Another bay area kid ends up a homegrown for an MLS team other than the Quakes... 16 year old DaMario McIntosh from Newark CA... seems to be a regular occurrence Sources: New England Revolution sign right back DaMario McIntosh to a homegrown deal, starting in 2025.McIntosh, 16, has 11 apps with the Revs second team this season. He'll remain a regular for Revs II before joining first team roster next season. pic.twitter.com/7TDQL2WzUz— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) June 10, 2024 East Bay, CA native from Newark. Developed through @oaklandrootssc's 510 Project. Good two-way FB with plus physical profile and very good instincts off of the ball. 2007 RB class is pretty deep. https://t.co/udEHrrkHUy— Marcus Chairez (@chai_asc) June 11, 2024 Spivey Hearing that San Jose Earthquakes are promoting three of their top U-15 talents to the U-17s:KK Spivey ('09)Chelo Avalos ('09)Will Ostrander ('09)This has been a big discussion point all season why they've kept these players in the U-15's. Other clubs promoted their best… pic.twitter.com/FymZbneK3Z— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) June 11, 2024
Good for him. John Fisher is a curse on this world. Although I laugh a bit at "developed" by the Roots' 510 project, which is like months old. And I'm technically a Roots owner. It's a good idea, etc.; gotta think there's a few other people with a much stronger claim to helping him.
He was scoring goals for Project 510 in USL League 2 at age 14 two years ago. https://www.oaklandrootssc.com/news...-old-damario-mcintosh-scores-the-matchwinner/
It sounds like he was playing a game of poker with San Jose and MLS. Thought was that he wasn't willing to go the MLS route. Thus, no San Jose and I believe wasn't even on their protected list because they had become convinced he wouldn't go the MLS route. That was until he got a destination he presumably wanted, and then was willing to go the MLS route.
Inevitably..............Luchi fired. San Jose Earthquakes fire Luchi Gonzalez with team in last - ESPN Really good guy, good running an academy, but the results just haven't been there as a head coach. Yes, he's made the playoffs. Scraping into the playoffs.
The Quakes backed into the playoffs last year, they only won like 4 games after May 5, which means with their three wins this year Luchi managed 7 wins from May 5 2023 through June 2024
A video that should be mentioned in this thread.... https://www.mlssoccer.com/video/san...kes-what-now-after-luchi-gonzalez-s-dismissal It's not either/or, it's all bad decisions by the front office. Hiring Luchi Gonzalez who was already a failure with a talented young FC Dallas team. Not making signings early enough this offseason, not making enough good signings. Not signing Diego Luna and Fidel Barajas to homegrown deals, two local kids who are playing for first place RSL instead of for the last place Quakes. Matt Doyle says they chose Cade Cowell over Luna instead of signing both... WTF. Not signing good goalkeepers, the Quakes goalkeepers have combined to give up 15 more goals than expected this season. Of course it goes even beyond the front office, to president Shawlee and beyond to their owner Fisher. They could have hired Will Kuntz from LAFC as their GM instead of Chris Leitch. But they went with Leitch either because he's already in the organization (to put it diplomatically, not a good reason when it's the worst organization across all major sports leagues in North America, having gone 11 seasons without a winning record), or because he was the cheaper option, or the less ambitious option. Kuntz went to LA Galaxy and turned around a dysfunctional organization, something Leitch clearly has failed to do here. LA is tied for the most points in the west and the Quakes are historically bad. Oh and the two teams play each other this weekend.
Its difficult to be worse than the Chicago Fire, but San Jose might be. At least San Jose backed into the playoffs recently. Chicago Fire do spend money. They've only made the playoffs twice since 2009 and haven't gotten out of the first round since that time. And right now, they're again the worst in the East. It's almost impossible........................................
The Chicago Fire were good in 2017 when they finished third in the Supporters Shield race. The Quakes haven't been good since 2012, and haven't had a winning record since 2013. Longest active streaks without a winning season in American sports:NBA - Wizards - 5 SeasonsNHL - Detroit - 7 SeasonsMLB - Angels - 8 SeasonsNFL - Jets - 8 SeasonsMLS - San Jose Earthquakes - 10 seasons #Quakes74— Quakes Epicenter (@QuakesEpicenter) March 11, 2024 Make that 11 seasons
This is what its come to for poor Quakes fans. Demanding to be recognized as the worst franchise in MLS. If you're going to be bad at something, aim for being the absolute worst!!!!!!! [I was giving credit to Chicago for spending tons of money and still being bad. Chicago has the 3rd highest payroll in the league!! An impressive level of incompetence.]
Things are going to get so much worse on the academy front before they get better. There’s usually a club out there that has an alarming academy offseason. Early on I’m sensing this might be the club. Such a poorly run club. I’m convinced they have the best territory for talent in the country and they waste it all.
.................its tough. When the problems start at the top with ownership; its hard to turn things around. Its like my favorite NFL team. The Washington Commanders. They were incapable of turning things around under Daniel Snyder. Impossble. I don't know what exactly the business plan is to succeed right now in San Jose. Its OK to say "We're not going to spend big money on foreign veterans, so let's go all in on youth and academy products." Well................then do it. Have that be the business plan. Get everybody in the organization on the same page. Tell the front office to prioritize those signings and tell the head coach that he's expected to play those players. I don't know if that works in 2024 MLS, but at least it would be a plan. Right now in San Jose its some sort of half-assed version of that.
Exactly, all comes back to ownership. Same guy who oversees the A’s, who are also a terribly run team. When it’s these long term and systemic issues for sports teams, the best place to look is likely ownership. Not to say the owner makes every decision, but the owner oversees the whole ship and has ultimate responsibility.
Quakes lost out on $4 million by failing to sign Fidel Barajas to a homegrown deal... BREAKING: Chivas is finalizing a deal to sign Mexican youth int'l winger Fidel Barajas (18) from Real Salt Lake, per sources.Deal north of $4m, a new club-record for RSL. RSL keeping sell-on % too.w/ @jeffrueterhttps://t.co/ua3x0wYvhm— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) June 29, 2024 But at least they would get paid for Emi Ochoa... unless he is out of contract... which it sounds like he will be... failure after failure. Another MLS name on the radar of Liga MX's biggest clubs: San Jose Earthquakes GK Emi OchoaClub America, Chivas & Monterrey all seriously circling. He can sign a pre-contract deal on July 1, w/ contract expiring at end of yearOchoa, 19, has repped both US & Mexico youth teams pic.twitter.com/qMtgHjKIVN— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) June 29, 2024
Tomo Allen has been called up to the MLS Next All Star game.The game is expected to take place on July 23rd at Columbus Crew’s stadium. A full roster is expected to be announced soon 👀 pic.twitter.com/vWWdKxnNCA— Youth Soccer Central (@yscentral) July 1, 2024
Barajas: "Like Diego Luna, another gem Quakes let slip away" RSL signed Fidel Barajas barely 6 months ago, he played 556 1st-team minutes & they just sold him for about 8x what they paid Charleston Battery🏔️Belief in young players🏔️Reaping benefits of dedicated focus on lower divs🏔️Like Diego Luna, another gem #Quakes74 let slip away https://t.co/38svuhlPce— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) July 2, 2024
Not great that the only successful development story from Quakes 2 is Max Arfsten who also (like Drake Callender, Diego Luna, Fidel Barajas, etc.) slipped through the cracks, drafted by Columbus... Would Max Arfsten be the best player on the Quakes? Why in god's name would they let this man go?— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) June 30, 2024 The fans have spoken. 📣Max Arfsten's strike is the @ATT Goal of the Matchday. 💫 https://t.co/m8XJp8DKai pic.twitter.com/e6PYoXxolh— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 3, 2024
Like Jamon said I think it was unlucky with the draft and with the stupid MLS Next rules that you cannot sign players directly from MLS Next Pro which somehow St Louis just did today. That case definitely not as disappointing as Barajas and Luna.
Drama between the Quakes and RSL... the Quakes have already been embarrassed twice, losing Diego Luna (#3 in MLS in assists currently) and Fidel Barajas (sold for $4 million same as Quakes golden boy Cowell) to RSL in recent years. SJ and RSL are currently in a dispute over Owen Anderson (‘07). Anderson’s a midfielder who has had a good season at RSL. He joined in 22-23. RSL want to sign him. It’s being held up. As always, the player is the real loser in these disputes. I’ve learned twitter is passionate about MLS HG territory battles.I’ll throw a log into the fire: SJ and RSL are currently in a dispute over Owen Anderson (‘07).Anderson’s a midfielder who has had a good season at RSL. He joined in 22-23. RSL want to sign him. It’s being held…— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) March 2, 2024 Update: I’m hearing that San Jose are now putting their foot down on selling his HG rights to RSL. These two clubs have had a lot of bad blood over the last few years. RSL has taken a number of SJE products, and it’s becoming a bad look for SJE. MLS is now involved to mediate. Update: I’m hearing that San Jose are now putting their foot down on selling his HG rights to RSL. These two clubs have had a lot of bad blood over the last few years. RSL has taken a number of SJE products, and it’s becoming a bad look for SJE.MLS is now involved to mediate. https://t.co/UjS6UjHN1E— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) July 16, 2024 Not wanting to sign any players from your youth academy and then getting mad when they leave and go somewhere else is funny— quin, from space (@starnavigation_) July 16, 2024 I'm reminded of when the Quakes didn't bother to partner with a USL team as their affiliate to send players on loan, then the Portland Timbers partnered with Sacramento Republic, and the Quakes didn't like another team coming into their territory, so they raised a stink until the Republic became the affiliate of both MLS teams... always petty and reactive, never proactive.
Another they couldn't sign, Ethan Kohler with the U20s Take a peek behind the scenes with #U20MYNT defender Ethan Kohler!Join us as Ethan shows what it’s like inside camp and how our equipment team keeps everything running smoothly. pic.twitter.com/lsThTUlwqE— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) July 16, 2024
New homegrown defender Wilson Eisner Eisner, 22, will join the Earthquakes’ second team, The Town FC, on an MLS NEXT Pro contract for the remainder of the 2024 season before becoming an Earthquakes Homegrown Player effective Jan. 1, 2025. His MLS contract runs through the 2025 season with a club option for 2026. ... A native of Menlo Park, California, Eisner graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School before being invited to the San Jose Earthquakes’ 2021 preseason camp in Santa Barbara, where he spent time training with the first team. He subsequently attended Cornell University from 2021-23, where he earned First Team All-Ivy League honors as a freshman in 2021. NEWS: #Quakes74 sign defender Wilson Eisner to contract as Homegrown Player.Congrats, Wilson!#Quakes74 | @TheTown_FC— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) July 18, 2024 So instead of signing one of their many young prospects they signed some 22 year old rich Menlo Park (not far from their usual failed Stanford draft picks) kid who went to Cornell until last year and hasn't been playing since?