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MOTD Preview: SJ Earthquakes to open Avaya Stadium

By on February 27, 2015

The San Jose Earthquakes’s history is riddled with fantastic highs and lows, often correlating with the tides off the pitch. They won the first match of MLS, but then missed the playoffs in all of the next four seasons.  Later, a rebrand marked the beginning of a highly successful period, including winning the MLS Cup in 2001 and the Supporters’ Shield in 2005.  Yet just four months afterwards, the club relocated to Houston without a replacement Bay Area club in hand, and two full years went by before Lewis Wolff and John Fisher brought a San Jose team back to MLS.

The Earthquakes then failed to reach the playoffs in their first two seasons back in the league, but after just making the cut in 2010 stormed all the way to the Western Conference Final. Two years later, MLS top scorer Chris Wondolowski led them storming to the Supporters’ Shield, and during that period developed a knack for scoring late goals, adopting a new “never say die” mentality along the way.

Now two years on, they need that mentality to maintain hope for a successful 2015 — starting with tomorrow’s first match at Avaya Stadium, the Earthquakes’ new home. After failing to qualify for the playoffs in 2013 and finishing bottom of the Western Conference table last season, ending the season on a dreadful fifteen-match winless streak, they reached a low point.

The tide, however, has once again changed off the pitch, as tomorrow’s friendly versus the champions LA Galaxy will take place a day after the ribbon-cutting at Avaya Stadium, the Earthquakes’ beautiful 18,000-seater, and the club’s first true home forty-one years after their pre-MLS conception. At first glance, though, hosting Avaya Stadium’s opener and the Earthquakes final preseason fixture against bitter rivals LA — winners of three of the last four MLS Cups — could prove a bumpy start at the new ground.  With a 0-1-2 record during their recent preseason camp in Arizona, the club put on some promising performances but must be hungry for a result.

The California Clasico is one of the best derbies in the league, with Landon Donovan among the names to have traded hands between the two clubs.  In no fixture has the Earthquakes’ “never say die” credo been so prominent: their 5-2 win over LA in 2003, in which the Quakes came back from two goals down and a 4-0 aggregate deficit to advance to the MLS Cup final, is widely regarded as one of the best games in MLS history. More recently, the Quakes’ have come back from behind in memorable 4-3, and two 3-2 victories over their Southern California rivals. Perhaps, then, there is good reason to open Avaya Stadium with this fixture after all.

New coach Dominic Kinnear will be hoping that his past successes can be emulated on this pitch, and this match will go some way in measuring how much he has improved the club since last season. Indeed, the Quakes went through almost as big a renovation on the pitch than they did off it this winter. Veterans Sam Cronin and Jon Busch both departed while Kinnear had introduced youngsters JJ Koval, Adam Jahn, and goalkeeper David Bingham into the starting eleven. The Quakes have also signed Designated Players Innocent Emeghara, a short, stocky forward, and Matias Perez Garcia.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy are getting their first test of life post-Donovan, who retired at the end of last season. Robbie Keane, Juninho, Omar Gonzalez, and Gyasi Bardes will carry most of the burden from his departure, but at the same time take advantage of their time in the spotlight. At the same time, though, Bruce Arena will be preparing his team for the introduction later this season of Steven Gerrard from Liverpool.

Stay tuned for Football Every Day’s coverage of San Jose Earthquakes v. LA Galaxy live from the new Avaya Stadium tomorrow!

Photo credit: 1906 Ultras

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.