Ever since he’s been in San Jose, Chris Leitch has been making the most out of his opportunities.
In 2009, he arrived as somewhat of a journeyman defender, finishing the last years of his playing career with the Earthquakes, before moving into the team’s front office — where he would go on to hold just about every job one could have on a soccer team, kit-man notwithstanding.
It’s that sort of experience that has gone on to serve him well now that he’s the team’s general manager, or top decision maker when it comes to matters on the field. Over the course of a decade, he helped professionalize a youth academy that now regularly produces reliable talent; and since taking over the top job in 2021, has also rebuilt the first team into a winning, er, not-losing MLS side. (Hey, progress is progress.)
“From a total club perspective, I’m happy that all three of our levels enjoyed postseason play this year,” Leitch said of the Quakes’ first, second, and under-17 teams at the club’s end-of-season press conference on Nov. 2.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” Leitch said. “28 out of our 35 games were decided by one goal, so that means we were very competitive this year.” He added: “Considering where we were last year, I can say that we had a successful season, but we are not satisfied.”
It’s true, San Jose finished the 2023 MLS season as third most-improved team in the western conference, moving five spots up the table, from 14th to 9th, snagging the last spot in the league’s new expanded playoff format, where they eventually lost in penalties to Sporting KC.
While new head coach Luchi Gonzalez had the team playing a more attractive possession-based style of soccer, it was not the amount of goals scored that fueled their improvement, but rather the 26(!!!) less goals they conceded compared to last season.
“To do that requires a certain level of unity, intensity and energy from the group,” Gonzalez said. “Collectively, I thought we did a good job of structuring and restructuring to protect our goal.”
Heading into next season, both general manager and head coach agree that the Quakes need to carry that improvement over to the opposing side of the field and score more goals.
“We’re going to look at everything from our personnel to our approach,” Gonzalez said.
The personnel he mentioned, has already gone through a drastic overhaul since the former FC Dallas man took charge of the Quakes after the 2022 World Cup. Since late last season, the entire defensive back line and midfield, for example, has been remade.
Leitch’s player acquisition philosophy has been a blend of the two distinct men that preceded him, and who he shadowed as a young executive — first under longtime GM John Doyle and then former Serie A executive Jesse Fioranelli.
Tapping into the underappreciated, but important, intra-league transfer market, he brought in the likes of Jeremy Ebobisse, Jamiro Monteiro and Jonathan Mensah. And continuing the inroads the team had already made in the international market, he brought in the likes of Carlos Gruezo (who previously starred for FC Dallas from 2016 to 2019), Rodrigues, Daniel, Miguel Trauco and Carlos Akapo.
From the academy, Niko Tsakiris has joined Cade Cowell as the next homegrown prospect to force his way onto the senior team. All of the players mentioned now serve as the new spine of the resurgent Quakes. Moreover, because of them, holdover Cristian Espinoza was able to elevate his play and earned his first ever All-Star nod this year.
“We try to take advantage of every mechanism to improve this roster,” Leitch said. “From the draft combine to the transfer market, we look at it all and take them seriously.”
In his first-ever head coach hire, Leitch has found someone who is more aligned with him, rather than someone he inherited from the previous regime. Gonzalez is less than a year younger than his boss, and the parallels between their two careers are uncanny.
Before coaching FC Dallas from 2018 to 2021, Gonzalez oversaw the franchise’s youth academy. Prior to that, he too was a journeyman player trying to make a living in the 2000s.
Watching the two sit next to each other at the press conference and listening to them speak, one can’t help but see that the two understand the American soccer landscape the same way, both having devoted their entire lives to it.
It’s that understanding that led to the loan signing of young U.S. international Matthew Hoppe for example — who at age 22, came to San Jose looking to jumpstart his career after shining brightly, but fading quickly in Europe. Gonzalez’s time with the national team as an assistant coach during the 2022 World Cup cycle helped influence the player, according to both sides of that deal.
Leitch and Gonzalez also echoed each other when discussing the polarizing season young starlet Cade Cowell had this year. After bursting onto the scene as a 16-year-old teenager in 2020, and making the All-Star team a year later, the speedy winger only contributed to three goals this entire season.
With news that his rumored transfer to Europe fell apart during that same time, outside voices were beginning to wonder if the window was closing on the Quakes selling Cowell for a tidy sum.
“Just because he’s played over 100 professional games already, people think he’s old,” Leitch said. “But he’s still a young player who had to balance being pulled in a couple of different directions this year.”
This season, the Ceres-native led the U.S. team in scoring at the U-20 World Cup, which garnered him a spot on the full senior national team at the Gold Cup.
Gonzalez echoed that point: “Not many players in the world born in ‘03 are dominating,” he said. “His physical tools are off the charts, but he’s still developing as a player.”
Even though the Quakes still rank in the bottom third of the league in terms of player spend, the payroll has been steadily increasing year-over-year, and the front office is looking for ways to keep pushing that number higher, according to Leitch. The transfer fee paid to FC Augsburg for Gruezo for example, was a record-high for the club.
But as fans of John Fisher-owned teams know, to say that the money isn’t endless would be an understatement. Outgoing transfers will be necessary to make this growing project sustainable. To that point, Leitch said this of the Cowell transfer saga: “It’s not crazy to think that something could happen sooner rather than later.”
The last time the Quakes were serious contenders in MLS was back in 2012, when Leitch, newly retired, first moved into the front office and the team won the Supporters Shield behind a career year by Chris Wondolowski. Back then, there was no PayPal Park and there were only 19 teams in the league, compared to 29 now.
That leaves little room for luck. If San Jose wants to reach those sorts of heights again, they will have to find ways (and goals) to overtake those above them. But hey, you must walk before you run. And after trying to import success for much of the past decade, turns out the right person might have been here all along.
About the Author: Kevin V. Nguyen is a business and sports journalist. He has covered soccer for The Guardian, The Sacramento Bee, and The San Francisco Standard. Follow him on Twitter @KevinNguyen_89
