San Jose Earthquakes lose Alvarez, Cannon to Expansion Draft, decline contract options on Geovanni, Eduardo, and Glen
Geovanni has played his last match for the San Jose Earthquakes it was revealed today. The Quakes also declined contract options on forwards Eduardo and Cornell Glen, while losing Joe Cannon and Arturo Alvarez to the Expansion Draft. Photo: Joe Nuxoll, centerlinesoccer.com
The San Jose Earthquakes made news on two fronts today with regard to their player roster entering the offseason. First was the selection of goalkeeper Joe Cannon by the Vancouver Whitecaps and midfielder Arturo Alvarez by the Portland Timbers in the MLS Expansion Draft. Second was the acknowledgment that three players have not had their contract options picked up for 2011 — forwards Eduardo and Cornell Glen, and midfielder Geovanni. While the first two were expected, the departure of the Earthquakes designated player comes as somewhat of a surprise.
Entering the Expansion Draft, the Quakes could only protect 11 players — 3 of which needed to be international players — from selection by Portland and Vancouver. Cannon was selected by the Whitecaps in the eighth round, which then allowed the Quakes to move defender Tim Ward to the protected list with just two rounds remaining. Earthquakes General Manager John Doyle was not surprised to see the veteran ‘keeper selected in the draft especially given his MLS pedigree.
“Joe Cannon’s always been a starter in our league,” explained Doyle, “and he’ll definitely look to do that with Vancouver.”
Three picks after the Cannon selection by Vancouver, with Portland’s last pick of the draft, the Timbers selected Alvarez. The El Salvadoran international was subsequently moved by Portland to Real Salt Lake for a second round draft pick in the 2011 MLS draft. For the Earthquakes, the situation with Alvarez was similar to Cannon — a starter quality player that was not a regular listing in the starting XI but commanding a relatively high salary by MLS standards.
“Alvarez didn’t see his role with our team being someone coming off the bench,” Doyle elaborated. “He has expressed to me that he wants to be with a team where he can be a starter. Still, he was a tough player to lose, and we’ll move forward and look for another midfielder/winger who can provide cover for our starters.”
While both players will be missed by the Earthquakes, the silver lining is the salary commitment of nearly $400K annually that will be saved by the club. Given that both players were often left out of the starting XI, the freed money will now give Doyle more flexibility in working with current players on their contracts as well as in rounding out the remaining roster spots for 2011 with less costly alternatives.
The other revelation of the day was the Earthquakes parting ways with their first designated player in Brazilian Geovanni. The midfielder/forward joined the team late in the season, and provided a good option for Head Coach Frank Yallop in designing his attacking formation. However, the ex-Hull City player was not as effective as his salary demanded, and Doyle felt it most prudent to let the 30-year old go. With his statistics limited to 1 goal and 3 assists in 12 regular season and 3 playoff matches, the decision was made to look at other options to bolster the Earthquakes offensive during the off-season.
“Geovanni was a good boost for us when he first joined the team,” said Doyle, “and we were just hoping that he’d have more of an impact game to game, but that wasn’t the case.”
The Brazilian playmaker did bring some needed energy to the Earthquakes offense in those first few appearances, but his regular season peaked in just his third game with his one goal, one assist Man-of-the-Match performance to help the Quakes beat the Dynamo 2-1 in Houston. In 12 total appearances after that September 5th road contest, Geovanni contributed no goals and two assists. When the season concluded with the playoff loss to Colorado in the Eastern Conference Final, Doyle started the process of planning the Earthquakes roster for 2011. The thought of bringing Geovanni back was far from positive.
“Geovanni came to us to talk about next year,” revealed Doyle, “and he wanted a guaranteed 3 years at a very high salary figure. He was a good player for us at his 2010 salary. We just weren’t willing to do such a long term deal for what we saw him bring to our team this season.”
The other two players not offered contracts for 2011 were Eduardo and Cornell Glen. For both, their seasons were statistically disappointing and they both fought injuries more often than not. Given that both were holding International Slots on the Quakes roster, Doyle now has even more flexibility in securing new attacking threats for the 2011 season.
Looking forward to the team’s roster priorities in the off-season, look no further than at the positions where the Quakes player depth was weakened with today’s moves.
“We need to get a solid, young back-up goalkeeper either through the draft or other avenues that Jon Busch can mentor during the coming seasons, “outlined Doyle. “We also need to get another forward to add depth to our front line and a wide player to do the same for our midfield.”
The Earthquakes will have a chance to potentially pick up those types of players in the inaugural MLS Re-Entry draft to be played out in December. After that comes the MLS Superdraft in January for college players and others new to the league. Of course, with free agency and the FIFA winter transfer window, there exists many other avenues to bring in players. When San Jose starts their preseason training in late January, we’ll know most of the answers as to how the 2011 roster will shape up for the Earthquakes.
Well Yallop and Doyle haven’t really been effective for their salaries either, so why aren’t they heading out? We have the players to get it done, IMO, but have a stale system of play. 3 years, 2 last place finishes and 1 year where scrappy play barely got us in the playoffs. Let’s get someone that has more knowledge then the “tried and true 4-4-2″ who can implement a system that WILL get it done, not have every game be a toss up
Well said, Jon. I think Yallop is a nice guy and honest with players and thus guys love to play for him. He’s the classic man manager and there’s a lot to be said for that. But with as much experience as he has now, it’s not enough. Wondo pretty much saved his job, I think.
The first time Yallop was with Quakes he seemed to put a premium on players with a high soccer IQ, and I don’t see that any more.
Stop the dreaming, the head office won’t be making any coacing or GM changes anytime soon especially after a season that was “successful” compared to the last 2 years. Wondo & Busch did save the season for the Quakes and gave FY & JD at least another year in charge. The team would have to miss the playoffs next year for the axe to drop, with 10 teams in the playoffs in 2011 they’ll really have to screw up to miss them.
Regarding the draft and releases, I’m happy with the out comes. The only thing I’d change would have been to try and move Ryan Johnson. RJ made himself important during the stretch run but he’s supposed to be a striker and a striker that can’t score needs to go. Glad that Brad Ring & Romero were spared in the draft.
I feel that Yallop is a passive coach who really takes risk or steps out of his comfort zone, which is evident in the way SJ comes out “flat” everyother game. I am not a fan of Yallop and am hoping this is his last season, I want a coach who will hold himself and his player responsible for the effort and style of play of the team.
Doyle on the other hand has done a good job bringing in players, taking risks to try and find the missing piece and so on. Here is hoping he finds a solide foward something we have not had. Even Wondo is not a true forward he does his best work at outside mid, he can’t hold the ball with his back to the goal. We need someone that can hold the ball up top.
Good to see that they did not offer Geo a contract, he was not worth the money. He did work hard and showed some good skill but he does not fit into the as was stated above the “tired and true 4-4-2.”
You think Doyle has done a good job? Need I remind you that he brought in Geovanni, Eduardo and Glen, not to mention Alvarez, Johnson and Sealy and they were all ineffective in their own special ways. The list of Doyle’s failures far outweighs his successes, he should be shown the door as soon as possible but Lew Wolff is in love with him for some inexplicable reason.
Tim ward secured? Id rather have arturo play left back than him.
oh gee, here we go again w/ rebuilding. lets wait and see how long it takes them to fill up these positions. we’ll be mediocre and scrappy AGAIN, and wait until the excuses of the new players not being in the system long enough to make a difference start up. iso tired of yallop and doyle’s song and dance every year.
Let’s not freak out here – Eduardo and Glen basically contributed nothing for the year, and Geovanni didn’t produce the numbers like everyone expected, especially for a DP salary attacking midfielder. Losing Cannon is an emotional blow, but not unexpected – I’m surprised he didn’t go earlier in the draft, and that’s another reason why we picked up Busch. Losing Arturo – again, disappointing, but he only scored 3 goals and 2 assists this year, so it’s not like he made a huge difference on the field. The Quakes gain salary cap space and can look at the DP market again for a pure striker so Wondo can stay at right mid. There’s a lot of room for improvement for next year, but I don’t think we’re three steps back from where we were at the Eastern Conference Championship game. Let’s see what happens in the offseason!
I think all these happenings are mostly positive. Cannon just never looked the same since he was in Colorado (and of course his first stint in SJ). Arturo showed flashes of brilliance but his extreme one-footedness and his ball-hoggedness was downright frustrating. Eduardo, wow talk about slow. And Glen missed so many chances it was unbelievable. I coulda gone either way though on Geovanni. With Seally showing some good skill, pace, and vision in the middle along with Stephenson and Luiz in the mix, it just wasn’t worth keeping him.
I am also quite pleased we didn’t lose Ring or Ward. I thought for sure those guys would get snatched up. And thank goodness Ramiro will still be leading the team next year. Looking forward to it…
I agree with all the moves. Doyle was right in not rewarding Geovanni. Most of his shots in the latter part of the season were so off line, it would’ve been a huge waste of money to renew his contract. The players play the game not the GM. I feel Doyle is doing his job by trying different players. As for coaching style we still need to be playing a more direct style of play thru midfield with one touch passing not this over the top long ball which is so inneffective unless you have a player like a Didier Drogba.Take a lesson from our partner club Tottenham who is playing the most pleasing to the eye brand of football I’ve ever seen.
“We also need to get another forward to add depth to our front line and a wide player to do the same for our midfield.”
ugh….i’m not looking for cover, but for an impact player for at least one of those spots
also, keiran, do you really feel that wondo is best deployed as a right mid?? i think he is most effective up top where he frequently finds himself in good positions around the box
i think JD did a very nice job this year, and in light of my past criticism of some of his decisions, i am happy to eat crow with the season we had….i also was fine with the outcome of the expansion draft as well as the decisions to not re-sign geo, eduardo or cornell…..however, now is not the time to be overestimating the strength of our 2010 side, but to be strengthening it for an even more successful 2011
GO QUAKES!!!!!!!
Wondo does a very good job tracking back defensively and sneaking into open positions no matter where he lines up. If the Quakes can pick up a proven striker such as Juan Pablo Angel, or a true target man like Brian Ching, who will both score and draw defenders’ attention, it gives more space for Wondo. Midfielders who are threats to score seem to be in short supply in this league and if we can have 3 dangerous scorers lining up (I think Ryan Johnson will get goals and assists with a true strike partner) and Convey on the left, we will have one of the top offenses in the league.
Robbie Keane anyone? Let’s make use of that Spurs partnership for a salary discount! Besides, it rains much less in San Jose than Vancouver.
Meanwhile, my take on our losses:
- Eduardo: too slow, too indifferent, toodle-oo.
- Glenn: was born offside; always on target (if that target was the jumbotron).
- Geovanni: unproductive; always looked like he was thinking “how did I end up here?”; not a good fit and his release is good for both him and the Quakes.
- Alvarez: I rate him ahead of Sealy, but never got enough starts to be consistent – hope he gets more at RSL.
- Cannon: GK, yogi and philosopher; always a fan favorite but the FO vibe was that he was on the way out after the Bush signing and injury. Very sad to see him go.
Overall nothing devastating, and nothing that can’t be overcome with good drafts and signings for 2011.
DeRosario to San Jose!!! OMFG please be true… Give him whatever he wants!
http://www.mls-rumors.net/12422/2010/11/outgoing-torontos-dero-to-san-jose/
I think all these happenings are mostly positive. Cannon just never looked the same since he was in Colorado (and of course his first stint in SJ). Arturo showed flashes of brilliance but his extreme one-footedness and his ball-hoggedness was downright frustrating. Eduardo, wow talk about slow. And Glen missed so many chances it was unbelievable. I coulda gone either way though on Geovanni. With Seally showing some good skill, pace, and vision in the middle along with Stephenson and Luiz in the mix, it just wasn’t worth keeping him. I am also quite pleased we didn’t lose Ring or Ward. I thought for sure those guys would get snatched up. And thank goodness Ramiro will still be leading the team next year. Looking forward to it…