at home against Real Salt Lake Oct. 8 , and the regular-season-ending game Oct. 15 in Los Angeles against the Galaxy, who may very well need a win for its own playoff positioning. L.A., which hosts FC Dallas this weekend, has only two games left in the regular season. RSL in Spartan Stadium represents an opportunity for the Quakes to become the first team in the 10-year history of the league to finish a home season without a loss. The Quakes are 9-0-6 in Spartan Stadium this year where, over the last three home games, they have averaged 21,279 in attendance.
"To be where we are now," Kinnear said, "after some people picked us not to make the playoffs, just makes me so happy for the guys. I just want to make sure that we continue playing well now."
It's a tribute to Kinnear, the leading candidate for Coach of the Year honors, that the Earthquakes roared out of their mediocre record the first two months of the season. This team was 1-1-3 after five games and 3-3-4 after 10 games. Since a 1-0 loss in Kansas City May 28, the Quakes are 13-1-5, a run rarely seen in the history of the league and a streak that is difficult to put into perspective, considering the early years of shootouts and overtime games. The Quakes have secured 44 points out of a possible 57 over a stretch of nearly three months!
You can count on the Quakes showing up to play just as hard in the three remaining games -- that don't have any bearing on their own playoff standing -- as they have in the first 29 games of the season. Against FC Dallas they were down 1-0 and lost defender Eddie Robinson to a red card, and came back to get a Brian Ching goal to tie the game 1-1.
"It just shows the character we have," said midfielder Dwayne De Rosario. "When things aren't going your way you need to pull it out and we did that. It is huge for us to have home field advantage in the playoffs."
And a notice to the remaining three regular season opponents and the three potential Western Conference playoff teams: The Quakes don't intend to turn off the power; they would like to keep the machine finely tuned going into the postseason.
Three regular season games and a potential four in the postseason -- shouldn't be difficult to stay up for every game. It has been that way for months now.
John Shrader has been the voice of the Earthquakes since 1996 and has worked in television and radio in the Bay Area for the past 20 years. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
