What an amazing weekend for the San Jose Earthquakes and soccer here in the Bay Area. A record crowd of 41,028 fans flooded Stanford Stadium on Saturday night to celebrate the beautiful game and their home town team, the Quakes. This was the second largest crowd in all of Major League Soccer (MLS) this season and one of the largest crowds in the history of the League. If anyone had any doubt about the Quakes and our fan base, I hope this historic evening can once and for all put those questions to rest.
The team responded with a valiant effort, especially in the second half and got some amazing goals from Steven Lenhart and Khari Stevenson to gain a 2-2 draw. In order to properly celebrate the spectacle, I wanted to fire up a top ten list to commemorate the epic evening.
Here is the official Dave Kaval Top-10 List of Amazing Moments from the Red Bull-Quakes match at Stanford Stadium.
10) The awesome tifo and unreal energy displayed by the Ultras and Casbah at the match. Leading the whole stadium in the chants of EARTH – QUAKES gave me goose bumps.
9) Seeing thousands and thousands of fans in old Quakes jerseys from both the 2001-2005 Championship era as well as some throwback NASL gear. Folks really represented their colors at the match.
[inlinenode:9636]8) The first equalizing goal by Khari Stevenson to give the Quakes a 1-1 tie heading into halftime and how the intensity of the play sent the whole stadium into a frenzy.
7) Food truck row in the Epicenter Fan Zone was off the hook with thousands of fans sampling everything from BBQ Kalbi to Twisted’s tasty frozen yogurt.
6) The jumper’s helmet cam broadcast live on the videoboard as they descended toward the stadium. It looked like that huge American flag connected to the second jumper practically touched the masses of fans as he swooped down to land on the field. That was awesome.
[inlinenode:9647]5) Can you say smiley face fireworks? The fireworks show was the perfect capstone to a great evening. I will never forget all the flashbulbs as people took photos of the show.
4) Honoring the 1994 World Cup players from the United States National Team at halftime, especially the 30 for 30 style video recounting that historic day 17 years ago when Stanford Stadium played host to 84,000-plus fans to see the US narrowly lose to the eventual World Cup Champion Brazil 1-0.
3) Jon Busch making quite frankly one of the best saves ever in the 83rd minute and the crowd gasping at the enormity of the athletic diving play.
2) Two words: The Wave.
[inline_node:9654]1) 41,028 Quakes fans erupting in celebration when Stephen Lenhart smashed a header into the net in the 68 minute. The stadium literally shock with the force of an Earthquake.
I would like to thank all our loyal fans who attended the match and made history this weekend. We could not do it without your tremendous support. I would also like to thank Stanford University for hosting us and providing such a beautiful venue for such a great community event.
GO QUAKES!
Dave Kaval
President
San Jose Earthquakes
