Pre-partido press

It’s not quite clear yet, but we at the solar-powered soccer blog detect a slight scent of optimism blowing through the Earthquakes nation today. Maybe it’s because almost every other team in the Western Conference continues to throw points away (Dallas tied yesterday and L.A. lost, although the
Rapids stomped Los Toros Rojos), maybe it’s because the team is close to signing Francisco Lima, or maybe it’s because a reputable Canadian sports blog is reporting that “It looks like Darren Huckerby is going to sign with San Jose,” and that “the artificial surface at BMO Field is believed to be a factor in his decision.” Or, maybe it’s because San Jose’s luck seems to be turning — this week, it’s the opposing team that is missing both first-choice forwards because of injury. Well, whatever it is, we hope it helps earn a result on the field tonight. A dose of confidence is a great remedy for an ailing soccer team.

If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check out our interview with Earthquakes GM John Doyle. We spent an hour with Doyle on Monday morning and he described, with remarkable candor, the efforts that have been put into building the new team as well as the many strategies that go into that work.

The article focuses primarily on how to improve the team, so we left out some of the good things he had to say about the team as it is. For example, he had this to say about Ronnie O’Brien, who was acquired from Toronto earlier this year despite the fact that he was recovering from a significant knee injury:

Ronnie O’Brien for us has been terrific, and over the last three or four games, he’s been tackling and fighting, and those are the things for me that have been real impressive with him. You kind of thought, ‘Well, he has the technical ability still, tactically he’s aware,’ but he didn’t want to stick his leg in anymore, he didn’t want to chase as much, but now he’s back doing that because his knee feels good. That’s a good tribute to his character, that he knows that’s important, and I think he likes being here, likes Frank, and likes the organization, and wants to put it out for us. So he’s been good, that was a good one. 

Doyle also sang the praises of Kelly Gray, who has appeared in a number of positions for the team, most recently in the center of the team’s defense:

Kelly Gray has played a couple games at center back and in my estimation, he’s been fabulous there. He divides the ball better than the two center backs we have, because he’s a passer. He’s probably not as good one-on-one defending as the other two, but he sure is a good divider of the ball and that starts your attack. It’s a little bit, and I don’t want to jinx him, like Lubos Kubik (a former Chicago Fire and Czech Republic player who made the MLS Best XI twice). He was back there, wasn’t a great defender, wasn’t a bad defender, but he started off the attacks all the time, where he could find Josh Wolff making runs. Kelly does divide the ball well, and that’s a good role player for us that’s not too old. He’s going to be here, I hope, for a long time.

As for that optimism that seems to be floating around, Doyle has seen it, too.

We’ve played some good games. We’ve played good soccer at times. It’s just consistency. We’ve been awful at Salt Lake, and then we at least came back and tied there.

Frank has an idea of how he wants us to play, and it’s going to be a team that plays right. We haven’t scored a lot of goals but we’ve created a lot of chances… When we were in Chicago,  there were times possession-wise when we had way more possession than they did. And more creative ideas, not just one guy. And passing, where it’s like bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp.  

On to the pre-partido press wrap:

- MLSnet.com provides a pre-game story from our own Jeff Carlisle, a video interview with coach Frank Yallop, and a fact sheet on the match.

- The Mercury News has a piece on Joe Cannon, who turned in his best performance of the year last week against Chicago.

- Finally, Doyle is quoted in a Fresno Bee article on 25-year-old Fresno Fuego forward Pablo Campos, a 6′ 3″ Brazilian who leads the Premier Development League with 14 goals in 10 games this season. The article notes speculation that he’ll be joining an MLS club soon, and that the Fuego is holding a press conference Monday. Hmmm…