In losing a game they absolutely had to win last Saturday night 1-0 to Chivas USA before a standing-room-only crowd at Santa Clara University’s Buck Shaw Stadium, the San Jose Earthquakes unofficially announced themselves to be what we had expected and witnessed for the lion’s share of the marathon MLS season: An expansion outfit unworthy of a place in the postseason tournament.

It was their fourth consecutive match without a win and the oh-so-precious three points that come with it. After climbing as high as fourth in the Western Conference standings a month ago, that whooshing sound the Earthquakes just heard was the rest of league zooming past them in the “table” as the English lads put it.

Speaking of our neighbors across the pond, Darren Huckerby, the best English import since Sacha Baron Cohen and the wondrousness that is “Borat,” and the man mostly (if not fully) responsible for the Quakes’ two month renaissance, seemed particularly deflated with the loss, calling it a “smash and grab job” for the visitors for the way they stole a game that Huckerby didn’t at all feel they earned and expressed ominous dissatisfaction with his teammates for lack of service, saying, “I think if maybe I could’ve gotten the ball more I could’ve caused them some problems.”

Perhaps he can meet up with the 49ers’ Frank Gore in some local pub (the two squads train literally a few miles from one another) and the two of them could commiserate shared fortunes over a couple of pints.

 San Jose manager Frank Yallop, coincidentally enough another proper Englishman, although one who is prone to occasionally addressing the referees in most improper fashion, was a bit more philosophical than his younger countryman in the post mortem. He’s ridden this roller coaster numerous times before, including a memorable late season collapse last year whilst captaining the Los Angeles Galaxy.

 “Any run eventually hits a sticky spot,” he said, referring to San Jose’s MLS-best nine game unbeaten streak. “I thought we’ve done well to get where we’re at, and we could see how far we could go, but maybe we’re just not good enough.”

Such a statement sure sounds like the coach is prepared to wave the white flag on the season with three games remaining and while such a thing might not seem kosher in “the colonies” Yallop never promised he’d be warm and cuddly when he took the job.

“We talk about not conceding an early goal, but we were trying to push forward, to get on the front foot and maybe we thought we’d trap them offsides,” harrumphed Yallop, commenting on the game’s only goal, a seventh-minute counterattack through ball from Alecko Eskandarian that found Justin Braun on the dead run, with the latter effortlessly scooting a low shot past San Jose keeper Joe Cannon and inside the far post.

Braun looked for all the world to be behind Garcia before the pass, but the side judge saw it differently, yet another call that didn’t go the Earthquakes way in what has been the a running theme for the season.

“I think Nick [Garcia] was the last guy and it looked tight from the bench, but obviously that doesn’t matter now,” mourned a despondent Yallop, adding, “I thought we transitioned pretty well. I thought we played okay for stretches. We just weren’t clinical in front of goal and that was the difference.”

Indeed, while San Jose struck the ball a baker’s dozen times with ill intention at Chivas goalie Dan Kennedy’s net, only one, forward Scott Sealy’s harmless squibber in the fourth minute, actually required a save, while the rest were either wide, high, or most often, both.

In a cruel twist of fate the Earthquakes could find themselves buried for good at the hands (or rather feet) of their former selves, the Houston Dynamo, aka the San Jose Earthquakes version 1.0. Thanks to damages inflicted to the Houston area by Hurricane Ike their scheduled game on Sept. 20 was postponed and rescheduled for tonight, at the Dynamo’s home turf, Robertson Stadium, giving San Jose scant recovery time from the physical toll the Chivas letdown inflicted upon them. It remains to be seen if older veterans such as Huckerby and his co-winger Ronnie O’Brien can answer the bell.

“It’s a learning process both for the younger players and the older players, it was in our hands to make the playoffs and we could’ve had some easy wins but we didn’t and now it’s an uphill battle,” said O’Brien in the funeral-like locker room after the Chivas game.

While the first place Dynamo (11-5-11) don’t have a pressing mathematical need to prove a point in this game, the team is so deep that it hardly matters who they play and who they rest. In their last meeting with San Jose they didn’t start their best player, star forward Brian Ching (12 goals, fourth in the MLS), but he scored the game tying goal seven minutes after checking in as a sub. The Earthquakes haven’t won since. Even worse, they’ll have to navigate over and around the Dynamo without their tallest and most physical player, Ryan Johnson, who is likely done for the season with a strained left hamstring.

“Well we’re not the tallest team… and Ryan’s a big [guy] and he’s done a really good job for us coming off the bench and making things happen, scoring goals, but even without him we have plenty of good footballers who can create some chances and score some goals,” said O’Brien, but not very convincingly.

It’s all over but the crying for San Jose.