2013 San Jose Earthquakes preseason thread [R]

I stopped having the connection problems (the drop-outs) when I changed the resolution to 480p.

 

LOL. Let's seem him do it during regular season.

 

How bad is Bostick? He looks like someone saw him playin over a park or something, he's awful. Wondo's been sharp, Gargan ok,Cronin ok & Shea has been great but everyone else has sucked .

 

quite a move by Bostock against preseason opposition. might be worth giving a shot as we don't have much else

 

Morrow with a yellow, next thing someone will tell me is RJ got a hat trick...

 

Bostock was better in the 2nd half then the 1st, and showed off the talent on our 3rd goal. Hes still a bit of a project though, tried to dive in the first half and didnt get anything for it. Lets see how he does vs. FC Dallas.

Cato looked slightly better, but not really that impressed by him.

Jahn is so raw. Potential, but so raw.

Still trying to form an opinion on Gorskie.

Hernandez hasnt played much, so it may just be rust, but I wasnt impressed. Attakora defended very well, but really needs to work on his distribution. Harden is a bit of a wild ride out there...

A Ryan Johnson hat trick is something to see, but have no clue why Busch was leaving his line against RJ. If your not going to get it, stay on your line and force Johnson to beat you with a shot. Getting chipped twice takes all the pressure off of him.

 

Probably the first time Bostock has even seen turf. I just hope Yallop doesn't treat him like another Dawkins. I'd like to have seen him or Tommy play in Baca's position. I see the effort that Baca puts forward but doesn't add much defensively and is frustrating on offense. I do not think he should have the cm position locked up. I hope that was the last we see of Jahn as well.

 

I was thinking Hernandez might start the year on the first team, but won't finish the year that way. I think Attakora will replace him pretty quickly.

 

Bostock got better in the 2nd half. That's a good sign that perhaps it's just a need to adjust...to turf and the league....and better know his teammates.
Jahn needs to play in a lower league. The potential's there, but not for this season.
Cato can be shipped back to Seattle tomorrow. He's young and if he's looked at as someone who can be on minimum salary and doesn't need to play at all for a couple years...then maybe. But really, I see nothing.
Salinas was MOTM.
Cronin and Wondo didn't look very good. That has to change.

 

I think Bostock is a keeper if he's cheap enough (I think Dawkins loan cost us like 60K or something if I remember correctly). He offers a much different way for us to attack (much like Dawkins did)... he could be good coming off the bench.

I think Ring is better than Cronin, so maybe this might be an in for him.

 

Wow, so did all 3 Timbers goals come straight through our middle, same as always? If any team in the league watched our defeat to LA in the playoffs last year and are scouting us at all, we're going to give up a ton of goals. Again. Just too soft down the center with Baca & Cronin, continually leaves the CB's exposed too often.

 

Tommy has looked good in preseason, with plenty of games this year hopefully we see him paired with Cronin. Actually first I hope Frank signs him over the likes of Jahn, Cato and other trialists who have gotten more playing time. Also I think an Attakora Bernardez pairing will be our best option as well.

 

yeah we still have problems down the middle. cronin/baca weren't getting it done, passing it backwards or to no one isn't going to do much. ring should get a start a DM and maybe give bostock a shot @ AM or wondo @ AM

 

Bostock was playing well for Swindon in a central midfield position, not out on the wing. With Khari gone, who else do we have besides Baca to play that a-mid role?? We already have three decent outside players, Chavez, Salinas, and Garza. We need to see what Bostock can do in the middle. If I was Frank I would throw a red jersey on him during scrimmages, put him in the middle, and tell his side to always look to get him the ball and let him show us what he can do. Sink or swim.

 

Portland was playing a 4-2-3-1, where our central midfielders are going to be outnumbered in the center of the pitch. Its the type of matchup that you want your central midfield to survive, and not one you "win".

They didnt play all that well, but Ive seen both play better and its pre-season so I'm not too woried. We also played with a new player to the team in one of the toughest places to play in the league.

 

We dont play with 2 wingers all the time. Dawkins wasn't really a wing. Having an unbalanced formation, with an outside midfielder who drifts in with width provided by an overlapping fullback is a very viable tactic. Its even better if you can switch your outside players during the match to take advantage of different matchups. Helps if we have Beita on the field, as his overlaps really can take advantage of the movement a pinching in midfielder can make.

I saw enough of Bostock on that goal to think hes going to be worth it to bring in, its just a matter of getting him to adjust to the league and learn the position of that pinching in outside midfielder. He could probably play CM with us, I just think hes a better fit at "outside" mid for our system.

 

They got destroyed by Diego Valeri, who definitely looks like he will live up to if not exceed the hype. Nice pickup by Portland.

Porter plays an attacking system that is not strong defensively. Our team also scores a lot and concedes relatively a lot of goals. Not surprised by the 3-3 scoreline.

Cronin wasn't the only problem on those goals, Hernandez also looked poor. But he's coming off an injury I think so it's not surprising.

 

But, doesn't it make sense that we see what he can do as a CM? And it's not like he has a reputation as being an outright a-mid. He is a technical player and his play looks more possession oriented, which would fit our system.

 

Baca was complete crap against Portland. When he had the ball I don't think that he tried to dribble past one guy, all he would do is back pass and once in a while make a great forward pass right to a Timbers player.

He didn't even try to defend, he just kept running slowly next to the ball or the Portland player running with the ball. He never hustled to get back to block runs or intercept passes, just kept escorting the play from about five to ten yards away and never actually doing anything.

I'm not a big Cronin fan but man I felt sorry for him tonight. He had to run back to play defense and would be in a deeper position than Baca. Then when the Quakes got the ball he would be up field trying to get into the attack and Baca would still be in the defensive third slowly running.

I seriously think that we would have been better with ten men on the field. At least they wouldn't falsely assume that Baca would close down a player to only have him run right past him into open space and pull our defense out of shape, and when it came to the attack Baca killed more Quakes attacks than any of the Timbers.

End of rant.

 

I know there's still time but he doesn't really seem to be developing his game. I would like to see Bostock or Tommy given a chance in his position with mostly first team players . . . Yallop gave Moreno plenty of chances to do well in that position, now that we have some more mobile attacking mids I think he should try it out again.