As the academy director at FC Dallas from 2012-2018, Gonzalez worked with a plethora of future stars like midfielder Weston McKennie, now at Juventus, and defender Chris Richards, currently at Crystal Palace.

When asked at MLS media day Tuesday in San Jose about their former assistant coach, United States men’s national team players DeAndre Yedlin and Walker Zimmerman had nothing but praise for Gonzalez.

“He’s really good, especially young players,” Inter Miami’s Yedlin said. “I think San Jose is very fortunate to have him. He’s really a great, great coach and also an unbelievable guy. Hopefully has a lot of success.”

The Quakes should be a great landing spot for someone with Gonzalez’s background, as star player Cade Cowell is 19 and Niko Tsakiris, who seems to be on the same path as Cowell, is just 17. In addition, goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski, midfielder Jackson Yueill and forward Jeremy Ebobisse are all 25.

Gonzalez, who was appointed as San Jose’s coach on Aug. 17, led FC Dallas to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. But he was dismissed in 2021 after Dallas failed to make the playoffs. Gonzalez compiled a 28-29-25 regular-season record with Dallas. He later joined USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter’s staff ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where the U.S. advanced out of the group stage before losing in the round of 16 to Holland.

“He has significant experience with this generation of players, and combined with his background in the game both in the U.S. and abroad, he will be a welcome addition to the team,” Berhalter said of Gonzalez when he brought him onto the national team staff.

Zimmerman, 29, started his career with FC Dallas from 2013-2017, when Gonzalez was leading the club to four straight United States Soccer Developmental Academy national championships, before becoming head coach from 2018-2021.

“He’s an honest guy,” said Zimmerman, who now plays for Nashville SC. “He’s gonna wear his heart on his sleeve for the team. He’s going to be passionate.”

“He’ll do anything that he can for his players,” Zimmerman added. “As a player when you have a coach like that, who you know would do anything for you, that’s part of what makes him a good coach.”

Meanwhile, the Earthquakes held their first practice on Monday and will open up the season on the road against Atlanta United on Feb. 25.

MLS boasts Apple deal

MLS held its preseason media and marketing event at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose on Tuesday to highlight the new decade-long partnership between Apple and MLS. The event, now in its 10th season, has typically been in New York or Los Angeles.

The partnership, which was announced in June 2022, will bring an MLS streaming service to Apple TV. Games will no longer air on local television – like NBC Sports Bay Area for the Earthquakes – but Fox will air some games nationally. About 20 Apple executives were present at the event, Courtemanche said, in addition to MLS stars line Carlos Vela, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Riqui Puig.

“Partnering with Apple will help us increase the overall popularity and profile not just of MLS but of soccer in the US and Canada,” Courtemanche said. “With the (2026 men’s) World Cup on the horizon. We are partnering with arguably the most innovative company in the world. That’s going to help us reach new audiences unlike we’ve ever seen before.”

Levi’s Stadium will be one of the host venues for that World Cup, which Courtemanche said he expects to “serve as rocket fuel to grow the sport and Major League Soccer during the next four years.”

The Quakes are set for a Feb. 25 opener at Atlanta United before returning home for their home debut March 4 against the Vancouver Whitecaps. San Jose will host a 20-year reunion for the 2003 MLS Cup champion squad that night.

The California Clasico against the LA Galaxy is set for July 1 at Stanford Stadium, and it won’t be the only home game played at a venue larger than PayPal Park. The Earthquakes will host their newer Southern California rival, MLS Cup champion Los Angeles FC, at Levi’s Stadium on May 6 for what the team is calling the Bay Area’s biggest Cinco de Mayo celebration.

San Jose will host a second match against the Galaxy Aug. 30 at PayPal Park.

Another twist in the schedule will come in July, when MLS action will pause for the month to participate in the Leagues Cup, a new CONCACAF competition between all 47 MLS and Liga MX squads that will feature a group stage and knockout rounds.

The Earthquakes finished the 2022 season last in the Western Conference with just 34 points, firing coach Matias Almeyda in April after San Jose managed just three points from its first seven games and was the last team left without a win. Earthquakes II manager Alex Covelo was elevated as the interim manager for the remainder of the season.

Gonzalez was appointed to the job in August before seeing through his responsibilities at the World Cup as an assistant on the US squad.

One more change coming for the 2023 MLS season is how fans will watch: The league signed a 10-year deal with Apple TV last summer, meaning the Quakes’ games will no longer be shown on NBC Sports Bay Area or California. Instead, all games will be on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass, and a selection of league games will also be broadcast on national TV.

The Earthquakes’ lone national TV game included in Tuesday’s schedule release is a May 14 road game at the Galaxy.

They’ll finish the season Oct. 21 with a home game against Austin FC.

You can find the full schedule on the Earthquakes’ website.

Starting Sunday, and running through Dec. 18, the Earthquakes will host free World Cup watch parties for 57 of the 64 World Cup matches from Qatar. The seven matches that won’t be shown are the ones that start at 2 a.m.

All matches starting at 5 a.m. or later will be shown at The Old Wagon Saloon and Grill (73 N. San Pedro St.) and will include free donuts from Stan’s Donuts. Matches starting at 7 a.m. or later will also be shown at O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub (25 N. San Pedro St). Earthquakes season ticket holders are eligible to receive one free beer.

On Thanksgiving weekend, starting Friday, a block of St. John Street next to San Pedro Square will be blocked off from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. to create a festival-like viewing party with oversized televisions and speakers. The most anticipated games such as Mexico-Argentina, USA-England and Germany-Spain will be played that weekend. (USA-England is Friday, 11 a.m.)

Earthquakes director of communications Jake Pisani said the team is anticipating 16,000 people or more to attend the viewing parties the first week of play. Pisani said the Earthquakes have invested more than $100,000 to host the watch parties.

“We definitely knew this was an opportunity to continue getting people excited about soccer,” Pisani said. “Hopefully we can convert some general soccer fans into Earthquakes fans at the same time.”

During the World Cup, Earthquakes fans will get a glimpse of the team’s new coach, Luchi Gonzalez, who is currently an assistant for the United States National team.

The World Cup starts Sunday with Qatar playing Ecuador at 8 a.m.

Tommy Thompson, San Jose’s first homegrown player, has been with the club since 2014. The 27-year-old defender has played 20 or more games in three out of the past four seasons. Toward the end of the 2022 season, he was starting in most of the Quakes’ games but had been mainly coming off the bench before that. Seven of San Jose’s players protected from the draft are defenders, signifying that San Jose could be ready to move on from a fan favorite.

Siad Haji, 22, is another noteworthy player who the Quakes left unprotected. He has only played 13 minutes with the team since San Jose took him No. 2 overall in the 2019 draft out of Virginia Commonwealth University. He played with various United States national soccer youth teams and recently clocked in with Somalia’s national team, but has never really been able to get minutes in San Jose because of the veteran-heavy midfield room. A start at a new club could see him reach his untapped potential.

Another player left unprotected was Shea Salinas, although he announced his retirement from soccer this past season.

St. Louis City SC will become the 29th member of MLS in 2023, the 11th MLS expansion team in the past eight years. It will have the opportunity to select up to five players from the eligible pool and can only claim a single player from each club. Austin FC, Atlanta United FC, D.C. United, LAFC, and New York City FC are exempt after losing a player to Charlotte FC in the 2021 Expansion Draft.

If the Earthquakes have a player taken, they will receive $50,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) as compensation.

Other players available for selection are:

GK – Matt BersanoD – Oskar ÅgrenM – George AsomaniM – Jan GregusM – Eric RemediM – Jack Skahan

The popular midfielder who has played 13 seasons for San Jose scored the game-winning goal in the 52nd minute of a 2-0 triumph over Minnesota United.

Salinas, in his 15th season overall, holds the club’s all-time assists record (50).

On his climactic goal that broke a scoreless deadlock, Salinas seized the initiative. He took a direct free kick, and his low shot caromed off the leg of a Minnesota player and into back of the net.

“I haven’t taken a direct free kick my entire career,” Salinas said. “I was thinking that the grass is wet, the ground is hard, I’m just going to try and hit it low and hope that it skips, and the goalie bobbles it into the corner.

“God had a different plan. I tried to hit it with the inside of my foot to the corner and it got a good deflection and went into the back of the net. I think God had this all planned out and I got to celebrate,” he continued.

Salinas, normally a reserve this season, asked interim head coach Alex Covelo if he could start in the run-up to the match.

“He said, ‘Alex, I would love to start. I’m feeling the butterflies in my stomach again.’ So, I said, ‘Let’s go.’ That’s it. He did very well,” the coach shared.

Fittingly, on Sunday, Salinas received the club’s Andrew Bedard Spirit of the Game Award/Humanitarian of the Year for the fifth time (2009, 2012, 2014, 2015).

San Jose (8-10-15, 34 points) rounded out the scoring on a goal by Benji Kikanović, who sent a low shot just inside the far post.

Covelo has come to expect good things from Salinas.

“He always has been a role model on and off the field. I was on the bench in 2017 when Shea scored the second goal and gave us the victory (over the Galaxy) at Stanford. It has been a pleasure.”

Salinas says MLS has grown “a ton” these past 15 years. Early in his career not many people knew the league existed. Now it’s an international brand, he says.

“The quality of players has grown tremendously,” Salinas said. “I’ve been lucky to survive for 15 years. We have 18 and 19-year-old kids that are way ahead of where I have been.”

The Earthquakes’ club award winners: Jeremy Ebobisse, Offensive Player of the Year, and Player’s Player of the Year; JT Marcinkowski, Defensive Player of the Year; Benji Kikanović, Young Player of the Year; Tommy Thompson, Media Good Guy; Shea Salinas for the Andrew Bedard Spirit of the Game Award/Humanitarian of the Year.

Salinas, 36, has been a key piece of the Quakes’ team on the field over 13 seasons with the club: He’s San Jose’s all-time leader in assists (50), second only to longtime teammate Chris Wondolowski in games played (331) and third in minutes played (18,132).

The midfielder first joined the Earthquakes in 2008, making 23 appearances for the team in his first two MLS seasons, before being drafted to the Philadelphia Union and Vancouver Whitecaps in successive expansion drafts. He returned to San Jose in 2011 via trade from Vancouver.

“I am so grateful for the 15 years I got to play professional soccer,” Salinas said in a statement thanking the Quakes and their fans. “It was 15 more years than I had ever expected.”

Over his time with San Jose, Salinas made his impact on the Earthquakes’ biggest rivalry game, the California Clasico against the LA Galaxy. In 2013, he scored one of two stoppage-time goals for San Jose, which was down to 10 men on the field, to earn a 3-2 victory, and in 2017, he scored the game winner in stoppage time and celebrated by taking his shirt off and running around the Stanford Stadium pitch.

“The longevity, durability, and consistency he has displayed over his 15 seasons in MLS is remarkable,” Quakes GM Chris Leitch said in a statement. “Even more important is the positive attitude with which he impacted each and every locker room he was a part of, and the desire he had to give back to our local community.”

Salinas has two games left in his Quakes career with San Jose eliminated from playoff contention: Saturday night at home against Minnesota, and next Sunday afternoon at Seattle.

Shea Salinas and the California Clasico.

A love story.@SutterHealth | #VamosSJ pic.twitter.com/euSYtnGVjn

— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) April 2, 2021

The match ball was delivered by skydivers from Team Fastrax, followed by a pregame ceremony honoring the military.

In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the first California Clasico, the club hosted a halftime ceremony featuring a performance from the Sacramento State marching band and honored players and coaches who have competed in previous iterations, including Victor Bernardez, Sam Cronin, Clarence Goodson, Alan Gordon, Jason Hernandez, Steven Lenhart and Jordan Stewart, among many others.

The evening ended with a colorful fireworks show.

Chicharito’s game-winner came in the 69th minute to put the Galaxy (13-12-7) up 3-0. Efrain Alvarez assisted the goal. Chicharito also opened the scoring in the 12th.

The Galaxy also got one goal from Gaston Brugman.

Cristian Espinoza scored on a penalty kick in the 74th and Nathan added a goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time for the Earthquakes (7-15-10).

San Jose outshot the Galaxy 13-11, who had four shots on goal compared to three by the Earthquakes.

Jonathan Bond saved one of the three shots he faced for the Galaxy. JT Marcinkowski saved one of the four shots he faced for the Earthquakes.

The game was initially scheduled for June 25 but was pushed back three months due to a power outage on Stanford’s campus caused by the Edgewood Fire.

These teams take to the pitch again Saturday, with the Galaxy hosting Real Salt Lake while the Earthquakes host Minnesota United.

The Earthquakes (7-12-9) never trailed after Ebobisse made it a 1-0 game in the fourth minute. Jackson Yueill had an assist on the goal. Jamiro Monteiro scored the other goal for San Jose.

Both the Earthquakes and the Whitecaps (9-13-7) had six shots. The Earthquakes had four shots on goal and the Whitecaps had three.

Thomas Hasal saved two shots for the Whitecaps.

Both teams are in action again on Saturday. The Earthquakes visit Cincinnati and the Whitecaps visit the Colorado Rapids.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

At first, he thought they were there to send a message. He soon found out they were attending an unrelated conference, but the message was fitting nonetheless.

“The ambition is to make the playoffs next year, plain and simple,” Gonzalez said. “We must make the playoffs next year. That’s going to be our mentality, our objective.”

Gonzalez, an assistant with the U.S. Men’s National Team since December, will stay with the U.S. team through the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which begins in late November, and then join the Quakes for the start of next season. San Jose’s final game of this season is Oct. 9.

When the 42-year-old takes over in San Jose for the 2023 season, he will lead a club that, barring a huge finish this season, has made just two playoff appearances and has no playoff wins since 2012.

This year’s team is currently 5-11-9 and in 13th place out of 14 teams in the Western Conference, nine points from the playoff line. But Gonzalez said the franchise isn’t as bad as the record may indicate.

“The perception of where the club is today, it’s maybe worse than what it is,” Gonzalez said. “I think there’s a lot of potential. The academy is growing, you have young players doing well, you have guys who are very dangerous offensively. You have a good core. Can we refine it, can we grow it? Absolutely. But I think we have a good starting point and it’s going to be my job to prove that.”

Interim coach Alex Covelo and his staff will continue to lead the team over the final nine games of the 2022 season. The Quakes are 5-7-6 under Covelo, who took over after coach Matias Almeyda was fired early in his fourth season after starting 0-4-3.

Wednesday’s announcement was a full-circle moment for the Miami native, who was selected by the Quakes sixth overall in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft and appeared in eight games. After brief stints with the Colorado Rapids and teams in Sweden and Peru, Gonzalez took over as FC Dallas’s academy team in 2012 and was named head coach of the first team in 2019.

Gonzalez led FC Dallas to playoff appearances in his first two seasons in charge, but the team struggled in 2021 and he was fired in September.

Gonzalez’s success developing players at FC Dallas over the last decade is a good fit for San Jose’s young roster. But Quakes general manager Chris Leitch said that the club’s objective was to win, and not just to find a coach who can help players improve.

Leitch said that Gonzalez’s deep knowledge of MLS will be a competitive advantage, and that the team is expected to play a fast-paced, ball-dominant style while still focusing on defense. The Quakes have allowed 53 goals this season, four more than any other team in MLS.

Gonzalez also said he received assurances that the Quakes are willing to put in additional resources in order to make that goal a reality. As part of the hiring process, Gonzalez and ownership looked at what the top teams in MLS are spending.

“What I can say is the club is ready to invest more than it ever has,” Gonzalez said. “The club is ready to put together a staff with more support than it ever has. That was important to me even before my personal situation. You’ll get more details soon, but that’s something that I’m sure will be more clear in the coming months.”