In his literary classic, The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas tells us that “there is neither happiness nor unhappiness in the world… only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss.”
No one can attest to this better than Earthquakes fans, which had to witness their team finish the 2000 season at the pit of the MLS standings. It marked the third consecutive year that the club had failed to reach the playoffs.
It was a low point in the club’s history, but just like Harvey Dent promised the citizens of Gotham, the dawn would eventually arrive for the Quakes and it couldn’t have been brighter.
At first glance, however, there wasn’t much of an indication that 2001 would be a special year for the Quakes. The playoffs weren’t even on the players’ minds.
“It’s funny, you kind of look back and you don’t really think about that,” Cannon mused. “At that point in MLS, you were just worried about there being a league.”
A season-opening win against the Los Angeles Galaxy seemed to ignite some hope in the club’s fortunes that year, but two consecutive losses thereafter quickly extinguished it.
“I think right off the bat, after the first home game, we knew we had something different when we went down to LA and we won,” recounted Cannon. “That was followed by two losses, though. I’ll never forget that year because I called my dad after we lost to the [Miami] Fusion. I was worried. ‘Here we go again with the team,’ I thought.”
Cannon’s fears turned out to be unfounded. The next game, the Quakes drew away to Kansas City, kicking off what would turn into a club-record 12-game undefeated streak that lasted from early May to early July.
“That’s when you kind of knew it wasn’t going to be like years past,” Cannon said.
Cannon played an instrumental role in the club’s ascension, recording a then-club-record 1.09 goals against average, the best season of his career up to that point. By the time the season ended, the Earthquakes were second in their conference with a 13-7-6 record and a winning percentage of .615—an increase of .271 percent from the previous season, the most in MLS history.
“I don’t think any of us really knew how special we were, how good that group was,” reflected Cannon. “[Head coach] Frank [Yallop] did a good job, and [assistant coach] Dom [Kinnear] and the whole group, of keeping us focused game by game.”
Just a few weeks after the Quakes’ record streak, Cannon played in his very first MLS All-Star Game, which was hosted at Spartan Stadium that year. It was a special moment for the local keeper who grew up just a half-hour away.
“I think six of us were there and that was pretty neat,” said Cannon thinking back. “On a personal level, the All-Star game was really big because it kind of solidified the year that we were all having and let the league know that San Jose was a different team. And it was special because it was played in front of so many of my friends and family.”
“It was a special year too because of the kind of characters that we had,” continued Cannon. “There was a younger group of guys like Jimmy Conrad, Richie Mulrooney, myself and Landon. You had guys who were a year older and were really solid players. Guys like Wade Barrett, Manny Lagos, Ramiro Corrales. It was a collection of guys that, looking back, was extremely talented, but at the time, we were just this kind of band of brothers.”
By the end of the season, the new-look Quakes were back in the playoffs for only their second time ever and they rode their momentum all the way to the final, eliminating Columbus Crew and Miami Fusion along the way. Cannon recorded 17 saves and three shutouts in the Quakes’ five playoff games en route to the Cup final.
“We didn’t even think about the final until all of a sudden it got to us,” joked Cannon. “We didn’t have much time to think about the final. We played a semi-final Wednesday night or Thursday night and had to fly to Columbus [for a] quick turnaround on Sunday morning and that was it.”
In a script that could only have been written by fate itself, the Earthquakes’ historic season culminated with an epic matchup against archrivals LA Galaxy in the championship game.
“I’ll tell you that the night before I couldn’t sleep,” Cannon recalled. “That whole day, it was crazy.”
Perhaps it was the nerves, but the match didn’t start off well for the Earthquakes. The Galaxy went up 1-0 in the 21st minute thanks to Mexican international Luis “El Matador” Hernandez who received a lofted pass from Greg Vanney and slotted a first-touch volley past an on-rushing Cannon.
“It started off kind of rough,” reflected Cannon. “We were down one-nothing and I was… almost deflated.”
But right before the stroke of halftime, Landon Donovan equalized with a first-touch strike of his own to put the game on even terms.
“When Landon scored to tie it up, it really brought our team to the next level. We were on them for the rest of the game.”
The rest is Quakes history.
Still tied through regulation, the game became only the second MLS final to be settled in overtime when then-rookie Dwayne De Rosario scored the Golden Goal that gave San Jose its first-ever MLS Cup, completing the biggest turnaround in MLS history.
“When Dwayne scored that goal, it was so surreal,” said Cannon. “I’m looking at it from such a distance… you don’t really see the ball go in. You see just pandemonium of people running around the field and that moment alone encapsulated so much. We went from worst to first… That was the greatest day I’ve ever had on a soccer field.”
Cannon parted ways with San Jose at the end of the 2002 season. The Earthquakes, too, would leave the city not too long after, relocating to Texas as the Houston Dynamo expansion franchise in 2006. Yet, home is where the heart is and Cannon and the Quakes still had a story to tell in San Jose…
