Agree with everything here except Salinas. Shea didn't even beat his man ONCE on the dribble tonight. He is not good enough to start and depend on.
I was thinking more about all of the CA ballot initiatives. I still hold out hope that our representatives in DC will not allow the current tax rates to sunset.
How is 16 Trillion in debt about religion? How is the slowest recovery in HISTORY about religion? How is 2% growth in GDP about religion? Please do not make me laugh anymore.
Well, much rep will be given to any and all news about the new season. Will Wondo stay? Chavez (please) Dawkins? (I will convert to whichever religion necessary) There seems to be a lot actually, that could possibly be up in the air. Will this playoff game affect that? Mods It would be really cool if we could start a *new season* only news thread, even though I know there will be more lack of info than not for the time being.
I know everyone is feeling kinda emotional right now, but can we not talk about politics here? If someone wants to start a thread in OT that's fine. As for the game: we can do all the post mortem player bashing we want. Our defense mostly crumbled without Muma, but I wouldn't blame it solely on Ike -- there were mistakes all around. Our forwards seemed to be missing a beat, whereas Keane -- whose shots have been wildly off-target for games -- was validating his Castrol number tonight. It happens. Sucks when it happens in a playoff game, but from my perspective this is greatly overshadowed by the Stanford game that five times as many people attended.
I assume you voted "no" on prop 30? well, all I am saying is this. No school funding=no teachers=higher drop out rates=higher crime=less kids going to university. Talk about economics. Anyways, can we PLEASE get back to football and not money ball?
Mindless. How about a rant on why Wondo or Dawkins (let's watch Landon take one down the line and cross it to McGee to score the third goal) can't put one in an open net from 5 yds out?
Im seriously thinking we should just nuke this entire thread from orbit, its the only way to be sure. ;p
You're a joke. Sure, pay for a couple of wars with a credit card and leave it for the next guy to pay for it all. Here are some economic numbers for you. Dow Jones Nov.7 2008 8,943 Nov 6 2012 13,243 OMG, what happened!
You got me there. Wondo missed a few sitters on Sunday, too. He seems to run through cycles when he can get anything, and then games when he hesitates too long and nothing happens, or he totally blows a sitter. While we're talking about GB, his antics near the end of the game provided at least a mote of amusement. Maybe the ref saw the Vancouver game and was not going to be beguiled by one of his dramatic tumbles. And how many times did Buddle collapse? Were people everywhere shrieking "Hollywood!" or only in my section?
Back to the game. Obviously a tremendous bummer from a wonderful season. I can deal with losing in the MLS Cup playoffs, I personally think the Supporter's Shield is by far the greater prize. But losing to the whining, fouling, filth is just too much. Did everyone else notice how they continually whined to Stott and how often Stott would call a late foul because of it. I had (Past tense after tonight) respect for Donovan but his consistent diving in the 2nd half just drove me nuts, particularly the "foul" that was called on Ike. Donovan ran right up to him, no intent to play the ball and jumped into him and then fell down in a dramatic "I'm trying to get a movie part" fashion. And Stott fell for it. Utterly disgraceful performance from the both of them. Should have been a yellow card on Donovan for diving. I agree with the post about Keane, not that he doesn't do his fare share of complaining, but next to Landy and Golden Balls he looks like a choir boy (and is a better, more dangerous player, as well). We did look out of it, and I think that Stott and crew assisted, and losing Bernardenz didn't help. But at the end of the day LA played way better for that 30 minute stretch in the first half and we lost. I am switching my allegiance to whomever the filth plays. May the filth rot in hell. I guess Garber is happy, no potential of a Buck Shaw final.
Seeing Ike miss that shot ended the cycle of the Quakes' late-game heroics...which turned out the most vital. The Galaxy's gameplan was to bunker down and jump in the air whenever a ball came flying into the Quakes' half. Considering that's the Quakes' only real strength. And it didn't help the team's backline-lifeline, Bernardez, had to come out and leave a metaphorical hole in the center. Ike had the worst game, ever. I don't know what happened to him, but he he use to have tremendous potential. I guess the injuries made him half the player he used to be. Who knows what's going to happen to him next.Apart from Ike, clearly the the team's extremity-attacking style proved obsolete tonight. The Quakes are a horrible team through the center-attack. Baca was useless. If the Quakes wanted to be a title contender, they needed to be all-dimensional in the attack. And LA is bad at reading passes through the center. I'm proud of all the work the Quakes' players did through out the miraculous turnaround season. They all did their part to take the team this far, but some players have reached their cycle this season. I don't want to outweigh the negatives from the great positives of this season, but let's plan ahead for the CCL and next season. It's time to replace Baca with a player that is a master in the center-playmaking position, and is currently a free agent. His name is Juan Roman Riquelme. He's been out of contract with Boca Juniors since last season and is without a club. He's 34 years old, but he's never been the fastest or most athletic player. His game IQ has been his repertoire. He couldnoffer way more years than his age suggests. The Quakes don't have a DP, and he is the perfect candidate to become the team's incumbent DP. It would be an honor and a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a such a legend with the Quakes. They should go for it. Some of his work:
I've watched MLS for how long now...too long. I have buyer's remorse for being locked in to 3 years of season tickets. It's not the Earthquakes' fault. It's a league that will always get the result it wants. Garber doesn't want a Buck Shaw final and Stott reffed the match accordingly. If were going to play badly (and Wondo, Cronin, sort of Dawkins and especially Opara were complete rubbish tonight) then I'd at least like to lose fair and square rather than having to play against both a biased ref and the other team. Why I do I never learn my lesson when it comes to MLS. I'm not sure we could have done well enough to get the result even if Stott called a fair match. But it irks me that we'll never know. It irks me that this happens again and again. Losing Kennedy and Okalaja just gets replaced by Stott, Salazar, and Maruffo. Garber said no to a Buck Shaw final and Stott behaved accordingly. The king is dead, long live the king. Even winning the supporters shield is no solice. If we're going to lose, why in hell can't it just actually be done fair and square? Why even bother. I hate MLS more than I like it but I'm just a stupid fool that never learns.
Oh, take off the ********ing tin foil hat. The reffing was fine, we lost this one all on our own. These refs work their entire LIVES to get to the point where they are. They aren't going to throw that all away for this league. And beyond that, there is possibly bigger things for them than MLS. They are constantly being evaluated for that. MLS doesn't even develop the refs, USSF does. Quit making us look like a bunch of ********ing whiners, people.
Well the thing about the reffing that i found questionable was that both Bernardez and Gonzalez didn't get straight reds. Both threw pretty vicious elbows. Though I'm not sure if everyone would have been happy with officials shaping the game that radically.
Stott wasn't awful. A few pretty bad calls, but I have seen worse with other referees. Still, you shouldn't give out yellows 3 minutes into the game, or allow everyone to hack Lenny. Maybe next season, the refs will be trained to get past their biases against individual players. We knew that our continuing in the playoffs was problematic to the league because of the inadequacy of Buck Shaw. With venue as a key priority for our league, I'm predicting a Houston-LA final. That's the only matchup that puts the game in LA (because of the points). Teams in cities with iffy weather are problematic (see NYRB vs DCU game of 7 November), and, well, they really want the game in the Toolbox but thought it would be showing favoritism to say so.
No real reason to delve into the minute details of this game. They came in. They beat us. Great f**king season anyway. Lucky to be a part of it.
It's the MLS...with the MLS-pace. There's a reason why Henry is still playing and embarrassing teams, despite being slow as a wheelchair. A player like Riquelme would thrive here and last for a great time. Or if by pointing out and dismissing his age, you don't want to reinforce the stereotype of a "retired players" league and get patronized by Eurosnobs. Let's be rational to benefit the team.
I have to say I was pretty disgusted by all the people in Quakes jerseys taking photos of Beckham with their iphones. Seriously? I will be rooting for RSL to squash Seattle tomorrow (one hated rival bites the dust) and then demolish LA on Sunday. I realize this contradicts my prediction, but predictions are not wishes.