Post-match: Seattle Sounders FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Sunday, 7/23) postgame thread [R]

I guess the Quakes don’t do player marking on defense anymore. Might want to rethink that.

And now over to Wiley Coyote to see how the Quakes are doing in the standings…

 

i'm sorry, but at 0-2 down, Leitch has to have the balls to pull Wondo and put in Vako. Leaving a faster, taller body (Hoesen) up to to be the target for crosses from the left and right has to be the game plan. i also would have pulled Jackson, not his best game.

 

Hoesen has looked much more impressive now that he's been given proper time to play. Wondo never looks good but scores his random goal to make his case as a starter.
I'm interested in seeing a Vako-Urena/Hosen pairing soon.

 

Bernardez needs to retire as soon as possible, even when he's running at full speed he looks like he's bolted to the ground as players pass him with ease. He's a terrific defender as long as the ball is within a 1 yard radius, anything outside of that is inaccessible to him. Let's face it, he's given us his all and now he's a shell of a defender that he once was, he's long in the tooth and needs to go at the end of the season.

Bingham shouldn't be our long term solution for goalkeeper, I can't wait to hear what the apologists will come up with to excuse his recent form as 12 goals conceded in three matches isn't good enough in any league.

And a special shout out to our new DP staring as the invisible man, Vako. I'm still waiting for him to show me he's worth his hire.

Quincy and Salinas aren't game changing subs unless you're trying to kill the game off.

The sun is setting on Wondo, his best can be seen in a rearview mirror. He's like a muscle car with 4 flat tires, the engine is sound but the performance is lacking.

 

Welp, as I warned a few weeks ago when everyone was drunk in the euphoria of the clasico win and the Open Cup win, and the positive press, etc., we should not just assume that Dom goes and it's wicked witch is dead and more of an attacking style and everything comes up roses. There may be growing pains.

Still I think we need to stay the course. 1st half was good. We have issues with set piece defending, Bings is lacking confidence in a big way, Muma is looking like a liability. None of that really has to do with the more attacking style.

But we do need to figure out how to score if we have possession and the defense is set and waiting. That's how much of the 1st half went. Still, there were a few decent chances there. And can someone get the ball on frame? How many shots over the bar in the 1st half? And / or we need faster transition in the attack.

 

-Maybe set piece defending should be an area this team focuses on, just a suggestion...

-I'm guessing Bernardez might never see the field for the Quakes again barring injuries once Affolter is ready to go, he just doesn't fit in with what they're trying to do.

-Hoesen has looked really good ever since he's settled into the team, whereas over the last two years Wondo pretty much always looks bad aside from those ~2.5 seconds where he's scoring... the problem with having an aging legend.

-The Quakes totally dominated in the first half with 65% possession but could do little with it because everything was just too slow and predictable...

-"Vako would have liked that pass a little earlier"... Welcome to playing alongside Quincy Amarikwa, not sure how he fits in.

-The Quakes kept on the goalkeeping coach, but both Bingham and Tarbell look shaky. If they don't replace the coach, at least bring in a sports psychologist or something, because Bingham's confidence looks shot.

-After scoring this goal in their last game, Cristian Roldan almost had four goals tonight (there was the great save by Bingham and a shot off the post)... I'd say "damn we really should have drafted him over Fatai Alashe" but I already went on a mini-rant about that just a week ago...

 

We definitely need faster transitions at times. Godoy and Yueill need to figure out when to slow things down and pick out a longer Bradley-like pass, and when to pick up the pace even if it means lower pass completion rates.

But beyond that, how does this team create quality goalscoring chances? Do we have David Accam / Alberth Elis types out wide who use their speed? Or do we have Mauro Diaz / Diego Valeri types centrally who use their passing? We definitely don't seem to have the former (no one even mention Salinas or Cato please), Lima isn't an attacker and TT isn't speedy.
Is Vako the latter as a CAM, or is he a second forward? So then is it Hyka? He doesn't seem to do that, at a high rate or consistently...

 

Giving up soft goals is bad, completely demoralizing...compounds itself with guys tuning out...which leads to even more goals and a complete toxic confidence meltdown. It was very evident in their body language the last two games. We need to figure this out quickly because it will end up with fingering pointing and a very sour locker room. Bings looks dispirited, he's at loose ends...he can't count on anybody making a play in front of him. He'll try to over compensate and put himself in risky 50-50 situations. We need to get on top of the defense situation right away, otherwise the season is going down the tubes.

 

Bernardez has no business in a 3-man back line. Change that out and if Godoy has one of his better games instead of a bad one then maybe the outcome is different. I think Leitch knows that Bernardez shouldn't really be out there, but we're waiting on the new signing's paperwork. Then next year, we have Cummings back and that'll matter as well. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if Imperiale gets replaced too. Bernardez and Imperiale have both been dire with the set piece defending, among other things. I think these are obvious things that will get corrected. I hope Affolter is enough to make things different this season without having to abandon this approach. But even if not, they should forge forward because it's pretty obvious what personnel changes are needed to play this system and it should be doable.

Lima was dreadful and just generally it seemed the number of bad giveaways even without pressure seemed to go up a lot in the 2nd half.

VAR maybe changes the outcome too since the goal that broke things open wasn't legit.

Yeah, Bingham is not exactly having a good season. If he wanted to jump over to Europe, I'm not sure he's going to accomplish it playing this way.

Alan Kelly being horrible is just so perfectly emblematic since MLS think he's the best they have.

 

Yueill is playing some really nice central incisive passes. I would keep him in there. I would want to see Vako, Hoesen, and Wondo together. Vako can hold the ball and move it in traffic whereas Hyka can get overrun at times. Would like to see how he'd do in Hyka's role. Lima, TT, and Hyka share the wide mid / wingback roles.

 

We gave up that late goal to LA in the US Open Cup, and didn't think much of it because we got the win, but this makes three straight games where the defense has collapsed late in the game, with most goals conceded on set pieces....

ATL: 4 goals from 55-89 (2 after 80th)
NYRB: 4 goals from 73-90+ (2 after 90th)
SEA: 3 goals from 54-65

 

Roldan's playing like he didn't want to leave the GC...exactly what Arena wants to see.

 

Leitch with some tactical errors for this game. Big Vic should be the middle of a back three, not on the edge. The two wing backs must be able to defend effectively. Not really Thompson's game and Lima mostly took the defensive part off tonight.

A back four with Bernardez/Imperiale in the middle and Jungwirth/Lima on the outside is probably a better option with this group of players. Put the new guy in for Imperiale and all should be good in the back unless Bingham keeps taking strolls into no man's land.

Or put Cato opposite Lima, slot Jungwirth at Dmid. With Godoy suspended next week, I vote for this option.

Leitch better cure the team of the goals in bunches disease. And quick.

6 points in the next two home games is close to a must.

Even with the dire 3 game road trip, I don't miss Kinnear. Not one bit.

 

No, this won't work either. He shouldn't be playing at all any more.

 

Tommy actually defends well - a much underrated part of his game, but is not the greatest fit for wing back because he likes to pinch in a lot, and because he doesn't have great speed.

 

Dempsey taught him everything he knows about diving.

 

Too early to draw conclusions on our new style (and coach), but we have now given up 12 goals in our last 3 matches.

In fairness there have been 4 wins too but one was a friendly, one a cup match vs Sounders reserves, one a poor performance with a brave late win (Classico) and one excellent win over LA (Cup but both teams had full squads basically).

As someone noted above:

- Bingham's season is a massive drop off from 2016. This is underestimated in it's importance.
- not seeing a thing from Vako. Hyka for example (a similar style player) looked great from the moment he put the shirt on. Hopefully he's just rusty.
- Yuell - I just don't the kid is ready yet personally.

Hopefully next 2 weeks with only 1 game / week and no travel we can settle, get the Gold Cup guys back, have a deeper bench with the various injury returnees (Dawkins, Amerikwa, Pelosi, Alashe), no travel

 

Thompson should play centrally or be on the bench. Personally, I'd go with the former. Been saying this for years. He's too slow for wings.

 

He's fine on the outside in a flat 4-4-2 or diamond 4-4-2, but not as suitable for a wingback in a 3-5-2. That said, I would say he wasn't the problem tonight. He did fine - 85+% successful passes, 2 key passes, a number of defensive plays including two consecutive header(!) clearances in the box and some interceptions.

 

I know he gets it that they have issues with set piece defending right now, but I like how Leitch is still emphasizing not the goals conceded but how they went for it on the attack but couldn't quite cash in. IOW in a 3-0 game, he's more concerned with the 0 than the 3. And we know how it works - the importance of scoring first. Didn't quite happen tonight. In a strange way, i.e. despite the final score, I thought they were closer to winning this game than they would have been playing a defense first Kinnearean style road game.

“It’s a game, right? We take chances to go after our goals and we don’t get it. We concede one and then shortly thereafter concede two. And then 10 minutes later off of another set piece. So two set pieces. The second one wasn’t necessarily off of a great play, it was just a mistake on our part. I thought we were moving the ball well in the first half and even parts of the second, but we have to be a little more assertive in that final bit.”

 

Done in by two throw-ins and one big goalkeeping error.
I'm not trying to downplay any of the comments in this thread, just pointing out how disorganized the defense must be for the three goals to have been scored in those particular ways.

 

He was ok tonight but I think he is usually very effective in a flat 442 either. He's just better centrally where he gets more touches, his excellent ball skill in tight spaces is exemplified and his lack of pace is unexposed.

Personally I'd like to see.
--------------------Hoesen/Wondo--------------
--------------------------Hyka----------------------
--------Cato / Thompson / Godoy / Lima ---
---------Jungwirth / newguy / Alashe --------

(Cato and Lima as wingbacks)

Ureyno, Vako (I guess) and Salinas as the 3 subs. Or Ceren is ahead.

 

Because the throw-in was way over the line? That's what it looked like to me.