Post-match: Sporting Kansas City - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 3/17) postgame thread [R]

What else is new?

 

Wondo at least made it look respectable but it was too little too late.

Other than that, the Quakes were crap in the second half!

 

As I said in pregame, forecast calls for pain, and for the most part, that's what it was - pain. The score flattered the Quakes. How many times was #7, Johnny Russell, running free at goal? 10 times?

As I said in the in-game, it looked about like a Kinnear game in KC. Generally badly outplayed, lots of bunkering, subs too late and not the right ones (Alashe for Salinas when you need 2 goals?). No squad building by getting some players in there sooner to try to make a mark. The offense looks a bit better but's that's because there are a few better players than Dom had.

The Quakes didn't really play a quality MLS team the whole preseason. Instead, they chose to get fat on their USL affiliate, and played one game against RSL and one against a woeful LAG team (not counting the very early game against Portland when teams where just sorting out the players in camp). So, no big surprise with the result. It is very hard to win MSL games on the road, especially against a decent team.

 

I agree that looked like Dom-ball, except not as good. They kept testing Lima early but raped Shea (did Vako play any D?). Pressure works on us since no one can seem to dribble under pressure (and KC did a great job pressuring constantly with 2 to 3 people).

Based on that performance, it's clear we're in the bottom 20% of MLS.

 

Alashe came in for Salinas but played in central midfield somewhere. We went to a three backline. I like the idea of the sub, would have preferred TT for the offensive play

 

Salinas was joining the attack anyway, and is a much more attacking oriented player than Alashe. It didn't really serve to put more numbers forward at all, as the Quakes go 3 in the back anyway when in their most attacking posture (which they should have been at that point - the point of desperation when you need 2 goals in a hurry).

And I also didn't like the Jackson for Flo sub. I would have gone Jackson for Godoy. I don't think Flo should come off the field unless he is clearly gassed.

I know that Stahre likes his starters, but you need to get subs in earlier even though it is hard to take off a good player because 1) especially on the road, guys get gassed, 2) it helps build your squad as you are starting to give more players meaningful minutes. I think the only two players that have gotten more than about 10 minutes as a sub this year are Ockford (injury sub) and Jackson.

 

I'm calling all if you out on this forum who said Godoy should have been a starter going into this season.

Where's his impact on this team?

- Didn't make an impact vs. Minn.
-All of you saying we are playing Dom bunker ball today. Thank Godoy for that.
* Can't read the game
* Didn't show any technique
* Helped Salinas to give up goal #2
* No off ball movement
* Made bad decisions when on ball

Yueill definitely outplayed him in preseason for starting position from game play.

Start game without Godoy and Salinas, and game is completely different.

 

Well, that stunk.

Back to front:

Still not sold on Tarbell as GK.

Salinas was terrible. Lucky he didn't get a yellow card, or two. He was more focused on his losing duel with Russell than in playing the game correctly, and he sucked going forward too. Just awful.

Cummings looked very good. Made some nice plays. Really composed. Now I'm impressed.

Yefferson played very well, and screw the announcers who wanted him to calm down. The stinking Sporks should have seen at least two yellow cards before halftime, three would have been very reasonable.

Lima was good again. He's better going forward than defending, but his defending isn't awful. So works for me.

Godoy was better than last week, but still culpable on at least one of their goals. Just not anything like as good as his first season with us. And no, he's not good enough to start.

Flo was really good, but I'd play Flo back, because he much the better defender, and play Godoy forward. OR, better yet, I'd play Jackson in place of Godoy.

Vako was really good, and he did track back and play some defense, but KC overloaded his side. With Zusi and Russell making Salinas look stupid, there wasn't a lot that Vako could do about their attack.

Magnus looked terrific, again. He helped to create the first goal, and his assist to Wondo was excellent. Played some good defense too.

Wondo was largely invisible, except for the excellent goal. Very Wondoesque night. Doesn't show up a lot and then scores a goal.

Hoesen played well too. Very nice that.

We were vastly better on our throwins than in any season in recent memory, which is really good.

We all wilted under the Sporks constant physical pressure. Now, a decent ref would have called the Sporks for at least ten or twelve more fouls in the first half. The laws clearly state that you must play the ball, not the man. Their game plan was to bash into our players as much as the ref would let them. The only response to that is to bash them back. Which we did not.

We gave them waaaaaaay to much time on the ball, which is down to a lot of our guys not pressuring them for the ball, and once again, we played too far apart, which guarantees loss of possession when playing a swarming team. You have to get more guys around the ball and play some quick short passes to keep the ball, and make the other guys run out of gas, or slow their pace.

Speaking of which, we again looked gassed late in the game. Lima, Wondo, and Magnus still has something in the tank. Cummings and Quintana too. But Godoy was gassed. Salinas should have been subbed off at the half, maybe for Alashe?

We just didn't play very darned well. Some good energy to start the second half, and then we just lost it.

Very disappointed, but I know that we're a work in progress.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

As SKC closed out the game by kicking it off our shins repeatedly for corner after corner, I was thinking, are we cognitively dominant yet?

To be fair we wound up with almost as many shots as SKC, and at times looked fairly dangerous around goal, and it may turn out that the xGD is only about -1. But on the whole I'd say we were pretty solidly outplayed.

 

We played scared from the start.

It's not that hard to kick it off the other guy's shins for a throw-in or corner, but I don't see our guys do it. They swarmed to the ball often, and we never had an answer for that. (Hint: someone needs to run to an outlet pass position and call for the ball. Hint 2: Get next to your guy getting swarmed and at least made it difficult for the other dudes.)

We needed to be able to complete short passes to keep possession, but we just never found an answer for their pressure. Not good, because the Sporks aren't the only team in MLS who play that way.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

It's the same thing we've always struggled with on the road, and in fact most MLS teams struggle with it on the road. Home teams press and road teams can't break it. The possession numbers in the 1st half were horrific - around 35%. At times under Leitch we played pretty even with teams on the road in the 1st half - held onto the ball OK, but it fell apart spectacularly in the 2nd half because we hadn't learned how to sustain it and deal with the little additional amount of fatigue you're going to have on the road.

During the offseason I said that despite being "Golden Boot" in Sweden last year, Magnus was more of a setup guy, and in particular liked to play long aggressive passes early. He wound up setting up both of the Quakes goals that way, but, well, see what I mean? He is definitely a player for the counterattack, not a possession guy. Looks like he barely completed 40% of his passes, and many of his completed passes were backpasses. He's trying long, low percentage passes from all over the field and in fact had some bad giveaways in the Quakes half.

 

Man, where's the good-lookin soccer I was promised? At least the Sharks swept their road trip otherwise it would be one shitty Saturday night.

 

This is not your typical coach's unexpressive reaction :

https://www.sjearthquakes.com/post/...ut-teams-resiliency-kansas-city?autoplay=true

 

Yeah, I've seen him get pretty pissed off and demonstrative on the sideline. They don't show him much here, but in Sweden, they liked to show the coach's reaction to things, and he did a lot of air kicking and stuff. He'd get especially pissed of when guys blow chances. He didn't say anything about it but I'm sure the Wondo sitter miss is driving him crazy and was probably one the things that caused him to turn away from the camera and grimace.

He's in for a bit of a rude awakening when he goes into high altitude against RSL or Houston in the humidity, the plastic carpet in Seattle, etc. and when you have two road games in a week, not one after a 2-week rest. It is not easy to win on the read in MLS.

 

So from Reddit, one of the two "unofficial" Quakes bars, Rogue, caught on fire after Wondo's goal

It's off to the other bar, Jasper, for SF Quakes fans then.

It's rough being a fan of this team eh?

 

Oh boy....if that's his public face, I can only imagine the shitstorm that's about to go down in the locker room...

Who does he choke first?

 

Salinas......

 

Hope Starhe saves a choke for himself too. Shit subs, no other way to put it.

 

I was hoping we'd have more continuity in the attack, but they exposed our narrow flanks, and took advantage of the minimal defending presence of Vako and Mag...essentially pinning them back neutering our attacking ability. Salinas got shredded...bad match up for him against Russell...with almost no decent help from Vako...this will be be a huge problem going forward unless we make some adjustments.

I said let's take a look at Godoy for the first 6 games, but the same situation happened again, every goal scoring sequence Flo is either high or wide leaving Godoy to man the middle...looked poor closing on the first goal....looked terrible flailing to block Zusi's shot...complete lack of awareness on the third...left a huge pocket behind him in front of the CBs then never fired back into the play...just watched everything go by him as he jogged back....granted Lima had a terrible angle on the shot...too far back off the shooter...with a crap angle.

How long will it take Stahre to realize Godoy is a liability protecting the back line.

And Cummings and Quintana need better protection up the gut because they don't have adequate recovery speed to deal with quick combo passing from opposing attackers in that pocket. It just magnifies the need to get Godoy out of that role.

I thought the Flo sub was strange, I would have never taken him off barring an injury.

It was very interesting when Stahre went to a three back he dropped Godoy between Cummings and Quintana. Needs work but it might have potential down the road...

It didn't look great, but we didn't fold up. It didn't look like our back was broken after they scored their second and third goals.

Still way early, need to see 3-4 road games, but every team we face will try to take advantage of Vako and Mag's marginal defense and the soft spot in front of our back line. We'll see how Stahre adjusts...either by finding a way to bolster the attack to keep the heat off the defense or by locking down the defensive end...I'm fine with either.

 

"Tarbell just lost his job IMO. Marcinkowski please. It's time."

Careful with knee-jerk hot takes like this... (not a defense of Tarbell, I mean the "It's time for JTM" part).

Marcinkowski only just made his professional debut today. And he gave up 4 goals to a USL team in a loss at home. Playing against guys from Kansas City's affiliate Swope Park Rangers, who by definition were not good enough to play (or even make the bench) for SKC against the Quakes today.

 

Damn, tough night all around...

Well, our Quakes bar burned down tonight

Rogue, in North Beach, in San Francisco.​

Immediately after Wondo scored, the bartender started ringing the bell, which is usually a celebration of the goal. A few seconds later another bartender got up and yelled out “No, really, the building is on fire.”​

 

Also, Ike neutralized Hoesen. Ike was just too physical for him. Danny couldn't shake him at all.

 

Yeah, I felt bad for Danny, he had little support, not a lot of options to combo with to force Opara to make decisions. Opara 1 v 1 is really tough...his freakish recovery speed keeps him in every play...almost impossible to get and maintain any separation.