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I ♥ Hondurans! And other Earthquakes too…

When sitting in my office back in December hearing that the San Jose Earthquakes made a trade with FC Dallas to bring in midfielder Marvin Chávez and then a week later signed defender Víctor Bernárdez, a free agent formerly from Belgian’s Anderlecht, I really didn’t think much of it. I searched twitter and all the MLS blogs to see if Dallas fans were happy to get rid of their player (à la Bobby Convey or Scott Sealy) or if they were screaming and crying at their Front Office (à la Shea Salinas 2009). I was happy to see that most of the Hoops fans were scratching their heads and lamenting over the devastating loss of their speedy Honduran winger; however, never really paying attention to him I didn’t know what to expect.

Fast forward to the beginning of the 2012 and seeing Shea Salinas and Marvin Chávez running up the wings to deliver balls to Steven Lenhart and Chris Wondolowski, with Victor Bernárdez holding down the fort with Justin Morrow on the back line, I couldn’t believe my eyes. We were not allowing goals to be scored and yet we were scoring right and left with heads, feet, chests and knees. It was a glorious feeling seeing the Quakes starting to make their way to the top of the table and having the media and other teams take note.

Then one fateful April day in New York, both Big Vic Bernárdez and Shea-Shea Salinas went down in the box to be sidelined by injuries until the end of June and Speedy Chávez was suspended a game for a hard tackle and later out completely with a hamstring strain. At first it wasn’t noticed in the scores, but little by little you could tell the guys were missed. Ike Opara and Jason Hernandez would be inserted into the lineup and we would leak goals. I found myself holding my breath every match waiting for the Quakes’ defense to make a blunder and be punished for it. I didn’t realize how much I was trained (from the past four seasons) to expect to lose. When Chávez was suspended or injured or just wasn’t in the lineup, San Jose wasn’t seeming to score as many goals (Chávez is currently tied for 2nd in the league for Assists).

I’ve come to realize that the heart of the team (and my sanity) seems to be Honduran. Since Big Vic came back on June 20th and was inserted again in the starting lineup, I breathe easier throughout entire games. I scour news to make sure Marvin the Magnificent is healthy and doesn’t have too many yellow cards before the next match up to help boost my confidence and lower my blood pressure. It is amazing how these two players have quietly affected the outcome games and the team overall without much notice or accolades (neither selected for the MLS All-Star game on July 25).

But as much as the Hondurans easy my mind, I am looking forward to the day when Salinas doesn’t have so much rust in his game and for him to be back in his winning form (getting two assists in Saturday’s 5 – 0 slaughtering of Real Salt Lake is a great start). I’m excited to see Wonderful Wondo scoring goals (17 so far) for fun, not because his team is solely dependent upon him to win (although he has 8 game winners currently) but just because he can. I’m loving that Alan ‘Flash’ Gordon (7) and Steven ‘Lenny’ Lenhart (6) should reach double digits in goals before the season is out. It is awesome to see Rafa Baca and Sam Cronin having made the center midfield their own and can pass the ball up the center (not relying on just the long ball) to score. Add in stellar veteran Jon Busch between the sticks, where his cat-like reflexes result in amazing saves some games or in others he just quietly watches the game due to his backline making sure no ball gets through to him.  These guys, along with the others, are proving that soccer is a team sport where passion and humility are the key ingredients to being the best in the league.

I eagerly look forward to seeing how far this “Never Say Die” team will go now that they are the first in MLS to reach 40 points with 41 goals scored and a +17 goal differential and 14 games left to play.

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