Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Colorado Rapids (Saturday, 4/19) postgame (R)

weird seeing jj koval often higher up the pitch than wondo in the second half. strange that. you'd think we'd want to get our superstar int'l striker in the box.

 

You and an army of zero.

 

My point is our defense needs to be something we can rely on. Our attack will probably come and go as the season progresses. But our defense needs to be constant. It HAS to be good. That was our first shutout, and was a very good defensive performance on the road. That's why I find this ugly game encouraging. It was ugly for the right reasons.

 

And then we'll have an experiment on our hands that might not actually work...

 

Sure, it may not. But if we are putting opponents on 0 goals, we can still compete.

What am I not being clear about here? This team HAS to play good defense. I hope this team can be a good attacking team had , if all the pieces are out there. You see that we had no shots on goal, and I see Colorado had all of 1. I also see that we had as many shots from inside the penalty area as Colorado did.

Or put it this way, suppose we have an awful attack on the road, if we can make the opponents attack just as awful, we have achieved parity. Going even on the road, especially against good teams, is not a bad result.

 

Gordon isn't a 90 minute man, no... But this game he got absolutely trashed by the Rapids with little to no protection from the officials. Had Gordon's header gone in the game would have been different. I have no problem playing for the tie on the road, but we must win at home. Our defense isn't bad its the middle of the park thats floundering. And calling for TT to be the savior of this team isn't the answer. Who knows how he'll be after he recovers. Its ignorant to even state. Do I hope he recovers fully and becomes an anchor for us for years to come? Yes I do, but players are never the same after huge injuries and theirs the potential they become injury prone. And no Garza isn't the answer either. I assume he'll be let go at the end of the season or when his contract runs out.

I also found this on facebook someone posted lol, I thought it was funny.

 

Did we get scored on?

 

Thompson had already come back from this injury (early I might add, which is why he is on the extended rehab). Watched him look like a man amongst boys against Akron in the NCAAs. Im not worried about him coming back from this injury strong. Staying healthy is another issue.

 

Yes a solid defense is the starting point. Alas we pretty much all assumed we had one after the second half of last season. But then we traded away Beita and learned that Stewart isn't a 3060 minute guy. Today we had to play Harden at LB which meant even less offense than we might otherwise have had. So while this game was encouraging from a defensive standpoint the jury is still out whether or not it will be a consistently good one. And even if it is, the offense is getting worse as the season progresses so at best it's a wash.

 

Oh my god.

I did it.

You finally admitted there was an encouraging sign in this game.

So yeah, the fact we had a good defensive performance is really encouraging to me. It wasnt just a shutout, it was a shutout where Bush barely had to do anything.

Or to put it this way, HOLY CRAP ARE WE SCREWED IF THIS WAS JUST A FLASH IN THE PAN!!!!

It was just a game though, so if we revert to previous games defensive performance this one wont mean much. But we improved in the area where we have to be good, so Im encouraged. On to next week.

 

That's what happens when you don't give your players an actual formation to play in. Watson's trying out his own bastardized versions of the flat 4-4-2 instead of going with modern formations that have been tested the world over and actually work.

 

Other than Wondo, Bernardez and Goodson are the only two above-average players we have so I'm sure a lot of us simply assumed that we are going to be a good defensive team this year. My faith in the defense has only been shaken to the extent of our fullback injuries and frankly today's game isn't much to go by. So from my perspective there is little encouragement -- I already knew Bernardez and Goodson will get us some clean sheets but I still don't know how well Gorlitz will play for us (will he be better than Beitashour?) and I certainly don't want to see Harden at LB very often.

 

The problem defensively to date hasnt been our full back play, its been the CM play. Basically I felt teams were able to get deep possession against us in from of our back for then put our defenders in difficult positions. We were making the game hard for them. But today we were successful in forcing the ball out very wide to the wings, and basically forced them to cross into Bernadez and Goodson, which is just a losing tactic for their attack.

But if you look at the goals we have given up to date it was in the center of the field. I think only Plata's goal was really the result of a defensive breakdown by an outside back. As long as we can control the space in front of Bernardez and Goodson, they will make it exceptionally hard for attackers to beat us outside->in

 

Most boring game of soccer I forced myself to sit through since that Man City vs. Man United 0-0 a few years ago. Apparently most of Denver agreed, since the stadium was about 75% empty... what the hell is up with Rapids attendance?

 

Avalanche home playoff game probably hurt them.

 

Well, I agree with Danger, Cronin was better sort of sitting back. Considering how bad he's been so far this season, maybe the "road formation" should be the always formation, at least for now.
No matter how many injuries we have, the team mgmt will continue to believe it's bad luck and will no doubt consider their first heart attacks just bad luck too. Idiots.

 

That picture basically sums up bigsoccer. LOL

 

I know we all want three points every game, but you have to look at our situation and realize that 1 point on the road is a good result given the circumstances. Lenhart, Gordon, Djalo, Stewart all hurt. What does that mean? Without Stewart we have no attack from the LB. No Lenny and a handicapped Gordon really ********s our attack. No Djalo means no creativity. We have to get healthy. Once we have a full squad then we could get upset if we lose.

 

Oh please!
Are you suggesting that the coaches don't know our players physical condition before the game?

Starting Gordon was an OK move, he had a couple of nice looks, but couldn't put the ball on frame. But you pull Gordon at the 65th or 70th minute. You know that when you make the lineup. Bring on Jahn if you need headers, Schuler if you want a change of pace.

I love watching Djalo, but we knew he didn't have a lot of minutes in him in the first place, so don't play him. And if ABH the answer, then you're asking the wrong question. We should have started Cato at right mid. There! I just saved us two subs because I'm not an idiot. (And we still have ABH in reserve should Cato or Shea flame out, or we want more offense or some such. Actually, I'd trade him for a keg of good beer and a supplemental draft pick.)

The sub we didn't make that we should have was pulling JJ (who had a terrible game) for Khari, and drop Croninja back to d-mid. We'd have at least had a decent shot from distance on the pitch.

This was terrible game management from Wat(TF). Once the Crapids started bringing on fresh legs, we should have done the same.

And where did Jahn get his sudden physical streak from?! That's the coaches telling him to thump people. Notice when he went off that none of our staff were mad at him. Yeah, that's great.

go quakes!!
Fire JD and MW!!

- Mark

 

Cronin was a d-mid.

 

I'm up in Sonoma Co. celebrating my son's birthday with some friends of his and I was sorry I missed the game until I read through these posts. Sounds like a thoroughly forgettable waste of time. Last year at this time, we had two wins and three draws for a total of seven points in eight league matches, this year we have three points in five matches, so we're at 0.6 points per game this year compared to 0.875 points last year, which I think we can all agree was a largely forgettable spring campaign. Thus, it is difficult for me to conclude anything other than the fact that we've lost significant ground since last year, and unless something significant happens between now and the end of May we should be in contention to not only miss the playoffs again, but make a serious run at the Wooden Spoon...

 

The defensive improvement was because we played Colorado, who are almost as crappy as we are this year. It was a horrendous game played in the middle of the pitch with broken passes and giveaways. When we shut out Seattle or KC, then we can give some credit.

We suck. And we have a sucking coach at the helm.

 

That was a terrible game on so many levels.

ABH - Not nearly as bad as he has been, but could have gotten a yellow card. We just shouldn't play him. He doesn't bring enough to the table. I'd rather play Cato for 90.

Gordon - Good effort, should have been pulled at 65 or 70 minutes. And how did Colorado not get any yellow or red cards for their repeated thumpings of Gordon?

Wondo - No shots on target. Not a good day at the office.

Shea - Not up to his usual standards, but still one of our better players in the game. (That's a bad thing.)

Croninja - Better than in previous matches, but still not objectively good.

JJ - Terrible day. We should have pulled him for Khari. He gave the ball away a ton. Was really late on a couple of tackles, could have been carded. Made lots of terrible passes. Just bad. He'll get it together eventually, but this was a bad match for the rookie.

Görlitz - Best right side defender we've had this season!! Yea!! Not nearly as good as Beita. Boo!! We suck.

Harden - Not nearly as bad as I expected. He actually played pretty well, but he's not fast enough to be an outside back. He didn't contribute on offense, but then I want offensive players contributing on offense and my defensive players . . . you know . . . playing defense.

Muma - Great! Wow, what a guy.

Clarence - Great! Wow, what a guy.

Busch - Barely tested. But really, really horrible distribution. We have to let him throw it out, or make short passes at least some of the time. This is on the coaches, not on Jon.

Djalo - Very good, but he shouldn't have been on the pitch at all. How many minutes did he play? Can't tell from the crappy new stats page. Whatever, it wasn't a good idea to put on a player who can't go more than 20 minutes.

Adam - Great! We've turned a very clean player into a guy who bashes other players for no reason.

Cordell - OK, not enough time to really say much.

So how did Adam get a red card? The foul itself should probably have been a yellow, BUT, the referee crew clearly did not see it. The center ref called nothing, and neither AR raised the issue. The fourth official didn't get involved until the assistant Crapids coach bent his ear. SO, the referee issued a red card for an offense that neither he nor either of his AR's witnessed. That's way beyond ridiculous.

And the Crapids should have seen at least three or four yellow cards and a red, in the first half. That was disgraceful officiating.

That said, we did not play well enough to win. And for that, we need to fire Mark Wat(TF). This season will slip beyond redemption on May 17th. Write it down.

GO QUAKES!!!!
Fire JD and Wat(TF)!!!

- Mark

 

Cronin ranged forward on several occasions. He was trying to play the box-to-box role. I'm saying he should have been a dedicated d-mid and stayed back. That way Khari could stay up and play as an a-mid (albeit a weak ass a-mid).

go quakes!!
Fire those jerks!!!

- Mark