hotel just outside of Tampa. Frank had played in the NASL with the Philidelphia Fury and so was accustomed to the atmosphere. During the questions portion, one of the local reporters asked Frank if he intended to work
hard or is this just a summer holiday? This question had become more frequent as a number of Brits in the past had really come over for an extended holiday at the NASL’s expense. Right when this reporter queries Frank about work habits, out of Frank’s duty-free bag drops a fifth of scotch and a fifth of vodka. The bottles shatter on the floor and, as the powerful fumes spread, the pace of the reporter’s scribbling increases.

The ESPN report of the Rowdies’ announcement doesn’t mention any shattered booze bottles, so it sounds like they’re off on the right foot. Still, we have to admire the tenacity of the NASL players in their quest to put the “rowdy” in the Rowdies.

It wasn’t artistic, but a point is a point

It was hardly a 90-minute advertisement for the joys of the Beautiful Game, but there was still a lot to like in the Earthquakes’ 0-0 draw last night at Real Salt Lake. Ronnie O’Brien, whose right knee is finally healthy enough to brave the nasty artificial turf at Rice-Eccles Stadium, led the attack and heroically buckled down on defense. Kelly Gray, forced into central defense because of injuries to Nick Garcia and Ryan Cochrane, once again played with the champions’ spirit of the 2005 Quakes with his commitment and leadership. Cochrane, who had little choice but to enter the game after Jason Hernandez’ red card, put his body on the line to preserve the draw. Joe Cannon came up big when he had to. Even the referee, who did so much to destroy the flow of the game by whistling even the slightest contact between players, got his most important call right by disallowing an offside RSL goal.

So no, it wasn’t pretty and we didn’t get the win we predicted yesterday, but we’ll take it anyway.

On to today’s press reports:
- You’ll find game stories in the Mercury News, the Deseret News, and MLSnet.com. Video highlights are here. The Salt Lake Tribune’s match report is written by Sunnie Redhouse, who we think has the perfect name to be a great blues musician. (”There’s a Redhouse over yonder…”)

- Further commentary on the match is provided by secondary articles in the Deseret News and MLSnet.com.

- Adam Smarte’s emergence in the team is covered in the Register Pajaronian, a Watsonville paper.

Finally, we leave you with a link to a short video on the BBC web site that indicates that Holland midfield maestro Rafael van der Vaart seems to be keeping to the traditional Dutch herring diet.

Pre-game reports from all over

Soccer is a funny game. Experts from around the globe will predict the outcome of a tournament or even just a match, but once they roll the ball out there for kickoff, it’s often unusual for the result to meet expectations.

Case in point: the 2008 Euros. The group stage finishes up today and already, many of the teams that experts had identified as potential winners are gone. France? History. Czech Republic? Buh-bye. We feel safe in saying that not a single person on this green Earth predicted that Holland would win its two matches against the most recent World Cup finalists, Italy and France, by a combined score of 7-1.

So, what does this have to do with the Quakes? Just this: we at the solar-powered soccer blog predict a San Jose win tonight. Why? Because no one else thinks it will happen. And, sometimes after a failure or two, you give up strategizing and just go do it. (And hey, if we’re wrong, greater soccer minds than ours have preceded us down this road.)

Today’s pre-game press round up:

-  Check out last night’s entry on the blog for a report from Tuesday’s practice, including a two-minute audio interview with Quakes coach Frank Yallop. Tim Hanley’s pre-game analysis for Center Line Soccer is here, and Harvey Rañola has posted video interviews with assistant coach Ian Russell and defender Jason Hernandez.

- MLSnet.com has a pre-game report from the Quakes perspective by our own Jeff Carlisle and another from Salt Lake City writer John Coon. The MLSnet.com pre-game fact sheet is here.

- Newspaper coverage includes previews from the Mercury News, Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune, and the AP.

Tuesday’s practice report

The Earthquakes are settling into their hotel in Salt Lake City about now, but they held a light training session this morning before their departure.

Among the squad was returning midfielder Ivan Guerrero, who helped Honduras beat Puerto Rico to advance to the next round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. Ryan Cochrane was on hand but didn’t train because of an ankle that the team is treating carefully, in hopes that he’ll be available for at least Sunday’s match at RFK Stadium against DC United.

We had a chance to speak briefly with coach Frank Yallop about what’s next for the side. Here’s the interview.

Adding insult to injury

Well, it’s happened again. Not only did the Quakes lose on Saturday night, but their opponents on the day have once again seen a teammate earn MLS Player of the Week recognition. In this case, it was hat-trick hero Edson Buddle. (Hey, Luciano Emilio scored a trio of goals for DC United this week, too. Why no love for him?)

As we noted on June 3, an alarming trend is forming in MLS this season. Buddle’s prize means that four of the first 12 players of the week — a full 33-and-a-third percent — have won the award for their play against the Quakes.

Oh, and Emilio? The Quakes get to see him and the suddenly red hot DC United, who’ve won three of their last four, on Sunday.

• • •

The Quakes leave for Salt Lake this afternoon after a morning training session. We’ll be there, so we’ll pass along any pressing info later today.

Earthquakes international round up

The Earthquakes may have suffered defeat this past weekend, but at least the team’s two absent internationals, Ivan Guerrero and Kei Kamara, fared better.

Guerrero’s side, Honduras, has seen the most success over the week’s he’s been away from the Quakes. This past weekend, they tied Puerto Rico, 2-2, in the second leg of their World Cup qualifying series, with Guerrero coming on in the 71st minute. Combined with the 4-0 Honduras victory on June 4, the result gives Honduras a berth into the next stage of CONCACAF qualifying.

Results have been mixed for Kei Kamara’s Sierra Leone. The nation is Africa’s Group 4 against Nigeria, South Africa, and Equatorial Guinea, with berths in both the 2010 World Cup and the 2010 African Nations Cup on the line. While Sierra Leone fell to Nigeria on June 7 on a goal from Everton’s Joseph Yobo, they scored a stunning upset by defeating South Africa 1-0 on June 14, with Kamara playing 92 minutes.

Nigeria currently leads Group 4 with nine points from three matches, but each of the other sides in the group have three points, so second place (and the second berth from the group) is far from decided. Sierra Leone faces South Africa again this coming Saturday.

• • •

On the Quakes’ front, our own Embele Awipi once again that he has his finger on the pulse of the Earthquakes Nation in his Monday column in the Salinas Californian.

Quakes/Galaxy press wrap

Before we say anything about last night’s match, we need to pass along our compliments to our colleague Tim Hanley, who wrote the following in his pre-game analysis:

Edson Buddle can handle the lone striker role and, for what it is worth, I like him. I think he’s underrated. Big, strong, good feet for the most part, although prone to the occasional poor touch. Buddle runs the channels well, and has a knack for scoring.

OK, he didn’t mention Buddle’s ability to head the ball — particularly the ability to head the ball accurately, even when he’s marked extremely tightly, as was the case on his second goal — but Hanley gets credit for identifying the key player on the night for the Galaxy.

Here at the blog, our assessment last night was that the match was a lot more even than the scoreline indicates, and we’re sticking by that opinion this morning. The Quakes had chances but suffered from an inability to put the ball on frame while Buddle was finishing even half-chances. The result goes into the books as a 3-0 loss, but unlike San Jose’s opening night loss to the Galaxy in Carson, there are at least a few positives to take from the match — Kelly Gray’s performance, for example.

Here’s Yallop’s take on things, from last night’s post-game press conference:

Here’s what Ruud Gullit had to say about the match, as well as his thoughts on Holland’s early success at Euro 2008:

Finally, here are the comments from Buddle and David Beckham:

Now, onto the press wrap:

- CLS photographers John Todd and Joe Nuxoll have posted a great gallery here.

- MLSnet.com has a match report from Center Line Soccer columnist Pete Ratajczak as well as a quote sheet and video highlights.

- The San Francisco Chronicle’s Tom FitzGerald checks in with his match report.

- The Mercury News has a match report from Elliott Almond and a column from Ann Killion.

- The L.A. Daily News goes for the big pun in their match report, headlined “Galaxy have a Buddle of joy.”

Beckhamania!

It’s still toned down quite a bit from what we saw last year, but we’re finally seeing some Beckham-oriented publicity for today’s showdown between the Quakes and the Galaxy.

The Mercury News gets extra credit for their headline, “OMG! Look, it’s Becks!”, which pretty well sums up the reaction of the fans we saw down at Home Depot Center for the season opener. Every time Beckham touched the ball there, a squeal went up from the crowd. We’ll see today if Beckham’s hold on 12-year-old girls extends beyond Southern California.

Also checking in is Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle, who also discusses the play of the man the Brits call Golden Balls with Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop, goalkeeper Joe Cannon, and the team’s executive VP, David Alioto. FitzGerald also delivers the news that the team expects as many as 40,000 for the match, so even if the pre-game hype didn’t meet 2007 standards, the Bay Area soccer fan grapevine has picked up the slack in spreading the news that England’s long-time captain would be bending it in the Bay tonight.

Michael Erler of the San Mateo Daily Journal also turns in a stellar pre-game piece, with extensive quotes from Yallop.

The Galaxy’s MLSnet.com preview includes a quote from former Quakes number three keeper Steve Cronin:

“It’s funny. I haven’t been asked a question by the media since my first year with the Galaxy about the rivalry,” said Cronin. “I’m glad it’s back. I think it’s something the league needs. I’m sure that Frank (Yallop) will have his team ready to play us. I think everyone is excited.”

We also have pre-game reports from the usual suspects: Goal.com and the AP.

Finally, while former Clash star Eric Wynalda is still on the roster for the Bakersfield Brigade, we got the news this week that he’s also spent time in fabulous Sioux Falls recently. The ESPN press box must be at an extremely high altitude, because it sure seems like he’s fallen a long way since being pushed out of it.

Quakes notebook: Get Smarte on Saturday?

A replacement for the suspended James Riley may be coming from an unexpected source on Saturday: developmental player Adam Smarte.

It may seem like a surprising choice, considering Smarte played up front at U.C. Santa Cruz, but Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop and his staff have been grooming Smarte as a right back and he’s been playing there for the Earthquakes Reserves.

The lineup could change by tomorrow, of course, but he was practicing with the starters at Stanford on Thursday.

• • •

We had a chance to talk with Yallop about the emergence of Ryan Johnson at forward. While Smarte played at forward and is being moved to defense, Johnson was originally listed as a midfielder/defender with the Quakes.

“He can play left back, left-side midfield, and, as you now know, out front,” said Yallop. “He has played forward, when he was in Norway.

“It was a bit of a look-see by me — I thought, why not give him a shot, see how he does. I spoke to Ryan and he said, ‘I can play out front,’ which is good for any player — he’s got a lot of strings to his bow — and he’s taken to it real well, he’s doing great.”

• • •

Before the team’s relocation at the end of 2005, the rivalry between the Earthquakes and the Galaxy was generally recognized as the best in MLS. Yallop believes it will take a while before the duel reaches the heights seen earlier in the decade, though.

“Because we live close to each other, it’s a rivalry, but from ‘01 to ‘03 is when I felt it was really strong, that rivalry, and the years after that, because they were two of the top teams in the league,” he said. “We need to get ourselves going to make sure that we’re a force in this league and then you’ve got a sort of table-top clash. As of right now, we’d love to beat them on the weekend, they’d love to beat us, so it’s a healthy rivalry that we both look forward to.”

As for how the Quakes can bring home three points against the resurgent Galaxy, Yallop has some ideas about that, too.

“They’ve scored the most goals of anybody in the league, so that says something about their play,” he noted. “They want to get forward, they want to put people under pressure, which is great. Hopefully we can break a little bit and get at their back four, but they’re a strong unit. They’re top of the league in our division, and they’re not there for any other reason that they’ve got the most points. I’m just looking forward to the game, us performing well at home, and hopefully we can get that win.”

• • •

Don’t expect to see Nick Garcia tomorrow or Wednesday night at Salt Lake City, but trainer Bruce Morgan is hopeful Garcia could return the following Sunday at RFK Stadium against DC United.

• • •

What a difference a year makes. Last season, every time David Beckham made his first appearance, that city’s newspapers, radio, and TV fell all over themselves to cover it. Today, we’re still waiting for the Bay Area’s media to acknowledge the upcoming visit from Posh Spice’s hubby, but the “just the facts, ma’am” pre-game notes are now available on the Quakes’ web site.

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