Football Season Review

For the fourth season running, the San Jose Earthquakes would fail to make the playoffs, with the Californian side finishing in ninth place in the Western Conference table, a huge 8 points away from sixth spot. After a decent start to the campaign, the Earthquakes would slowly begin to slip away from contention and never really found themselves in the mix. Dominic Kinnear’s men would record 5 wins in their first 11 games, but would ultimately go on to win just 3 out of their final 23 games, showing just how badly the Quakes would deteriorate. Scoring just 32 goals all season, San Jose were the only team in the entire league to average less than 1 goal per game, which was no doubt a big factor in this season’s failings. Defensively, Dominic Kinnear’s side weren’t too shabby however, posting the fifth best record in the division, leaking a total of just 40 goals. While Chris Wondolowski managed to bag himself 12 goals during the course of the season, many of his performances would be inconsistent, with the experienced striker clearly in need of some improved service, given a number of considerable goal droughts throughout the year. The Earthquakes would also struggle to get the best out of many of their designated players, with both Innocent Emeghara and Matias Perez Garcia letting the side down in terms of their play. With a solid defensive backline in place, and with a strong keeper in the form of David Bingham, Dominic Kinnear needs to look to add some more fire power to both his midfield and attack in the offseason if he wants to make any progress next season. With players like Abul Fatai-Alashe, Simon Dawkins and some exciting youthful prospects such as Tommy Thompson and Marc Pelosi, San Jose clearly have a solid foundation in place, and have the ability to make drastic improvements in 2017, providing that they get the right sort of players in.

Player of the Season: David Bingham