Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Real Salt Lake (Saturday, 6/24) postgame thread [R]

Always happy when the Quakes win!

 

Quakes seemed impressive and determined. Hoessen and Urena played really well. I think Simone told them to read our negative posts about them on BS this past week! Lima was playing nervously and committed dumb fouls. Rookie or not that hurts the team next week because he will be out. Overall, a good win by San Jose!

 

Back from the game.

Ah RSL, making the Quakes look good.

 

Was Avaya as empty as it looked on TV?

 

How the mighty have fallen. RSL is a garbage team with bad coaching.

 

Credit to our coaches staff tonight. They had the right game plan to play the ball behind the RSL high back line.

 

meh. I should be enjoying this win, but for some reason, they changed the exiting procedure from the lot and I was diverted left to 101 instead of 880. If it's not the play on the field, it's something else that makes me leave this stadium angry. /vent

 

Well, we all learned just how terrible Real Salt Lake is this year. Playing over the top worked quite well, though I was happy to see the Quakes actually play balls in behind the defense as well. They usually don't do that. I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, it was one of the most entertaining games I've been to. On the other hand, I don't expect it to really mean a whole lot given just how poor the opposition was.

I'll try not to focus too heavily on the negatives, though, and say that I thought this was Ceren's best game, by far. It was nice to see Hoesen rewarded, as well as Urena, but those guys need to score more goals. It is way too late in the season to be getting only one's second.

Hyka was pretty good, as was the central defense. Cato had some great moments and some not so great. Lima was generally better, though he did get beat to the line yet again, thankfully on a play that didn't end up costing the team anything. His two yellows were perhaps not completely fairly given, but his feet up challenge was really dumb and could have been a straight red, anyway.

Wondolowski was terrible and Kinnear should be fired for taking Urena off and leaving him on. I can think of two plays where Wondolowski ruined the buildup by trying to be in the playmaker role rather than scooting toward goal...you know, like a forward is supposed to do. Maybe this is a problem with the coaching (I'm fairly certain it is), but I am sick of watching Wondolowski in the midfield. He's too old and slow to make 30 or 40 yard runs into the box all game long. Most of the game he's nowhere near the goal, and that isn't helping anybody. One specific play late in the game made me particularly irritated. He basically cut in on Hyka's run, which messed Hyka up, and then Wondolowski squandered the opportunity since he's not a good midfielder. I'm ready for him to retire.

So that was more negative than I intended, but there were still a lot of issues that were obvious to me in this team that Salt Lake just are not good enough to take advantage of. That's good news for Kinnear, but bad news for anyone who wants this team to actually be successful.

 

I will give Petke all the credit he deserves. His team let San Jose do whatever they wanted with the ball and offered up practically no resistance, even up a player.

As for San Jose's coaching staff, they were the broken clock tonight. One thing irked me though. Kinnear was really quiet most of the game until Thompson came on. Then he was up and yelling specifically at Thompson. I don't understand that. It looked as if he was really micromanaging Thompson, even though he'd been on the field for like two minutes. Seemed really bizarre to me.

 

LOBINA was packed, but Avaya was probably the emptiest I've seen it in two years.

 

Guy next to me (I didn't fact check) reported he paid attention and Wondo didn't touch the ball until the 19th minute. I think I saw about 5 touches throughout the game. Kinnear took off the three best players (maybe 3 of the 4, Bernardez played well) Ironically (or perhaps intentionally) the 3 options for MotM from the Avaya app were all of Kinnear's subs. I was glad to see Urena pissed when he came off, he should be, he shouldn't have come off, and his coming off hurt us.

 

Maybe Kinnear was giving Urena some rest. We do have to find enough players to field a team Wednesday with all the injuries. It was another game where we couldn't even manage a healthy game day 18 and it might not be better Wednesday. I agree with the tweets suggesting they sub for Godoy mid 2nd half because of the importance of him not getting a yellow. Luckily Godoy didn't do anything stupid. Too bad Lima did.

 

Um, Wondo had over 30 passes, only 3 incomplete, and 3 key passes - most on the team. He also had 4 recoveries and a clearance while his partner Urena had 0 defensive plays.

The other thing about Wondo is that he just goes forever. You don't have to worry about him getting tired, ever. He has crazy endurance. He is slow as molasses, but he goes slowly like molasses forever.

 

Another thing - dang I didn't realize that Plata was so fast. If I were RSL I'd try to get him closer to the goal somehow. He was the one guy made me a little nervous. Fortunately Lima was on his side for the most part and neutralized him somewhat.

 

Good game. We actually looked to have coordinated off the ball movement for passing in the channels and over the top. I don't know many times we were in on goal...great to see.

Ceren had an outstanding game...ridiculously sharp.

The biggest takeaway for me...Ceren and the new attackers are competing hard for future playing time. Knowing a DP player is coming into the mix, there will be less minutes to spread around...nobody wants to be an easy choice to ride the bench.

 

Everything clicked tonight. I hope they keep playing this way and they remain consistent.

 

He wound up scoring, but Urena was so bad in the first half it seemed blatantly obvious that's whose place Vako should be taking in the starting lineup. That would be my choice.

BTW, during much of the game, especially early, Hyka was pushed into the middle and Cato coming up the right wing. It was a de facto 3-5-2. So I suppose Vako could take that spot (Hyka's), but you don't want to take Hyka or Hoesen off the field at this point I don't think. I'd put Vako in Urena's spot - w/o thinking twice.

 

My thoughts by player:

RSL - looked very poor tonight

Imperiale - highest quality to minutes played ratio on the team. Always looks good when called upon.
Bernandez - I just love this guy.
Lima - youthful rash tonight put his team at risk
Cato - good
Ceren - solid
Godoy - had more time than usual. Looked good.
Hoosen - best game I've seen from him.
Hyka - good
Wondo - quiet but some nice passing. Who cares who the late sub was really thats a toss up.
Ureyno - Smart player, plays hard, smart, makes great runs. Some of his touches are donkey esque unfortunately.

Subs - nicely helped close out the game.

 

Yep, he squandered several golden opportunities...nice goal tonight, but he isn't a good finisher.

 

Me too.

 

My guest enjoyed her first Quakes game ever and was thoroughly captivated. We watched the first half from LOBINA, and the second half with the Ultras.

EDIT: Forgot to mention: We spent about five minutes max in the supporters terrace below the Ultras at the start of the second half, during which time I overheard the p*to chant. Perhaps unsurprising. If there is one place you would expect to hear the forbidden chant, it was exactly where I heard it, right behind the opposition goal. I wonder whether the chant can be heard in the lower supporters terrace every game. Notably, I have never to my recollection heard the p*to chant in the Ultras section in the decade or so I've been watching games from there.