San Jose Earthquakes still waiting to resume training

MLS announced this week that teams in the league can ramp up training, allowing them to participate in voluntary small group sessions at club training grounds. But one club, the San Jose Earthquakes, have yet to be cleared by local authorities to train at all due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With D.C. United and the Chicago Fire given permission to train by local health authorities this week, that leaves the Earthquakes as the only team in MLS to not have been given a green light to train so far. MLS originally approved voluntary individual training sessions with enhanced health and hygiene measures to help stop the spread of coronavirus to begin on May 6, and in the weeks since, teams around the league have jumped back into the fray.

But an Earthquakes spokesperson confirmed to Center Line Soccer Friday afternoon that the club was still not training, and was not able to offer a timeline on when the club would be getting back into training.

The Bay Area was one of the first parts of the United States to shut down when the pandemic really hit stateside in early March, and Santa Clara County has been among the strictest in the nation in terms of public health orders. To be fair, the County has been quite effective in this regard, with fewer than 3,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 140 official deaths to date.

The person responsible for allowing sports to return to the county previously said he didn’t think that would happen before Thanksgiving at the earliest. While the Quakes are likely headed to Orlando eventually if the widely-reported proposal to restart the MLS season proceeds, it’s less clear what would happen after the tournament in Florida, with reports indicating teams could return to playing in their home stadiums behind closed doors. But that’s if local authorities approve that, and whether that would happen for the Earthquakes is unclear.

But at this point, that’s all theoretical. For now, the Earthquakes are the final team on the sidelines, waiting to get back in the training fray along with the rest of MLS.

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