San Jose Earthquakes

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San Jose Earthquakes
  Team logo  
Year founded 1995
League Major League Soccer
Nickname Earthquakes, Quakes,
The Boys in Blue,
Los Terremotos de San José
Stadium Spartan Stadium
Coach -
Owner United States Earthquakes Soccer, LLC
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Home colors
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Away colors
First Game
San Jose Clash 1 - 0 D.C. United
(Spartan Stadium; April 6, 1996)
Last Game
San Jose Earthquakes 1 - 1 Los Angeles Galaxy
(Spartan Stadium; October 29, 2005)
Largest Win
San Jose Clash 6 - 1 New England Revolution
(Spartan Stadium; August 11, 1996)
San Jose Clash 6 - 1 Miami Fusion
(Spartan Stadium; September 19, 1999)
San Jose Earthquakes 5 - 0 Dallas Burn
(Spartan Stadium; April 22, 2000)
Worst Defeat
San Jose Clash 0 - 4 D.C. United
(Spartan Stadium; June 3, 1998)
Kansas City Wizards 5 - 1 San Jose Clash
(Arrowhead Stadium; September 5, 1998)
Tampa Bay Mutiny 4 - 0 San Jose Earthquakes
(Raymond James Stadium; April 26, 2000)
All-time Top Scorer
El Salvador Ronald Cerritos (61)
Supporter Groups
The Casbah, Club Quake
MLS Cup
2001, 2003
US Open Cup
None
Supporters' Shield
2005
For the NASL/MISL/WSA franchise by this name, see San Jose Earthquakes (NASL team).

San Jose Earthquakes is a professional soccer club located in San Jose, California that participated in Major League Soccer from 1996 to 2005 and has been on hiatus since December 2005. The club won the MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003, as well as the MLS Supporters' Shield in 2005. The Earthquakes played its home games at Spartan Stadium, located on the South Campus of San José State University, where the home team (known as the San Jose Clash from 1995 to 1999) defeated D.C. United 1-0 in the first game in MLS history. Following the 2005 MLS season, when the franchise was put on hiatus, the players and coaching staff moved to Houston, Texas where they play as the Houston Dynamo.


Contents

[edit] History

San Jose Clash logo 1996-1999
Enlarge
San Jose Clash logo 1996-1999

The franchise's organizational roots trace back to the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the Western Soccer League in 1989, which merged with the American Soccer League the following year to form the American Professional Soccer League. Blackhawks owner Dan Van Voorhis later pulled his team out of the APSL in 1992, after which they played as the San Jose Hawks in the USISL in 1993. Van Voorhis then successfully led the San Jose bidding group to become one of Major League Soccer's inaugural teams, handing over all existing Hawks player contracts, front-office resources and the rights to play in Spartan Stadium to MLS in exchange for Type C stock in the league (he was also to become the franchise's investor/operator until outside concerns forced him otherwise prior to the league's launch).

After making the postseason in the inaugural 1996 MLS season, the team missed the next four postseasons before hiring head coach Frank Yallop days before the 2001 MLS SuperDraft. Yallop's personnel changes and deft coaching with the help of assistant coach Dominic Kinnear and goalkeeper coach Tim Hanley, along with the allocation of star forward Landon Donovan on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, quickly turned around the Earthquakes' on-field fortunes, spurning the biggest regular season turnaround in league history (from 29 points in 2000 to 45 points in 2001) and leading the team to a 2-1 MLS Cup 2001 overtime victory over the archrival Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Quakes followed with two consecutive runners-up finishes for the MLS Supporters' Shield and a 4-2 MLS Cup 2003 win over the Chicago Fire, which wound up being Yallop's final game as San Jose's head coach before accepting the same position with the Canadian men's national soccer team. Assistant coach Kinnear was then promoted as the team's next head coach and, along with new assistant coach John Doyle, led the team to two more playoff appearances, including an MLS Supporters' Shield win in 2005.

The last owner of the San Jose Earthquakes, Anschutz Entertainment Group, announced on December 15, 2005 that the team was moving to Houston for the 2006 season due to the failure of securing a new soccer-specific stadium for the team in San Jose. The team was renamed the Houston Dynamo. However, MLS Commissioner Don Garber has said that the Earthquakes' name, colors, logo, wordmark, history and competitive records would not be transferred, similarly to the Cleveland Browns deal in the National Football League. The Houston Dynamo is technically considered an expansion team by MLS just as the Baltimore Ravens is by the NFL.

On May 24, 2006, an agreement was reached between Major League Soccer and the principal owners of the Oakland Athletics baseball team. Lewis Wolff and John Fisher have a three year exclusive option to develop a soccer-specific stadium and bring an expansion franchise to the San Francisco Bay Area. [1] The location of the stadium has yet to be determined, but the offices for the effort (set up as Earthquakes Soccer, LLC) opened to the public on November 8, 2006 in the Fairmont San Jose Hotel and are headed by former A's vice president of sales and marketing David Alioto. [2]

In September 2006, after nearly nine months of inactivity (displaying only Commissioner Garber's December 2005 letter of condolence to Earthquakes fans over the team's relocation), the team's website was finally revived to display updates on the progress of starting up the expansion San Jose Earthquakes franchise and to allow fans to sign up for the Earthquakes Soccer, LLC e-newsletter.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Honors

[edit] Notable players

San Jose Earthquakes players, 2005
Enlarge
San Jose Earthquakes players, 2005

[edit] San Jose Earthquakes Hall of Fame

[edit] Head coaches

[edit] Team records

[edit] Home stadiums

[edit] General Managers

  • England Peter Bridgwater (1995-1998)
  • United States Lynne Meterparel (1999-2000)
  • United States Tom Neale (2001)
  • Scotland Johnny Moore (2002-2003)
  • United States Alexi Lalas (2004-2005)
  • United States Kate McAllister (2005; interim)
  • United States Ken Freccero (2005; interim)

[edit] Ownership

[edit] Mascots

  • José Clash (1996-1999)
  • Rikter the CyberDog (2000-2002)
  • Q (2004-2005)

[edit] Year-by-year

Year Reg. Season Playoffs Open Cup
1996 4th, West Quarterfinals Did not enter
1997 5th, West Did not qualify Quarterfinals
1998 5th, West Did not qualify Quarterfinals
1999 5th, West Did not qualify Did not enter
2000 4th, West Did not qualify Quarterfinals
2001 2nd, West Champions Quarterfinals
2002 2nd, West Quarterfinals Quarterfinals
2003 1st, West Champions Round of 16
2004 4th, West Quarterfinals Semifinals
2005 1st, West* Quarterfinals Quarterfinals

* Won MLS Supporters' Shield

[edit] Average attendance

regular season / playoffs

  • 1996: 17,232
  • 1997: 13,597
  • 1998: 13,653
  • 1999: 14,959
  • 2000: 12,460
  • 2001: 9,635
  • 2002: 11,150
  • 2003: 10,465 / 15,127
  • 2004: 13,001 / 8,659
  • 2005: 13,037 / 17,824
  • All-Time: 12,905

[edit] External links


Major League Soccer 2007

Eastern Conference
Chicago Fire | Columbus Crew | D.C. United
Kansas City Wizards | New England Revolution
Red Bull New York | Toronto FC

Western Conference
C.D. Chivas USA | Colorado Rapids
FC Dallas | Houston Dynamo
Los Angeles Galaxy | Real Salt Lake
Former teams On hiatus
Miami Fusion | Tampa Bay Mutiny San Jose Earthquakes
Miscellaneous

MLS Cup | All-Star Game | USSF | CSA | Central Division | U.S. Open Cup 
Supporters' Shield | MLS two-team Cups | Current Players | Foreign Players | MLS Drafts | MLS Stadiums
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