SAN JOSE, Calif. – The initial season of Jesse Fioranelli’s reign as general manager in San Jose ended with the Earthquakes breaking a five-year playoff drought, via a last-minute victory in the regular-season finale that led to scenes of Fioranelli making “snow angels” on the Avaya Stadium turf while his players happily sprayed bubbly in the direction of the club’s most ardent supporters.
After being bounced by Vancouver in the MLS Cup playoffs’ Knockout Round, Fioranelli is already hard at work on the sequel.
“We’re in Chapter 2 of a long book,” Fioranelli told a small group of reporters in a 70-minute session Monday. “And we’re excited to continue writing the story that we have just started.”
It was a story that featured plenty of undulations. The Quakes suffered a number of heavy defeats in August and September, finishing with a crushing 4-1 loss at home on Sept. 27 that seemed to sink their playoff hopes. But San Jose recovered with a critical 2-1 win over Portland just three days later and eventually beat Minnesota United on Decision Day to secure sixth place in the Western Conference.
The Quakes’ brass feels the experience of making the postseason – including the trio of pressure-packed games at the end, when a loss would have knocked them out of contention – will help the team improve and grow.
“I think we’ve learned some really good things along the course of it, both good and bad, about ourselves,” said head coach Chris Leitch, who went 7-8-2 after taking over from Dominic Kinnear at the end of June. “Towards the end, the group showed its teeth a little bit, in that they were committed to each other and at least accomplish one of their goals, which is making the playoffs. … Now that they know they can reach at least that, they can hopefully build on that.”
The most glaring weakness for the Quakes can be seen in the goal differential column, where San Jose were minus-21 for the year, giving them the second-worst mark of any playoff team in MLS history (trailing only the expansion Miami Fusion of 1998). The Quakes were especially rocky on the road, allowing 39 goals in 17 contests against just 11 of their own.
“Whether it is fair or not, it is a number that strikes the eye,” said Fioranelli, who was upset at the club’s 5-0 playoff loss to the Whitecaps because it flew in the face of the progress the team had made down the regular-season stretch. “It is a fact and something that we have to work on. This type of volatility we definitely we not accept next season.”
San Jose is expecting to make additions across the roster, which is unsurprising given that it will be the first full offseason in their roles for both Fioranelli and Leitch. During 2017, 18 different Quakes made at least 10 starts – and that figure doesn’t include new Designated Player Valeri 'Vako' Qazaishvili, who should play a more prominent role next season following his late summer arrival.
That wide dispersal of playing time should give the Quakes a good base of knowledge about what they have on hand in terms of their roster – and also what they need.
“In order for the club to be strong, there have to be processes, there has to be buy-in, there has to be humility and a lot of hunger,” Fioranelli said. “That’s why we’re confident, heading into 2018, we’re going to add one more step in that direction.”
