The San Jose Earthquakes will certainly win many other games this year…eventually. But eventually sure can feel like a long time. Sometimes it's not so much about what is happening but how you deal with waiting for what you want to happen; the key word for players is patience.

Fans can’t be expected to wait. Fans pay their money to see their heroes and they want two goals minimum by halftime every week, to settle their stomachs for a beverage and a bite to eat.

Players on the other hand, are expected by all to develop and cultivate patience. How many times do we hear commentators praise the patience of a team’s build-up? We hear about this patience right up the final whistle and if their patience has not resulted in the winning goal, the word patience is replaced by the likes of hesitant, timid, uncommitted, tired. The litany of failure words grow like weeds from the mouths of pundits.

Players are often told by coaches that if they just keep doing what we’re doing the results will come. This is what they believe, so this is what they repeat. Meanwhile, everyone around them howls for change, demand a different approach and crave the instant fix to get the game-winning ball in the back of the net.

San Jose, along with many other MLS teams, has had more than their fair share of change forced on them so far this year through injury and suspension.