MLSsoccer.com continue our look back at the 2014 season that was for all 19 clubs in Major League Soccer, starting with the Montreal Impact and ending with the MLS Cup-winning LA Galaxy. We'll also take a peek at the two new clubs coming in and pour one out for departed friends Chivas USA. You can find the 2014 Year in Review HERE, and the club-by-club history of MLS HERE.
2014 record: 6-16-12 (30 points); 35 GF / 50 GA (-15 GD)
The San Jose Earthquakes couldn’t have set the bar any lower for their move into a new, soccer-specific stadium in 2015.
After a dismal 2014 campaign concluded with a franchise-record 15-match winless streak and a last-place finish in the Western Conference, the Quakes have nowhere to go but up as they prepare to christen Avaya Stadium under the guidance of prodigal coach Dominic Kinnear, who returns after moving from San Jose’s first MLS team to Houston in 2005.
They said it...
Goalkeeper Jon Busch:
“To me, this was a terrible season. It hurt. It hurt a lot that we couldn’t find a way to get out of this and to right the ship. I’ve been around a long time, and usually every team goes through tough times during the season, but you always find ways to get out of it. Unfortunately, this year, we just could not find a way to get out of it. For me, that drove me crazy. It’s going to motivate me -- it should motivate the rest of the guys -- so it never happens again.”
Quakes president David Kaval on Dominic Kinnear hiring:
“It was our intention to wait. We didn’t want this to cloud the season. But really the only way that we were able to move forward was by doing it within the season, because we had a prescribed amount of time to work to an arrangement with Dominic. It wasn’t our ideal situation; it’s not something we wanted. ... But it really was the only way we could acquire who we feel is the best possible coach for the San Jose Earthquakes.”
General manager John Doyle:
“I think anytime you don’t have a successful season, there’s going to be some changes. I also don’t think it’s a thing where -- I heard this from a coach that I have a lot of respect for, and he said, ‘Good players don’t all of a sudden become bad.’ I think we have a lot of good players. Maybe in 2012 we had career years for a lot of guys. In 2014, we had career bad years for a lot of guys. ... I wouldn’t say it’s going to be the whole team turned over, that’s for sure.”
The Quakes got typical double-digit production out of Chris Wondolowski, who tallied 14 times in just 26 matches to extend his franchise-best total to 89 goals, and enjoyed flashes from their first Homegrown signing, attacker Tommy Thompson.
But injuries (Yannick Djalo, Clarence Goodson, Steven Lenhart and even new Designated Player Matias Perez Garcia all missed significant time) and World Cup absences ravaged the Quakes’ playoff hopes. By the end of the year, there was plenty of collateral damage: coach Mark Watson was fired with two matches left in his first full season to make way for Kinnear, fan favorite Alan Gordon was dealt back to the arch-rival LA Galaxy and plenty more former teammates may follow suit in this winter’s housecleaning.
Best Moment of the Year
The Quakes parted ways with former coach Frank Yallop under strained circumstances midway through 2013, and San Jose welcomed him back on July 23 by thoroughly spanking his new club, the Chicago Fire, 5-1. An injury to Lenhart forced Watson to pair Wondolowski and Djalo on the front line, moving the Quakes away from their typical target-forward-featuring 4-4-2 formation. San Jose went on to slash their way past Chicago’s defense with backbreaking runs and pinpoint lead passes. In all, five different Quakes scored, including Djalo, who turned in a glorious 20-yard chip over helpless Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
Worst (On-Field) Moment of the Year
It didn’t take long for the Quakes’ season to entirely unravel. Just 3 1/2 weeks after that victory against Chicago, San Jose hosted red-hot FC Dallas and were blown off the Buck Shaw Stadium pitch, 5-0. Tesho Akindele registered his first professional hat trick and Fabian Castillo bagged a brace as Dallas simply shredded San Jose’s back four en route to delivering the Quakes’ worst-ever defeat in 532 MLS matches.
Worst (Off-Field) Moment of the Year
Watson, who only shed the interim tag last winter, was in obvious trouble, from a job-security standpoint, as the winless streak stretched out from August to September to October. But the way in which the former Canadian international – who had worked for San Jose since 2010 – met his end was a truly messy affair. After media reports linked the Quakes with Kinnear – who was still leading Houston at the time – San Jose was forced to make a hurried announcement about Kinnear’s impending return and replace Watson with interim coach Ian Russell.
Best Goal
Veteran French midfielder Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi did not turn out to be the box-to-box force that San Jose were hoping for when they signed the former Ajaccio captain, but he did catch lightning with a 35-yard golazo against FC Dallas on May 31. The powerful strike left Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz with no chance and secured what would be San Jose’s only road victory of the entire season.
Team MVP
For many fans, Wondolowski will forever be remembered for his miss in the waning minutes of regulation against Belgium for the US at this summer’s World Cup. But the 31-year-old refused to let that errant shot drag him down, mentally, and the 2012 league MVP delivered nine goals and four assists in 17 appearances after returning from Brazil. Despite missing eight matches, Wondolowski’s 14 goals on the year were 10 ahead of the Quakes’ second-place scorer, Atiba Harris.
Best Move
The Quakes were the last MLS club to sign a Homegrown player, but the one they did nab could develop into a vital piece of the puzzle. Thompson, a teenager fresh off the Indiana campus, was brought along slowly as he recovered from a knee injury, but he showed glimpses during his 690 minutes with the Quakes’ first team of individual attacking skill and ball-handling potential that few, if any, of his teammates can match.
Quotable
"It's a disappointing night for us. Again." Watson, after a September loss in Montreal
Three Offseason Needs
1. An identity:
In his first press conference after taking the job, Kinnear jokingly told reporters that he envisioned a Quakes side under his control as looking “handsome.” After 2014, when the team veered from heavy use of target forwards Gordon and Lenhart to pairing Wondolowski with the likes of Djalo and Perez Garcia, San Jose fans would probably just settle for a fixed direction, tactically.
2. Goals, goals, goals: San Jose finished 18th in scoring last season, topping only Chivas USA. Outside of Wondolowski, no other Quake tallied more than four times. San Jose could solve that issue by moving Perez Garcia up top with Wondolowski -- but then who will be the creative force in midfield that the Quakes have lacked for years? If Tommy Thompson blossoms into the player San Jose hopes he will be, it would go a long way towards helping Kinnear solve this thorny problem.
3. Make sure Bingham is ready: The Quakes appear set to hand over netminding duties to David Bingham, a former collegiate All-American who has shown oodles of talent since joining San Jose in 2011, but was never able to unseat veteran Jon Busch. The 25-year-old with just five first-team appearances in four years could get his chance now, with Busch out of contract and apparently unlikely to be back.
