Re: Re: San Jose Quakes at Columbus Crew (9/28) POST-Game Thread (R) First of all, Kyle Martino's haircut looks much more like a bad 1970s David Cassidy than Dwayne DeRosario will ever look like Osama bin Laden. Anyway - y'all out there in Ohio won good tonight. Now go on and destroy Los Angeles in the final. gary
Re: Re: Re: San Jose Quakes at Columbus Crew (9/28) POST-Game Thread (R) yeah, but he is just growing it out. he used to have really long hair, and cut it when he got into the league, cause he didnt want to draw attention to himself. hey, arent *WE* supposed to be the hicks?
Hell, that was the most benign troll post all night. Banner day for Bay Area teams, other than baseball...Stanford loses to ASU 5,423 to 24, Quakes take the dump, then I get to watch the Sharks lose 5-4 in exhibition to the LA Queens (killer 5-on-5 fight at that one, though). Brit was CROWDED. We got some railing. Place almost went more nuts for the LA scores than for our goal. Oh, well. Good game, and the Crew played well against us all year. They had an axe to grind, and accomplished their mission. It was obvious we weren't any team of destiny once Richard went down, after Dayak was already pretty much done. Thanks to the Quakes for setting up a viewing party, at least. And thanks to the Quakes for the great run (including last year and most of this year...their best regular season ever). Sucks it had to end this way, but that's life. PS--the weekend sports guy on Ch 11 is an idiot...showing highlights of the debacle, he said C-bus' winning goal was scored by Clint Mathis.
Note: This is a 100% COMPLIMENTARY post. I'm actually TRYING to give your team props here. Tonight, the Quakes deserved better. Had the run of play in the 1st half, created more dangerous chances, and the Crew were lucky NOT to be down in the 1st half. DeRosario was a handful for the Crew defenders pretty much all night. The Quakes represented well. They weren't complete bastards like the Fire.
I'm going to give Andy the benefit of the doubt here... Really, the Quakes just needed the tie to keep playing but they couldn't hold on in order to force a deciding game. Agoos and Cannon looks like they miscommunicated on the play forcing Buddle into the mix (if I got that right) and McBride was very opportunistic in getting the winning goal. Speaking of Agoos, it looks like open season for him again, especially after the miscue in the World Cup and now this. It could be time for him to take a bow, though he might have a year left. Robinson can't seem to get them in the net. He could be the team's set piece player in the future. The Quakes seemed to press for the goal but without Ekelund up front and not at full strength, they looked lost. Clark should have gotten a red card for his sucker punch on Graziani. However, I'm wondering if anyone got a better view on what transpired. One might have provoked the other into a fight. It looks like Graziani was back to his usual schitck of frustration. This might have been Agoos, and maybe Donovan's last game in a Quakes uniform. Congratulations to the Crew--this might be their year and with DC United not in it, they could get to Foxboro. They wanted to even the score after last year and they did. Nothing to be ashamed of here--only the 3rd time in the playoffs for San Jose, but disappointing given they went all the way last year. Thanks guys for a great 2002 season--just get the fans into the stands on a consistent basis, field a competitive team, and the game will thrive. Cheers!
I ordered 3 tickets of best seats for MLS CUP Oct 20, booked hotel, hoping Earthquakes will be there, wonder can I cancel the tickets....
Clark "sucker punch" Clark never struck Graziani. I watched the game on the Shootout after I got home and from the replay it was absolutely clear that Clark raised his hand as if to warn Graziani, but no contact was made. Graziani then faked the punch and collapsed holding his face. Now Robinson on Garcia, that's a whole other story and should have been a straight red card.
Re: Clark "sucker punch" Adrian's right: Clark didn't swipe Graz. Adrian's wrong: Robinson didn't deserve a red for his altercation with Garcia, the yellow was fair. The ref seemed to realize that one finger isn't generally enough to fell a person. If anything, Garcia should have got the yellow for embellishing.
I'm not wrong. Walking up to an opponent when the play is dead and shoving them in the face is violent conduct. Garcia didn't get a yellow card because he did not SIMULATE being struck in the face... he WAS struck in the face.
I gotta say this... with the exception of a couple of folks, this is a pretty classy reaction to last night's game. San Jose obviously has good fans. If only there were more of you!
I'd go if I could. If I already had everything planned, I would just go and cheer on whoever isn't LA.
Thanks for the clarificiation on Graz v Clark. Here's the take on Eddie Robinson: If he's on your team he's a player that you would love to have on your side. As an opponent you would think of him as a bloody hack.
You should be able to cancel the hotel room. However, you're stuck with the game tickets. If you want to unload them, better off selling them than asking for a refund.
Why the Quakes lost When I got home from the game Wednesday nite, I found the little mini-soccer ball we got as one of the game handouts, on the floor with the Crew logo at the top of the ball. So I picked it up and turned in over so that the Quakes logo was on top, and placed it on a box. Somehow it got knocked off the box, and when I got home last nite, I found the mini-soccer ball on the floor with the Crew logo on top again. So there you go, I'm sorry folks, it's all my fault...
Re: Clark "sucker punch" Now Robinson on Garcia, that's a whole other story and should have been a straight red card. [/B][/QUOTE] You're right, that two leg tackle from behind on Robinson by Garcia should have been a red but instead got no card at all.
Re: Why the Quakes lost Oooooo, bad karma, but I won't blame you. Maybe you have uncovered a mysterious power that those juggling balls hold. Maybe they are really like those 8 balls that you ask a question to and they give you an answer!
Garcia should have gotten a yellow card or worse for slide tackling from behind. There was a lot of tackles from behind that the ref didn't have the cahones to call. Plus, Grazziani faked being hit, but only because the jerk (sorry, it's true) faked a swing at him. They were both jerks, but it really had no bearing on the game.
Re: Re: Clark "sucker punch" I don't know about whether a yellow or a red was the fair call, but I can tell you that it was not one finger...Robinson basically palmed Garcia's whole face and pushed him over. It was clearly retaliation...and like in hockey, that's usually what gets called. I also saw what happened to LD...looked like he did something to either his knee or his foot in falling (not a dive, a genuine fall). He stopped for a few minuted to try and let the pain subside. I'm sure that if Yallop had had a substitute left to burn, he would have used it. The medic was watching him quite closely before heading off to the locker room. He didn't look like he was limping that badly after he allowed himself a minute or so to try and recover/wait out the pain. He got right back in the action. But sometimes that's no indicator. I hope it isn't too bad. Also hope that Jimmy Conrad's OK. He came up pretty lame at the end of the first half, but stayed in the game.
Just wanted to add my two cents. First, congrat to the Crew. A lot of talent on that team-- any team that can keep Martino on the bench, and West, and Perez, has solid talent. I'd like to see McBride score an amazing game-winner in the MLS Cup to cap a great year for him and to make his critics eat sh!t. I think the Quakes, for the 4th damn game in a row, lost a game that was very winnable. Donovan gets behind the defense 3 times and we come up with only one goal; Robinson shocks the stadium with his dribble up the center and misses what looked like a sure thing. Cannon makes two great saves in quick succession but allows two pretty pedestrian goals. And is it possible that the second goal should have been disallowed? Buddle leaves his feet, flies through the air and takes out the keeper. If that's legal, maybe we should incorporate it in next year's attack. Except for the lack of finishing, I think we win all four of the last four games we lost. But how does a team with Graz, Donovan and DeRo have a lack of finishing? Otherwise we played pretty solid soccer end to end. Even in losing, it's clear that the Quakes represent San Jose, MLS and USSoccer well. It was a fun team to watch all year, although frustrating for the last two weeks especially. Anyway, good luck to Columbus; as someone said, they just seemed to want it more. I think they're capable of playing better, and if the face LA, they'll have to.
Re: Re: Clark "sucker punch" Quite apart from the fact that the allegation it was from behind is completely false, there is also a certain irony about someone complaining that Robinson of all players was tackled hard. Overall the referee was pretty decent, especially in not buying that performance from Graziani.