In 2017 the San Jose Earthquakes will host Montreal for their home opener

The San Jose Earthquakes will host the Montreal Impact at Avaya Stadium to kickoff the 2017 season. San Jose will surely have to make some moves this offseason as they yet again failed to make the playoffs for the forth season in a row. It seems for the last four years either they have had players that are coming off their peak with no real replacement or they’ve had an injuries that hurt their ability to stay competitive for 90 minutes.

This past year, San Jose was blessed with a star goalie; David Bingham. A strong midfield that included Alberto Quintero, Fatai Alashe and towards the end Darwin Cerén. But the areas that kept them out of the playoffs where in defense and offense. The Defense looked aged and their offense was mediocre at best, even though on paper they should have been able to produce and keep up with most of the teams in MLS.

For the 2017 MLS regular season, San Jose will play 34 games, including 17 home games and 17 away games. The Earthquakes will face each of their 10 conference opponents twice during the season with one game at home and one game away. Also, they will compete in selected additional games against different conference opponents three times, and they will face non-conference opponents once. Lastly, they will most likely have friendlies with a team from their neighbors next door Liga MX and a European team.

As of December 2016, San Jose is still searching for their new General Manager in hopes that he/she can bring San Jose back to their winning and competitive ways. (San Jose does have two MLS cups under their belts) In my opinion it would be nice if the new GM shares not only their high level vision of the future of the Earthquakes, but also some of their strategy to make the San Jose Earthquake squad filled with talent for years to come.

In any case, GM or no GM, the first game for the San Jose Earthquakes is set: Saturday, March 4 at 7 p.m.