Los Angeles Galaxy - San Jose Earthquakes preseason (Saturday, 2/17) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

Cummings is like a young Muma with less athleticism and intensity. Quintana reminds of Danny Califf. Ok size but slow. Haven't seen Quintana enough to see if he has the smarts of Califf.

 

If not, we would be down 3-1

 

Yeah good saves on hard shots. The last one (lay out to his left) was particularly impressive.

 

TT !

 

Good for TT. That goal started with good plays by Salinas and Vako

 

Dang, I missed the second goal. TT scored?

 

I know its only preseason but wouldn't mind seeing Bing's give up a few more....

 

What were our subs. Alashe, TT, who else?

I see Godoy!

Do Ihear that Cato is coming in? LA is lousy with Quakes rejects!

 

maybe we will see Scott Seally for LA

 

I swear I heard the Ultras shouting “Earthquakes Re-Ject”

 

Bingham...MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

Cole is a thug

 

And Tommy gets his revenge immediately!

 

TT scored 2 on Kinnear

 

The scoreline is more flattering than the actual performance. Back line is slow. Midfield didn't dominate. After Wondo and Danny, any other reliable forward?

 

Hoesen has quick feet and I like how he makes room to get a shot off. Like many forwards, he looks to shoot before he looks to pass.

 

Anyone know why Magnus and Godoy didn't play??

 

Not real happy with the defensive line in this one. We were giving too much ground, which was giving too much space in midfield and allowing LA to play too easily through our lines. Passive instead of active defending. Defensive performance was overall pretty poor as a result.

Offensively on the other hand reasonably happy. Some good build up, good combination play and we worked the ball into some very dangerous positions. Scored 4 too, there was that.

Couple of notes:

- Tommy scored 2 poaching in the center of the box, but his play leading up to the 3rd was i think the most important contribution. Carried it through the defense quickly, which allowed us to get the back line isolated.

- Wehan's assist on the 4th is exactly why I rate him pretty highly. He plays a smart 1-2 to get into a good position, but his vision to see the angle and the technique to pick out Tommy was just wonderful. He makes the game look simple.

 

Twist the knife Tommy!!!

 

Cummings is easily playing at least 10-15 pounds over his playing weight. He has a noticeable spare tire. If he doesn't get in better shape, he'll find the bench.

I was bummed to see Yueill not assert himself. He deferred too much to the tucked in mids Vako and Hyka. They were occupying most of his space instead of being a little higher up field. Flo was very active in the press higher up leaving Yueill to cover the deeper middle area...It wasn't working very well. Alashe was better cover defensively...It allowed Flo to hunt the ball and be more involved further up field. That was definitely a missed opportunity for Yueill...too bad.

Danny and Vako were both a little too in love with the ball...a little too slow...Invited way to much too pressure.

TT started off poor but turned it around pretty fast after the goal...had a great run right after. Alashe was good.

TT should be ahead of Hyka on the depth chart Imo.

I like Wehan's awareness and vision, beautiful quick ball to TT on the forth goal.

Looked like we went to a three back when Ockford came on...pretty cool.

Quincy is going to have a very tough time getting minutes...I'm just not seeing enough there going forward.

Flo played really well, it will be interesting how aggressive Stahre wants him to be...we need to account for the deep middle when he's hunting the ball. He does that well but I'd rather see him deeper and have someone else higher up...I'm still holding out for Mag in that role. If it's a 4-4-2, I'd bring Mag in the middle to play above Flo and put TT and Vako as the tucked in mids.

 

I'm glad TT wound up scoring that first goal because he was having a bit of a bad day to that point. His first 3 final balls were poor. But he played good D throughout and won possession a number of times and did better after his 1st goal. It is surprising that he hasn't scored more poaching goals because despite his meager goal scoring record he is often looking to attack the goal - making runs, slipping into the middle, etc.

 

How hot was it there Don?

 

I wasn't there. Grabbed the photo from the Ultras' twitter feed.