We knew it was coming this week and MLS HW has officially announced some of the dates for next year's home opener games, including our own Portland Timbers home opener. This year, the Portland Timbers will host the New York Red Bulls at Jeld-Wen Field on march 3rd, no exact time yet given.
A little Christmas present for all Major League Soccer fans. MLS has announced on Tuesday their First Kick schedule for the start of the 2013 season.
MLS will start in early March this year, moving up the start of the season yet again to help with international dates due to the FIFA World Cup qualifying that will take place next year.
My weekend got away from me so some of today's posts are a day or so old. Forgive me on that.
Anyways, this is still news nonetheless here.MLS Commissioner Don Garber on Saturday indicated that Buck Shaw Stadium would not be an option should the San Jose Earthquakes reach the MLS Cup final.
The fireworks on the field during the Los Angeles Galaxy-San Jose Earthquakes game carried over into the stands, leading to the arrests of at least seven fans during the 2-2 draw on Sunday.
Ugly scenes erupted at Buck Shaw Stadium just after the start of the second half on Sunday when a fight reportedly took place and two smoke bombs were ignited in the Galaxy fans section.
The San Jose Earthquakes just keep on winning and Chivas USA just keeps on bleeding goals and
squandering chances to get into the Western Conference playoff race.
In a result that should have been inevitable considering the form of the Earthquakes attack and
the sad state of the Chivas USA defense, the Earthquakes rolled to a 4-0 victory at Buck Shaw
Stadium on Sunday night.
That was certainly not how the Seattle Sounders imagined this week going. Losing to both
Sporting Kansas City and the San Jose Earthquakes would have been bad enough, but doing it in the
way they did makes it almost unfathomable.
The more depressing loss was the penalty shootout on Wednesday, but the way the Sounders lost
2-1 on Saturday was just pouring salt on the wound.
While few could've predicted how it would happen, it would be hard for anyone to be surprised by
what the San Jose Earthquakes pulled off Saturday night.
In what has become the latest in a series of astonishing late heroics by San Jose, Steven
Lenhart scored a 93rd-minute winner to stun the Seattle Sounders and earn the Earthquakes a 2-1
victory at Buck Shaw Stadium.
There are just four matches on the MLS schedule tonight, but three of them are battles between
teams thick in the playoff race.
The Seattle Sounders will look to move past the disappointment of losing in the U.S. Open Cup
Final when they travel to San Jose to take on an Earthquakes side coming off a bye week.
Saturday night's 7:30 PM KONG televised game between the Seattle Sounders FC and the San Jose
Earthquakes could be Seattle's last chance at the top of the Western Conference. With the one game
in hand, two games against the 'Quakes and only seven points difference, this is the chance that
any team asks for within their season.
The San Jose Eathquakes are the MLS comeback kings of 2012, and Swansea City were the latest
team to find that out.
Inspired by two late goals from Steven Lenhart, the Earthquakes rallied to a 2-2 draw with
Swansea in a friendly played at Buck Shaw Stadium on Tuesday night.
For more than 90 minutes on Saturday night, Sean Johnson was a wall the San jose Earthquakes
simply couldn't get past. The Chicago Fire goalkeeper was enjoying a dream game and looked like he
was on his way to another shutout win.
An inordinate amount of stoppage time, and San Jose's penchant for late goals spoiled the night
for Johnson and the Fire.
The Chicago Fire were on the road tonight in Santa Clara, California to take on the San Jose
Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium in front of a crowd of 10,525. This was a very physical match that
featured some late on-field dramatics and a bit of a goalie duel between Fire keeper Sean Johnson
and Earthquakes keeper, John Busch.
The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced Friday that the club has acquired Alvaro Fernandez from
Seattle Sounders FC in return for allocation money. Fernandez will occupy a Designated Player slot
and is expected to join the team in San Jose prior to the Fire's match against the San Jose
Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
The San Jose Earthquakes looked well on their way to another home victory on Wednesday night
before a late FC Dallas rally threatened to spoil the party at Buck Shaw Stadium.
Dallas couldn't complete the comeback though. Defender Jair Benitez failed to make that happen
when he sent a stoppage time penalty kick over the crossbar, dooming FC Dallas to a 2-1 loss.
Wondolowski upped his season total to 17 goals this past weekend, netting a hat-trick and
delivering an assist that inspired the San Jose Earthquakes to a 5-0 dismantling of Real Salt Lake
at Buck Shaw Stadium on Saturday. Wondolowski's performance helped him surpass his goal-scoring
total from a year ago and has him one shy of his career best, and it is the reason he won SBI's MLS
Player of the Week award.
If there were any lingering doubts about the San Jose Earthquakes and their legitimacy as MLS
title contenders, those doubts were erased on Saturday night by a dominating performance against
the team closest to them in the standings.
Chris Wondolowski scored a hat-trick, bringing his total to a league-best 17, to lead the
Earthquakes to a 5-0 thrashing of Real Salt Lake at Buck Shaw Stadium in San Jose.
This weekend's soccer schedule is dominated by MLS, with some intriguing games highlighting the
slate including one with major implications atop the Supporters' Shield table.
The top two teams in the Western Conference and the league -- the San Jose Earthquakes and Real
Salt Lake -- square off for the third and final time during the regular season, with the
Earthquakes going for the season sweep at Buck Shaw Stadium.
The Goonies from the South Bay are taking their 2012 US Open Cup run on the road, by only a few
miles. In fact this will be their third straight home match at a non-standard facility for the San
Jose Earthquakes. Tonight's 7:30 PM match (radio 97.3FM & audio stream for Seattle, video stream
from San Jose) will be at Kezar Stadium.
The road to the U.S. Open Cup title may very well go through Seattle again.
Should the Seattle Sounders defeat the San Jose Earthquakes in Tuesday's Open Cup quarterfinal,
the three-time defending tournament champions would host the semifinal match against either Chivas
USA or USL Pro's Charlotte Eagles at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wash.
Barring a pair of colossal upsets, MLS teams will be hosting both U.S. Open Cup semifinals this
year. The Seattle Sounders, Philadelphia Union and San Jose Earthquakes would each be guaranteed to
host if they win their quarterfinal matches.
Sporting Kansas City would host only if the Harrisburg City Islanders upset the Philadelphia
Union, while Chivas USA is the only MLS team guaranteed to go on the road if they win.
U.S. Soccer has announced the semifinal possible pairings and locations for the 2012 Lamar Hunt
U.S. Open Cup.
The remaining eight-team field consists of five MLS teams three-time defending champion Seattle
Sounders FC, Chivas USA, the Philadelphia Union, the San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting Kansas
City.
Last week Ryan and I shared our competing analyses projecting what the MLS table is likely to
look at by the end of the season. While there were some minute differences between our approaches,
one trend seemed to be present in both models. Two groups are emerging in the Western Conference
this year: a group of five teams that look set to take the playoff spots, and a group of four teams
that might be out of the running long before the season ends.
Alan Gordon came through in the clutch to prevent the San Jose Earthquakes from losing for the
second straight week, and this time he did so in spectacular fashion.
A week after heading home a late equalizer against Chivas USA, Gordon repeated his late-game
heroics by scoring a sideways bicycle kick in the last minute of regulation to give the Earthquakes
a 1-1 draw versus the Columbus Crew at Buck Shaw Stadium.
Chris Wondolowski did not score or assist on a goal for the first time in eight games. That
didn't mean that the San Jose Earthquakes didn't have anybody else to pick up the slack and rescue
a point at home.
Alan Gordon headed home a cross from rookie Sam Garza to burn Chivas USA, one of his former
clubs, in the 88th minute and salvage a 1-1 draw for the San Jose Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium
Sunday night.
Summer friendly season in the United States is not only for the giants of European soccer.
The Columbus Crew and Sporting Kansas City announced that they will be hosting Stoke City, and
the San Jose Earthquakes and Colorado Rapids will be playing Swansea City in friendlies in July and
August.
In a battle of two teams riding lengthy unbeaten streaks, D.C. United looked poised to knock off
the San Jose Earthquakes when they delivered the first blow courtesy of a Dwayne DeRosario goal
just eight minutes into their match on Wednesday night.
There's a new top dog in the MLS Western Conference.
Playing with nine men, conference-leading Real Salt Lake succumbed to two San Jose Earthquakes
goals in second-half stoppage time, as San Jose won 3-1 at Buck Shaw Stadium to take over the top
spot in the West.
Simon Dawkins scored the game-winner off Stephen Beitashour's second assist of the night, and
Chris Wondolowski netted his league-leading eighth goal to cap off the victory -- San Jose's first
over RSL since July 3, 2009.
D.C. United and the New York Red Bulls will renew their longtime rivalry Sunday, and they'll do
so with second place in the Eastern Conference at stake.
The match features two of the league's most in-form teams, with New York unbeaten in four and
United undefeated in five.
The Vancouver Whitecaps made history by being the MLS team with the longest start to a season
without conceding a goal, and then they proceeded to giving up three in a short span.
Led by a brace from Chris Wondolowski, the San Jose Earthquakes scored three times in 11 minutes
to defeat the Whitecaps, 3-1, at Buck Shaw Stadium on Saturday evening.
Oh no! Early reports from the Netherlands say that Jozy Altidore fell into the advertising boards
during AZ's game today and was knocked unconscious. No other details yet.
dN
Real Madrid got the win it needed today to win the Spanish Primera championship for 2011-12!
Amateur team Stanislaus United Turlock Express qualifies for the US Open Cup!
dN
Remember last summer when the huge match fixing scandal broke out in Turkey and all those people
were arrested? Do you know that there has still been no punishment handed out to anyone, and barely
to any teams?
There were two long home winning streaks going into Wednesday night clashes at home for the San Jose Earthquakes and the New York Red Bulls.
Neither team had lost an MLS game at their home stadium this season. (San Jose lost one home game this season, but it took place at AT&T Park in San Francisco).
With the whirlwind that was yesterday and the close of the transfer window behind us, it's time
to look forward to tonight's game. Unfortunately I didn't hear back from the Quakes blog editor for
a 3 questions exchange. Instead, I am here this morning to bring you a preview with a few things I
will be looking for in tonight's match up.
Before we get started on attendance, one quick business note from the weekend. For those of
you interested in television ratings for the league, here is a link with a pretty complete list of
ratings for this season. The last few numbers have actually been quite good for the league, with
the last few matches showing a significant increase on both NBSCN and on ESPN.
