http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14266836?nclick_check=1 Interesting article. Especially the last line. Come on you Spurs!
Good news about the exhibition. It's not a powerhouse team that will shame our side but high in profile to bring in the bucks.
Only the high-profile clubs will get the powerhouse European clubs for an exhibition. But the Spurs have a loyal following and like krudmonk said, they'll bring in the bucks. Who knows, maybe they can play some of their young players as a pseudo trial and we can sign them on loan during the summer transfer window if they impress. One can dream.
Well-written article, with relevant quotes, no major errors. By Matt Schwab of mschwab@bayareanewsgroup.com? Has the MN published his articles before?
Hmmm...they're up challenging for a top 4 finish. They have their off games, but this is a pretty good season for them in both form and results. And they are a big club.
Exactly. They may not be one of the "Big Four", but, along with Man City there are starting to chip away at their supremacy. They have a pretty talented squad, I would be happy with gettting one or two of their perennial bench warmers, like Pavyl-russian guy or David Bentley.
Is it too soon to speculate that if Spurs are brought in for a friendly, it will be against a Mexican team instead of the Quakes?
That would be an ultimate turd-dump on the heads of the Quakes fans so expect our front office to follow through with that idea.
Great article. If the Mercury News keeps up this kind of quality when it comes to Quakes coverage, I'll have no problem finding a way to want to start reading it again. SPURS!?!?!?! Please please please please please please please!!! I'll be there without a doubt no matter how broke I am at the time!
I'd love to have Spurs come to the Bay, they play attractive football. What I would really like is to know that the coaching knowledge transfer, which is supposed to be happening, actually, is. Part of the problem with being in a backwater league is that you have to really import a lot of soccer know how. I used to to really want them to loan us players, but after having read Soccernomics, what I really want is for the quakes to know how they train.
It's never too soon to speculate! All they have to do is play Dos Santos and the El Tri fans will show.
Yes, that and not including it in the season ticket package as GAME A. While not taking anything away from Seattle specifically, I sometimes wonder about season ticket numbers from LA the past few years and Seattle last season since they were able to include MLS Cup and friendlies with the likes of AC Milan and Chelsea into the season ticket package. Maybe it makes no difference whatsoever, but then again maybe it does.
The big question mark will be the timing of the game. Plenty of Spurs players, including Dos Santos, will be on World Cup duty. I am assuming and hoping the game would be a post-WC match.
Elliott is on Olympics duty for a while. (And yeah, the Olympics are still a ways off.) So I think the Murk is trying to pick up the slack with this guy. Maybe we can follow his articles in a different paper, after the Murk goes under. Yeah. AC Milan trains a lot longer than we do, and they are fit. Partly improving our training would be good, and there are US fitness gurus who help AC Milan. We could get those guys. Hell, we could get much less expensive guys who would do the same thing. I bet Spurs spend a fair bit of time on tactics and strategies. Why did we play so damn much long ball last season?! Did Frank ask for that? Or did he just fail to tell our guys to keep the ball on the carpet? It would be very cool for the Quakes to play an exhibition against Spurs. I hope it would be on TV, or at a time when I just had to visit the Bay Area anyway. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Matt Schwab is a longtime Oakland Tribune reporter. He was the Clash beat writer way back when. Now that the Merc, Trib, and Contra Costa Times are all owned by the same bankrupt company, they share much of their sports page content. The beat articles about the 49ers, Sharks, Warriors, Giants, or whatever are all done by one reporter from one of those papers and then printed in all of them.
Yeah, but if he's loaned out for the rest of he season, you'd think he'd be back with them for their training camp tour. Unless the loan is longer...I didn't try to look it up.