Today came the somewhat inevitable announcement that the San Jose Earthquakes' Head Coach Frank Yallop is leaving our team to coach the Canadian National Team. Even before the MLS Cup final, there were very strong rumors circulating that he was in negotiations with the Canadian team but we fans always hoped that the lure of San Jose might be to strong. Alas, our fears have come true and he is due to take the reins of Canada's National Team on January 1st. I have a great deal of respect for Frank Yallop - I had many chats with him, espcially while I was running quakefans.com and he was affable, eloquent, intelligent and an altogether great guy. Every player I talked to has nothing but good things to say about him. I daresay he made Landon Donovan the player he is today. Frank is the one that made sure Landon didn't get to big for his boots. Landon often referred to Frank as a "mentor." A lot of Earthquakes fans are happy for Frank, as am I; afterall he's only been a coach for three years and in that time he's won two championships, with the worst team in the league, and became the Earthquakes winningest head coach of all time. So to seem elevated to the world stage makes us fans very proud. But still, it's sad to see a coach go that had so much time for the average fan. So what's next for the Earthquakes? Well the good money is on current assistant coach Dominic Kinnear taking the helm with Jeff Agoos taking up a unique player/assistant manager role. I'm comfortable with this. Dominic was exposed to Frank's coaching style for three years and they seemed to work well together. But I worry that Frank's eye for talent and relationship with the player maybe unique. I guess only time will tell. As Earthquakes guru Goodsport put it "I'm happy for Yallop personally, but am sad for the Earthquakes and its fans. The Frank Yallop era is now officially over. "