I saw the following link over in the MLS News and Analysis forum. http://www.latimes.com/sports/socce...305610.column?coll=la-headlines-sports-soccer (use bigsoccer/bigsoccer if the LA Times site asks you for a password, or if it asks for an email address as the username, use bigsoccer@bigsoccer.com) According to this article, the Quakes and Galaxy are going to be in this "La Manga" tournament in February. Quakes will be playing Rosenborg Trondheim and Viking Stavangar of Norway, and Rubin Kazan of the Russian second division. The Galaxy is also playing two Norwegian teams and a Russian team (a first-division team, not a second-division team) I'm not sure I trust this article, as it is Graeme Jones from the LA Times, but it sounds like a pretty sweet preseason trip if it's true.
I think that's true because I'm friends Johnny and mention that he was going to be gone sometime in Januay ( super draft) and sometime in Febuary but he didn't say where and when.
I hope to god they let us bring guest players. This could be horrible with the line-up we have now. No Ekelund, Barrett, Cannon, Graz, Conrad or DeRo.
Add Devin to that list of unavailable players. He's got the U20 World Cup in UAE in March and will most likely be in training camp. The tournament sound awesome. It's just going to be a rough start for some of the newbies.
Looks like it could be a good warm up for the Quakes. Good competition to try out the rookies and also to build team cohesiveness.
Has anyone even heard of some of these teams, like in terms of how good they are, reputation, etc.? Either way it'll still be good practice for the upcoming season. I'll be really curious to see how these teams compete nonetheless; but unfortunately, if I end up in Spain, I'll be leaving sometime in March, not February. Boohoo.
Hearing about the 'Quakes getting spanked by the reserve teams of these 2nd-league clubs should be fun.
The Galaxy and the Quakes are in two different groups.. We would like it if the Quakes won their group and the Galaxy theirs and we met in the final. Try to make sure that happens.
I would be shocked if the Quakes preseason games in Spain against teams from Norway and Russia were on TV anywhere, even in Spain, Norway, or Russia, much less in the US. Then again, I thought that the DC United vs Tottenham Hotspur game would never be on TV, and it was on Fox Sports World.
Rosenborg Trondheim and Viking Stavangar of Norway are both quality sides and will give San Jose good games. However, it is impossible to say what level of teams they will field.
Our guys are going to get spanked like a high school junior varsity team against the 2001 MLS Champs! Come on! We'll be missing five starters: Cannon, Barrett, Ekelund, Graz, and Conrad. Even assuming that Waibel is marginally better than Conrad, he won't have had time to integrate with the team. It's going to be woeful. I hope the guys get to eat a lot of paella. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Maybe we could sign some Norwegians while we're there. Of course, we'd have to repudiate our former "We don't sign Norwegians" policy
I heard that Yves is in this tournament all by himself. I hope we don't have to come up against him, then we are really in trouble
You guys are being way too negative. So what if the youngsters get the snot beaten out of them? It'll separate the wheat from the chaff in time for the start of the regular season.
I'm rooting for any USA team to beat Europeans, but the important thing for San Jose is a good, competitive MLS season that gets fans in the door. If they get some lessons shoved up their nose in Spain that they learn from and put to good use in the regular season -- well, that's why they go and play these tournaments.
We are in a situation where MLS cannot afford to get the snot beaten out of them. We are trying to be taken seriously on a world stage where most think we are a joke. When they hear that we have Donovan and Agoos, World Cup participants, to them it will seem that we brought our best. This isn't the NFL, MLB, NBA or NHL preseason. They probably asked for our last two champions.....they wanna see our best in this tournament. LA may show well but we definately aren't at our best right now. Honestly, i'd rather see a better prepared team than the Quakes accompany LA on this trip.
Whatever happens at this tournament, it will be a good learning experience for the guys. As for how the Euros see our side, that's their business. They've sent some reserve sides over here to play and I don't think their press freaked out over lackluster performances. Their press will report that the Quakes side is "in transition" or "rebuilding" or some such similar gah. I hope our guys have fun and the youngsters learn a thing or two. go quakes - Mark