Z/Web

Wow, fantastic night. The weekend began with a downer in that AEG, the owners of the Quakes, officially announced a deadline: if the Quakes are not bought by local investors or a local stadium deal isn’t figured by Sept. 27 — yes, a mere month away — the Quakes will be relocated next year, most likely to San Antonio, Texas. Friday a huge rally in San Jose was scheduled, and tonight was a tribute to the original Earthquakes, the 30th anniversary of the original 1974 NASL team. In honor of those players, the Earthquakes wore red retro uniforms, quite a switch from traditional Quake blue. There was a good-sized crowd on hand and even Krazy George was back, beating his drum and riling up the fans who were in excellent voice. Besides the relocation drama, this was a huge game for the Quakes. Last in the West, this was a must-win against a Conference opponent. The game started with Dallas getting a couple early chances, but within a couple minutes the Quakes were humming and got an early goal with a terrific Ramiro Corrales left-footed strike. Donovan broke through with the ball on goal, took a defender with him to the side and played a fluff ball to Ramiro who blasted it into the far post netting. San Jose controlled play well after that. The Burn had some possession and created a couple chances, but nothing truly threatening. San Jose really dominated with some fantastic combination play. A quick series of passes sent Ronnie Ekelund in alone on goal, but Burn keeper Jeff Cassar managed to block the shot with his face! Sadly, he paid for the fine save, having to come out of the game as his left eye was nearly swollen shut. The Quakes’ continued pressure paid off and soon we were on the board again with another Ramiro goal… sort of. Off on the left he came into the box and took a low-percentage shot. Unfortunately for the Burn, their defender’s feeble block only succeeded in wrong-footing the keeper and generating an own goal. In the second half the Burn came out wanting to be strong but San Jose wouldn’t have it, continuing the route with another combination goal. Several touches in the Burn half resulted in Ekelund feeding Mulrooney who passed forward to Ching who chested it down to Donovan. Landon immediately slid the ball into space and Ching turned and was on-on-one with Scott Garlick, the Burn’s replacement keeper. Ching scored to give us a 3-0 lead and himself a league-leading eleventh goal of the season. After that it was routine, with the fans screaming with joy, the Quakes making the Burn look pathetic, and the home team squandering several good chances to add to the score. In the end the Quakes get themselves out of the cellar (the Burn deservedly get that spot), hold on to a nice shutout, and snag a priceless three points. And hopefully it will be a performance that will inspire a local ownership group to keep the Quakes here. Final: 3-0 Earthquakes.