Post-match: D.C. United - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 6/1) postgame thread [R]

A tale of two halves! It was the best of games, it was the worst of games...

 

Hard fought game. Quakes dominated first half and DC the second.. Interesting seeing the Quakes closing with college aged kids. A 19 year old Marcos Lopez, an 18 year old in Haji and a 22 year old in Jackson Yueill. A freshman, sophomore and a senior. I can't ever remember seeing a Quakes squad with players that young. Pretty good against mighty Wayne Rooney & DCU!

 

Dam we were kickin ass in the first half, and then DC pushed back and we survived the onslaught. Definitely missed that Handball there, whew!

I'm happy with the 1 point, but it could have been 3. Just like at Seattle. Just like at Houston. I dunno man, hope these games where we lost the lead do not end up being the reasons why we don't make the cut...

 

If the Quakes could have managed a win or a draw during the horrible month of March, they would have been the among the top 7-8 teams in the west. Its still early and they have less games than Vancouver but ever game counts. Glad they got 4 points on this road trip!

 

At this point, I'd still want Wondo over any DP across the league. Including Rooney and Ibra. They may have the name but Wondo has the know how!

 

Haji looks pretty good too, got some quickness and speed to him. He needs to be able to get shots off though, held on ball too long and tried to maneuver outside two defenders sigh

 

one point. i'll take it.
really too bad we could not continue the first half performance.

 

Liverpool this afternoon, Quakes earning a hard fought point ON THE ROAD in the evening; good way to end soccer Saturday (yes, I would've taken all 3 points like everyone else, but after the month of March...C'MON!!)

 

I hear and read so much hype about "the level of the league" and I'm sure to a certain extent there is some truth to it. Still by comparison, today's Champions league Final was a very boring match when comparing it to today's DCU-Quakes game.....

 

The quakes need to practice their touches and passing, not only was the first half quite "meh", the second half was atrocious. Every 3rd pass went out of bounds.
It looked much like liverpool in the champions league today, just bad touches and the ball going out of bounds.

 

Their passing has improved immensely though when comparing it to March or Stahre's team last year. I think they need help in the counterattack but when you are marking man to man with players who just learned how to play the tactic, its easier said than done.

 

Well earned point vs. the top squad in the east conference. It’ll do, for now.

 

Is it just me or does it seem like this goalkeeper does a lot more punching away than actually catching the ball? Sometimes that's the only thing a keeper can do to keep the ball out of the net at that particular moment, but wasn't DC's goal today the result of a DC player getting on the other end of one of those batted away balls? (which was so unfortunate).

 

I agree, I will take the points... And the Center Ref was horrific, no game control all night, let Rooney have way too much of his time, and deference. I candidly think Rooney could have been tossed in the second half for disrepect for the game. If I never see this ref again, I will be happy, clearly a boy among men.

 

Yes, I thought Vega punched at least two or three balls that he probably should have caught, including the one where they scored on the rebound. He did make some nice saves today, though. On their goal, Marie also deserved part of the blame for getting beaten to the loose ball.

Good first half, and a nice goal from Wondo. Too bad he was just barely offside on that would-be goal in the second half.

Flo looked great again today. I thought Marie was the weakest link. Everybody else was decent. I thought Haji was surprisingly dangerous with those quick moves toward the middle of the field. Not quite enough in terms of the final passes, though.

The latter part of that second half was difficult to watch. DC was simulating and crying and diving and whining like I haven't seen in MLS for quite a long time. That ref lost control, almost tossed Vako because he failed to recognize that it was Lima he wanted to give a yellow card, and the way DC was simulating and diving, I was sure he was going to gift them a goal and cost us a hard-earned point. It's just lucky that Rooney couldn't do anything with those free kicks. At least the ref carded the guy that hit Vega (and one of our defenders, on the same sequence) in the head. That may have actually deserved a red, though.

Dangerfield was pretty annoying at times today. On one play where a Hoesen shot was deflected by a DC defender who was falling on his rear end, the replay was pretty clear that it wasn't a hand ball. The game stopped for awhile, and the ref is obviously staring into space as he listens for a message as to whether a VAR review is going to be necessary. Dangerfield says something like "I'm not sure what they're doing... they really ought to take a look at that". What the **** do you think they were DOING all that time while the game was stopped, dipstick? They're already looking at it! Has anybody explained the VAR process to this guy?

Then there were a bunch more of his ridiculous homer comments. Sometimes he has a good laugh at himself when the replays show that his comments were off base, but sometimes he stands behind what he said even when he's clearly wrong. One of his worst habits is referring to a Quakes player "getting the ball first" (before following through with a clear foul). Uh... it doesn't always matter if you "get the ball first", Chris. I mean, does he seriously not know that?! The facepalm comment today was when he said that a DC player "looked like he wanted to go down" (i.e., took a dive) after we were called for a foul on a DC counter-attack. They show a replay, and both Jungwirth and Cummings fouled the guy (who did NOT dive on that particular play), and fouled him pretty damn hard. The guy had dived on other plays before that, but Dangerfield mindlessly kneejerked that the guy must have been diving again.

 

It's puzzling. I think he probably knows plenty about the game, but he too often just goes into hyper-homer mode, and makes too many kneejerk comments without taking the time to think objectively. Today's comment about "it looked like he wanted to go down" was a classic example. Danger isn't real good when it comes to analyzing action in real time. He'd make a terrible referee. At least he sometimes admits it after he sees replays, but his accuracy rate is poor compared to most color analysts.

The recurring error that really makes me question his rules knowledge is his tendency to refer to Quakes players having "gotten to the ball first", or even just "he got the ball!" (as if that makes them immune to being called for a foul). Sometimes that observation is relevant and applicable, and sometimes it isn't, and he doesn't seem to understand that.

 

Your trolling is weak and your posts are irrelevant.

 

I thought Vako put in a decent shift. He had 24 of 28 successful passes (86%) , 7 recoveries, and 3 interceptions.Besides the aforementioned recoveries and interceptions, on at least two occasions he hounded the defender into putting the ball out of play deep in their own end. My guess is that Matias was very pleased with the defensive work that he put in.
Could have done better with his shot selection, but, he wasn't the only one taking ill-advised shots. What I really liked was that he had multiple successful passes centrally in the attacking third, an area we tend to struggle in.