What has driven Earthquakes to the top?

[AreliusII]

It sure isn't love


Posted on Thu, Sep. 15, 2005



What has driven Earthquakes to the top? It sure isn't love

By Ann Killion
Mercury News

They've been knocked down, kicked around, ignored, neglected, all but abandoned.

But when you look at the standings, there they are, right on top. Your San Jose Earthquakes are in first place in Major League Soccer's Western Conference, the only team in the league to have clinched a playoff spot.

``It's a pretty darn good team,'' Coach Dominic Kinnear says.

And he's a pretty darn good coach. Coach of the year, in fact, unless the team's operator, the Anschutz Entertainment Group, buys off some voters in an effort to not make the corporation look bad.

Kinnear and his Earthquakes are making AEG look bad. Laughable, almost. This is the team AEG hates, wants to abandon, would prefer to move to a sexier market. AEG has stripped the team of its star and its general manager, has tried to scare fans away from its stadium by constantly reminding everyone how woefully inadequate it is.

And yet, all the Earthquakes do is win.

Kinnear is most proud of his team's competitive spirit. What is he most disappointed in?

``I'd like to know what's going to happen next.''

Wouldn't we all? In an ironic twist, the Earthquakes may have been temporarily saved by a hurricane. As late as Aug. 23, AEG reportedly was talking to Houston about moving the Earthquakes there. But a week later those talks became virtually irrelevant. Houston is busy responding to the needs of thousands of displaced New Orleans residents. Its government would look a little foolish right now, making acquisition of an MLS team a priority.

So the Earthquakes remain in limbo -- winning, drawing crowds (22,311 last week), heading to the playoffs and perhaps another championship. Certainly it's a worst-case scenario for AEG.

The Earthquakes lead the West by 12 points. Behind them? The Los Angeles Galaxy, AEG's favorite son. The Galaxy has not capitalized on Landon Donovan's arrival, losing twice in San Jose and winning just once this season away from its home stadium. Coach Steve Sampson's record on the road with the Galaxy is as impressive as his mark with the U.S. team at the 1998 World Cup.

Donovan, of course, wanted to defect to Los Angeles, in part because the Earthquakes' situation was so wretchedly unstable. The insecurity has hurt the Earthquakes in other ways. When top players become available -- Clint Mathis, Eddie Pope -- they have no interest in coming to San Jose for much the same reason.

In January, Kinnear had just seven players under contract. He has built a team -- yes, he's the personnel man as well, thanks to the stripping down of the front office -- without big names, rather with solid players committed to the league and the town. He has no superstar dominating the scoring but has gotten 30 goals from six players. And Kinnear has been masterful at making his players happy to be in San Jose. The inadequacies of their situation -- such as changing clothes behind a shed at West Valley College rather than driving back to Spartan Stadium for a shower because the long-promised training facility has never materialized -- pale next to winning. They forget that they are the unwanted team. And they just play soccer.

Kinnear never exhorts them to win to save the franchise. Or to prove their worthiness.

``We just want to win,'' he said. ``We want to win the whole thing. I think we have a team capable of doing it. We try not to talk about the situation.''

But, he concedes, sometimes he talks about it at home with his wife, wondering what will become of him and his terrific team. After all, Kinnear is a native; he grew up in Fremont, played for the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks and the Clash, and has served on the coaching staff of this team for five seasons, the past two as the head man. He knows the Earthquakes have built something here that can work, if given the chance.

Kinnear has done such a great job that Earthquakes fans have no choice but to be nervous. Alexi Lalas, who moved to the MetroStars -- a more important AEG team -- is expected to fire his coach, and he probably would try to hire the league's best. That would be Kinnear. That worst-case scenario would fit perfectly with AEG's Machiavellian master plan.

The Earthquakes, sadly, are accustomed to such mistreatment. They also are accustomed to something else: success.


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Contact Ann Killion at akillion [at] mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5805.

[SoccerPrime]

You know what?
I really like the Quakes.
Dom Kinnear is genius. What he has done this year with that team is amazing. And not only do they not have stars on the team, they are super fun to watch.

Build them a dang stadium already!

[Deuce]

Originally Posted by SoccerPrime

Build them a dang stadium already!

They will get a stadium....
In Houston...

😉