Last season, the San Jose Earthquakes made six trips to the Eastern time zone. In those visits, they tied one game and lost the other five. In no small part, the far-flung travels of the Quakes contributed to their 3-12-2 overall record away from the Bay Area. Not good.
But it’s a new season, and San Jose has a new man in charge, head coach Mikael Stahre. The Swede has said from the beginning of preseason that he expected the team would improve on last season’s road record, and last week had identified the game against the Philadelphia Union as a chance for the Earthquakes to earn their first away win of the season.