Post-match: Portland Timbers - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 7/7) postgame thread [R]

Here's the Denver Post story about how the Colorado Rapids were eliminated in the Open Cup by an expansion USL side.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/07/colorado-rapids-eight-straight-losses/

From what I can gather, Dillon Serna started ahead of Colvey at left back. Not an expert on Rapids lineups under Anthony Hudson, but as I recall Serna was in the mix for left back at one point for the USMNT, so he has something of a pedigree. The fact that Hudson may be starting Serna ahead of Colvey does not thereby connote any defect in Colvey's game. Colorado may simply be relatively well loaded at the position.

 

I think he's been in the 18 a number of times, and has a few starts.

 

Serna is also a natural midfielder. So he has lost his position to a midfielder?

 

I think Colorado plays wingbacks, not fullbacks.

 

His first couple of games with the Quakes in 2009 may have been as a midfielder. But my vague memory is that we had a couple of injuries at forward, so Wondo got a few starts at forward, and then started scoring enough that they couldn't justify taking him out of the lineup. In 2010, he played both forward and right mid and scored a lot from either position.

BTW, when Wondo started with the Quakes in 2005 he was being played as a midfielder. I looked at him, and he looked kind of tall, and I thought (and wrote on BS) that maybe he'd make a good forward.

 

Agree with you on Leitch. He seems like a real team player, and versatile, and smart. For whatever he might have lacked as a coach, and certainly experience was one thing, I really liked his philosophy as a coach. It was such a breath of fresh air - he wanted players to take risks, and said that you have to be willing to accept it when they fail (whereas Dom would talk about playing "mistake-free"), he wanted the team to try to play on the front foot, even at the risk of taking some bad losses, and he put a lot of trust in his young players.

The thing that I just don't understand is that I thought that Chris and Jesse were lock step on this new philosophy they were employing with the team. But Stahre seems to be something else altogether. Chris wanted to play a possession-oriented, go-for-it 3-5-2. Stahre had more of a reputation as a defensive coach, tends to play more direct, and does not seem to value possession. The Häcken games that I saw from last year showed just about the most direct soccer I'd ever seen. So if Stahre was the guy Jesse had picked out, why were Jesse and Leitch doing something completely different? If Leitch was going to be replaced I think it would have made more sense to replace him with a guy with a similar philosophy. The only thing I can think of is that Jesse got spooked by the bad road losses, and pivoted towards a more defensive, direct approach.

 

And I heard he got his starts because of injury to other players.

 

Shocking! The horror! Injuries in soccer!

 

So, you agree that he only started because players the coach rated above him were injured?

Maybe you and Don can co-author a book, Kip Colvey, the Greatest Left Back That Never Was. And I do not not dislike Kip at all, seems like a great kid, and I really wished he was MLS starter worthy, but, Dom, Leitch, Jesse, Stahre, and Hudson have all thought otherwise.

 

With the possible exception of Leitch, who had a "500-ish" record in his first 17 or so games in MLS, the other coaches have essentially failed, either in the last 5 years or so of their MLS head coaching tenure (Dom), or in their short but sorry MLS head coaching careers (Stahre, Hudson). So their decisions up to now should not necessarily be held up as fine examples of brilliant management. And as I said, I think there's at least a chance that Colvey would have gotten over while Leitch was coaching if he could have at least played out the next few USOC games before getting injured. After all, that's how Tarbell wound up getting the starting job for the rest of that season, and for this season, for better or worse.

Also, again, with the possible exception of Leitch, all the coaches tend to play more direct vs. possession-oriented soccer. Colvey's a possession type of player, as I've mentioned.

 

Oh wow, inordinate stress on the defense and goalkeeper! You mean like having the defense and the goalkeeper do their job of "defending" and "goalkeeping"? God help them if they can't even be bothered to do so!

And where were these defense and goalkeeper when Vako wasn't giving out turnovers on Clasico? You know, that one game where they dropped 3 goals on us and Vako was the one who saved it from an embarrassment?

C'mon Don, the defense is a pile of shit and our goalie is a piece of shit, and you're trying to bench the 2nd highest scorer in the team?

 

Hmm, last I checked, Marsch lost a bunch of games in his time at RB too Let the season work itself out. I'm sure RBNY will be OK.

Let's worry about us first. Or rather, let's not worry about us LOL

 

^ having the midfielders do their job. Like not turning the ball over. Or giving a pass to a player who has two players from the opposing team in the passing lane

 

I wouldn’t mind benching our 1st highest scorer on the team either. If it gives the team a better look and an actual 11th player on the field, why not

 

I'm not sure why it's even being discussed here but Dillon Serna is better than Kip Colvey (who still has not done anything of note as a professional, at either USL or MLS level)....

 

Latest power rankings have the Quakes 22nd, ahead of only Orlando City. They have won 6 games to our 2.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...ings-portland-timbers-climb-highest-point-yet

 

It's possible, but before making that determination I'd like to see Colvey play a year's worth of minutes under a successful coach whose style is a good match for the way Colvey plays (i.e. a coach who plays more of a possession game).

 

By that logic we can't definitively say that anyone who hasn't played thousands of minutes in MLS is necessarily worse than the players who do get to play thousands of minutes in MLS....

Quakes draft pick Chimdum Mez? Could be better than Wondo. We'll never know... hell I could be better than Wondo!

 

Disagreed. Flo clearly means it for the defense and the goalie. Let's not make it too complicated.

Our defense is shit. Our goalie is shit. Let's focus on that pile of shit first before we start laying blame on some guy we brought in to attack and is now being criticized for not "helping" to defend, yet somehow is the 2nd highest scorer on the team.

There were plenty of time that Wondo missed teammates with wide open chances throughout this season as well. There are also plenty of times that other players missed other players, too. Apparently, it only gets talked about when it's Vako who does it.

 

So in the Clasico, where he didn't turn the ball over, did we win? Did the defense and goalie performed well that game since Vako didn't turn the ball over?

 

It is more about seeing some glimpse of the player in MLS, and seeing that he looks pretty good, and then wanting to get a better sample size to really judge. I haven't seen you play forward in MLS, but if you looked good after a few games, I might want to give you a shot to see how you do in a full season before deciding that you can't play.

Last time I saw Colvey play a game for the Quakes (USOC), he had 7 key passes in the 1st half (is that a USOC record?), and looked great. Cooled down in the 2nd half, but it was enough that I would have liked to see more - in the right system. That was Leitch's 3-5-2 and he was playing right wing back.

 

Our issues is the defense and the goalkeeper. Benching our 1st and 2nd highest scorers aren't going to fix our defense and our goalkeeper because those players still exist on the field.

We need to fix those issues so that our highest scorers can continue to function as our highest scorers without having to worry about doing the defenders' and goalkeepers' jobs as well.

 

Mount Rushmore?

 

Fixed your post.

 

Non-stop raging through another loss in Portland surrounded by zombies who can't seem to dredge up the enthusiasm to support their team even while they're winning pic.twitter.com/WHmop5y6BT

— San Jose Ultras (@SanJoseUltras) July 11, 2018