Nine weeks is an incredibly short period of time to build a sports team from scratch, but nevertheless, San Jose Mercury News columnist Anne Killion says that San Jose’s “instant Earthquakes” have put together a “surprisingly palatable” on-field product. Indeed, the Quakes played well enough to beat Chicago in their home opener on Saturday, but despite having the better of the play, the expansion club again failed to score, and ultimately fell, 1-0.
That was the only bad news on an otherwise red-letter opening day at McAfee Coliseum, which will be remembered for a good crowd (20,083), a good performance, great weather and a great overall vibe. Even so, Killion complains that McAfee, which is only being used for “large attendance matches” — i.e. the visit of Beckham and Blanco — looked “cavernous” despite being nearly half-full, pointing out that San Jose’s “real” home opener will be on May 3 against FC Dallas at Buck Shaw Stadium.
But most importantly, the Quakes stood toe-to-toe with last year’s Eastern Conference finalist, and were extremely unlucky not to come away with a point. Indeed, it may take some fans a long time to forget about Shea Salinas’ glaring miss: with minutes remaining, the ball rebounded off the post right to the feet of the youngster, who blasted his rebound high over the bar from five yards. All in all, Coach Frank Yallop said this performance was “night and day” compared with San Jose’s season opener against L.A. ten days ago. “All our stage fright from last week was gone,” he said. “That’s encouraging.”