Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Houston Dynamo (Saturday, 4/14) postgame thread [R]

This is what I'm talking about, about 0.56 into the video. Stahre asks "Steve" to give a rundown / reminder of SKC's lineup. Ralston goes into rapid-fire English mode - not the way you'd speak if you were trying to help non-English speakers understand, the camera pans to Cummings and Quintana, and they are wide-eyed with furrowed brow, desperately trying to grasp a word or two.

https://www.sjearthquakes.com/post/...ity-unkind-quakes-first-trip-18?autoplay=true

To be fair, this is just a quick reminder of things they've probably already talked about, and it's possible that they had someone translating the same or similar info at some point. But if the reminder is a useful thing to do, you'd think you'd want everyone on the team to be reminded. Also, most of the things Ralston warned about came to bear and burned the Quakes in the game in some way (Zusi likes to get forward - he scored on a "forward" run in the game, Gonzalez, good / dangerous player, etc.).

Ramiro is comfortably bilingual. He would be useful in this role - translator / liaison to Spanish-speaking players, if not also as assistant coach. But alas, he's not a Euro, so... guess he wouldn't be hired to be an assistant coach.

 

On individual players:

Tarbell looked better, more confident, but his distribution is still crap. The TV broadcast cut off a lot of him throwing the ball, or even kicking the ball. Really lousy broadcast.

Lima did alright, better getting forward. One bad breakdown that lead to a goal.

Florian was good.

Affolter was really good. I thought that he stank last season, so this was a pleasant surprise for me.

Quintana played pretty well also, except for that one hideously bad pass.

Of course, they had some group breakdowns where they simply did not coordinate their defense. That's on all five of them.

Godoy, better than previously, but still not good enough. Bench him, please.

Jackson, good at disrupting the enemy, his early passes were off, and badly so. One of the rusty ones. But he got it together and actually played quite well. One of our better guys on the night.

Vako, a waste of a roster spot. Vako was awful. He just wouldn't pass to his teammates. It could be that Stahre told him to be more selfish, but whatever, that was not good.

Magnus, another good game. He's not exactly a difference maker, but he's certainly good.

Alashe was good. He broke up plays, got in passing lanes, at least tried to combine with his teammates. Not always success on the passing, but better than Vako to be sure.

Hoesen, a lot of running around, but he's not really a lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation.

The subs were good! Quincy did well, disrupted the other guys, drew attention. Wondo made a couple of decent plays, not terrific, but alright. Hyka of course was terrific! MORE HYKA!!

So, our 4-3-3 played very much like a 4-5-1, and it sucked. We failed to dominate at home. That's weak. And having more dudes in midfield than they did did not yield us the midfield dominance we should have had.

And one striker is not a good approach, unless you have someone like Altidore, and we don't have anyone like that.

Stahre needs to figure it out, soon.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

This is almost exactly how I felt. I don't think Vako is a waste usually, but this game he was bad. I think the coaches or the individuals aren't accepting their limitations and working around them. Eriksson tries to dribble around people. He can't. Tarbell tries to make accurate long-distance distribution. He can't. People kept leading Flo with passes like he'll suddenly get faster. He won't.

That is the "out of sync". I think Vako wants someone to give-and-go with and I think Hyka or JY could do that (or whenever TT gets our of jail). Godoy can't. His first touch isn't soft. Wondo can be the pivot player in a give-and-go, as long as he is mostly stationary at the time.

On the other hand, I think Magnus could find Hoesen for a break, he has the touch on his hard passes (not as much on his small triangles). Lima is oh-so-close and I think he may find that range. That would be a big weapon if Lima can bend it from a right-back recovery to a final-third running Hoesen.

 

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I can't remember the last time I saw the Quakes execute a give and go this season. I'm sure there have been some, but it seems like few and far between. When guys like Jackson and TT and Hyka were playing more, it was, "oh, nice give and go" every now and then... Now, not so much. We are tied for the league lead in long passes. We are not playing anything like a short passing game based on a lot of combination play and movement.

 

"improved" ... he had the best performance we've seen this season in central midfield
That a new coach could come in and make such an obvious error in pairing Godoy and Flo suggest to me that he is relying on pedigree more than his eyes

 

I agree. Jackson and Flo in the center spots would be great.

 

Only if you start counting with his goal. Everything before that was not merely bad. He was making dangerous turnovers in rapid fire at a time when the Quakes needed to settle (because they had only just recovered position from the previous bad turnover). But I think with a young player it is much more reasonable to count the play after he settled more heavily than before.

When I think about that game, the number one positive thing that happened is that Jackson settled in, played well afterwards, and gained experience. Number two thing, we tried something new while making decent use of three subs. Everything else is in the "to be forgotten" bin. No partial credit for a tie at home to a weak team, even accounting for "we are also a weak team" :'(

 

Sure, I'm fine with that. Because I've seen him play before and I know we've been missing him in the lineup. You get your asteterisk

 

I'm fine with Flo at center, Jackson as a 6, and Godoy more advanced, where his defensive non-chalance won't be as big a liability

 

everyone should keep in mind, Jackson is 21, very young for an MLSer. there might be bumps, but the kid could be a very nice player...

 

That's the funny thing about fans. When a player plays, we tend to act like we've never seen him play before. We know Jackson can play. There are bumps in the road, but he's a talented young player. We don't have to reset our opinion every game. Same with TT. He's played 8 minutes this year - it wasn't a very good 8 minutes, but do we conclude he's not a good player, after all of the good play he had last year, based on 8 minutes?

 

Yes, he is terrible. I even remember him being bad when the Quakes played at Santa Clara U. If I remember correctly, he was actually recognized by the MLS as the best AR for that year. I think he calls about 50% of the off sides correctly.

 

If he had the best performance so far this year then the bar was set real low, because he was crap about the first 1/3 of the game.

 

I'm better with Godoy on the bench. He's been terrible. A little better against the DynamoeHumms, but I'd still bench his sorry ass.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

the bar wasn't set low, it drifted down on its own

 

I rewatched the fitrst 30. I counted two turnovers, one being a pass going forward, trying to split the defense.
Days like this I wish there was some data that could help settle this...
there are actually a number of startlingly bad passes in that first thirty from Flo, Tarbell, Quintana...

 

You just supplied some uxD, unexpected data. Now we can have a further debate about what it means.

 

my guess is that some attributed every bad ball from a blond headed player to Jackson

 

In the first half Jackson had 18 successful passes, 10 unsuccessful passes, in the second half, 23 successful passes, 2 unsuccessful passes. This kind of supports the eyeball test of what many have posted here.

 

where's the data from? Like I said I have a hell of a time finding anything despite all the press releases about partnerships, etc... TIA

 

https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...-san-jose-earthquakes-vs-houston-dynamo/recap

 

We should all keep in mind that in Europe, at 21 he would either be accomplished or second division fodder. Our "US system" with four wasted years in college sets our young players back. At 21 he should be hitting on all cylinders and we shouldn't be thinking of him as young.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

hence my "for an MLSer" caveat.
Jackson didn't have 4 years in college, and I think he's in relatively decent position to go if he can continue to get meaningful minutes (i.e. college hasn't ruined him). I don't know how close he is to hitting on all cylinders, but I think this is a critical year for him to get there...

 

thanks. I don't see the data split by half, so if you could humor me and point me to it, I'd appreciate it.