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San Jose Earthquakes Perennial struggler pins hopes on young American
Updated: Thursday April 05, 2001 12:26 PM
By Jeff Green, CNNSI.com Gentlemen, start your engines. The test drive has now begun. Hungry for new investors, Major League Soccer has handed over the wheel in San Jose to a new operating group, Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment, the business operations and marketing arm of the NHL's San Jose Sharks. If SVS&E likes the way it handles, MLS could land its first new investor-operator since Kenneth A. Horowitz bought into the expansion Miami Fusion three seasons ago. And the team has loaded up with high-test, home-grown offensive firepower in Landon Donovan. But on the field, it won't be easy for the Earthquakes to impress. The new operators are faced with a diminishing fan base as the team has failed to make the playoffs since the inaugural 1996 season.
Born as the Clash and redubbed the Earthquakes before last year, the team finished with the worst record in MLS last season and has the third-worst all-time record in MLS at 66-86-8. In January, SVS&E entered into a multiyear agreement to operate the Quakes, with an option to become an investor-operator in the single-entity league. (They were also awarded the 2001 MLS All-Star Game, to be held at Spartan Stadium in July.) Two days later, coach Lothar Osiander was fired. He was replaced in early February by former Tampa Bay Mutiny defender and D.C. United assistant Frank Yallop. Defender John Doyle, who had been with team since its inception, announced his retirement the same day. To turn things around, Yallop had at his disposal three player-allocation spots (two more than any other team) and three first-round draft picks. With the first draft pick overall, the Canadian coach selected the nation's leading collegiate scorer, forward Chris Carrieri from the University of North Carolina. San Jose traded away the eighth and 10th picks, along with 2000 leading scorer Abdul Thompson Conteh (8 goals, 3 assists), to D.C. United for U.S. national team defender Jeff Agoos. It was a small price to pay, Yallop said. "[Agoos] is a leader on the field, and that's what we needed." The Earthquakes used the lowest-ranking of their three allocations to acquire Canadian international Dwayne DeRosario, a 22-year-old dreadlocked striker from the A-League's Richmond Kickers. Plagued from the club's inception by a failure to take advantage of its international slots, San Jose found little improvement in 2000. Highly touted Iranian international Khodadad Azizi failed to deliver the expected offense and fan appeal. He will not return. The team's only consistent international player, Salvadoran Ronald Cerritos, missed most of last year due to injury. After losing left-winger Eddie Lewis to English first-division club Fulham just before the 2000 season, the Quakes were left with an allocation that went unfilled all season. With the 2001 campaign rapidly approaching, San Jose was on the verge of repeating that mistake, with two allocations still unfilled. The Donovan sweepstakesCue Landon Donovan. While attempting to downplay expectations, the club is counting on the young U.S. phenom to boost the offense after negotiating a move from Germany's Bayer Leverkusen, where he was frustrated by a lack of playing time. San Jose was first in line for Donovan's services once the league was able to complete a "co-sharing arrangement" with Leverkusen that puts him in San Jose for at least two years and possibly four. Donovan, who just turned 19, was the most valuable player at the 1999 under-17 World Cup, played with the under-23s at the 2000 Olympics and helped the U.S. under-20 national team qualify for this year's World Youth Championship. While also earning playing time under coach Bruce Arena with the full U.S. national team, the Californian has been frustrated by a lack of playing time in Germany. A rib injury suffered in U-20 qualifying will keep Donovan out for at least the first game, and the team is hoping he'll be available for the home opener. In a year when MLS has focused far more on signing young American talent than importing expensive foreigners, Donovan is the crème de la crème. While jubilant with their acquisition, general manager Tom Neale and Yallop were also careful to manage hopes for Donovan. "We don't want to place undue expectations on Landon," said Neale. "We want to set him up for success not set him up for failure. "That being said, Landon symbolizes an awful lot for this league, for American soccer and for youth soccer. We have to take advantage of the fact that we now have the quintessential future of American Soccer in San Jose and in the Bay Area. "We're going to market him in the local youth soccer areas and show them what one American soccer player can do." Yallop said he was pleased with the team's play during preseason, despite finishing next-to-last in the MLS Spring Training tournament for the second-straight year, posting losses to Tampa Bay (2-1), Miami (2-1) and the MetroStars (3-2). With his other allocation, Yallop said he is looking to bring in a playmaker. Dario Brose, who stepped up in central midfield last year (5 goals, 4 assists), has yet to return from injury. Filling that role during Spring Training was former Danish international Ronnie Ekelund, who Yallop hopes to sign as a Discovery Player if the price tag is low enough. "He's a good fit for the way we're playing at the moment. I've liked what I've seen from him," Yallop said. "Is he the Marco Etcheverry, Carlos Valderrama type? No, he isn't." Season-ticket sales riseOff the field, the early reviews are positive. MLS is counting on SVS&E's ability to market the team in the San Jose market after two years of shoestring operation under the Kraft organization, the New England Revolution operators who in 1999 took over what had been a league-operated club. "The Sharks are one of the elite organizations in the NHL," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "Through the success and expertise of SVS&E in hockey, tennis, golf and venue management, it is clear that their understanding of the Bay Area sports market is unmatched." With three weeks left to prepare for the season, the Quakes had already surpassed the 2000 season-ticket total, and the club's advertising budget has been tripled. Neale has taken over as GM for Lynne Meterparel, a longtime member of the Kraft organization who left at the end of the 2000 season. Neale is the former director of business operations for the Quakes and has been with the club since 1998. Yallop is keenly aware of the push to get SVS&E to make its investment more permanent. "That's the main job that I've got, to get the team playing some good soccer and get the fans back," he said. "They're a first-class organization; they've been wonderful to the Earthquakes. "If we fail on the field, it's not their fault," he said. "They're doing everything they can to push us forward."
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