SAN JOSE – Training camp always brings a sense of optimism and renewed hope — even here, where the Earthquakes are coming off the worst season in their history.

The four-win season and league-low 21 points in 34 games are in the rearview mirror. Ahead is a new season under a new coach, Matias Almeyda, with a reputation for turning teams around in a hurry.

“To a man, everyone is excited for the new culture, the new identity, the new mentality that all of us have, and just excited for the season,” captain Chris Wondolowski said Wednesday at the team’s media day.

Wondolowski pointed to previous rags-to-riches stories. The Earthquakes finished in last place in 2000, only to win their first MLS Cup in 2001. The 2011 team finished 14th out of 18 teams, only to win the Supporters’ Shield for finishing atop the standings the next season.

“In this league there’s a lot of parity,” Wondolowski said. “It makes the league interesting, funny, and quirky at times, but it also drives it and it’s special about this league that you can go worst to first and no one would blink an eye.”

Almeyda, recently named the Concacaf Coach of the Year for leading Mexico’s Chivas de Guadalajara to the Concacaf Champions League title, has experience salvaging teams. Chivas was threatened with relegation when he took over in 2015, and in his native Argentina, Almeyda took over two teams that had just been relegated (River Plate and Club Atletico Banfield) and led them both back to the top division in his first season at the helm.

“I’m excited to reset the culture,” midfielder Shea Salinas said. “It’s been nice him coming in so far, treating us all like equals, and just giving us hope for the coming year.”

Still, the players and coaches acknowledge it won’t be easy.

“We had talented players last year, we just couldn’t put things together, couldn’t work well together, we got frustrated,” Salinas said. “Frankly, we kind of gave up on each other at points during games. This year that’s a mentality we’re looking to change.

“Last year I said this is the most talented team I’ve ever played for, and that was true. But we only won four games. So there’s more to winning games than just talent. So we’ll see.”

The Earthquakes had different ways of moving past last season, which ended in a 4-21-9 record and the firing of first-year coach Mikael Stahre with six games left. German midfielder Florian Jungwirth posted a video on social media in which he took a wooden spoon – the unofficial prize for the team that finishes with the fewest points in the league – and burned it in an open flame. Dutch forward Danny Hoesen went back to Europe and unwound with family during the three-month break, doing anything he could not to think about the last campaign.

The team embarks Thursday for a two-week training camp in Cancun – another change to previous policies. There will also be new additions, mostly South Americans with ties to Almeyda. The new players include veteran Argentinian goalie Daniel Vega, Peruvian left back Marcos Lopez, Brazilian defensive midfielder Judson, and Argentine forward Christian Espinoza, who wore No. 10 while talking to the media Wednesday.

Vega, 34, who comes from the USL Tampa Bay Rowdies, and Lopez, 19, who competed in Peru’s top division, are expected to solidify a defense that allowed a conference-worst 71 goals last season.

Espinoza will fight for playing time alongside Hoesen, who was named Earthquakes MVP after scoring a team-leading 12 goals in 2018, and Wondolowski, who has 144 career MLS goals, one away from Landon Donovan’s league record.

Befitting the team-first mentality that Almeyda hopes to instill, Wondolowski said the record isn’t his focus right now.

“I’m doing everything I can to help us win,” Wondolowski said. “(Last year) was completely abysmal and embarrassing in the win department, and that’s first and foremost right now.

“I really do believe that everyone is on the same page. It hasn’t been like that in years past. Some years it has –some years it’s clicked and it’s been amazing and it’s been memories I’ll never forget. That’s what I think this year, that guys have bought in and there’s that optimism and belief in there.”