San Jose Earthquakes Archive

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Agudelo is MLS POTW, but Bernier establishes himself as Player of the Month favourite

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/25/2013

Patrice Bernier: Getting lots of votes, week after week

Patrice Bernier: Getting lots of votes, week after week

Juan Agudelo was named the MLS Player of the Week Monday. The Chivas USA forward got 10 first-place votes out of the 28 ballots cast by the members of the North American Soccer Reporters.

Agudelo set up Edgar Mejia’s goal and scored on a lovely curler as the surprising Goats won 4-1 over the Fire, who can claim to be the league’s worst team through four weeks.

But, for Canadian soccer followers, the interesting story is who finished second. Montreal Impact midfielder got five first-place votes as his team shut down the New York Red Bulls 1-0 to keep its perfect start to the season alive.

This week, Bernier got five votes and finished second in POTW voting. Last week, he got seven votes and finished second. Three weeks ago, Bernier finished third in POTW voting. Every week, Bernier is getting votes, and they are coming from all across North America.
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Bostock can try to rebuild career with Toronto FC

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/08/2013

John Bostock

John Bostock

It’s a symbiotic deal: Toronto FC desperately needs attacking options, and midfielder John Bostock needs to get his career moving in a positive direction.

TFC announced Friday that Bostock, who has been in the team’s camp for weeks, has officially come to the team on a loan deal from Tottenham. Bostock, previously auditioned for the San Jose Earthquakes, which makes sense as Spurs and that MLS club have an official partnership agreement.

But Bostock now comes to TFC, which badly needs someone to link up striker Robert Earnshaw with the rest of the team. In last week’s season-opening 1-0 loss to Vancouver, the Reds were well organized and compact in the back, but played such a conservative game that Earnshaw was often left to fend for himself up top. If TFC wants to make such a conservative game plan work, it will need to capitalize on the few chances it does create — which means it needs an experienced attacking mid to get balls to Earnshaw or to create space for Earnshaw by drawing defensive pressure.
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Magee wins first MLS POTW award of 2013

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/04/2013

Mike Magee

Mike Magee

The Los Angeles Galaxy may have lost the star power of David Beckham and, at least temporarily, Landon Donovan. Still, the team began its quest for an MLS Cup threepeat with a fine 4-0 win over Chicago and produced the first Player of the Week of 2013.

Mike Magee, who scored three times Sunday in that win over Chicago, won in a landslide in the first ballot of the season for the members of the North American Soccer Reporters. Of the 29 ballots received, Magee received the first-place vote on 25 of them.

Magee’s third goal was highlight-reel worthy, a volley struck across his body that he smacked into the far corner after he chested down a loose ball.
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The Super-Duper MLS preview, 2013 edition

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/28/2013
Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, the big prize at the end of the season

Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, the big prize at the end of the season

With the MLS season moved up to its earliest start ever, forgive us if we don’t feel 100 per cent totally prepared for First Kick. Judging by the way many MLS teams finished preseason, with tentative matches and still looking at trialists with a week to go before the games count in the standings, a lot of coaches aren’t quite ready for the early start, either.

And that could be telling. The teams that got the jump and have their ducks in a row could have a real advantage in these March matchups; and they could find some bonus points that could help them in the fall.

Steven Sandor, Editor of The 11 and contributors Randy Davis, Aman Dhanoa, Mark Polishuk and Gavin Day all submitted their picks. We tallied the scores and we present our picks below.
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Official: Attakora back with the Quakes: But, he joins a very crowded back line

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/22/2013

Nana Attakora

Nana Attakora is back in Major League Soccer.

The San Jose Earthquakes announced that the club has officially repatriated the player to the league, signing him to a new contract. Toronto FC sent Attakora to the Quakes in 2011; he didn’t come back to MLS in 2012, but San Jose held his rights. Attakora played part of the Finnish League season with FC Haka after turning down a chance to sign with German Bundesliga 2. side Union Berlin.

But, Attakora is officially back with San Jose, even though it was clear for months that this was what he wanted.

What isn’t clear, though, is what this means in terms of playing time for the Canadian. The Earthquakes press release stressed that Attakora is the ninth defender signed to the roster, and first-round SuperDraft pick Tommy Muller is still in the mix. Attakora is the fourth centre back on the roster.
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Six ex-TFC players change addresses in second stage MLS Re-Entry draft

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/14/2012

Eric Avila: Selected by Colorado

If Friday was your first day following MLS, all you’d need to do is look at the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft to comprehend just how many players have called Toronto FC home over the club’s relatively short six-year existence.

Of the 14 players taken in the second stage, six can claim that they’ve spent part of their careers at Toronto FC.

From the 2012 roster, TFC lost central defender Ty Harden and midfielder Eric Avila. Harden, who began the season as a starter in central defence, spent the majority of the second half of the season on the TFC bench. He moves to San Jose. And Colorado chose Avila with the sixth pick overall.

Conor Casey, who played with TFC in 2007, went to the Philadelphia Union. As the main scoring threat in Colorado, Casey was named MVP of the 2010 MLS Cup, which was held at BMO Field. New England nabbed Chad Barrett, the ex-TFC forward who spent part of last season in Oslo, teaming with Canadians Lars Hirschfeld and Tosaint Ricketts at Valerenga. New England also got Hunter Freeman, who spent part of the 2008 season with TFC before heading to Scandinavia.

Dan Gargan, the master of the long throw who was a fan favourite in Toronto, was picked up by San Jose, where he and Harden can swap TFC stories, provided they both come to contract agreements with the Earthquakes.
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Confirmation of what we already knew: Wondo is MLS MVP

By
Steven Sandor
– 11/29/2012

Chris Wondolowski

It was about as one-sided as an Alberta election. And, really, why did MLS even need to have an MVP vote in 2012?

In a year when San Jose Earthquakes’ star forward Chris Wondolowski tied a league record with 27 goals in a season, when he led a team that missed the playoffs in 2011 to the Supporters’ Shield in 2012, was there really any choice?

It would be the most punk of punk-rock voters who would decide to raise a middle finger to the establishment and not vote for Wondo.
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New FCE coach Miller has many fond Edmonton memories

By
Steven Sandor
– 11/27/2012

New FCE coach Colin Miller, left, with owner Tom Fath.

Colin Miller applied for the FC Edmonton coaching job after having a heart-to-heart chat with University of Alberta soccer coach Len Vickery.

Miller was working as an assistant at the University of the Fraser Valley, and when his team met the U of A, he asked Vickery about FC Edmonton. Was the team stable? Was ownership solid?

After Vickery endorsed FC Edmonton, Miller — a former Canadian national-team captain, 15-year Scottish League veteran, and assistant with the Whitecaps — applied for the Eddies’ vacant coaching position. And, on Tuesday, he was introduced as the team’s new head coach, in the same Commonwealth Stadium in which he played for Canada throughout the 1990s.

“This famous stadium brings back a lot of memories,” said Miller, thinking back to the many World Cup qualifiers he played for Canada on the old grass at Commonwealth, as well as that famous 1-1 draw with Brazil back in 1994.

“Edmonton was our home at the time,” said Miller. “We were very passionate about playing here.”
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Yallop wins MLS coach of the year honour

By
Steven Sandor
– 11/27/2012

Frank Yallop

Last season, a Canadian (Dwayne De Rosario) was named MLS MVP. In 2012, a Canadian is MLS coach of the year.

In a landslide win, San Jose Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop was named the top gaffer of the year. MLS announced the results of the balloting on Tuesday morning.

Yallop steered the Earthquakes, who missed the playoffs the season before, to the Supporters’ Shield, which goes to the team with the league’s best regular-season record. With that first-overall finish comes an automatic berth in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Yallop got more than 74 per cent of the vote from MLS general managers and coaches, 63.83 per cent of the media vote and a hair over 58 per cent of the player vote.
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Bernardez wins two of three categories, but Besler wins MLS Defender of the Year

By
Steven Sandor
– 11/20/2012

Matt Besler

Matt Besler was named the MLS Defensive Player of the Year on Tuesday, while Whitecaps’ centre back Jay DeMerit had to settle for fourth in the voting.

But the voting numbers were fascinating to read. The Sporting Kansas City man won the award based on a strong show of support from the media — but he didn’t get nearly that kind of endorsement from either MLS coaches, general managers or players.

Besler appeared in 31 matches for the league’s best back line, which gave up just 27 goals this year. And Aurelien Collin, Besler’s fiery teammate, finished third in the voting. So Besler won despite having to survive a Kansas City vote split.

So let’s break down Besler’s vote: He got 46.97 per cent of the media vote. To put that in perspective, the second-place finisher, San Jose’s Victor Bernardez got just 15.15 per cent of the media tallies. And DeMerit got a hair over six per cent.
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