Pre-match: Montreal Impact - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 7/14) pregame thread

I was lucky enough to go to a Montreal game when I was there. Saputo Stadium is very bare bones in terms of amenities, almost Buck Shaw level, so in that regard, it might make you appreciate Avaya.

But the atmosphere was great. Very supportive crowd despite not having a great team. They seemed to love big defensive plays. I'm sure you'll have a good time regardless of the game results.

Edit: Bonus is that you get to hear the Canadian national anthem in French!

 

Ha, ha!! Good luck with that.

I expect us to lose, Stahre not to get fired, Godoy not traded, but TT will be traded. That's my latest prediction.

I love Montréal. I've been there twice for weekend long concerts. It's such an excellent city! I was at this concert.



Any way, I have a soft spot for L'impact, except when they play us. I want to crush them, in their own stadium. However, they've been playing better the last couple of weeks. I expect them slaughter us.

Oh and phrase brasserie artisanale means brew pub, more or less. They make great beer there.

Go Quakes!!
Fire Dim Stahre!!

- Mark

 

I'm still steamed that we didn't get to hear it when L'Impact visited Avaya last season and intend to remind the FO to avoid the faux pas ahead of their visit next season.

 

I have a friend that's bat-shit crazy about Marillion , when he finds out you went to that show you can expect a knock on your door and about 4 hours of questions....

 

There are about 4 teams that we have a slight possibility of beating this season, Minnesota, Orlando, Colorado and Montreal. Seeing as we don't play The Loons again this may be one of our best shots at a victory.

 

Seattle?!?

 

Is Kashia available for selection?

If not, why?

 

Great question...

 

Looks like Hoesen's probably out for this one. Per Robert Jonas in a story today (7/13/18) in The Athletic:

"And to add injury to insult, the Quakes saw two starters leave the field, the most vital in the form of leading scorer Danny Hoesen, who appeared to have suffered a head injury and was taken off in the first half. . . . There is no timetable for his return."

https://theathletic.com/430966/2018...-their-winless-streak-continues/?redirected=1

 

Quincy time!

 

I honestly feel bad for Impact fans. They have an owner and front office almost as worthless as Fisher and Fioranelli, but at the same time, he also built the team a stadium. Lots of parallels, there. Only they have it worse because they used to have Jesse Marsch as a coach and the team stupidly let him go. I still can't believe they did that. That's got to hurt.

The Quakes have never had a coach even a quarter as competent as Marsch is so for us, at least, it's just the same ol' same ol' expectations of failure. Montreal had a chance to be successful once.

 

I'd like to retract my earlier statement that the Quakes just might win this game...

 

Ouch...

Montreal Impact vs. San Jose Earthquakes
7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

And so this is the end of a string of mostly pretty easy games for the Impact (save obviously for the midweek excursion to the Bronx), a home game against the worst team in the league. If the Impact have designs on the sixth spot in the East – and why wouldn't they, obviously? – this is a must-win, because the schedule's about to get much harder.

Let's have Quakes M/D Florian Jungwirth explain why this is a must-win for Montreal:

View image on Twitter


Matthew Doyle

✔@MattDoyle76

Wow. Rarely see players this unvarnished.https://quakesepicenter.com/2018/07/12/florian-jungwirth-we-dont-have-the-quality-to-compete/ …


Three points or bust, Impact.

 

Go Quakes!!!

 

We're saved.

 

I'd rather see an experiment with Magnus up there to see if he helps the team more up front than as a wide midfielder and to give Hyka a chance to start and see if they can combine well with Vako that way.

 

Or better yet Eriksson and his fake fall down routine and no defense on the bench, move Vako to forward and start Hyka and TT at outside mid. Our basic setup has failed time after time. Why do we keep running out essentially the same thing or some slight variation? Or as Matt Doyle said, why don't we start building with young players rather than "doubling and tripling down" on veterans who have not gotten it done?

 

I considered that prior to posting, but we have seen Vako tried at least once as a forward but haven't seen Magnus there yet. Our debate has been about whether Magnus is a poor player, is underperforming, or is in the wrong position. This would be a chance to get some data on Magnus in a new position. Also, Vako is supposedly better when played just under the forward line and in the center of the field rather than on the wing.

 

Where do you put Wondo in your proposed formation?

 

Magnus has a good shot but so does Vako. And Vako can dribble / take guys on whereas Magnus cannot. Besides as I've been saying I think Magnus plays the game in a cheap disrespectful way by forcing contact and falling down whenever he is marked and in danger of losing the ball. As such I just would prefer he's not even on the roster.

 

With Hoesen out, my experiment is:

Magnus Wondo

Vako
Hyka TT

Flo

Salinas Kashia Cummings Lima


This assumes Flo hasn't been dropped for his comments.If he were out then Godoy there.
I am using this 4-4-2 diamond midfield so there isn't too much experimentation to focus on Magnus' potential at forward.

However, I wouldn't be averse to a 3-5-2 with Flo, Kashia, and Cummings in the back with Salinas and Lima as wingbacks.

 

Worth a look.

 

On the bench. As Ned said, we need to find out if Magnus is truly inept or if we are using him in a position of weakness instead of strength.

I believe that the Club may feel a strong desire that they owe Wondo the goal scoring record so are doing putting out non optional formations to get him over the bump. This is an in challenging tension between doing something positive for the team versus doing good for Wondo.

 

I expressed that same view back in April, before they tried benching Wondo. It did not seem to have any effect.