SAN JOSE, Calif. - It has long been the philosophy of the San Jose Earthquakes to not break up a winning lineup. But since they have no choice, it works out well that they have an MLS All-Star waiting in the wings.
With Brad Davis called away to U.S. national team duty in preparation for next month's CONCACAF Gold Cup, Brian Mullan is expected to slide back into the starting lineup when the Earthquakes take on the Colorado Rapids Wednesday night at Spartan Stadium.
Mullan, who has been out since May 14 with a fracture in his left ankle, will play his normal right midfield position with Mark Chung sliding back to his familiar spot on the left. With Mullan being more of a stay-at-home midfielder who likes to stay near the touchline, the roles of the outside midfielders change a bit.
"We've been playing well (without him), but we still miss him," said San Jose head coach Dominic Kinnear. "Obviously, Mark's a little more comfortable on the left. Brian is more of a guy who likes to hug the line, so then Mark can tuck inside and work his magic in there."
San Jose has hit an impressive groove lately, especially at home, where the Quakes have reeled off four consecutive shutouts and have been unbeaten all season with three wins and four draws in seven games. However, coming off an emotional 3-0 victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy in Landon Donovan's return to the Bay Area, the Earthquakes must guard against a letdown. Kinnear feels there is enough motivation to prevent that from happening.
"When you look at the standings, there's always motivation," said Kinnear, whose team is just three points behind second-place Los Angeles in the Western Conference. "I tell the guys, don't be happy where you are because if you don't look to climb the table, you're not going to."
In order to keep the string of impressive victories going, the Quakes must find a way to beat former San Jose goalkeeper Joe Cannon, who has established himself as one of the top netminders in the league. Cannon, the 2004 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and an MVP finalist, has saved some of his best performances for his former team, especially at Spartan Stadium, a place he considers a second home.
"He's a great goalkeeper - last year he did really well for us," said Chung, a former teammate with Cannon in Colorado. "In practice back in Colorado I was shooting on him all the time and I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow."
The match also takes on some emotional significance for Chung, who spent the past three-plus seasons with Colorado. Chung, who conceded that he would love to celebrate a goal against his former team in spectacular fashion - at least on the inside - is just happy to be in a new environment in San Jose.
"It's a huge difference - I can't say enough about these two coaches," said Chung. "I'm enjoying myself, and I think players play better when they enjoy themselves. I just love coming to practice when before I didn't."
Chung stresses the importance of training with his new team, where an emphasis is placed on game-like situations to improve the team's ability to possess the ball.
"When I was with the Rapids, we always complained about possession - this team can't win games if we don't possess the ball," said Chung. "We were playing long balls all the time and basically surpassing the whole midfield. Here, we play possession every day in practice and guys get touches on the ball and get better and better."
But not all the news has been positive for the Earthquakes, who have lost star forward Brian Ching for an unspecified duration because of a recurrence of his right hamstring injury.
After scoring an early goal during San Jose's 3-0 reserve match victory against Los Angeles, Ching reinjured himself later in the first half on the artificial surface at Valley Christian High School. He is definitely out for Wednesday's game as well as Saturday's contest at FC Dallas.
"He won't be available for a little while," said Kinnear. "I'm of the understanding that he's almost back to where he was when he first injured it."
Ching suffered the initial injury on May 14 against FC Dallas and had only made it back for limited duty in the last two matches, playing just nine minutes against Real Salt Lake June 14 and 25 minutes against Los Angeles on Saturday.
Reserve midfielder James Twellman was also seriously injured during Tuesday's practice, apparently tearing the ACL on his right knee. He is scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday.
Califf's family addition: Center back Danny Califf and his wife, Erin, welcomed the birth of a baby boy this week, Blake Daniel, the couple's second child, on Monday.
Danny Kadah is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
