The San Jose Earthquakes reach the midpoint of the 2016 MLS regular season battered and bruised. An early season run positioned the Quakes above the red line in the Western Conference table -- the demarcation between the six playoff eligible teams and the four earlier vacationers -- but they have slowly dropped out of the running over the last two months.
Sure, some of that can be blamed on the Earthquakes missing some of their best players due to their participation in the 2016 Copa America Centenario -- including the team's two leading scorers Chris Wondolowski and Alberto Quintero -- but a rash of injuries have depleted the roster to the point that even head coach Dominic Kinnear has jokingly asked for volunteers from media observers.