The Official 2017 San Jose Earthquakes related Blogs/Press thread

We are the guy that's not quite dead yet.

 

Random question: why the away jersey at the GM press conference? Are the Quakes announcing a new jersey ahead of the 2017 season?

 

I was told late last season by someone in FO, cannot recall who, that the Quakes will be having a new home kit for 2017. So, they probably didn't want to unveil it early.

 

not sure about FC Lurzen or the Albanian national team, 17 goals in 171 appearances for club, 2 goals in 38 appearances for country...I guess we'll see.

but that FieldWiz sports bra is hilarious.

 

Protagonist, eh? Is that to balance out Cummings, who appears to be the team antagonist?

I've watched some highlights of him - mainly for Albania. He plays similar to Salinas - fast, and cuts in from the left side, and can cross or shoot with either foot. Has a good cut back move that seems to open up space for him from time to time. Don't see Salinas do that much - he is more direct and doesn't do rapid change of direction so much - just tries to beat people with speed. Presumably he'd be a Salinas upgrade.

 

500K for a small forward who has barely scored (according to the article 17 for 171, about 10% of games played) and a 3 year contract? What am I missing here?

 

Wide mid...would be good to know the assist rate. Goal rate is about 2x (2x as frequent as) Salinas's, but I don't know how many minutes he's playing per appearance.

 

Hopefully the upgrade is vision, decision making and timely accurate passing...an intuitive player.

 

I'm guessing that they're renting a house for him? So yeah, can't see them buying him a house in the bay area.

Anyone gettin' hyphy for hyka?

 

Around here, for many people, a home and a car are the same thing.

The Messi of Albania. Sounds good. If he's not better than Salinas or Djalo, than the Swiss League must really be bad. I'd be happy with someone approaching peak Marvin Chavez.

 

Yeah, I have given up on the foibles of trying to make any conclusions from highlight videos. You can't gauge frequency of much of anything. So I couldn't say if he has better decision making, more accurate passes, etc. He has made some good decisions, and some accurate passes, and you can see that he is useful with either foot, and you can see that he has good pace. And similarly, you could create a Salinas highlight video and cherry pick the times he made good decisions or accurate passes.

One thing that did stand out to me, as I said, is that he has a stop / change of direction move that sometimes buys him space, and that is a move that I don't see Salinas making.

 

the video, down the page you linked to, takes a minute to load.

just once I'd like them to sign someone that would blow us all away and signal a new era.

 

Your wait is over....haha.

 

What's the injury report? 3 years? I hope the Fioranelli had some input because he'll be saddled with that signing for a good bit.

 

This is a more lengthy video apparently from Hyka's work with Albania. He's like Salinas....with a brain (no, I don't mean that ). For all we know he is no better than Salinas. Can't really tell from highlight videos. He is certainly capable of doing some good things.

 

I just viewed the clip...a little perplexing. Imo his game is very similar to Tommy's...more direct and a little quicker...but the same style...and perhaps the same role...flank cut in mid. He's very slight...Doesn't appear to have a two way game. This is going to be interesting...I don't see this guy and Tommy on the field at the same time....probably bad news for Tommy's minutes.

 

I actually think he is more of a direct analog to Salinas. For one, appears to prefer the left side. For two, he tends to use his speed, more like Salinas and less like Tommy. Finally, if Salinas is going to be in a sub role, he might compete for that as well, because if he tends to not play much defense, he would be a guy you play when you need a goal and you're willing to take more of a chance on defense.

That said, any wide mid is going to be more competition for everybody. If he starts at left mid, where does that leave Dawkins, for example? And if they get A. Quintero back, it really leads to quite a logjam at outside mid.

 

Dom is our coach ...

I hope that Hyka is great.We obviously need more attacking quality out of the midfield. My big worry of course is that we will still play with two holding mids, neither of whom are very offensive.

- Mark