[Honore de Ballsac]

IMO comparing Burpo (or even Onstad) to Cannon is ludicrous.

Onstad does a quiet job of being very successful and I admire that a great deal. I've watched him quite closely. On a good day he's all right, but his game is severely flawed and those flaws are pretty regularly exposed when his defense needs him to contribute.

On the other hand, Cannon is just the guy you want in those situations and we will have an untested defense. Last season was not Joe's strongest, but he challenged for Galaxy MVP playing on a team that could make any keeper look like garbage. Once he got his legs under him, Joe was worth two goals a game for the Gals.

I understand some people here like Burpo, they like the idea of saving money - (for what I don't know, another Ariel Graziani?), they have no loyalty or affinity for ex-Quakes and are excited to see an ALL-new team. But Burpo's reviews are in and they are mixed. He looks like a good value, not an outstanding keeper. Joe Cannon has proven himself to be an outstanding keeper - if you won't concede that I don't think you're being fair.

MLS is the only league I deem worth following where a club would go for a decent keeper instead of an outstanding keeper for a difference of 100k or so. The incredible thing is, we have the money to spend and we need a great keeper.

What's more than that, if you gave Joe the choice between playing for Manchester United and the San Jose Earthquakes, he might pick San Jose. He's worth a lot of marquee value to us as a local soccer hero (hello front office: that equals $$$.) Plus, off the record, he supposedly says Beckham is a douchebag.

I want this man in the nets for us when the Quakes take the field at Home Depot Center April 3.

The petition is a fine way to communicate that to John Doyle. We'll have to come up with some other novel means to get back DeRo.