California Dreaming.
So, as at least one friend asked when told I was heading this way, “Do you know the way to San Jose?” The answer ought to be simple, all you do is “Get on board a Westbound 747” except in my case it was an Airbus A320 for four and a half hours, and then two more hours on a 737.
During my last trip to the USA, in 1999; I had seen San Jose Earthquake’s predecessor, San Jose Clash playing at Chicago Fire, then at Soldier Field. It was the only game I have ever been to, that used a shoot out after a draw. On the same trip, I saw DC United, then the dominant team (champions in 1996, 97 and 1999; they also won in 2004, but not since). Of course, the MLS uses a play-off system to decide the title after the regular season, and this has not always favoured DC, who were top of the regular season rankings in 2006 and 7, but both times lost the title to Houston Dynamo. San Jose (they have been Earthquakes, rather than Clash ever since the end of the 1999 season) were champions in 2001 and 2003, but left the league after the 2005 season. The owners of the franchise decided to move to Houston, creating Dynamo but the league called this a new franchise, allowing the Earthquakes name to return, under new ownership and at a different stadium in 2008.
The Buck Shaw stadium is part of Santa Clara University, and lies close to San Jose airport, (you could walk it, but you would get odd looks from people driving past). It is not the ideal stadium, and holds only 10,500. None of the seats are under cover (but then, surely it never rains in Northern California?), and there are quite large sections with no spectator accommodation. The longest stand completes one side, goes around the corner and finishes about half way behind the goal. The seats are bench seats, but renovations mean they are aluminium, whereas the pathways between them are planks of wood, and look quite old as well. These sides are built over a solid banking. The opposite side, is taller, but only fills three quarters of the side this side is of a scaffolding construction. The lower section of this has blocks of individual plastic seats, while more benches are above. The pitch is natural grass, and looked to be in remarkably good condition. The temperature at the start of the game was around 28°, but it cooled after the sun went down midway through the second half. There are plans to move to a new stadium, but this is not likely to happen until at least 2013. Occasional big games have been played at the Oakland Coliseum, home of the Athletics Baseball team, but this is really too big a stadium for their crowds. 10,304 were at the Buck Shaw, which means the stadium was close to full.
After a series of less effective attacks, including one which had the ball in the net, but disallowed for offside, the Earthquakes opened the scoring on 15 minutes. Ike Opara latched onto a loose ball after a corner was headed down. Former Reading winger Bobby Convey shot wide in the 22nd minute. It was more than half an hour into the game before DC managed an attack worthy of the name. The first of these ended with an offside, but the Earthquakes were forced to defend a 37th minute chance. From their second corner, DC got a header on target, which Convey cleared from the line.
These moves appeared to be a blip though, and the half ended with San Jose on the attack again. Earthquakes continued to have the better of the early second half, so it came as some surprise when DC levelled the scored after 54 minutes. Stephen King was being shepherded away from the danger area, but was then given space to turn and cross the ball to the far post, where Andy Najar slipped past his marker to level the scores. Two minutes later, home keeper Busch had to get down sharpish to stop a long distance shot from Pontius. The action soon moved back to the other end, but while San Jose had most of the ball, they did not make the best of their chances. DC United should have gone ahead with fourteen to play, the home defence failing to deal with a long ball, giving Santino Quaranta a chance, which he ballooned over the bar at the other end, a cross from Wondolowski should have given substitute Arturo Alvarez a chance as he had space inside the area, but he failed to connect. A 25 yard strike from another substitute, Cornell Glenn tested the DC goalkeeper, but did not find him wanting. San Jose really should have found the way on 88 minutes, when a cross from Alvarez went past everyone, except Omar Jospeh, whose short was deflected wide for a corner. DC were clearly happy with the draw delaying the play with substitutes in the final minute, and in injury time. The last player to enter the field was former Australian international, Danny Allsopp. (I am assuming the word former, Oz coach Pim Verbeeek described him as “absolutely useless” after his last appearance, 17 months ago). With that, the game finished at 1-1.
Although the 16 team MLS has 30 games, and a standard play everyone home and away format, it is still divided into two Conferences, East and West. In practical terms, the top eight are likely to make the play offs, with the rules demanding this includes a minimum of two from each side. With this point, San Jose are fifth on the Western side, but have the eight best record to date, so may just be in line for the play offs, (the season is less than halfway through). DC United have disappointed their fans, and are 7th in the East, one of four teams on 11 points at the foot of any combined table. Top of the table is LA Galaxy, and this was my next port of call.
Before I headed south, and interesting finish to the evening. I had been traced on the internet by one Michael Hoenig and although he lives in Colorado, well away from the route for this trip, it turned out that his brother, Bruce lived in San Jose. Anyway we arranged to meet, and he came over to meet at the motel and then, along with Bruce’s daughter Jessica and her friend Anna, we went out for a Pizza, (a bar was out of the question, as the legal drinking age in California is 21, and the girls were 19 and they check ID, I had to show mine to get a beer at the airport). Turned out that the Pizza shop had a selection of beers, including a summer ale very similar to some golden ales in the UK. I have never met anyone called Hoenig before, with the exception of my immediate family. My general assumption is that Bruce and Michael are not blood relations, but Bruce has done a lot of research into his family tree and it appears that his family originates from the same areas that mine does. Another co-incidence, both Bruce and I have Chinese wives! Should there be a word for this type of meeting, maybe the Gorman moment?
The drive from San Jose to LA was more straight forward than I thought. Most of the route was a straight road across a wide plain. There was little scenery, and not even many towns on the route. The general colour was yellow, with much of the land being grassland, now dry due to a lack of rain. Bruce had told me that there are two basically two seasons in California, a dry season and a less dry season. At the moment we are in the middle of the dry season. There were areas of greenery, where crops (mainly fruits) were being grown, thanks generally to irrigation schemes. Water is an issue, as signs next to the road suggesting a changing certain members of the house of congress requested. Clearly, with more irrigation and more water, the farmers could easily grow more but no doubt this is not the whole issue as water does not simply fall out of the sky, (well, not here it doesn’t).
On a warm evening, many people had arrived at the stadium early, and when I arrived, grass banks at the edge of the car parks were filled with people enjoying their picnics. If arriving early enough to get a place by the bank, then it appears the family will always settle immediately behind their own car. When driving past the beaches the following day, I also noticed that this desire of many not to stray too far from their vehicle. In some cases, this meant parking on the opposite side of the four lane roadway to the beach, and then not even crossing the road before setting up the picnic.
Don’t venture too far from the car
The Home Depot Centre Stadium is in Carson City, south of the central LA, and not far from Long Beach. I would say it is the best of those I have been to so far. The lower tier is uniform all around, and consists of at least 30 rows of seats. These are individual plastic seats along the sides, but metal benches in the corners and behind the goals. The main walkway is above the seats, always a better option when it can be accommodated. The walkway level is the same height as the surrounding ground so the pitch is at a generally lower level. Above this, the situation is different on each side. On the West side, there is a row of executive boxes with a central section above this for the media. To the south, there are a few executive boxes, with what appears to be a restaurant on the higher level. There is a small patio above one of the boxes at the end of this. The east side has a second tier of seats the only side with this. Most unusual is above the north side, where a steeply sloping grass bank rises above the seats, to a semi-circular top fence and pathway. Many members of the crowd had set themselves up, sitting on blankets during the game, while more gathered here at the end, to await the after match firework display. The roofing was of the membrane type a good lightweight solution for providing more shade than rain protection. It sits above all of the long sides, and turns the corner to also provide cover over most of the south side although there is a gap in the centre. There is no cover above the north side.
LA could have had an early goal when Michael Stephens, shooting from the right hit the post, but the ball rebounded into Kasey Keller’s welcoming hands. This was the start of a series of attacks for Galaxy, who dominated the open stages, although after this first chance, the attacks were blocked by Seattle defenders and the best LA achieved was a corner. Keller dealt with a long shot in the 18th minute but then fumbled the resulting corner, and Buddle almost got on the score sheet. This was put away for another corner, and this time Donovan’s corner was firmly headed into goal by Buddle.
A gap in the home defence could have allowed an equaliser in the 33rd minute. Steve Zakuni was allowed to progress unchallenged down the right and send a good cross in, but Pat Noonan failed to connect properly. Even then the Galaxy defence failed to boot the ball away, allowing Noonan a second bite, this time blocked. On 40 minutes, a Donovan free kick was deflected for a corner by a defender less than five yards away from the ball when kicked. The referee waved aside (only slight) protests, Donovan took the corner, and Buddle again got a header in. This was cleared back to Donovan who tried a shot from a tight angle, which was comfortably saved by Keller.
Galaxy opened the second half with a second goal Stephens had advance down the left and found his route blocked, so he turned and passed back to Juninho, over 30 yards out. He took a touch, and finding himself without challenge, launched a thunderbolt which went straight into the far corner, catching Keller completely unaware. Incidentally, Juninho is a 21 year old, on loan from Sao Paulo, not the former Middlesboro player
Buddle advanced into space after another defensive failing in the 56th minute. Cutting in, and looking for a player to pass to, he went down under the challenge. It all looked innocent, but the referee awarded a kick against Buddle. This was Buddle’s last meaningful contribution, as he was replaced by Alan Gordon soon afterwards. Seattle pulled a goal back on 66 minutes Zakuni received the ball and went on a run, ghosting past two LA defenders (who appeared not to notice), before slotting the ball home. On 74, Freddie Ljungberg, who had been basically a passenger up to then, came close to levelling the scores. It seems to me that there are a number of ex Premier League players in the MLS, who are picking up their cheques more thanks to their name and reputation than current ability (and Thierry Henry is expected to join New York next season)
Catching the defence flat footed, Alan Gordon advanced down the right in the 77th minute. His cross was too short to reach the only attacker, but he was helped out when James Riley managed to beat his own keeper and give Galaxy their third goal. Soon after, Tyrone Marshall was cautioned for bringing down Juninho. The Brazilian took the free kick himself hitting the ball narrowly wide from about 25 yards. Again Keller appeared bemused. Juninho was then replaced by his compatriot and fellow loanee Alex Cazumba. Cazumba’s first action was to get himself booked, leading to a similar free kick, which Seattle forward Tristan Bowen hit well over the bar. An injury time save by Donovan Ricketts stopped Mike Seamon from pulling a goal back, and while Nate Jaqua got his head to the resultant corner, his header went well over the bar.
Two sections of the ground were saved for “singing fans”, with the two fan groups called the Angel City Brigade (behind the goal to the North), and the LA Riot Squad (South East Corner). I reckoned the brigade was ahead on noise made. The North West Corner had a small group of Seattle fans. At the start of the game, and whenever a goal was scored, the sky was filled with small pieces of yellow, blue and white paper, which fluttered slowly to the ground, ending up by littering areas of the pitch.
After the game, we were treated to a fine fireworks display, and the playing of a series of patriotic tunes and military marches (well it was July 4), much of the crowd of 27,000 stayed around to see this. Demonstrating that some clubs can do better than others despite a bigger crowd than Toronto, and more travelling by car, (well the car park is bigger) but there was no queue of cars leaving the ground when I left.