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

Great season. Bad game. We were carrying knocks. Proud of the team and the fans. LA played great last night and their talent showed. (I still hate them). We were a little unlucky. But we definitely missed Bernardez' leadership. Once he was gone I didn't feel like anyone was pushing the team forward, urging them to victory. Except maybe Cronin, who was overmatched in the midfield (especially when Baca was pulled) and was giving it everything he had. I think folks should be really hesistant to criticize him.

Go Quakes!

The people making snap judgments about certain players who had bad games are all wrong. Way too small a sample size. Everybody has a bad game every now and then. It doesn't mean Opara or Baca or Cronin or Salinas are not starting quality players or that we should get rid of them.

These things happen. The writing on the wall had been there for months. This was a team that had suffered from injuries and fatigue. It had relied far too often on late-game dramatics in order to pull out results, sometimes even against mediocre opponents. They were coasting for the last month of the season, and when players were re-introduced into the lineup, they never seemed to jell. Our bench depth, a big reason for our success early in the season, disappeared late as injuries hurt the team and as players like Stephenson, Garza, and Corrales sunk deeper and deeper on the depth chart.

Criticism of a number of players is warranted, but the level of vitriol expressed (not just today but in recent weeks) is unfair. Baca had a good, but not great season, and his production fell off dramatically towards the end of the season, culminating in his poor performance last night. But Baca played precisely because Yallop didn't trust his alternatives off the bench. He (Yallop) did not believe that Corrales, Stephenson, Ring, or Alexandre were worthy replacements (or Dawkins, for that matter). Agree or disagree with that decision, it meant that Baca played more minutes than he ever had in his career. This same fatigue seemed to plague Beitashour as well, whose production declined precipitously after the All-Star break and never seemed to recover. Should Yallop have periodically started Zayner in his place? Should he have also trusted his central midfielders off the bench? We don't know, but of course, now is the perfect time to second guess the coach's decisions.

This team had a champion's heart in the body of a limping, wounded man. The fight was there in the faces of many of the players. Look at Wondo's reactions and frustration throughout the game (credit LA for bottling up our attacking players). Watch Opara lie face-down in the grass in agony after the late-game miss. This team had the fight in them to win, but not the ability (at least not last night).

Yes, losing sucks. Losing to LA is worst of all. But we all got to experience an amazing, magical season. We won the Supporter's Shield. We got to watch a lot of young, homegrown players grow as athletes and as competitors. As upset as we all are, we can't lose perspective on what we experienced and what lies ahead. As painful as it might be, let's credit LA for playing an amazing game in a very hostile environment (and big, big kudos to the Ultras and ALL the Quakes supporters for never giving up last night). Let's stop blaming the ref (those who do so of course conveniently forget that the early calls he made against Bernardez were correct, as was his decision to hand Beckham a yellow card for his trip of Chavez). A team that can hardly muster a shot on goal the whole match doesn't deserve to win. A team that conceded so much space on the counter that it looked like it was playing down a man doesn't deserve to advance either.

It was a great year. Let's analyze this game, certainly. Let's lay blame where it belongs (on pretty much everyone). But let's cut out the vitriol. Let's stop blaming bogeymen. Let's focus on this one game (which is all it is), and look forward to coming back stronger than ever next season.

Oh yeah, I'm feeling like crap due to the lack of sleep and heart palpitations just thinking about last night's game, oh well...

He's not composed enough with the ball to play midfield.

LA came in to play and they played with hunger. They kept pressuring. Also, the skill of Keane and Donovan showed, and they showed up in an important game like this. I think you get what you paid for (or what MLS grandfathered). You thought LA would be tired but they played with more energy and urgency.

On the other hand, SJ last night played like the old SJ that could not move the ball forward. There was no movement. I know SJ would always played the crosses into the box, but it would only be effective if the crosses were delivered with quality (and got past the first defender) and you had more than just Lenhart and Wondo in a sea of white shirts. And our midfielders were never positioned to pick up the second ball out of the boxes. Losing Bernardez, not only hurts defensively in terms of leadership, you lost a player who could keep the ball and build the attack from the back.

In a sense, SJ played the same game they played the whole season (or even in the last 5 yrs). For the majority of 2012, it worked wonder, but not last night. First loss to LA and first loss at Buck Shaw, and it was a costly loss.

By the way, when Opara kicked the ball over the crossbar in the last min, the image of Salinas doing the same in our first 2008 game flashed back.

When someone starts the 2013 or pre-season thread, then I will share on individual performance based on the overall season. Last night, we could pinpoint bad moments of certain players, but overall the team was not playing well.

via_chicago, great post.

would like to add there hasn't been another real option for CAM this season after moreno left the team. jma + ring are defensive minded and so only really would be subs for cronin. khari and dawkins could play CAM in a pinch but neither are really suite for the position, khari because he's too slow and dawkins because his first instinct is to look for his own shot first than to pass the ball. maybe we should of kept moreno and not let him of his contract. if baca had gone down with an injury we really would of been up sh*ts creeks so let's give him props for helping us get a SS.

regarding zayner in for beita for a couple of games, i agree on this as beita hasn't looked all that good for along time and he could of used a rest. zayner was a nice surprised when he played those 1-2 odd times and would of been a good option.

I went and rewatched the game... Stott (sp?) did a pretty good job. He called a tight, relatively even game (including the yellow on Muma which was deserved).

These two sentences - the last two in the MN article on the game, are, for me, the best antidote for the pain of the game that I have seen yet.

But they left the field to a standing ovation from their devoted fans.

"We're building something," Lenhart said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/earthquakes/ci_21953676/san-jose-earthquakes-hurt-by-injury-robbie-keanes

I set that one up for you....

Holding the cup.

I started the "Season Recap 2012" Thread.

Got to disagree with this... when Gordon scored, you could see the worry on LA faces. Another tying, extra time would have deflated them.. and our pressure kept increasing.

I never said midfield....

I was doing my usual perambulation from the center-stripe to the tunnel area when that shot of Ike's(?) whistled over the goal -- I was right next to the LA subs, and the worry on their faces at the shot and the subsequent relief were rather stark...

Experience. They had it and we didn't.

LA was the better team last night and deserved to win. They played with intelligence and heart. Who wouldn't want to have Robbie Keane on their team? He showed his EPL and international experience.

Morrow. Beta. Bacca. Cronin. All of them struggled. Add the fact that the team has been coasting the last month of the season and even looked tired the first game in LA and this game. It just wasn't meant to be.

I wasn't too upset at the game or afterwards. Whether we like it or not, LA is a good team when all players are available and they are playing at full potential. We got beat by a better team last night.

I'm very proud of the continued fight of the team last night. It's obvious that Chavez has been nursing an injury for sometime because he never plays a full game. Gordan scored even when hurt. None of these are excuses, but this team didn't look to be making a run to the MLS Cup over the last month.

If I was frustrated with anyone last night, it would have to be with some of our more experiences players (Wondo and Busch). Both of them didn't make plays (Busch on the second goal and Wondo not scoring to tie down 1-0) which are needed from them.

Great season. Probably the greatest Quakes season every in my mind. I really enjoyed the season and won't let this one loss effect my view....

GO QUAKES!!!

Yea... I must of hit quote for the incorrect post or something. someone was saying that def. mid might be a good role for ike... I was disagree with that.

Ike needs to learn Spanish and ghost Muma for 5 months.

Despite the results of his teams, this is why I would never want him back as a national team coach...

I'd rather he remain consistent with what he had to say before the series began instead of pretending to be nice after their win. What is the point in being classy only when you win?

Well said.

I hope you lose next round .

Experience matters in the playoffs. SJ doesn't have it. LA does. That is the difference between the two right now. It doesn't get simpler than that.

You know LA is not a team that can remain complacent for too long because of the money they got. Sooner or later they will be competitive and be in the hunt for a trophy. San Jose is completely different. It does not have the luxury of having the money to spend on 2 DPs. That is why what the team did this year during the regular season is so special, but it wont'happen again next year if management stays complacent like they did after reaching the Conference Final vs Colorado. I hope they realize that because the team is close, but not so close that they can afford to go an off-season without retooling.

If by "beat by a better team" you mean the better team last night, I agree. I might even agree with "better team right now".

But if it's "better team" in general, the Quakes proved to be the better team over the course of the 2012 season. We have a much more statistically relevant measure of "better team" than the playoffs, called the "regular season". Both teams dealt with injuries and nats call-ups and some ups and downs (well mostly ups for the Quakes ) but through it all, the Quakes emerged as the better team. I think Arena said the Gals were the "best team in MLS since July" and I'm not sure that the numbers would even bear that out.

Didn't bother reading the boards last night after getting home from the game.

Obviously the team was completely flat and LA wanted it more. Whenever you are a 10 million point favorite, it's so easy to ease up and blow it in this league. This was NY at Houston 2008, after the series was "ended" by a late Dynamo goal in New York.

Winning the shield 2 games in advance, then focussing on Wondo's record were terrible distractions.

The notion that some of the players need to be off the team is ridiculous, we have a great machine and it just broke down at the worst time. Hopefully we'll peak at the right time next year and our younger players will be more experienced.