Years and years ago, I took an MLS coach to task in an article for his playoff strategy - or lack thereof, as I saw it.
Though the San Jose Earthquakes were indeed relocated, my worst fears for Dom Kinnear didn't happen. He did learn from his playoff setbacks and went on to win multiple MLS Cups with the Houston Dynamo.
He also gave me a long, hard look the next time I interviewed him - one that made me guess that he'd read my article (it isn't online any more, but was at the time). However, Dom has always been polite and fair to reporters, and other than that unwavering stare, never said anything to me about my criticisms.
Winning Cups is the best response, anyway. I still stand by what I wrote, however, and still think I'm right about a practical approach to the playoffs instead of the "Win every game, no matter what" view.
The article is quite a trip down memory lane, to a time when the Quakes held more Cups than the Galaxy, when Steve Nicol and Alejandro Moreno weren't on the ESPN FC couch, when Herculez Gomez played for LA. How times have changed in a decade!
Starting just this year, Dom Kinnear is now back in San Jose, so I expect to see a revival of the California Clasico between the Earthquakes and the Galaxy.
Be warned - I used to think the whole point of writing online was not worrying about word count, and the article is long. This was way before Twitter, when I just might have posted, "D. Kinnear took a good team to the playoffs and threw away their chance at a title with poor strategy."
But that would leave out all the juicy details.
