Fire ruins Earthquakes' return to Bay Area
OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Quakes are home again, even though they don't have a stadium or a town to call their own just yet.
Chad Barrett scored an early goal, and the Chicago Fire spoiled the San Jose Earthquakes' festive home debut in their return to Major League Soccer with a 1-0 victory Saturday.
With thousands of their long-suffering fans banging drums, blowing horns and wearing the club's signature royal blue color, the black-shirted Earthquakes returned to the Bay Area as an expansion team, two years after the original MLS franchise moved to Houston but left behind the two-time league champions' team history and name.
"Just seeing the guys run out, there's a lump in your throat," said coach Frank Yallop, who led the Quakes to their two MLS Cup wins before returning to guide the franchise's rebirth. "It was a terrific crowd, and they saw a team that tried hard and played well. I think the fans and the ownership group would be pleased at the product that's out on the field."
The new Earthquakes haven't scored a goal in their first two matches, but a lineup with no proven offensive talent still generated several good chances to the agonized pleasure of 20,083 fans who will watch their reborn team in Oakland and the San Jose suburbs this season.
The Quakes probably are in for a rough season while rebuilding from scratch -- but the crowd was in championship form, with the notoriously raucous cheering section known as The Casbah even re-forming in the stands above what's usually left field.
"It was incredible just coming out there," said goalkeeper Joe Cannon, who grew up in Silicon Valley and attended Santa Clara before spending 1998-2002 with the San Jose club, starting when it was known as the Clash before switching to the more historic Earthquakes moniker in 2000.
"I'm looking forward to just getting into a home," Cannon added. "Here, it's a little bit of an anomaly, and the crowd seems a little far away. But if we had scored, it wouldn't have mattered how far away they were."
Eager to get deep-pocketed Oakland Athletics owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher into the league, MLS accepted the Quakes' expansion bid last July even though the team was years away from building a soccer-specific stadium for itself in Silicon Valley.
So the Earthquakes, who previously played at San Jose State's Spartan Stadium, will be Bay Area vagabonds for a while. Except for the season opener and their two home games against David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy, San Jose will play at Buck Shaw Stadium, a 6,800-seat venue at Santa Clara University.
"The atmosphere at Buck Shaw is going to be crazy," said Quakes defender Ryan Cochrane, who played his college soccer at Santa Clara. "The fans are going to be right on top of the field, and they'll make it a place that other teams aren't going to want to play."
Gavin Glinton had the Earthquakes' best opportunities early against the Fire, but he mistimed his header in the box several minutes before his curling right-footed kick barely missed the top corner of the Fire net.
The Fire, which improved to 2-0-1, scored in the 19th minute when Barrett banged home the rebound of Tomasz Frankowski's shot following a streak through the San Jose defense set up by Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the charismatic Mexican star who also drew many of his own fans to the Coliseum.
"After that, we bunkered in and did what we needed to do to get 3 points," Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch said. "It wasn't pretty, but it was what we needed."
Glinton had another golden opportunity in the 87th minute but was ruled offside while his header went just wide of the net. The Earthquakes missed at least three more chances in stoppage time, with Shea Salinas botching the last opportunity by booting a rebound high over the net.
"I'm definitely not going to be logging onto any blogs anytime soon," Salinas said. "I'm really sorry I missed. I feel like I cost the team a point, and I'm not going to miss again."