Photo Gallery: CLS photographers pick their best soccer images of 2014

Joe Nuxoll.

Gallery on Flickr here.

Joe picks Joe: Choosing your own favorite photo is like choosing a favorite child. You just can't do it. I personally really like action shots, as well as those that really highlight the access on the field. As an on-field photographer, the view we see of the game cannot be matched. I had a lot of shots I wanted to highlight, but had trouble choosing between the beauty of frozen moments of impossible action, or the great view we have as fans of the game. I also had a few that represent how I feel about the future of the club.

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Joe picks Lyndsay: Lyndsay is an incredibly good photographer, but what I really like about her stuff is the capture of human moments. She does fan shots better than anyone else. There are hundreds of great soccer action shots, but I spent more time picking out fan shots that only Lyndsay can capture. Here are a selection of my favorites, but the standout shot is of a group of little girls on the sideline with face paint. So cute. They are so excited to be on the sideline!

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Joe picks Maciek: Maciek is an amazing photographer, and has a similar style to my own. He really does a great job on action shots, capturing the moment of pure sport. He has hundreds of incredible shots, but herethe standout is as always with soccer photos, a shot of the team celebrating a goal. This well-composed shot also has Alan Gordon slightly in the background (dropping out of focus), which was almost like a foreshadowing.

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Lyndsay Radnedge.

Gallery on Flickr here.

Lyndsay picks Lyndsay: This is one of the first shots that I post-processed successfully in black-and-blue, and I really like how the texture of the Earthquakes shirt came out. Alan Gordon always had a great intensity to capture when he scored, and this 94th minute equalizer against Toluca is probably the last of the Goonie goals before he was traded to LA. He was always one of my favorite players to shoot.

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Lyndsay picks Maciek: Maciek has a really distinct style with high contrast and muted colors – he won’t tell me how he does it! His style is exemplified very well here in Syndeny Leroux's goal celebration during the USWNT’s victory over Canada in January; great bokeh and clean background really makes it pop.

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Lyndsay Picks Joe: A sense of depth is common to all of the photographs I love; any kind of photography, not just sports. This shot of Joe’s has a fabulous layering: from the ball in the foreground, and an intensely focused Steven Lenhart being shadowed by his former team mate Bobby Burling, and then, yet farther behind, the other players watching the play unfold from the background.

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Maciek Gudrymowicz.

Gallery on Flickr here.

Maciek picks Maciek: The reason I chose this photo as one of my favorites of the year is because it was Tommy Thompson's first, of hopefully many more to come, goals for the Quakes. His skill and talent make him a promising player on the team and this picture captures the start of a great career.

Maciek picks Joe: It's really difficult to pick just one great action shot, as Joe captures players in so many great moments. Players would love to have some of the shots Joe manages to get them in, like this one of the Wondo's USMNT team mate completely in the air as the ball makes its way past him towards the net.

Robert picks Joe: One thing that I can always count on from Joe in each of his galleries is a sequence of rapid-fire photos. He's captured some incredible goals this way, but sometimes they are moments that take on such an amazing look when broken down into a series of shots. This one of Cordell Cato against the Chicago Fire is part of one such sequence, and this shot was my favorite.

Robert picks Lyndsay: Whereas Joe is so amazing at capturing action, Lyndsay for me is the best as capturing moments. For many of these photos, she does a little post-production to really make the images stand out (see the Alan Gordon photo above). This shot of former Earthquakes goalkeeper Jon Busch, the unsung hero of the 2014 season, is one that I always find myself seeking out. Intensity of color, intensity of features, intensity in expression.

Robert picks Maciek: From the joy on Chris Wondolowski's face, to the subtle but certain celebratory stance of Clarence Goodson in the background, Maciek took one of the best sports photos I have seen all year. Yes, I said sports photo. Fans live and die by their teams; this was a moment from early in the year for Earthquakes fans to savor during what would become a season to forget.

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2015: The future of the San Jose Earthquakes.

Happy New Year from Center Line Soccer. We're looking forward to updating this picture for the 2015 season. The stadium superstructure has been completed since this photo was taken, and the Earthquakes fans are looking forward to seeing their first home grown signing, Tommy Thompson, make his mark at The Avayard.