SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Home openers for each of Major League Soccer's 14 teams have long since come and gone. That includes the San Jose Earthquakes, who played their first home match against Chicago back on April 12.
But that game was played at Oakland's McAfee Coliseum. The bulk of the club's home schedule will be played at Santa Clara University's Buck Shaw Stadium, which the Quakes will christen Saturday when they take on FC Dallas.
The team is expecting a sellout crowd of 10,500 fans and will be hoping to create an atmosphere reminiscent of their former home, Spartan Stadium.
"This day has been sort of the one we've been looking forward to because it's going to be in our home stadium," said Quakes manager Frank Yallop about Saturday's contest. "We played in Oakland, but that's not a home stadium for us because we're not used to it. This will become our home, and we've got to make it difficult for teams to come here and play."
San Jose has endured a nomadic start to the season, playing three of their first four league matches on the road. Throw in last Wednesday's forgettable 4-0 U.S. Open Cup loss at Real Salt Lake, and the Quakes are starving for a little home cooking.
Of course, Buck Shaw will be as unfamiliar to them as it will be to their opponents, but goalkeeper Joe Cannon feels that taking a few small steps will help the team settle in quickly.
"First and foremost, the crowd needs to be involved," said Cannon. "Second, I think it's just a belief. We've won our first game, so that's important, but we just have to work hard to create the opportunities. ... For this place to be special, we're going to have to be a blue collar team like the Quakes were when Yallop came in 2001."
The team's homecoming is even more welcome given the head injuries sustained on Wednesday by defenders Jay Ayres and Ryan Cochrane, who collided with one another just 11 minutes into the match. Ayres sustained multiple facial fractures while Cochrane suffered a gash that required 21 stitches to close. Both players received concussions, meaning that Cochrane, who had played every minute of every game so far, will not be available for Saturday's match.
Cochrane's absence will require Yallop to reshuffle a backline that has been San Jose's strength so far this season. Jason Hernandez will slide into the middle, James Riley will move over to right back, while Eric Denton will make his first start of the season on the left.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Quakes revamped defense will be going up against FCD's potent strike force of Arturo Alvarez and Kenny Cooper. The two have combined for six goals so far this season, with the combination of Alvarez's unpredictability and Cooper's power giving opposition defenses fits.
Hernandez has seen time at center back during past stints with New York and Chivas USA, and he doesn't expect the move to be a problem.
"It's not that foreign to me," said Hernandez. "I'm excited to be back there. I think with [Nick] Garcia and Cannon behind me, they'll do a good job of helping me readjust. We'll just have to hold down the fort until Ryan Cochrane gets better. I think we should be all right."
Perhaps a bigger concern for San Jose will be getting their attack back on track. Two solid performances against Chicago and Colorado gave way to a loss last week against New York, one that saw them create little going forward. The key for Yallop is simply regaining the aggressive mindset that worked so well in previous matches.
"We've just got to press [Dallas] and make it difficult for them to get out of their own end," said Yallop. "That's what we're trying to do, and if we do that correctly it will be difficult to play against us."
And they'll make their Buck Shaw debut one to remember.
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