'Tis that time of the year, more than halfway through the MLS season, when it is hot and humid in many parts of our great land, teams' stars are off playing in the Gold Cup and other players are hurt and still others are serving suspensions - of both the yellow card accumulation and red card varieties.
And the favorite rhetorical sport of many in the soccer biz - both coaches and players - is to whine about whom they are missing. They complain about their stars being gone or injured, that they just have to survive without them and that they are playing with a depleted roster and they're doing the best they can.
To be quite frank with you, that is a pile of bunk, a bill of goods many attempt to peddle because they don't have the depth in their roster, or the confidence in their full squad, or they just don't know any other way to explain why they're not playing well, or as well as they should be.
Here in the northern end of the left coast you don't hear much, if any, of that kind of talk. Not from San Jose Earthquakes coach Dominic Kinnear, and not from his players. There are more than three of these Musketeers, but the adage "One for All, and All for One!" clearly applies to this bunch, a team that heads to the nation's capital this week with a 7-3-7 record, riding a seven-game unbeaten streak.
Last week in Columbus, they beat the Crew 2-1 (their first regular season win in Columbus since 1996) without Brian Ching (hamstring surgery), Dwayne De Rosario (with Canada in the CONCACAF Gold Cup), Brad Davis (with the USA in the Gold Cup) and Danny Califf (red card suspension), not to mention opening day starters Troy Dayak and Craig Waibel, who are out injured for the season.
"Everybody is on the same page," says forward Ronald Cerritos, who scored the game winner and now leads the club with five goals and six assists. "From the first minute to the last, everybody is working hard. If you are going to win games, everybody has to depend on each other."
Kinnear sets the example; he expects every single person on the roster to do his job - to do it well and with confidence and with an expectation for success. And he doesn't want anyone to talk about who's not here. As my Daddy used to say, and I'm sure Kinnear would agree, you can't ride a horse that's not in your stable.
"In years past we haven't been as deep as we are this year," said defender Eddie Robinson, who scored against the Crew, his first goal in two years. Kelly Gray slid over and played next to Robinson inside and Wes Hart played at right fullback.
The Quakes gave up the first goal, but scored two unanswered for the win. They now have two wins and three ties this season after giving up the first goal.
Kinnear said his pregame talk included a note about playing with confidence: "Just believe in what you're doing, defensively and when you have the ball. I think you see a confident team out there. This is a good, resilient group."
Players know their roles, they are expected to play well when they're in the lineup and they are expected to be supportive and team-oriented when they're not penciled in. And there's no whining about who's in and who's out, for whatever reason.
"In the end it comes down to camaraderie," Robinson said. "If you look at the players they've brought in year in and year out, since Frank Yallop and Dominic Kinnear have been here, they're not just good players, they're good people."
"Dominic has put together a great team," said Brian Mullan. "The players not only have skill but they really want to win and they really want to work hard to win. I love playing here. I wouldn't want to play for another coach."
The results over the season - and especially since the rough 1-1-3 start, when they gave up 11 goals - prove that this is a team that plays and acts as one.
And this, says Robinson, is a team that expected to be in the hunt from the beginning, and to the end. A little over halfway through the season, they are in second place by themselves, and now only six points behind Dallas.
"We definitely expected to be in it," Robinson said, "But we're not content to be here. We want to catch Dallas. We have half the season left to do it."
And even if half their star players are out, don't bet against these San Jose Earthquakes of 2005. As far as they're concerned, it has little to do with the stars and everything to do with the team, which is the only thing that matters.
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.
