San Jose Earthquakes head coach Dominic Kinnear doesn’t need any reminder that he’s playing a high stakes game in 2017.
Kinnear failed to guide the Quakes to the playoffs in either of his first two seasons since returning to San Jose after a long stint in Houston.
Now with new GM Jesse Fioranelli in place, the pressure is on to get the club back in the postseason this year.
“I feel pressure, mostly from myself; I’m very competitive,” Kinnear told ESPN FC’s Jeff Carlisle in a story published on Friday. “The first year coming in here, we wanted to improve the team, which I think we did. The second year we took a step backwards, which for me was a huge disappointment.
“Defensively, we were strong. The team spirit and that aspect was wonderful. But on the other side of it, there’s run of play, there’s dead-ball situations, there’s taking advantage of mistakes. We were on the bottom end of that in all three. I know the stats.”
As Kinnear mentioned, San Jose were stout defensively in 2016, but rather anemic in the attack. They gave up just 40 goals, tied for fourth-best in the league, but scored only 32 times, last in MLS by a seven-goal margin. The club has tried to address their attacking needs this winter, using Targeted Allocation Money to sign forwards Danny Hoesen and Marcos Ureña and midfielder Jahmir Hyka.
Speaking with Carlisle, Kinnear and Fioranelli were both bullish about the moves, even if Fioranelli didn't exactly go out of his way to take the burden off his head coach.
"Hot seat or no hot seat, I can tell you that we are heading into the season with confidence and with trust,” he said. “That's all that I care about. For me, it's obvious, we're all measured by our results. I am, the players are, everyone is. But one thing I can tell you is that I'm not thinking about any hypotheticals or possibilities six months, one year down the road.”
