Match day previews

The Quakes have no wins and no goals so far this season, but at least the trends are moving in the right direction. The team was flat in week one but played well in week two. Are more improvements on the way today? Similarly, San Jose was denied a goal by the refs in week one but it didn’t happen in week two. Is week three the time for that debt to be repaid?

We’ll know in a few hours how things turn out; in the meantime, lots of people are speculating about today’s game. Our own Jeff Carlisle provides a match preview for MLSnet.com with comments from San Jose keeper Joe Cannon, who has also played with the Rapids, on playing at altitude:

“[The altitude] affects a lot of little things,” said Cannon. “I think you see a lot of misjudging on crosses from ‘keepers. But it affects everyone on the field. I think the fullbacks judging headers, the forwards with their timing; it’s a tough place to play.”

You can also find Beau Dure’s pre-game report for USA Today here, and wire service pre-game stories here and here. The official MLS pre-game fact sheet está aqui.

Mercury News reporter Elliott Almond focuses on Quakes strikers Kei Kamara and Gavin Glinton in his pre-game piece, noting that each of the strikers has surmounted big challenges just to get where they are today. Kamara fled war-torn Sierra Leone when he was 14, arriving first in Gambia and eventually in the U.S., while Glinton’s family left behind poverty in the Caribbean to arrive in Brentwood, with Glinton eventually starring for Livermore High.

The Denver Post profiles Colorado Springs native James Riley in their story, headlined — brace yourself — Riley sees veterans as icing on the Quake. (We don’t know what’s in the water in Denver but we recommend against drinking it, particularly if you write headlines for a living. For example, the Post has a story on a new signing for the Rapids, Stephen Keel, whom the club identified through an open tryout. The paper’s staff has summarized it thusly: “Open tryouts provided Rapids a view to a Keel.” That’s even worse than the “icing on the Quake” headline since there’s a chance you’ll get a Duran Duran song stuck in your head after reading it.)

Finally, London’s Guardian newspaper talks with executive vice president of sports operations for the Quakes, Billy Beane, about his work towards quantifying on-the-field performance in a way that would help identify undervalued players.