Au contraire. The head to head stuff in regular season is pretty meaningless compared to league or conference standings. After all, a good team is supposed to win most of its home games and some of its away games. We’re getting like 5 win pins a season.
Not arguing that Nashville hasn't been better than us over the last 5 years or so. But they're no juggernaut either. They are a little better than solidly mid-pack, and remember, parity is the thing in MLS. Teams can move up or down several places from season to season. There are only a few teams that are good every year. Overall league record is a better sample size, and a better measure but I still think that a clearly better team should be able to beat a clearly worse team at least 1 time in 4 tries. I think that speaks to the parity in the league. Can you imagine Man City failing to beat Luton Town in 4 tries? This is not that.
Nashville are an “upper mid-table team.” In a good season, they make the playoffs and do well. We on the other hand are wooden spoon contenders nearly every year. In a good year, we make the plays, just barely. In a bad season, we’re bottom three in the table. In most seasons we miss the playoffs with more than one game to go, in a league where more than 50% of the teams (60%?) make the playoffs. We are not lower mid table. We suck. Go Quakesfans!!
Espinoza could help the academy. Plus he may want to pursue coaching after his playing days are over. He’s SJE royalty
A personal story is in order .. I saw MPG & his teammates eg Kaka at Fogo De Chao at Santana Row many years ago. I went over to his table to say hello. later that night.. the head waiter assisted in getting Kaka to take a photo with my son. Argentina Brazil all same to me. Kaka is so kind of a person
Lower mid-table is probably generous but we are lower mid-table (which can include barely missing the playoffs or a low playoff spot) more often than wooden spoon. Outside of a few spoon years we’ve gone 7,9,6,8,8,10,and 9 in the last 10 years or so. Those are exactly lower mid-table numbers. Nashville is more like a 6/7 team (no pun intended). So if we are generous enough to take a couple of wooden spoon finishes as outliers, we have an 8/9 team versus a 6/7 team. Yeah, huge difference!!!
No, when they make the playoffs they don't "do well". They've only won 2 MLS Cup playoff rounds in their history, so basically have never gotten out of the 2nd round, and mostly they are out in the 1st round.
So they have won two MLS Cup playoff rounds in six years of existence, while the Quakes have won one MLS Cup playoff round in the last two decades.
If you follow the thread, I was specially countering the notion (from Mark) that Nashville does “well” in the playoffs. Are you contesting that or no? I did not claim anywhere that the Quakes have a good record in the playoffs.
Now Landon is basically confirming what we all already know. Leitch screwed up. https://kmph.com/sports/unfiltered-soccer/donovan-san-jose-forgot-to-trigger-espinoza-option
Throughout the Fisher years, the Earthquakes have redefined the term "dysfunction" and have truly made it their own.
He may be working with 1st hand information, from Bruce, or he may be reading the same speculation that we've seen from people like Doyle. In any case, this part doesn't make sense: “I know they tried hard to keep him and re-sign him, but in the end, he said, ‘all right, well, I guess you didn't want me, so I'm going to go to Nashville.’” Really? If it was an honest mistake, and the team said crap, well we really want to keep you we just screwed up, would anybody really say "well, I guess you didn't want me"? That would be like 2nd grader stuff. That doesn't make any sense to me. Doesn't pass the smell teset. Espinoza clearly didn't want to stay with the Quakes. The Quakes made it clear they wanted him back (based on the reporting that we made the highest offer). Maybe Landon oughta consider that maybe Espinoza didn't like playing for Bruce? Also, bear in mind that Donovan is Bruce's buddy, so he is not necessarily the more reliable narrator in completely absolving Bruce from blame. "I want to stress this: this was not Bruce Arena who did this, but someone who was running the technical side." Bruce is the technical director and I believe Leitch reports to him. What happened to "the buck stops here"? As technical director, Bruce has no responsibility to know when options are coming due?
Tim does mention that Landon has inside information. As you said, maybe it's from talking to Bruce. As for Espinoza, maybe this snafu was the straw that broke the camel's back. So many seasons of incompetence he said screw it I'm out. This is my window. Or he didn't like or get along with Bruce. Either way, huge screw up all around by the whole organization with the best player in your team. That also makes 2 people, Landon & MLS lap dog Doyle saying pretty much the same thing. Edit: and as Landon mentioned, you go sign a player like Espinoza nowadays it would cost you $10-$15M and Nashville got him for FREE.
OK, this is the 1st report where I think there appears to be some confirmation - 2nd hand, that it was a screwup. But the idea that Espinoza would then say "I guess you don't want me!" after they made it clear they wanted him back is just silly. Landon's gotta do better than that.
Landon is running interference for Bruce, trying to pin everything on Leitch and make Bruce look like the victim. Espinoza had 2 chances to stay with the Quakes. The first, after the Quakes reported screwup. OK, administrative screwup, let's sit down and negotiate in good faith. This could result in more years for Espinoza at a higher rate. Nope, I'm gonna file for free agency. Then, the Quakes wind up offering the highest amount thru the free agency process. Nope, I'm gonna take less money to go somewhere else and sell my house and yank my kids out of school. Clearly, Espinoza did not want to play with the Quakes, and he's re-upped with the Quakes twice before - in 2019 and in as recently as 2023. He obviously wasn't happy with the direction of the club under Bruce.
Top 10 Highest State Income Tax Rates (2026) 1. California 13.3% Blue 2. Hawaii 11.0% Blue 3. New York 10.9% Blue 4. New Jersey 10.75% Blue 5. Oregon 9.9% Blue 6. Minnesota 9.85% Blue 7. Vermont 8.75% Blue 8. Wisconsin 7.65% Purple 9. Idaho 6.925% Red 10. Iowa 6.5% Red
Those are top rates - and only applies to the income that is over the top threshold,, and it’s based on AGI, not gross income. Let’s say for Espinoza it was 10%. The Quakes offer was 10% higher than any other based on free agency rules for Tier 3 free agents. That mean it’s largely a wash. Also while the schools in Nashville are probably good, the schools in SJ -Santa Clara are highly ranked nationally. It’s not for nothing that we pay taxes. https://www.usnews.com/education/be...eas-with-most-top-ranked-high-schools?onepage Also Tennessee need to generate funds somehow right? They generally have a higher state + local tax than we do. Then of course there’s the disruption to the kid’s schools and circle of friends, etc.
California is trying to tax billionaires’ illiquid wealth. And it likely won’t stop with the billionaires. Lot of people will be leaving if it passes. Advantage Nashville.