2013 San Jose Earthquakes preseason thread [R]

Discussion in 'San Jose Earthquakes' started by Goodsport, Nov 28, 2012.

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  1. Socarchist

    Socarchist Member+

    Feb 21, 2010
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    According to the Fire website, the Quakes are playing Chicago in Oxnard this year: http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2013/01/fire-announce-preseason-schedule

    Last year, the Quakes played Houston, Chicago and the Ventura County Fusion (Quakes reserves) in Oxnard.

    It appears that there is no game in San Luis Obispo this year.
     
  2. markmcf8

    markmcf8 Member+

    Oct 18, 1999
    Vancouver, WA, USA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So, the LanterKickers in Oxnard? Cool. Maybe there will be other games there too.

    Too bad about SLO. I know that some Quakesfan used to go down there and said it was big fun.

    Naturally, I'm pumped about the games in Portland. I hope that we don't have any freezing temperature games like last year. (It's been wicked cold up here the last couple of weeks.)

    It looks like we are starting to settle into a pre-season pattern, which I like to think is good. The club seem to have found places to practice that are close-ish, and reliable. Consistency helps. (I hope.)

    I'm getting psyched for the season. I don't expect us to do as well as last season, but as long as we try to play attractive soccer, play with heart, put out good lineups, and make good use of subs, adjust to the flow of the game, I'll be happy. Shocking I know, but it really doesn't take a lot to please me.

    GO QUAKES!!

    - Mark
     
  3. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Anyone ever stop to think about the fact that despite Wondo, Lenny & Gordo's late game heroics/goals last season, sooner or later teams are going to catch up to them and figure them out and that it won't always work. I mean shouldn't someone at the helm start thinking about this and if so, figure out how to overcome this? Just a thought but I think they should start learning how to win games differently.....
     
  4. willykirk

    willykirk Member

    Jan 6, 2004
    San Jose, Ca
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    im not sure i understand your point. if it is that the Quakes tactics are simple to figure out, teams had all season to do so. its a 4-4-2 with decent posession and quick attacks through fast wing play. Many EPL teams try to play like this (ala Spurs w/ Gareth Bale & Aaron Lennon) since its effective and the Quakes with Chavez, and Salinas did a pretty good impersonation. teams occasionally defended it well, and we managed to play through middle too w/ Dawkins, Baca, or Wondo & Gordo checking back. seems pretty balanced to me, though if Dawkins doesnt return, somebody else will have to hold the ball and distribute. maybe this new kid Delgado can do it.
     
  5. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Point being, if you keep falling behind by a goal and trying to play catch up or even trying to get a game winner each match, sooner or later its going to come back to haunt you. I mean flicking the ball up into the box trying to get a goal in the dying minutes of a match, don't you think teams will start figuring out how to defend this tactic and will start knowing how to defend it? I know that we have very highly skilled and talented forwards in Lenny, Wondo and Gordon and all and I definitely think they won't be all that easy to contain but to keep playing this catch up game in the last 10-15 minutes of a match has got to take its toll sooner or later. I mean I think its exciting and very fun to watch but I can't see all these late game heroics happening once again this season. Just my opinion and thoughts....
     
  6. willykirk

    willykirk Member

    Jan 6, 2004
    San Jose, Ca
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    well,desperate times-desperate measures and all that, right? for those many games where we found ourselves down a goal or 2 late, FY did what he could with the subs throwing on an extra attacker and it paid off most of the time. i do agree with you there, that we cant expect that to work as often this year- 2012 was just too magical. for me its the defense that must improve- Cronin & Baca have to do a better job protecting the backline- and from the opening whistle (teams playing straight up our middle time again), or having further improvement from a back four especially early in the game. team D as a unit needs to get better- especially with some tough CONCACAF matches on the schedule, or we're going to get some real eye openers.
     
  7. SoccerMan94043

    SoccerMan94043 Member+

    May 29, 2003
    San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Frank has stated many times that he's looking for players that are a bit different to give him more options to change the attack.
     
  8. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Actually, I wasn't really referring to the attack all that much. I mean, I'd rather they score more goals earlier in matches but I'm mostly worried or concerned about the defense and midfield. Although I like both Baca and Cronin a lot, I'm not sure or really convinced on them as being all that reliable. Maybe having well played together might help things though.
     
  9. hc897

    hc897 Member+

    May 3, 2009
    San Jose, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    What exactly do you find unreliable about either of those two? Both played a ridiculous number of minutes and consistently had high passing percentages, tons of ground covered and decent to good recovery and tackle numbers. Game to game, I think they were probably the most consistent players for the Quakes, except for perhaps Busch.

    Was there something in particular you noticed that suggests otherwise?
     
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  10. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Don't get me wrong, I like them both a lot! I have even defended Baca to many across the threads but I don't really trust their defensive skills all that much.
     
  11. Earthshaker

    Earthshaker BigSoccer Supporter

    Sep 12, 2005
    The hills above town
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    More early game heroics!
     
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  12. hc897

    hc897 Member+

    May 3, 2009
    San Jose, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    I got that part. I'm still curious as to why you think that.
     
  13. SoccerMan94043

    SoccerMan94043 Member+

    May 29, 2003
    San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Goals against certainly would be one reason to be leery of our midfield and and D. Though I suspect that has more to do with us pushing forward so often/quickly than either Baca or Cronin playing poorly (both seem to be highly rated by other teams and the press, if not by us).

    FWIW, I think our defense is very suspect. If we didn't have Muma and scored 60+ goals, I shutter to think of what last year would have looked like (even though he was injured much of the time). I also didn't think Morrow or Beita were spectacular on D (again probably due to a commitment to attack). I haven't looked at the stats closely enough to know for sure, but I seem to remember being scored against mostly from attacks down the flanks, rather than down the middle through Baca/Cronin.

    And we haven't shored up that defensive hole yet... I think we may be worse now, without Opara. I'm still waiting for that key defensive signing to improve over Hernandez and provide cover for Muma injuries & national team time.
     
  14. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    .....................
    Yeah, this pretty much sums it up.....
     
  15. markmcf8

    markmcf8 Member+

    Oct 18, 1999
    Vancouver, WA, USA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Falvo, I think part of our late success last season was that we were just in better shape than the enemy. We flat wore them out. Our guys were in the game physically, and mentally for 90+ minutes, and the other guys very rarely were. It's not that we planned for a late comeback, it's that once teams figured out how to defend against our speedy attack (remember our early season success?), they then learned that they couldn't pull that off for a full 90 minutes.

    As SoccerMan94043 pointed out, Frank is looking for someone who can change things up a bit for us. So we signed Fucito, who's a speedy forward. That's going to give us another look. We've got another Honduran or two in the pipeline, and Shea should play more like his early season self, rather than his later season, recovering from injury self. And if he doesn't, then we've got Garza in reserve, and probably Dawkins as well.

    It's not time to worry yet, and I think it's a safe bet that Frank, Ian, and Mark have been putting their heads together about how to get better, and how to change up the attack, and how to better thwart opposing offenses.

    I don't expect them to rest on their laurels.

    GO QUAKES!!!

    - Mark
     
  16. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Yeah I agree but it was too bad those GALS figured it out when it counted.
     
  17. lurking

    lurking Member+

    Feb 9, 2002
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Im working on going through every single goal. But right now the number one thing that we could do to improve our defense is actually upgrade at the 2nd CB spot. Looks like the most boneheaded goals that we conceded involved either Opara or Hernandez in heavy amounts.
     
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  18. markmcf8

    markmcf8 Member+

    Oct 18, 1999
    Vancouver, WA, USA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    We were just worn out at the end of the season. We had a lot of injuries. Beta was playing injured. Muma went out early. It just wasn't our day.

    Still, we were the best team in the league last year, that's something to be really, really proud of!

    GO QUAKES!!!

    - Mark
     
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  19. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Oh yes. there is no doubt about that. If we had a single table, we be champs!
     
  20. lurking

    lurking Member+

    Feb 9, 2002
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Camp opens, official site has Corrales and Stephenson in camp, but neither is signed. Not sure what is going on there, I assume we would try and re-sign both.
     
  21. Goodsport

    Goodsport Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 18, 1999
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  22. markmcf8

    markmcf8 Member+

    Oct 18, 1999
    Vancouver, WA, USA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I like the sound of that! We were unfit in '11 and we sucked. We were very fit in '12 and we were great! Not that that's 100% causation, but fitness really helped us in '12. We need to keep it up this year.

    GO QUAKES!!

    - Mark
     
  23. SoccerMan94043

    SoccerMan94043 Member+

    May 29, 2003
    San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I placed a lot of blame on the center backs too... I wonder how much we could prevent service in light of the lack of upgrade there.

    On a side note, I seem to remember playing a pretty high defensive line in the beginning of last year that seemed to get closer to our goal the more the year went on. Wonder if that was fitness/injury related... I believe we play better D with a high line.
     
    markmcf8 repped this.
  24. hc897

    hc897 Member+

    May 3, 2009
    San Jose, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    I wonder if this is possible to track via heatmap. I'll try to look into it, depending on if I can bring my laptop back from the dead. The high pressure did seem to lead to early on stinginess. A lot of that came from Chavez and Salinas doing a good amount of defending on the attacking front, which led to midfield turnovers. If memory serves, that started to fall away once Dawkins got a starting spot and Salinas was injured.
     
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  25. markmcf8

    markmcf8 Member+

    Oct 18, 1999
    Vancouver, WA, USA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is my memory also, but that doesn't make it accurate.

    It might be that our style caught so many teams by surprise early that we had a lot of success out of the gate and a stingy defense. But as the season wore on, other teams began to figure us out, and our guys wore out a bit, from playing at such a high energy level all the time. Maybe.

    I don't have the time to research this right now.

    And good luck with your laptop.

    GO QUAKES!!

    - Mark
     

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