Quakes Acquire Peguero

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Soccer by Ives and Center Line Soccer are reporting that the San Jose Earthquakes have signed striker Jean-Phillippe Peguero to a loan deal from Danish top-flight club Brondby. Peguero only needs to pass his physical before the deal is made official. The loan will be for the remainder of the MLS season, and then the Quakes will have an option to buy.

This is great news for Earthquakes fans. Peguero is a proven MLS goalscorer. A Haitian national team member, he played with the Colorado Rapids and New York Red Bulls tallying 20 goals in 58 appearances, between 2004 and 2006, before moving to Brondby where he scored 2 goals in 3 matches. He sustained a serious knee injury while playing in Denmark, damaging both his ACL and MCL back in 2006 but recently he has returned to field featuring in Brondby’s reserve side.

The move proves that John Doyle and the Quakes front office continue to make savvy business moves. San Jose was first on the MLS acquisition list so they could go for Peguero, a man many teams could use. Clearly, the Quakes are in need of more firepower and experience at the forward position and Frank Yallop has said he prefers players who have had some success already in the league so Doyle goes out and gets Peguero. Peguero should not be available for the game Saturday in Colorado so look for Yallop to go with the same lineup that started against the Fire and controlled the match but had no luck, as he does what he can to earn the team their first point of the season.

One obvious question is what does the move mean for the rest of the San Jose strikers? Certainly once signed and assuming he’s fully fit Peguero starts but who will he partner with in the Quakes 4-4-2 formation? Most likely it will be Kei Kamara since Yallop has started him in both MLS regular season matches and throughout much of the preseason. However, Gavin Glinton had a nice game against the Fire and if not for an acrobatic save by Jon Busch he would have scored San Jose’s first goal of the campaign, so he certainly has a chance to pair with Peguero. With two of Kamara, Glinton and Peguero starting and the other being first off the bench at forward the situation changes for the rest of the Quakes attacking back ups. John Cunliffe and Ryan Johnson will now have to work harder for minutes off the bench and surely we will not see Salinas at the striker position, shown he’s a bigger threat racing down the wing. Adam Smarte should be expected to continue to develop his skills while playing with the reserve team for the season. Suddenly the Quakes have some depth and that is essential for success in the long MLS season with the dog days of the America summer looming ahead.

Peguero has size, pace, toughness, skill and the ability to finish his chances. How well he blends with the team and connects with his teammates of course remains to be seen. Again, as in the Ronnie O’Brien move, the Quakes have shown the courage to go after a player who is coming off a serious knee injury. If Peguero regains his old form and shows that he can hold the ball with his back to the goal and distribute as well as finish the through balls and crosses he receives from his teammates then this move will mean goals, wins and the playoffs this season for the new San Jose Earthquakes.

Ben Sizemore

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