Quakes forward excited by team’s offseason plan
An edited transcript of an interview with Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski.
Q: Tell us about the new club. A lot of moves this offseason; you might need name tags there are so many new faces. A: Yeah, a lot of new faces, but very excited and the guys we brought in are really top class. The talent they have is unbelievable, especially guys like Marco Urena, Flo (Florian Jungwirth) and you have someone like Nick Lima, a homegrown guy from UC Berkley. He’s gonna be a rookie this year and I have him on the short list for Rookie of the Year, so I’m really excited for where we’re headed. Q: Looking back at last year, you guys were very good defensively but you struggled to score. What happened last year that made you guys struggle to score and what has to happen this year for you to be more dynamic offensively?
A: Last year there were some missed opportunities and some bad luck. We had a couple injuries with Quincy Amarikwa going down and so that made us a little thin at the forward position. And then with international call-ups, we lost some more players so that definitely hurt us. So this year we brought in reinforcements, and I almost forgot Jahmir Hyka, who is an amazing player we brought from Switzerland who’s really gonna add that dynamic that we need in the offensive third; and a kind of a similar player, Simon Dawkins, and when those guys get the ball in their feet they can do this some dynamic things that are jaw-dropping at times.
Q: How long does it take to get used to your new teammates?
A: We want to be peaking at the right time toward the end of the season into the playoffs when we’re hopefully making a championship run. But I think we’ve done an excellent job this preseason getting to know each other and really buying into the system that Coach Kinnear and the coaching staff have. The coaching staff has really bought into us. The players that we’re implementing are really buying into it and understanding all of it so we’re on the right track. Q: Given the way last year went, is it even more important to get off to a good start this year? A: Yeah, I’m a strong believer that it’s always good, that confidence kind of breeds confidence and snowballs in that sense. Especially if you’re a team that gets off to a good, hot start you start believing in the things that you’re doing and you start getting rewarded for doing those right things and
that kind of becomes instilled in you as a team. But it’s a very long season and as great as it’d be to get off to a hot start we’d rather be peaking at the end than the beginning. Q: When you get a new guy at the top, how does that affect the team? A: Yeah, (general manager) Jesse (Fioranelli) has really done a great job buying into the team atmosphere, the team chemistry, the camaraderie, and we have 11 playing as one; forward as one. Those are some of the mottos we have going this year and he is really about that and the players he’s brought in are all about that and that helps with the team chemistry. When you have everyone believing in the same message, that’s when you do great things.