Good site for German news

I found this most hilarious, from the San Jose Earthquakes section of the site:

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(Note: Until the 2000 season, the San Jose entry into MLS was known as the San Jose Clash. Then, in a desperate attempt to hoodwink the fans and distract from the general crappiness, the name was changed to the San Jose Earthquakes)

The San Jose Clash are one of the founding franchises of the the MLS (Major League Soccer), which kicked off it's inaugural season in 1996. Their play can best be described as a combination of scrappy and crappy. They have basically been one of the worst teams in MLS for the first couple of years. 1997 was particularily horrible, as they not only were about the worst team, but they were also knocked out of the US Open Cup by the SF Bay Seals.

Nevertheless, the Clash are the inheritors of the rich Bay Area soccer tradition. The San Jose Earthquakes were the local entry of the now defunct NASL. The team played hard and generally Spartan Stadium was jam-packed, as this was the first pro franchise in the San Jose area. When the NASL folded, the Earthquakes bummed around as semi-pro, and eventually disbanded. The San Francisco Bay BlackHawks were the next team to kick around in the semi-pro ranks, and many of the current Clash players came up through those ranks.

At least two of the original Clash roster spent time in Germany. Eric Wynalda played in the Bundesliga with both 1.FC Saabrücken and VfL Bochum, and John Doyle had minimal playing time with VfB Leipzig in their Auf Wiedersehen Bundesliga season.

The Clash-Quakes-Crap team was the worst in MLS pretty much from 1997-2000, playing crap, looking crap and alienating the fans. Finally for the 2001 campaign, they cleaned house. Rookie coach Frank Yallop got rid of a lot of crap, and then 19 yr old phenom Landon Donovan was signed on loan from Germany's Bayer Leverkusen. Things looked up and the Quakes were finally a decent team. In fact, they turned out to be more than decent, as they peaked in the playoffs and ended up winning it all! They were unable to defend their title, but in 2003, they again crunched the opposition, winning the title for the 2nd time. Unfortunately, after winning the title, coach Frank Yallop resigned to take over the Canadian national team.

The defense of the title in 2004 proved to be illusory. Although the team made the playoffs, they struggled to put together a run. The franchise was also beset with rumours that the club was going to be sold and moved to someplace with more Mexicans (as part of the MLS plan, see the silly Chivas-USA franchise). This was apparently laid to rest when the potential investors realized there are more Mexicans in California than Mexico. So, apparently the Earth-Clash will survive through 2005.

 

I simply don't understand why we don't just let them become their own country as they wish. Apparently everthing is bigger in TX with the exception of intelligence and common sense...BTW, the Cosmos rock!!!