Pre-match: Real Salt Lake - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 6/23) pregame thread

This is a 6 point opportunity vs maybe the best team in the league. We're hot and they're not. You play to win.

 

If you recall the last game against RSL at Buck Shaw, Morrow played LB and was terrorizing down the left flank for parts of the 1st half (before the red card changed the flow of the much a bit). True, his final ball isn't always there, but his runs down the flank will go a lot deeper and can be more dangerous than Corrales's. Corrales tends to go just beyond midfield and then look for the long diagonal cross. So you wind up not utilizing that deeper space on the wings. If he tries to make a deeper run, he is much slower and can easily be closed down. I think this was Frank's rationale in starting Morrow at LB in the last RSL match.

 

Yep. Old Quakes would go in there, play conservatively and play for a draw. This is the New Quakes (or Classic Quakes, as in 2001-2003+2005?). What I would like to see is a mindset change, where they believe they can outplay any team, and should always go for the win.

As for the who's hot, who's not thing, I think it's a wash in the end. It's like tossing a coin and getting heads 3 times in a row. You're still at 50-50 on the next toss. You're not going to get heads because you're "hot" and you're not "due" for a tails. I think a lot depends on who gets the 1st goal. If it's the Quakes, RSL may start to press a bit ("oh no, we can't lose again!"). If it's RSL they may smell blood and pour it on.

 

We're screwed, Albany58's favorite person is officiating tonight


REFEREE: Jair Marrufo. SAR (bench): Corey Rockwell; JAR (opposite): Fabio Tovar; 4th: Tyler Ploeger
MLS Career: 135 games; FC/gm: 24.2; Y/gm: 3.2; R: 32; pens: 42

 

It's definitely the New Quakes JazzyJ....

Which game did he previously ref?

 

Dawkins is good enough to start, but not good enough to dictate where he plays. He's exciting as center midfielder and makes things happen, but gives up the ball a lot more than anyone else in that position.

Yes, it was awful. The team has springy outside midfielders and the job of the central midfield is to spring them. In the last game , either through lack of confidence or bad positioning, the defense was sending long balls to them bypassing the midfield altogether. That changed when the center midfield changed. In 20 minutes, Stephenson had almost as many passes as Baca did in 60. And no way Baca makes that pass that setup Salinas for the cross in the first goal.

 

Meh, Baca had more like 2x as many passes as Stephenson. I've seen Baca lay out nice passes to the wings. He tends to play shorter passes, but I've seen plenty of nice longer passes played out into space on the wings. Cronin also generally distributes to the wings pretty well when he is not busy backpassing. Not sure what was going on earlier in the CO match. Would have to watch it again. Baca also gives you a higher work rate and more field coverage than Stephenson. He doesn't ball win as much as I'd like but marks very closely defensively. There was a sequence where he ran circles around Casey a few times trying to steal the ball (and eventually got called for a foul I think).

 

The line-up that's out there should play to win...or tie. I just wouldn't pick the line-up with this game as my top priority of the next 3. I'd rate the Seattle match most important and the FO will rank the LAG match most important.

 

Corrales was out injured and not even on the bench for the last RSL match, that's why Morrow started at left back. I expect to see Ramiro at left back tonight and Morrow in the middle next to Bernardez.

 

I like Baca, but he has not played that well in the last several matches. Much of that time he was out on the wing, but even when he's played centrally, he hasn't looked like he did at the start of the season. As for the Colorado match, Baca had 18 successful passes in 65 minutes (on pace for 25 for 90 minutes), Khari had 11 successful passes in 20 minutes (on pace for 50 for a 90 minute game). That's a very big difference, Khari was very good on Wed night. If Baca keeps playing like he has, Khari should probably get more playing time.

I thought Baca's best game by far was in New York, where he and Cronin bossed the midfield. In that game he had 54 successful passes over 90 minutes. He also made nice runs forward (like when he scored the goal) and was just more active. I want to see that Baca playing again.

 

Ah, didn't remember that. In any case the first part of that RSL match may have been the best the Quakes have played all year. They were completely taking it to RSL, one of the top couple of teams in the league. Morrow's play down the left wing was a big part of that. They dominated after going up a man (or two) also but you're supposed to do that.

I also expect Corrales to be left back this game and Morrow CB (and have previously posted that) because Frank will want to work RC into his 2-game rotation.Too bad. Quakes won't be able to exploit space deep on the left wing unless Salinas is left mid. But IMO Dawkins needs to be on the field also.

 

It's a tough situation. With 50k people in a sold out Stanford stadium (there are less than 1000 seats left as of yesterday), it is important that the Quakes play well and entertain people. It's a big opportunity to market the team. While winning the USOC is also a big accomplishment, it doesn't pay the bills (team typically end up losing money hosting USOC games).

You believe the USOC match is most important, and there are good arguments for that, but there are equally good arguments that the LA and RSL matches are more important. Hopefully the team can do well in all 3 - I'd take a draw tonight if it meant a win in the USOC match, but I definitely want to beat LA. They are starting to get some confidence and play better, it will be big if the Quakes can beat them and put them back down "in their place" (at the bottom of the standings )

 

Very small sample size. I would guess that Baca has a higher passes per minute rate than Khari over the full season when they've played central mid. Baca's just a more active central mid with a higher work rate. The thing about Khari is that I've noticed that he does well in short spurts as a sub when everyone else is a bit tired. When he starts he tends to kind of loaf. Baca's work rate is always very high and he covers a ton if ground. So maybe Baca starting and Khari in at 70 minutes is a way to go.

As for Baca's play at central mid I think all that time at outside mid had taken him a little out of form as center mid. At the time of the NY game he had played several games in the center I think.

 

It's a pretty amazing slate of games this week. Good time to be a fan.

 

Indeed. Each of the next three games are big in their own way. I fully believe we can win all three, but this is going to be a brutal week for the guys. I just hope Yallop doesn't try to spread the talent out to thin or make "resting" more of his priority rather than trying to win.

 

Oh, no! Jair MoFo. We don't deserve this.

 

Watching the Spain -France replay until game time.....

 

nice to see them opt for the blue. black uniforms in 101 heat would be beyond stupid. i would have gone for last year's white away uniform.

 

tell them to go jump in the great salt lake!

 

I hope you're wearing your lenhart wig.

 

What's this? Your first team? I am VERY disappointed in your approach to the USOC!