With the recent publication of Travis Clark's article at MLSSoccer.com on the multitude of YNT call-ups for 'Quakes players, I figured it was time the club got their own thread (with Dallas and Philly.) We can use this thread to talk about the players and teams. Below are the Earthquakes players called to represent the United States: U15 National Team Owen Anderson – Midfielder, Quakes U15 Rohan Rajagopal – Midfielder, Quakes U15 U17 National Team Fidel Barajas – Forward, Quakes U17 Cruz Medina – Midfielder, Quakes U17 Edwyn Mendoza – Midfielder, Quakes U17 Oscar Verhoeven – Defender, Quakes U17 U19 National Team Ethan Kohler – Defender/Midfielder, Quakes Academy U17/Earthquakes II (MLS NEXT Pro) Emi Ochoa – Goalkeeper, San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) Nathan Rodrigues – Defender, Quakes Academy U17 U20 National Team Tarun Karumanchi – Midfielder, UCLA (former Quakes Academy) Niko Tsakiris – Midfielder, San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) San Jose isn’t just sending players to compete for the United States, though. Quakes Academy players are also representing six other countries across North America, South America and Europe: Defender Alejandro Cano to El Salvador U20 Midfielder Allan Juarez to Guatemala U20 Forward Diego Otoya to Peru U20 Defender Tristan Viviani to Malta U20 (former U.S. U17/U20) Defender Lorenzo Avalos to Iceland U17 (former U.S. U14) Midfielder Oliver Hernandez to Mexico U16 (former U.S. U15) Articles: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/usynt-callups-a-measure-of-success-at-san-jose-earthquakes-academy https://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/...st-represented-club-with-u-s-youth-national-t
I feel like the first really strong class of academy kids for SJ was the U17s consisting of 2003 and 2004s. They got shafted big time by Covid-19. Lost two chances at Generation Adidas Cup, were in final eight of DA Cup and near the top of the Northwest Division for playoffs when everything got shut down. They lost a lot of scouting opportunities. Some of these guys may emerge later and surprise people.
The Magnificent Seven: Quakes II match MLS NEXT Pro record in 7-1 win over Rapids 2 E. Blancas(1') M. Arfsten(9') O. Gómez(21' OG) W. Richmond(43' PK) S. Salinas(58') M. Arfsten(68') R. Castro(89') https://www.mlsnextpro.com/competitions/mls-next-pro/2022/matches/sjvscol-05-15-2022/ W. pic.twitter.com/mBY8kIdtAh— Earthquakes II (@EarthquakesII) May 16, 2022
What was interesting to me was how the Quakes structured the line up. Their older and more experienced players were played on the outside and the young straight from academy guys were the spine of the team.
John Wolyniec is now the Technical Director for San Jose. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/san-jose-earthquakes-hire-john-wolyniec-as-technical-director I suspect his first assignment might be coaching Quakes2. Current interim Earthquakes’ head coach Alex Covelo and his number one assistant Luciano Fusco have their hands full coaching the first team (including an Open Cup campaign). Wolyniec seems like the perfect coach to link academy players to first team contracts. He balances coaching to win with coaching for development. Interestingly, he’s now the second recent hire with Red Bulls academy experience following the hire of Youth Scout Matt Martin. The Quakes are involved in an important project to build a new multi-million dollar training grounds facility and Wolyniec’s input into the design and functionality of the plan might be extremely valuable.
Would be a great signing for them. The San Jose Earthquakes will sign Cruz Medina in the next coming days. Medina received the Golden Ball in #MLSNEXT Cup in 2021. Medina was also on trial with Bayern Munich. #Quakes74 #MLS pic.twitter.com/qwGoppg2dd— Favian Renkel (@FavianRenkel) May 25, 2022
Diego Otoya pulls one back from the penalty mark to put @EarthquakesII on the board! 👏 pic.twitter.com/za04Vpet05— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) June 5, 2022
Best way to wake up is to great news like this! Cruz started ranked in the high 30s and set the goal to be number 1 in the country and he finally got there! MY SON IS THE NUMBER 1 player in the 2006 AGE GROUP IN THE COUNTRY!!! SO PROUD OF MY BOYS! KEEP IT GOING CRUZ!!! pic.twitter.com/mb2z70cjwR— Antonio Medina (@BCSCAntonio) June 13, 2022 1. Cruz Medina 5. Fidel Barajas 7. Niko Tsakiris
I apologize in advance for a small rant on a pet-peeve of mine that is very soccer-lingo and rankings classification-based. I'm not trying to criticize their individual rankings, as I've explained why I don't like doing that type of thing, so I won't do that, but when I see people rank players by graduation class it drives me crazy. If you were to go by graduation class and ranked the 2025's, you are ranking late 2006's (who play U-17 league) and 2007s (who almost all play U-15 league). It's possible to do. I understand why they do it (they are a website that caters to college soccer) and how to do it (I've ranked players from different birth years before also), but it's really hard to do and I find that it's most logical to keep players by their birth years. Cruz Medina is over 15 months younger than Niko Tsakiris, yet they are from the same graduation class. For the same reasons it drives me crazy when I hear people reference a player's numerical age as opposed to their birth year. The difference can be nearly 12 months between two 18 year olds. It tells you really little to reference the numerical age. I'll give one quick example. There's one player for San Antonio FC's U-15's that I think is a relevant prospect. If he was an '07, I don't even know that he'd be a YNT level player. However, I was given reason to believe recently that he's an '08. If thats true, he's easily a top 10 player in the age group IMO. Thats a difference of probably about 50 spots better in his age group just from being an '08 as opposed to an '07, so hypothetically that he's 14 (born later than June 17 in 2007 or earlier than June 18 in 2008) tells me very little when the difference is what I stated for being an '08 as opposed to an '07.
A braggard parent. My decades have shown that those types are always well adjusted and reasonable. Not.
FROM MY EXPERIENCE parents who need to proudly proclaim to everyone in the world how great their kids have done usually aren’t very well adjusted themselves. If they are doing great it’s out there to see already. You have already told your kids how proud you are. Shouldn’t you have? Who is the promoting for? Yourself. Not them. Why? You want the attention for yourself. Me, me, me. Look how great I am and what I did! This isn’t a reporter asking if you are proud of your kid and you saying of course I am. You are taking a subjective ranking, promoting it on your own to the world and shining a light on yourself. Again, FROM MY EXPERIENCE parents who need to do that usually have their own issues. Insecurity, push their kids to hard for their own needs, want the spotlight for themselves, are rarely rational about their kids ability, are uber defensive, and usually blame everyone and everything else if they don’t keep succeeding to a level they want (don’t see that much here do we). Just sayin. My opinion that’s all.
Agreed. I don’t know the whole story and what happened. Just an off the cuff remark from me. I would wager there are few people who have kids who haven’t run into the type of parents I just described. Many actually harm their own kids. Do I know this is the case here? No. Social media spur of the moment reaction. Not pretty.
Cowell and 16 year old Tsakiris starting for the U-20s Ready, set, 𝙂𝙊!🚦Your #U20MYNT starting XI vs. 🇰🇳 pic.twitter.com/ZmwgnReOah— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) June 18, 2022
San Jose fans should also watch El Salvador’s games for Alejandro Cano and Guatemala’s for Allan Juarez, especially Cano. I really hope they give him a first team contract soon, although I’m not convinced it’s coming.
Former Quakes academy player Drake Callender 🥅⚽️ We are nearing the midway point of the 2022 MLS season. This is a look at how the top goalkeepers have fared at preventing goals.PSxG - GA measures a GK's shot-stopping ability by comparing post-shot expected goals against actual goals conceded. pic.twitter.com/4rtQoSLr5b— Chris Ivey (@ChrisIvey865) June 21, 2022 Former Quakes academy player Diego Luna 🎙️New pod!USA 2, Canada 2 at the U20 Concacaf Championship. @MattSHartman joins again. Two nice goals scored, two poor ones conceded. Diego Luna excellent. Lots to discuss. https://t.co/ztfcGCffZC pic.twitter.com/mOYIICed1y— scuffed (@scuffedpod) June 21, 2022
wow if true Sources: North Texas SC head coach Pa-Modou Kah was offered the vacant San Jose Earthquakes head-coaching job, but he declined. #Quakes74The 41y/o was named NTSC’s head coach ahead of this season and is happy to be there. North Texas is FC Dallas’s reserve side in MLS Next Pro. pic.twitter.com/vTnc5LEuqD— MLS News (@willhansonmls) June 22, 2022
Apparently that wasn't true... Regarding a rumor that North Texas SC head coach Pa-Modou Kah declined an offer to become the next San Jose Earthquakes head coach: Sources say that is not true. Kah hasn’t spoken to SJ.Kah interviewed for MLS jobs in the past, is highly-regarded. SJ in no rush in coach search.— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) June 22, 2022 ...but this is? Pa-Modou Kah set to interview for #Quakes74 job!Details for @Transfermarkt https://t.co/eCekhwlcEj— Manuel Veth (@ManuelVeth) June 23, 2022