Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - New England Revolution (Wednesday, 6/13) postgame thread [R]

This is definitely true!

That said we didn't keep our CBs back on our corners. It was Lima and another little guy or two.

 

Your San Jose Earthquakes have as many home wins (1-4-2) so far this season as DC United (1-0-1) does... but hey at least we're better at home than on the road (1-5-2)!

 

Somewhere out there Sam Garza is repping this comment.

 

The issue on that goal was not our players being slow getting out of the box, it was Vako not doing his job. He was in the position outside the top of the box on that corner. His job was to stop them from countering. As soon as their keeper gets the ball, instead of staying with his man to break up the counter, he inexplicably jogs FORWARD and completely abdicates his duty. What did he think he was going to accomplish by running forward after we turned the ball over to their keeper? Steal the ball out of the keepers' hands?

 

Yeah, I believe you...I haven't watched the replay. I just remember seeing it live and thinking how bizarre it looked...as if our entire team was caught up...frozen in the box, not sensing the urgency necessary to react to the quick counter. Normally a few guys start to immediately filter back, when Vako went forward, it added to the strange look...no contain at all centrally.

It was very frustrating watching Vako in the first half. He was quite poor and disinterested in playing. It took him a long time to get into the game on the defensive side of the ball...no interest at all to close space or track anybody.

Another reason I thought Flo played well, given the circumstances of having to coordinate with the other mid options defensively...complete nightmare for a sole 6...Tommy put in the effort, but Mag is a mediocre defender and Vako didn't commit to winning a ball until the last 25 minutes of the game...then he was one of our best players in that regard.

 

They just generally look like a poorly coached team don't they?

 

They look like a team with a handful of players who don't believe Stahre is fully in charge of game day decisions. There is a bit of disrespect for his authority. When high salary players feel they can do what they want without repercussions from the coach. Other players see the disparity in effort and performance...completely toxic to unity and how the overall team responds to the coach...ultimately tuning him out and shutting down.

The flip side is he absolutely has full control and he's picking his best 11 regardless of the amount certain players are making. If that is the case, he's simply a poor coach.

No member of the FO will ever cop to saying Stahre doesn't have full control of the starting 11, it will never happen, but, imo it isn't true...and the players absolutely know it.

Bottom line, either way, they're an undisciplined side.

 

I was thinking about that - if TT was not sufficiently marking the outlet as they lined up for a corner shouldn't the coaches have caught his attention? Or maybe they tried... But I wonder if he fully knew his responsibility there.

 

My guess is communication both on the field and off the field, during training, is the crux of our problems. We were a much more cohesive team last year and we've only improved our talent. Formations are generally bs since soccer is so dynamic and players will fill the gap.

So, are they just being confused on what to do? Is there an expectation issue from the coach on players he's used to coaching that does translate here? And how can he clearly make a tactical change during a game?

 

Maybe TT needs to work on his Swedish.

 

I agree on Affolter. He was the best defender that night in terms of straight defending. Read plays well, and got really hard done by the referee with an undeserved yellow, which I think made him a bit more timid. He was certainly not going to blow you away with how good he was, but he had the small details right whereas Quintana was doing everything but playing soccer. I hate saying it, but I was relieved when he came off the field.

 

Considering Alashe also had to have quite the side bar conversation with the coaching staff during a corner kick where they were asking him to stay deep, I think it's pretty clear the players have no idea what is expected of them. At this point in the season, it shouldn't be a surprise what you're going to do for a corner.

Granted, the Quakes have always sucked at corners, so it probably wouldn't make much difference what Alashe did on them, anyway, so I'm sorry he wasted his breath asking what he was supposed to do.