Hey Beerking, how did you grade Victor's performance last week? I myself thought he played lights-out. He teamed well w/ morrow (who had himself a good game, though his distribution was poor at times), gave confidence to everybody on the pitch, and was a leader if by nothing else than his angry facial expressions. Seems he must have been 'playing possum' in the preseason, or more likely just nursing an injury. Hope he keeps it up...
"Earthquakes newcomer Victor Bernardez bonding with goalkeeper Jon Busch" (San Jose Mercury News - Friday, 3/16/12) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Another solid game against TFC. He really stood out in his ability to snuff out attacks. He's gonna be an MLS Best XI.
Getting Bernardez was probably the best offseason move the Quakes made (better than getting Dawkins back, better than getting Lenhart back, better than signing Moreno....) There are a lot of new International defenders in MLS this year, and several of them look good (Pertuz for Dallas, Mosquera for Portland, Bonjour for Vancouver, Ferrari for Montreal to name a few) but so far Bernardez seems to be doing better than anyone.
Dawkins has been underused so far and Moreno will get more time but the speedster that is Chavez and the complete beast of a defender that is Bernardez show how great our offseason was. I'm optimistic as long as all players are given a chance but Bernardez has already taken the defensive leadership role better than anyone has since the Quakes of olde.
"Víctor Bernárdez es el Latino de la Jornada 4 de FutbolMLS.com" (SJEarthquakes.com - Friday, 4/6/12) (Getty) The English translation (via Yahoo! Babel Fish) can be read here. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Yeah! This is all true. I'd like to see Frank start bringing on Moreno and Dawkins (for Shea, not Chávez) with about 20 to 30 minutes to go. Baca can play the whole match, but he needs to learn from Moreno, he needs to anticipate more, he needs to try to score more (or set up others to score). Chávez had a fantastic game against the evil Flounders. Bernárdez is a total beast. Jeez, he was a little shaky the first time I saw him in pre-season (about 31 or 32 degrees at kick off), but ever since he's been a total monster. Wow! Bernárdez and Morrow in the center of the backline give Cronin the freedom and space to do more and to take more risks. Shea and Chávez on the wings give Cronin, Baca, and the whole backline ready options for safe forward passes. We complete rebuilt our midfield in the off season. We finished last season playing: <deleted> Damn! Our midfield was really a jumble, even late in the season when we sort of had some stability going. Baca was in there a lot, but so were Corrales, Cronin, Dawkins, Gjoey, and Ring. Some appearances by Peterson too. So this season, we're seeing this pretty consistently: Shea - - - Baca - - Chávez - - - - - - Croninja This is Bernárdez's thread though, and he's been a huge improvement on the backline, which has helped our much improved midfield too. This is good! GO QUAKES!!! F#$% Wankouver!! - Mark
And according to the translation, he's the defensive pillar of the equipment. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Ha ha! Equipo can mean either equipment or team, depending on context. So "el equipo de San José" means the San José team, but auto translators will say equipment of San José. You could use junta to say team too, but these days, junta means something rather different. (Literally group.) In any case, our equipo is going to kick the crap out of the Vancouver equipo! Right on!! Viva Los Teremotos!! - Mark
Does anyone know if we are likely to lose Bernárdez to Honduras during WC qualifying this summer and fall?
Just saw this posted in an article on mlssoccer.com: Not good news at all, was hoping it might just be a week or two. For the record, Corrales was out for 9 weeks in 2010 when he sprained his MCL. Although for things like this, it's hard to predict as each player heals differently. Let's hope Bernardez is a fast healer!
Just thankful that he's not out for the year. He looked in a considerable amount of pain when they carted him off. I feared an ACL tear. We'll weather this thanks to our considerable depth, but I for one will be very happy when Bernardez comes back. Time for Hernandez and Opara to step up.
I disagree. Thats encouraging. If its 2 months, it means we get him back with plenty of time to go this season. 2 months is an 8 game stretch, which obviously will not be good, but Opara and Hernandez can handle an 8 game stretch. My fear was 4-6 months.
Further update on Bernardez posted today in an article on the Quakes site: I understand your point about this not being as bad as it could be, as when he was stretchered off with both hands covering his face it looked bad. But then when I heard it was a sprain and nothing worse, I was hoping for the best. Get well soon Victor, the team needs you back. It will be interesting to see if Yallop goes with a Hernandez/Morrow pairing or puts Opara in there. I get very worried that a backline of Beita/Hernandez/Morrow/Corrales is too small, and would rather see Opara in there (assuming Ike is playing well in training). So if best case Bernardez is out 4 weeks, then he would miss 5 games - RSL, @Philly, vs DC, @Vancouver, vs Chivas. And then maybe be back for the Columbus/LA/Sporting KC stretch at the end of May.
Yeah - he pretty much did it to himself, definitely not the fault of anyone on New York. He was challenging the keeper for a cross sent in, and just seemed to land wrong.
Link to said article (which highlights Salinas' injury but talks about Bernardez as well) in case it hasn't already been posted: http://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/2012/04/salinas-undergo-surgery-repair-fractured-clavicle Only be 4-6 weeks? Let's hope... although it's great that we have good center back depth this season and it doesn't hurt to make sure all three of the main healthy options get some game time.
How good is Bernardez Hi, TFC supporter here. As you noticed when you rightfully beat us earlier in the season, our defense is, and has always been, useless. We had a couple South American center back signings come in during the off-season. One of them (Caicedo) didnt make it past training camp and the other one (Aceval)...well you saw first-hand how well he defends. With Aceval it could be a case of getting used to the league, but what I noticed is that you guys signed a Honduran center back yourselves in the offseason and he looked really good when he played against us. So I wanted to know if Bernardez really is as good as he looked against us a month ago or if he's still struggling to adjust as well. Reason I ask is to compare to the signings TFC made and see if/why we didn't bring in proper defenders.
Re: How good is Bernardez Well he got hurt against NY and is out for a few more weeks, but...he has looked like one of the best defenders in the MLS, thus far(no bias either). Composed and strong, with a good first touch. Rarely out of position. Easily the Quakes best signing, maybe one of the best in the MLS?