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.