Americans of all creeds gathered to grab a blue shovel to build a home the new domain of the San Jose Earthquakes. On Sunday, a world record crowd of 6,256 fans grabbed shovels and dug for two minutes on the land destined to spring forth a new era in Bay Area soccer. The man from the Guinness Book of World Records gave his assent and the deal was done.
Seattle Sounders slim chance at winning the Supporter's Shield was crushed Saturday evening in Seattle when the San Jose Earthquakes put on an offensive display that shows that they truly belong at the top of the MLS Table. The two sides have been building some bad blood recently, a couple of close matches, a couple of physical altercations, the same mutually exclusive prize in an unbalanced schedule and you've got a budding rivalry.
SAN JOSE, Calif. As a grandiloquent, knock-down athlete with airy skills to see, there was perhaps no better MLS squad for Marcus Tracy to farmstead with than the San Jose Earthquakes. And that's precisely how matters transpired on Thursday. Read More
The Supporters' Shield is San Jose's to lose at this point. (US Presswire)
As I mentioned yesterday, the MLS Supporters' Shield race has gotten a little tighter in recent
weeks. Overall though it is not anywhere close to being a five or even a six team race like
previously thought. No, it really is down to three maybe four teams at most.
The most notable aspect of the forthcoming SB Nation MLS Power Rankings is the ability to judge
if people are paying attention to the league as a whole, late to make adjustments or just not
believing that recent form matters. There are two teams that should show positive movement on this
front (Crew, Dallas) and there are two teams that deserve negative movement off of recent form
(Revolution and United).
When the home team is in last place, there are things we sometimes do to make the remainder of
the lost season more bearable. Especially if we're regular contributors to a blog that covers said
last place team.
1. Get really excited about next year. Obviously, with news that the Portland Timbers' next head
coach will be hired soon, many Timbers fans have high hopes for what a new coach might be capable
of.
Seattle's last two losses in all competitions are to the San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting
Kansas City. In some ways it is fitting that these are the only two teams ahead of the Sounders in
the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings. Seattle is as high as it has been since week 11. The votes they
receive are primarily for 2 or 3 with two at 4 and one at 5.
The Portland Timbers controlled play for much of last night's 3-1 loss to the San Jose
Earthquakes in reserve league play but were unable to finish their chances despite out-shooting the
'Quakes 21 to 5 The game took place in a crowded Jeld-Wen Field as some beautiful weather and a
GroupOn deal on tickets brought families in droves to the game.
A lot has happened since the last time I wrote one of these (vacations and such), but let's just
focus on two key things.
Firstly, FC Dallas has gone on a winning streak that is starting to look like a serious run at
the playoffs. I know -- who would have thought? But suddenly the breaks are starting to go their
way, and the quality many of us thought they had at the beginning of the season is finally starting
to materialize.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Ryan Lanigan contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.
As far as I'm concerned, Major League Soccer is, aside from the League of Parity, also the League
of Trades. (Known alternatively as the League of Wait, What? and League of No Really, Where Are
They Now? respectively.) While player transfers are part of the game no matter where you go in the
world (looking at you, Robin Van Persie), it's always felt to me like MLS has a particular affinity
for trading, and trading, and then trading some more.
As far as I'm concerned, Major League Soccer is, aside from the League of Parity, also the League
of Trades. (Known alternatively as the League of Wait, What? and League of No Really, Where Are
They Now? respectively.) While player transfers are part of the game no matter where you go in the
world (looking at you, Robin Van Persie), it's always felt to me like MLS has a particular affinity
for trading, and trading, and then trading some more.
Seattle and Vancouver renew their rivalry this weekend. (Getty Images)
Are you ready? That's probably a question a lot of coaches will be asking this weekend of their
players mainly the ones that will be pulling double duty this week.
MLS heads into a busy, busy weekend with nine games spread out over two days.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Ryan Lanigan contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.
1. SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (14-5-5, 47 points)
Huge last second win over Seattle as San Jose improves to 6-2-2 in their last ten, best in the West
and tied top overall.
Seattle Sounders FC managed to pull even with the San Jose Earthquakes in the 92nd minute when
Fredy Montero poached a goal on a long throw-in. Unfortunately for the Seattle side that had
weathered so much pressure with a reduced lineup the game lasted just over a minute when Steven
Lenhart worked his late game set-play magic and gave the 'Quakes the 2-1 winner.
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.
When Seattle went on that winning streak to start the season there was latency. It was Sporting
Kansas City that got the most early love. Then as the San Jose Earthquakes shook things up, Seattle
plummeted. Now, the Sounders are in a lossless streak (3-0-3 +6 in MLS) and there's still some
latency.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.
Me: Soccer player wearing two-tone green soccer shirt, white shorts and expensive shoes. You:
Large, rectangular object wearing hexagonal netting. I kicked a ball in your general direction
several times over the course of 90 minutes; fate intervened. Hoping to see you again on
Sunday?
I was ready to let Saturday go. I really was. The breaks are the breaks. Head referee Chris
Penso called for 5 minutes of extra time in this past weekend's Chicago Fire vs. San Jose
Earthquakes game but Chris Lenhart was able to score a goal in the 98th minute of play anyway. I'm
sure somewhere down the line the Chicago Fire will benefit from a time keeping error (perhaps this
was even cosmic payback for a mistake in the past).
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.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.
San Jose has the inside track to the Supporters' Shield. (US Presswire)
With the MLS All Star game last night I felt like the league is well past the halfway point to
be able to begin doing a broader look at the league's Supporters' Shield race. I hope to do more
installments of this race as we go along here.
In the latest edition of the SB Nation MLS power Rankings the Seattle Sounders fell, fairly
significantly so for a team that didn't play a league match. To go from an average vote rank of
5.35 to 7 without a game isn't a recognition of the Sounders, but an indication instead that the
teams in the third tier (Whitecaps, Dynamo, United, Sounders and Galaxy) are quite similar at this
point of the season.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Julian Cardillo contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.
As the Sounders get ready for a self-selected break to fit in their friendly versus Chelsea
their original opponent for the weekend is struggling. Not struggling like they look merely
average, instead Real Salt Lake is just plain bad lately. Lately in this case goes back about six
weeks. They are basically as bad as Seattle was during their slide, but the Sounders never lost to
a lower division team.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Julian Cardillo contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team. *Note:
Games played on July 11th were not included in these rankings.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Brian O'Connell contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team. *Note:
Games played on July 3rd were not included in these rankings.
It's finally come. Â After a few years of dangerous tackles and public outbursts against officials,
MLS finally has a very public example of poor behavior by David Beckham that will either lead to a
suspension or a discrediting of league ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.
In the two weeks since the Sounders Centric Power Rankings graph there hasn't been much
movement. You can see a bit of up and down for most of the teams, except in the case of Real Salt
Lake. The one time darlings of the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings are now ranked just 6th overall and
are in middle of their second multi-week slide of the 2012 season.
It's the final trip to the East Coast for the Seattle Sounders. When asked about the benefit of
that Sigi Schmid reminded all that they would also be taking a trip to Trinidad and Honduras for
the Champions League. The team will still get a couple extra training days a month after Sunday's
match against the New York Red Bulls.
PORTLAND, Ore. – It was a night of firsts as both Danny Mwanga and Jack Jewsbury scored their
first goals of the season to lead the Portland Timbers to a 2-1 victory over San Jose Tuesday night
at JELD-WEN Field. Photo Gallery
It resulted in the first loss for the Earthquakes – who came into the game with MLS' best
record – since May 27, ending their three-game winning streak and knocking them off their high
from Saturday's 4-3 victory over the LA Galaxy.
Montreal 0-3 Toronto After settling for two draws despite holding two goal leads last week,
Toronto FC won their second game of the season against Canadian rivals the Montreal Impact. Toronto
started out strong, forcing a save from Donovan Rickets to keep the game level in the first minute
of play.
The Sounders Centric graph will have to return next week due to computer issues. Seattle is 6th,
barely ahead of the Whitecaps and a bit ahead of LA. RSL and Quakes both well ahead of the
Sounders. Gavin is still at the bottom.
In the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings the Seattle Sounders are on the bounce. Getting off that
winless streak certainly helped, but so did some relatively poor performances (Fire, Whitecaps)
around them. Let's take a moment to remember that happens to other teams too.
One of the intriguing things about tracking the rankings via the graph is the extraordinary
stability by Real Salt Lake.
Over the years we have repeatedly written about efforts to build stadium for the Earthquakes in
San Jose. After multiple fits and starts, the team appears to cross the final hurdles and appears
ready to start the construction process.  San Jose city officials approved the Planned
Development permit for the construction of the proposed Earthquakes stadium a number of months
ago.
Thanks for your patience. I am back from vacation and ready to write as Major League Soccer
prepares for its playoff push, European leagues get underway, World Cup Qualifying heats up and the
Fall television season is upon us. I hope you enjoyed some of the vault posts from the past and
thank you for some of the comments posted here or to the footiebusiness e-mail in my absence.
Ah, the Clash Back to the main point of this blog. Things don't get easier for the
Rapids as their at the Supporters Shield leading Earthquakes tomorrow night. Not an easy place to
turn things around. Game time tomorrow is 8:30pm on Altitude, so go out and enjoy the bike race in
Golden, Boulder, or areas in-between, get a good dinner, and settle down for some soccer.
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.
