Fair enough, but at this point he has the players he has. We do not have the depth of Chivas or River Plate. One of those two could play in a more withdrawn role. I'm fine with sitting Vako, Magnus (who was alright on Sat), or both.
I really like it where Danny had a successful pass to himself over there on the left touch line. Let's see Wondo pull that one off! yeah, yeah, I know that's just a coincidence. But it put a kink in my mental process for a second there. I've looked at a lot of opta stat charts and never seen that.
I don't think anyone on BS mentioned it, but my son said he saw on Reddit some discussion after the LAFC game that Wondo was tearing up afterwards. It could be he was just emotional from the embarrassing loss. But it did make me wonder if he didn't think to himself - "I'm part of the problem here". Maybe he decided to take himself out of the Portland starting line-up? Just spitballing here.
I didn't notice that, but I did notice he was extremely animated and celebratory to the players during half-time. He went around and was pumping the guys up and that kind of thing, and was pretty jovial. That's a good thing, in that he didn't seem the least bit resentful to not be out there. That's pretty much what one would expect, given the way he's always talked about the team to the media moreso than himself. To your point, I think he would have some pretty big issues with self-awareness if he didn't at least consider whether or not him playing so much was best for the team. I don't think anyone, especially athletes, wants to face the time when they just aren't up to the task. Giving that up can't be easy. However, given how long he's been in the league now, I'm sure he's aware of his limitations. Ultimately it's still up to Almeyda who plays and who doesn't. I would have to assume he and Almeyda have discussed what his role would be this year and that kind of thing. Harder for me to believe Wondolowski would flat out say, don't put me in to start the game.
Hoesen is the more viable forward option and should start, but when he is injured, we still only have Wondo to fall back on. I don't think Vako or Magnus is suitable to be the point of attack.
No… there is another ** ** currently not eligible to play but should be available this summer upon completion of his academy training.
Pin our hopes on? We were talking about having an option if Hoesen and Wondo are unavailable. EDIT: Hoesen ‘or’ Wondo are unavailable as a sub is more what I was thinking.
Agreed. Agreed. The changes in aggregate made us a lot better. Godoy had a truly excellent match. We were more athletic and the man marking system works better if you have a faster team than your opponent. And Portland was unimpressive on the day. That said, Hoesen for Wondo was visible improvement in terms of mobility and hold up play needed from a target forward. All this is true. Personally I have felt for the past year that Wondo can still be a valuable player as a late supersub/goal poacher when you need a goal and can add in a second forward.
Whether Wondo breaks the goal scoring record or not, he's still the greatest MLS player of all time. If he breaks the record, someone will eventually take it from him. No one will ever approximate his greatness, however.
I think Wondo and Hoesen have looked got working with each other the limited times they've been on the pitch together this season. But the Quakes just don't seem to do the 2-striker thing anymore. Hoesen is the future, even the here and now, and probably should start if only one of them can go. He also might have had a little delay in getting his season started because of the green card stuff. Even so, you see some of the concerns about him in the 3-0 win. The goal that he did score is one Wondo would have finished as well... clean up at the back post. Hoesen did get a bunch of breakaways and looks on goal that Wondo may not have due to speed and 1-on-1 abilities, but he converted 0 of them. 0. Espinoza mentioned in his interview that they had not gotten Wondo the ball enough in the first few games... basically Hoesen benefited from better/more balls into the box against Portland. And Vako was not on the field to serve as a black hole. Maybe the double digits streak finally ends this year, but the record will come sooner than later and there aren't going to be many games where Wondo gets 0 minutes at least in the first half of the season.
LOL. He is not even the greatest Quake MLS player of all time. DeRo and Donovan actually led this team to titles...
Sometimes it seems the only thing more head scratching than assessing character in a player is the apparent lack of even considering character when assessing a player's worth to a team.
Given how different the team was without him on the field, I lean towards that record barely being broken, unless he happens to get a lot of penalty opportunities. I hope he breaks the record, but I really can't argue in favor of giving him the minutes required to actually break it. If I'm in Almeyda's shoes, I'm giving Wondolowski probably ten or fifteen minutes in most games, then reassess again whether or not he deserves to keep getting those minutes.
Almeyda's system (at least so far) has been very demanding on the outside backs and midfielders and thus those positions have needed substitutions. That makes it more difficult to use up a sub slot just to give Wondo some extra minutes.
I agree. Wondo has been benched and through this type of slump before and he seemed to always bounce back. He was a lot younger then though and 36 years old for most forwards is just too old and it’s even older to be playing in Almeyda's system.
Maybe Wondo has broken out of his slump? Let's just hope this 4 goal outburst against Chicago continues the rest of the season!
"He's old". "He's done". "Needs to be benched". "Super sub". "But Belgium". Yup...time to burn those couch coaching licenses and bow down to the legend pic.twitter.com/HL4UXVnKml— San Jose Ultras (@SanJoseUltras) May 19, 2019