The San Jose Earthquakes returned to MLS last season and played pretty poorly. They had taken a two year “hiatus” during which their former players won back to back titles in Houston. While that fact would royally piss me off if I were a Quakes fan, they still have some good memories of the trophies they won during the pre-hiatus years.
The Quakes were known as the Clash for their first four seasons, but during that period the team floundered. They switched to the Earthquakes in 2000 and their results immediately improved. They won the 2001 and 2003 MLS Cups and won the Supporters Shield in 2005, which would unfortunately be their final season in San Jose.
Those early teams featured some great players, including Landon Donovan, Jeff Agoos, Wade Barrett, Eddie Robinson, Richard Mulrooney, John Doyle, Ronald Cerritos, Brian Ching, Dwayne De Rosario, Dominic Kinnear, Eddie Lewis, and Eric Wynalda (who scored the first goal in MLS history for the Quakes).
The Quakes are back now and Frank Yallop is doing a good job bringing them up to speed. He’s got some good players at his disposal, including Darren Huckerby, Nick Garcia, Ronnie O’Brien, Ramiro Corrales, Kelly Gray and veteran goalkeeper Joe Cannon. I think SJE will be back on the trophy-track soon and I hope their first MLS Cup title comes in a thrilling victory… over the Dynamo.
