Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Los Angeles Galaxy Western Conf. Semi Game 2 (Wed., 11/7) postgame thread [R]

If not as a CAM, Riquelme could just play behind the forwards as close as possible. All Riquelme needs is just a foot of seam to find any of the forwards. Or use his creativity and vision to distribute the ball to Chavez, Dawkins, Salinas, Morrow or Beitashour for breakaways in open spaces. Just like Cronin likes to do, except he's not as accurate.

 

This result is what it is my fellow Quakes fans and no amount of hand wringing and sackcloth and ashes will change the final result. What bothers me the most is that when we needed the 2012 team to show up we got the 2011 one and they went out, not with a bang, but a whimper. Losing Bernardez was huge but the deck was stacked against us from the opening whistle, you just can't go the the well constantly and not expect it to dry up.

Food for thought: I stated in another post that Garber and MLS couldn't allow us to host the MLS Cup, looks like they took care of that.

 

Yep. It wasn't the ref who let Keane run in on goal and easily get a shot off from 20 yards and it wasn't the ref who allowed Keane to slide in on goal between 3 defenders for a 1v1 with Busch, and it wasn't the ref who allowed Donovan to run around unmarked deep on the left side of the Quakes goal and pass to an unmarked MacGee. And it wasn't the ref who caused Wondo to miss an open net 10 yards from the goal or for Ike to similarly miss near the end of the game.

Despite the poor defense in the 1st half, this was a perfectly Gooniable game for the Quakes, and they came very close to pulling it off.

 

If the MLS CUP is Houston vs LA I'll be doing some yard work, fixing the car or watching paint dry because any of those activities would be more entertaining.

 

An opportunity to play for the national team is not something that many players are going to pass up- especially someone of Gordon's age.

First of all, Salinas is still lacking in experience, isn't that good with decision-making and making a sharp final pass, and has generally had some pretty weak moments lately. He's fine as a sub when you want some speed on the wings, but he's no Marvin Chavez. Last night, he did not look very good, so it's all the more surprising that someone would suggest he should have started.

As for Gordon, he couldn't and shouldn't have started. He was nowhere near physically ready to play heavy minutes. Didn't you watch the first leg in L.A.?

Neither you nor I know enough to make a comment like that.

 

I personally felt that the only players who really showed up last night were Chavez and Gordon. Really EVERYBODY else had a terrible night.

For those of you who believe that the refereeing was biased, all I can say is this: I've known Kevin Stott for for about 15 years. Certainly specific calls may be questioned, but anybody questioning his overall integrity as a referee doesn't know what he/she is talking about. I can't state it any plainer than that. You do not have to look for some sort of nefarious conspiracy to explain last night. Simply put, the Quakes came out with a sub-par game-plan and couldn't even execute on that.

 

BTW -- just read BA's comment in the Merc, and it's nice to see that he's just as gracious in victory as in defeat. He is, perhaps, the most miserable bastard I've ever met. A truly unpleasant individual...

 

Baca & Cronin were crap and Opara and Hernandez were shaky on defense. We need a centerback who is dominant and they are not cutting the mustard in my opinion. Also, didn't understand why he was waiting so long to put in Gordon. I mean injured or not, can't see how putting him in 10-20 minutes earlier will have hurt much and anyway, at that point, it was time to take the risk. Look for a midfielder and a defender in the draft......

 

That's it- in a nutshell.

 

It was a typical 2012 Quakes game in a lot of ways. Give up the early goal(s) then throw everything at the goal in the last 10 minutes and hope to get a result. Sooner or later, it's going to catch up with you (see USMNT at 2010 WC). When your luck runs out, it's usually at the worst possible time.

 

A few thoughts:

The Quakes had a great regular season, but limped to the finish with only the last away Seattle match being a good overall performance against a quality team. The better team won the series. It's hard to compete against a team whose best players are superior to ours. Now that the stadium is a definite go, I hope ownership opens the purse for some talent. The team's spirit and chemistry is excellent, but it needs some better talent.

Wondo's chase for the scoring record took him and the team out of its rhythm (at least a little).

Outside defense should be okay, but Morrow and Beita faded hard the last third of the season. Morrow's crossing needs a lot of improvement. Central back is a problem. Jason's is too inconsistent and getting old. Bernardez is great. Opara had a bad season after losing one to injury. I think it's the curse of the Olympic qualifying disaster. He's certainly not living up to expectation. Maybe Corrales can be converted to a reserve role at CB: he can't run so much anymore, but his field awareness and technical skills are as good as anyone on the team. His presence calms down the team.

Chavez is great, but wears down because of his aggressive style. Salinas is a bench player, better than before he left, but still not that good. Fast but easy to defend and terrible crossing. If he returns, Dawkins should play centrally. Baca disappeared the last part of the season. I don't think he's the answer at CAM. Was the weakest player in the series. Hopefully, Garza recovers from his injuries and can develop into a good MLS starter. Cronin had a great year, but unfortunately a stunningly terrible match last night. Also, there's not enough threat of shots from outside the area so teams can collapse around our forwards. Stephenson sometimes has a good outside shot, but he's too soft and inconsistent to see regular time. He's good when the team is protecting a lead. Ballouchy's injury was a blow. He has good technical skill, but slow decision making and not in synch with the team. I see why he doesn't stick anywhere. Other players like him have fluorished as Quakes; maybe he will.

Goalkeeping is in good shape. Bingham should be an adequate replacement for one of the best, Busch, in a year or two.

We could use a dynamic forward to compliment Wondo, Lenny and Gordon. Our lack of speed up front can make us easy to defend.

Sorry for the long post.

 

The Quakes lost to a better team for 3 reasons:

1) OFFENSE - Galaxy trio of Magee-Donovan-Keane looked world class compared to the minor league performance we saw from the Wondo-Baca-Dawkins combination.
2) DEFENSE - Galaxy played better and more disciplined team defense to a man.
3) TACTICS - Yallop said at half time he wanted the players to get more crosses into the box. The players executed that plan pumping tons of balls into the box - but it didn't work (arguably may never have worked but maybe Yallop it was playing to their strengths i.e. 3 tall strong target forwards - not enough good difference making midfielders.)

The Quakes need to answer 3 big questions:

1) TACTICS - do they want to really play long ball? If not - invest in a better midfield - Dawkins doesn't produce and if he's going to not play any defense (one of the goals was his bad) - then he needs to go. Hard to tell whether Baca was just doing his job - i.e. spraying balls to the wings on orders because Yallop wanted to play crosses into the box - OR IF - Baca was just not able to make that final creative play to send players through - dribble through himself - or be more dangerous with a short passing/dribbling game.

2) DEFENSE - what happened - you lose your main centerback - but your whole team defense shouldn't collapse. Granted - the Galaxy attack were world class last night - hats off to them - but a few times they made it look too easy. That means the Galaxy were relying far too much on Bernardez - that doesn't help the team or the club (when they have to renegotiate his salary and sign him deservedly to a longer deal!)

3) OFFENSE - Wondo's short comings are noticeable. May not be fair to compare him to Keane - but hey if Wondo is the franchise player - this is what you can expect. The point is that the Earthquakes can only go so far - if they think very good players like Wondo are in fact excellent players like Keane. You get what you pay for - not what you promote for in your advertising. Wondo is a very good forward not a great one - he needs more support and he needs another player to push him to raise his game on the squad (Gordon and Lennhart aren't going to do that)

 

Probably the worst way imaginable to end what had otherwise been an amazing season.

 

I came home and watched South Park...made me feel a little bit better, I just want to share my favorite part of the raisins episode:
Butters:
"Well yeah, and I'm sad, but at the same time I'm really happy that something could make me feel that sad. It's like, it makes me feel alive, you know? It makes me feel human. And the only way I could feel this sad now is if I felt somethin' really good before. So I have to take the bad with the good, so I guess what I'm feelin' is like a, beautiful sadness. I guess that sounds stupid."

 

I was in a situation where I had to watch the game on my laptop, without any sound. Seeing the video, without hearing the commentary or crowd noise, gives the game a whole different look. It also emphasizes the fact that the Quakes got beat in that game. With Bernardez, there are still occasional gaps in the back line, but he keeps it pretty well organized. Without him, it was a mess.

Even so, we still had a couple of chances to be moving on in the playoffs. Everyone mentions Wondo and Opara missing their chances. Lenny just missed a glancing header too. Now we can worry about next season and also watch the stadium being built.

 

LAG outplayed us in the 2 game series.
Simply, They have more quality ..
Many More options.

Still, I'm very proud of our team. How they
battled .. How they played with heart ..
How they played as a team ..
How they were great people toward the kids
eg fans.

Heck! The team won the supporters shield for
whatever it's worth. Great season overall!
Nothing to feel ashamed! Nothing to hang
your head down.

Go Quakes!

 

It's not subliminal--it's totally conscious and calculated. You don't do anything that prevents the league getting the team they want through, through. This isn't "fixing" the game. It just making sure when something with wiggle room happens, you wiggle the safest direction. This "human nature" gets amplified for matches like Kasey Keller's send-off game and playoffs. In this case, I blame this mostly on Garber and his loudly emphasized venue desires. But it's actually all the suits at MLS and the media. ESPN & NBC have flat out stated which teams they prefer to broadcast--that's big $$. Also all the big name journos are very clear which teams they prefer to go through because it's "better for the league." How often have we heard that Dallas vs Colorado in MLS Cup was a disaster for the league?

If a ref wants the playoff assignments, the final, and regular work next year they know this too. This happens year after year. Both goals for LA against Vancouver were heavily influenced by this same sort of "ref option to choose" when a ref knows full well what the league, networks and media all want. It's not subconscious in the least. The high boot by Beckham that knocked Jay DeMerit out of the game and lead to LA's first goal (and Vancouver wasn't the same without DeMerit)--the decision not to call that is not "subliminal" influence. That's knowing that making a call against Beckham and LA, no matter the LOTG, isn't in your best interests--too bad about DeMerit and Vancouver...and the league's pretend concern about concussion prevention. Call dangerous play and card Beckham and that brings whining by Arena in the press, which the league doesn't like no matter if the call is right, and you probably don't get another playoff game. Don't make that call, which is what happened, gets no ink at all. Predictable. It's better to be wrong if it favors the right team, than to end up in the press even if you're right. This applies 10x over to red cards or PKs which always get ink. Walton is not going to count up Stott's right vs wrong calls when deciding who is awarded MLS Cup final & Stott knows this and it's strong motivation. Stott's right vs wrong call ratio is better than most refs in this league anyway. Walton's going to just enjoy that there's no whining by Arena, Steve Davis, or Ives Galercep and that Garber and the suits got their $$ wish. That improves Stott's reputation far more than being right.

I agree that when Muma went off, that created a scenerio where Ike Opara hands LA two goals. It reminded me of watching Olympic qualifying actually. We were going to lose on our own fair and square. Stott didn't need to call the biassed game. But he will benefit from having done it. The first card to Muma and how Stott handled that told us exactly how he planned the game to go. If players like Dawkins, Baca and Wondo play well despite the pressure, we can overcome it. They didn't so we didn't.

 

great season but very bad game last night.

it's too bad the league doesn't take a 2-3 week break between the end of the regular season and the play-offs as the nfl does. taking a break will build the excitment for the play offs and will allow the SS winner to bask in their achievment before starting the play offs which in effect is just a tournament for the best teams in the league. no wonder most SS winners don't win MLS Cup, it's because it's near impossible to keep the run going as we all saw last night.

going into this series with the scum the team wasn't playing all that well yet we were still getting results which created a sense of false security (which bite us in the butt @ the end). it looked like our opposition started playing like KC agianst us and putting immediate pressure on our CAM/CDM when we won the ball and instead of moving foward with the ball we'd inevitably pass it back to the backline or to JB which would kill our attack and allow the other team to set their defense.

maybe next year baca/croninja will continue to grow as a players and be able to handle this pressure better but we definately need a more mature back-up in the CAM position especially. ideally said person would be proven mls player which is a known quantity (dax mccarty anyone?).

anyhow / whatever. great season that we can build on and really establish ourselves as a top tier team in the league and hopefully the region.

out.

 

Stott has nothing to prove. He resigned his FIFA badge a couple of years ago and is not looking to "move up" in the ranks or get warm and fuzzy with anybody in MLS or USSF.

 

Bullcrap! A yellow card offense is a yellow card offense, whether it occurs in the first minute or the ninety-fifth.

Bernardez could easily have gotten a red for his thrown elbow. He was trying to play the ball and he wasn't really looking where he threw his elbow and it wasn't that bad of a hit. Still, the law says for throwing an elbow at an opponent's head, you can get sent off.

Gonzales' thrown elbow should have been a straight red. He looked right at Lenhart and bashed him in the face. (Lenhart could have gotten a red for assaulting Gonzales afterwards, but Stott had already wimped out and not given Gonzales the red he deserved, so Lenny got away with it.)

I agree that the much of the officiating (in the first half anyway, haven't seen the second half yet), was horribly biased. A filth player ran over Chavez from behind (don't remember which minute), Stott called a foul, but didn't issue a card, which should have been red in any case.

How did Stott not give Buddle a yellow or two for diving? And he bought Buddle going down at the slightest touch?! The guy's as big as a horse! Yet at the same time, actual thumping of our players went totally uncalled.

Even so ... the main reason we lost was that we did not take our chances. These stats tell the story right here.

San Jose - - - - - - - - - filth
14 - - - Attempts on Goal - - 10
2 - - - Shots on Target - - - 5
9 - - - Shots off Target - - - 5
3 - - - Blocked Shots - - - - 0

We had plenty of attacking chances, but didn't put enough on target. They blocked some of our shots, we blocked none of theirs. They finished, we didn't. Half of their shots were on target, only one seventh of ours were. We sucked. That's it.

GO QUAKES!!!!!!!
F#$% el-lay!!
F#$% MLS!!!
FUAEG!!!!

- Mark

 

There's a good way to end the season?

 

Still feeling lousy this morning. There are some excuses-- reffing, coaching, injuries, off-night for Wondo. But the bottom line is that Robbie Keane and the Galaxy played great. The media said LA looked like a bunch of old men on Sunday, but they were a different crew yesterday. Sharper passes and beat us to the ball the whole game.

I complained to my daughter that we always lose when we have fireworks before the game. And she pointed out, maybe that's because fireworks precede big games, and the Quakes don't play well in big games. I think she's on to something.

So I'll try to think of yesterday as just one game. The Quakes gave us an incredible season. The last 10 minutes of the game were as exciting as the rest of the season, even tho we didn't get our last minute Goonies Goal. My young guests both literally fell out of their seats at Opara's miss. That the team can bring even casual fans to their feet in so much excitement, good or bad, is what will make the Quakes a long-standing entertaining and valuable sports team in the Bay Area. After the game, my guests said they really wanted to go out and play. Isn't that what alot of this is all about?

 

Yeah, winning MLS Cup.