Note: This is the third article in a series that contains reviews of the FIFA World Club Championships, the Hexagonal, and the San Jose Earthquakes.
I've been a supporter of Major League Soccer since the beginning, and a fan of DC United since that time. I was in Atlanta at the time, and DCU was the closest team and had the best name, so I decided to follow them. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997 to start graduate school, and went to San Jose Clash matches as my small way of supporting the league (although I hated the shootout tiebreaker). While I still remain a DC United fan, the Clash, and now the Earthquakes, have become my second team and I will always have a place in my heart for the team and their supporters.
In order to understand what it was like to be an Earthquakes fan, you have to go back to the days when the Quakes were the Clash. The clashing jersey colors, that darned scorpion logo (I hate scorpions!) , some really bad teams, and the Casbah. From March to September I would drive down I-280 to the Guadelupe Expressway, park on the corner of Alma and Monterrey, and walk the six or seven blocks through the warehouse district to Spartan Stadium. The field was small even after renovations, the stadium definitely wasn't modern, but I fell in love with the place. Spartan was the right size for MLS matches, compact and surrounded by trees, which made for a nice environment to watch a soccer match. And if the match wasn't that great (and back then it usually wasn't), the stadium lay underneath the final approach to San Jose's airport, so you could amuse yourself watching the 737s, 757s, and MD-80s cross the sky.
Going to a soccer match is more than just the match -- it's the people you meet, and the shared interests and passions that you have in soccer. There were so many great people I tailgated with outside the stadium - Arturo, Napoleon, Mark, John, Mike, Jay, Guy, to name a few - and I enjoyed chatting with them about the Clash in particular and MLS and soccer in general. The Casbah gang were loud, passionate, and fun to be around. But it was difficult to be Clash fan while suffering through some truly awful teams in those years. It was even more difficult to be a neutral (while wanting the Clash to do well) and sit through poor game after poor game. There were some players who connected with the fans, like Doyle, Dayak, Cerritos, Cannon, Lewis, and others, but the team lacked that one player who could change the match by himself.
Then in 2000, the Clash changed their name to the Earthquakes, which was the same nickname as the San Jose team in the NASL. Gone went the shootout, the clashing colors, the annoying scorpion logo (to be replaced by stadium mascots that were just as bad), and in came head coach Frank Yallop and some new players, including an 18-year-old named Landon Donovan. From the first time I saw him appear on the field, I had a feeling that maybe all of the hype about him was justified. It took a while for him to develop, but one could not think that he would quickly become that match-winning player that San Jose needed. There was a renewed excitement about the team and you could see it not just on the field but in the stands, with the formation of Club Quake and a couple of other supporters' clubs at the other end of Spartan Stadium. Unfortunately the Quakes were left out of the playoffs, but there was the feeling that better things were to come.
The 2001 season was the year that made all of those suffering years as Clash fans worthwhile. The Quakes weren't the best team that season (Chicago and Miami had excellent regular seasons), but they were well-organized in the back thanks to the presence of Agoos, and Donovan was starting his reputation as a dominant late-season player. I remember the home leg of the semifinal against Miami that year. The anticipation in the stadium, the sea of blue shirts in the stands, and the ear-splitting noise when Donovan scored are memories that I will always remember. Then there was the viewing party at Britannia Arms when Dayak scored the header that sent the Quakes to the MLS Cup for the first time. And to top it off, the Quakes won it all against their Southern California rival Los Angeles Galaxy on a curling goal by Dwayne DeRosario in extra time. I remember watching the game on television and seeing a shot of some Casbah friends jumping up and down in total celebration. I've never felt happier for my San Jose friends in my life. I still have the souvenir ball from that season, with all of the signatures from the players on that team.
The Quakes under Yallop could not be any different from the Clash -- attack-minded, organized, fun to watch. I stopped watching the planes coming in to land and paid more attention to the field! There were Dayak, Ekelund, and Agoos in the back, Dunivant, Mulrooney, and Mullan in the middle, Donovan and DeRosario up front. There was a combination of battlers, grinders, creative players, and match-winning players, all of them operating as a team. They say that soccer can't be distilled easily to a set of statistics, but one of the most impressive stats that I've seen in MLS was the Quakes' record since 2000 when leading at the half (a 90% winning percentage if I remember correctly). The Quakes finished near the top of the league table in 2002 but suffered a disappointing exit at the hands of Columbus.
The 2003 season, however, was anything but disappointing. There were some ups and downs, but the Quakes still finished in the top two at the end of the regular season. That season, more than any other, symbolized the connection of the Quakes players with their fans. The clasico matches against Los Angeles, the energy in the Casbah and the group at the far end, and the first appearance of the "WE BELIEVE" banners. That second leg playoff match against LA remains the greatest soccer match I have ever seen in person -- dead, buried, and four goals down after 20 minutes, and then the most amazing comeback completed by a last-second goal by Chris Roner. In the frenzied celebration I almost lost my glasses (I caught them in the air!), and after the tie-breaking goal, I almost lost my voice. It was the type of match that stays with you for life, the type of match where the only word you can think of is "How?" How did that happen? The conference final against Kansas City, which was one of the best-played matches I've ever seen in MLS, was absorbing from start to finish. Then came the MLS Cup against Chicago, an epic final against one of the best teams in MLS history. I need to attach pictures to this post to capture the blue caravans traveling from northern to southern California, the competing supporters' clubs from Chicago and San Jose, the scenes of absolute joy when Ekelund scored on that free kick, the tension surrounding Razov's penalty kick (the turning point of the game without question), and the sense of disbelief that dissolved into total passion as the game wore on. I will always remember the celebrations in the stands, the Fire fans walking over to congratulate us (a move that reeked of class), and the crazy party that the Quakes players had with their fans. All of the teams in MLS have connections with their fans, but the bond that the San Jose players had with their supporters is unique.
Behind the scenes I knew that the team's survival in San Jose was tenuous, to say the least. I've heard more than a few people say that the 2001 title run more than likely kept the Quakes in San Jose. It was always frustrating to see the lack of support in the stands despite the improved play on the field, and the lip service paid to the team by local politicians and business leaders was maddening. I remember well the rally in downtown San Jose to save the Quakes (where I bought a scarf from Soccer Silicon Valley), but despite the passion and enthusiasm of the organizers and fans, it was clear that barring a miracle, the team would not be in San Jose much longer.
In the end, that's what has happened. I felt very sad for my friends who put all of their passion into a team only to see it move away due to lack of financial support (at city and league level). I don't know if they would come back if the Earthquakes return as an expansion team, and if they don't I can't blame them. But I have a lifetime - no, many lifetimes - of memories that won't be extinguished by the move of the San Jose team to Houston. It's about experiencing the entire range of human emotions - love, hate, passion, suffering, exuberance, and celebration - that enrich our life, that make us feel alive. I will always treasure my years with the Earthquakes, and I will be thankful to have shared so much with their players and fans.
