New stadiums are supposed to have playoff matches. That’s the whole point, right?
Since the San Jose Earthquakes are finally in the MLS playoffs, at home, for the first time since PayPal Park opened 11 years ago, the club will stage yet another monumental rally in San Pedro Square to celebrate. On Friday the 13th, the rally will erupt from 6 to 8pm. Ted Ramey, the Quakes’ radio play-by-play announcer, will emcee the evening.
Managed by Bruce Arena, the Quakes will then host Houston on Tuesday, Nov. 24. You don’t have to care about football to enjoy the full-circle history involved here. As usual, it’s a joyfully janky San Jose story.
The last time the Quakes were in the playoffs, at home, was in 2012, when the club still temporarily played at Santa Clara University’s Buck Shaw Stadium. Beginning in 2008, the Quakes took over Buck Shaw, then a decaying, 7,000-capacity soccer venue where the SCU Broncos played. Although owner Lew Wolff made a few cheapskate fixes, including grandstand upgrades and a jumbotron screen, the press box was still a crumbling fixture with dead moths piling up in the window tracks.
MLS was supposed to be a big-time league. The real deal. The “top flight” of American soccer. Yet following every game, the team had to use the locker rooms at the nearby SCU basketball arena. After the final whistle, both teams walked off the pitch and then across the grass behind the goal, and all the way into the basketball arena, where they then crossed the court to the lockers. Every game. For the presser, coach Frank Yallop then came out and answered questions at a small table on the sidelines of the basketball court. The crazy logistics felt barely above high school level.
Despite it all, that 2012 Quakes team was a true working-class squad and one of the best sides in MLS history. San Jose won the Supporters’ Shield for the league’s best record and Chris Wondolowski won the Golden Boot award for the league’s leading scorer. Of San Jose’s 72 goals that year, Wondo scored 27, making him a shoe-in for the league MVP.
Wondo wasn’t the only threat to opposing teams in 2012. Forwards Alan Gordon (13 goals) and Steven Lenhart (10 goals) also caused problems for defenses. Together, those three players, Wondo, Gordon and Lenhart, scored 50 of the team’s 72 goals. All three dudes would probably say 2012 was their best year.
Despite the third-division stylings of Buck Shaw, the fans grew to accept the old place, just as they’d grown to love Spartan Stadium. Buck Shaw was similar, in that the fans were very close to the pitch, so they could hurl obscenities at the opposing team’s bench, just like Spartan, and everyone heard everything.
Meanwhile, the despised Los Angeles Galaxy, then coached by Bruce Arena, featured David Beckham and Robbie Keane, both Europeans. As usual, the Galaxy were the polar opposite of the Quakes. The darlings of MLS, the “flagship franchise,” LA had all the money, all the rock stars and everything handed to them on a silver platter. The league bent over backwards to give the club whatever it wanted.
All of which only amplified the league’s best rivalry. The 2012 Quakes were the working-class punks while the Galaxy were the stuck-up rich kids that everyone else just wanted to sock. Other leagues throughout the world featured similar rivalries.
For the two-game aggregate series, San Jose won the first match in Los Angeles 1-0, but unfortunately dropped the second game at Buck Shaw 3-1. The Galaxy thus took the series and eliminated San Jose on Nov. 7, 2012.
That was the last time the San Jose Earthquakes had a home playoff match. Fourteen years ago.
When Bruce Arena came to manage the Quakes beginning in the 2025 season, he was asked about his memories playing against San Jose, citing that series in particular as his favorite. The San Jose fans trashed him after losing that night.
“I heard a lot of bad words attached to my name after that game,” he recalled, with a laugh.
Now Arena has a chance to redeem himself against Houston on Nov. 24. Quakes fans have waited long enough.
