Post-match: Sporting Kansas City - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 8/17) postgame thread [R]

phuc u ref.

 

By this time, Almeyda has to, or should know other the adjustments other teams are making, and he refuses to change.

 

Quakes looked to nonchalant in 2nd half.
Very frustrating. Next match against a much tougher
opponent. Not liking how things have been trending the last few games.

 

Vermes made KC turn up the effort and turn on the diving, fake hurting, and thuggish behavior in the second. THAT was the difference...and stupid below par refs in MLS buy it every time.

 

Teams have started to counter SJ tactics, they always play very physically and rough up our guys. Vako and Espinoza are surrounded by armies of defenders and constantly getting hit in the legs. which add up, even 10 soft tackles will start to wear you out towards the end of the game, especially if you depend on your dribbling like Vako an Espinoza.

when we go down, opposition parks the bus like it's the end of the world. Time to maybe think about keeping our 1-0 leads rather than playing for 3-0s. Also, a tall physical midfielder would've been useful right about now.

 

The Quakes have reverted back to Stahre's and the month of March ways..

 

What the ******** is going on? 3 straight losses...against 3 bottom dwellers, you gotta be kidding with me...

One step forward, 2 steps back, c'mon Quakes what the ********? Why the ******** do you do this to your fans you bunch of shitheads.

Spend some ********ing money Fisher, spend some money you asshole!!!!

 

we really miss Godoy and Cummings.

Espinoza was a shadow of his former self - I don't think he's fully recovered.

Hoesen is so frustrating. Gets in good positions and then wanks it.

And WTF is wrong with Lima?

I'm on the fence as to whether that was a foul that set up the free kick for the go-ahead goal.

On the other hand, you have to give credit to Feilhaber on his goal - hell of a finish.

 

Goddamn it, now 2 of the 3 people I invited for Vancouver game just flaked the ******** out. Their reason: "Same old Quakes".

Fcuck Fcuck Fcuck FcuckFcuck FcuckFcuckFcuck FcuckFcuckFcuckFcuck

Goddamn it. Fisher, spend some ********ing money on a real ********ing striker you shithole. I don't give a fcuck if it's a blue collar striker or a white collar striker, just fcucking get us a real DP striker you hairless piece of shit.

 

I agree. I only saw the last 20 minutes of the game, but that plus looking at the stats, it seems like this downward trend falls squarely on Almeyda as much as the upward trend did.

• He’s not rotating the squad and not subbing early enough, and the players are wearing out
• He hasn’t changed his tactics to counter the opponents’ evolution. He is relying too much on continued fitness, basically telling players to run harder.
• Players are getting too cautious again and not shooting enough. How does he reinstall their belief and confidence? That’s a toughie.
• Is Kashia working out well? Why isn’t Cummings playing?

 

#ElPeladoOut?

There was an unlucky bounce on the tie-breaking goal from a free kick for a non-foul. It would also help if the Quakes buried their opportunities when they got them, including not telegraphing their shots so they can be blocked so readily.

This one is on me. I jinxed it by asking my server to substitute blue cheese for ranch. So cut the coach some slack.

 

Teams are doubling and roughing up Vako and Espinosa, betting that Magnus won't do anything to make them pay -- a smart bet by the looks of it. I thought Rios had some flashes, and I hope he can take Magnus' spot and make people pay for not focusing on him.

That said, this this run of bad results seems like more bad luck than anything. Today it took two great finishes and a crap ref to undo us. I haven't lost faith at all.

 

No #AlmeydaOut, I just worry that the players have been looking more tired every game, and less able to out-run and outlast opponents. So whether or not Almeyda improves his tactics, I’m not expecting this downward trend to turn around. We are not winning the games we should have won, and the tail end of our schedule is very tough. So they might not be able to make up those lost points.

 

This^. The rest of the league has caught on to Almeyda's tactics and have figured out counter-measures to neutralize them and he hasn't allowed for it. I said before the season started that Almeyda's man-marking style would win us some games until our opponents figured it out, well the Genie is out of the bottle people. The Loons were the first team to sort us out, go figure, and other teams are using their blueprint of double & triple teaming Vako and thugging up Espinosa.
We were punching well above our weight for a long while and it was a nice ride, enjoy the downward spiral.

 

If that were true, you would have expected to see SKC neutralize the Quakes in the first half, but they did not have a clue.

 

Nothing's "wrong" with him. He just was never all that good a defender to begin with. We're just seeing lots of examples of that right now.

 

A couple of tough, 2-1 losses on the road, where we were not necessarily outplayed and......................

 

Awesome to see Wondo get his 10th of the year. 10 years of double digit goals.

I liked what I saw from Rios - he needs to be a starter.

I’m not too concerned about us dropping in the standings because I was kinda surprised we were in the top 4 anyway. I think 5th place would be a good season. 6 or 7th will be nice but we did that in 2017 (still good because the quality of the league has increased since then).

If we don’t make the playoffs then this year is a failure and I blame the quality of the overall roster. It’s just going to take time, money, and good decisions to improve that. I think we’re heading in the right direction but I gotta think it would be easier if we can spend more money.
I’m not going to blame the reigning CONCACAF coach of the year whose tactics and training has the team often leading in possession, chances, passing accuracy, creative set pieces, and confidence. The team has been over performing if anything.

 

We did well in first half and came out flat in the second half in the recent games. At the same time the other team came out more determined and worked harder to put more pressure in second half. The momentum changed and we had no answer. That’s pretty much how we lost in recent games.

Did our players already ran out of energy physically and mentally after the first 45min? We became slower and more predictable in second half.

 

This sure seems to be the issue the last 3 games. The guys came out poorly for the 2nd half, whereas during the streak, they came out even more energized after HT. It is also coincident with the 2 new guys joining the team. Maybe the chemistry has changed

 

There was one adjusting that in the first half as there seemed to be more one time long balls trying to spring a forward free. This is something we did more of when our run of good games started then we went away from it and focused more on ticky-tacka possession.

I agree we need a new look or wrinkle (other than on corners) as the league had figured us out.

Also enough w Kashia as it was his poor clearance (again!) that put vako in a bad spot that lead to the foul on Russel that lead to their 2nd goal.....

 

I don't think KC "figured out" our man marking system... they didn't change their style of play much. They only turned up the intensity in the second half and we didn't match it.

We're scoring goals but we're letting too many in. Time to focus on a D for a while.

Everyone is attacking Lima more successfully than TT and Lima is giving up more crosses. I suspect this has less to do with Lima than the support around him; he's a better defender than TT but generally goes up higher on the line and I think the team is being coached to compensate for TT while Lima is left alone with Vako for support (who is our worst defender). I think Lima may need to be held back until we figure out how to get Vako to consistently support him.

I really don't understand why Kashia is starting... he very much holds us back and really doesn't play that big in the air. I think Cummings is much better.

This was a game that a full strength Godoy changes for us... Judson just isn't that good. I think trading Godoy is going to turn out to be a big problem unless we can upgrade with the money we got and I think a defensive center midfielder is now our biggest opportunity.

 

Either Kashia or Cummings should be added as a defensive mid. I think they can coexist and I also think we need more help on defense. Maybe sit Judson?

 

Look at our remaining schedule, dude. There are no more “easy” matches. Our next nine are all against teams fighting for a good spot in the playoffs.