So, we're playing Real San Jose next Saturday. A chance to go check out the new players? Then we go to Arizona....wonder if there are any fans there for reports? (this thread can be for stuff about pre-season that's not worthy of its own thread)
Nope. I can't recall where I even saw the Arizona trip mentioned--not the Quakes site that I can find again because i went back looking for a specific city to try to figure out if we'd be there with Seattle and RSL for friendlies. The game for next weekend is at present a casual mention by the opponent, with nothing "announced," which is I why have no time or place. I don't know any reason why they'd "behind closed doors" it though. I don't know that we have even a single trialist in camp because we have so many draftees plus Ring trying to make the team and no contract renegotiation hold outs.
i'll bet you it was one of those emails- seems like i remember the AZ trip mentioned, but i don't remember reading about the Real SJ game though. wonder what the date/location is on that. it would be nice just to have some photos just to see who's in camp, so let's send in the secret agent. for sure it will take a long time before the club gets around to posting pics or news...
Ugh, I keep seeing other teams going to Tournaments, organizing preseason friendlies and yet there is nothing of the like coming up for the Quakes, this really doesn't surprise me though considering the past performance of the FO.
Our guys are going to practice in Phoenix for a week or so. At least a couple of other MLS clubs are going to Phoenix also for the same week. My guess is that the clubs will play against each other. So perhaps our guys are not as lame as they appear. Go Quakes!! - Mark
Good point. Last year, they went down south (Cal Poly?). They have less than two months before the start of the season. You would think that they would have at least 2-3 quality warm up matches before the start of the season. Sigh. I'm really going to blow a gasket if this team is not ready for the start of the season...
We have almost two months before the season starts, plenty of time to schedule more matches. And in reality, you should be surprised, because if you look at the past performance of the FO in this regard, we did schedule friendlies and competed in tournaments. So, what are you saying? And if remember correctly, we performed fairly well in both of the previous preseasons, and where did that get us?
I'm sure we will go to Cal Poly and either visit the Timbers or have them come down to SJ. Cal Poly and the Timbers both see those matches as important to their programs, so they want to do it. I'm sure that our guys are into it too. Just because we haven't heard anything doesn't mean that it's not already arranged. Breathe. Also, I saw this on SBI: I keep saying that we should be scouting Central America and snagging players. It could well be that we have done some scouting and found that other teams have already put in discovery claims on players that we like. Just means that we should dig some more. There are a lot of players in at least three good leagues down there. (Costa Rica, Guatemala, and El Salvador) We should be able to find some players that will help our club at comparatively low cost. Go Quakes!! Practice like champions!! - Mark
I'm not worried either that we'll have a busy enough pre-season. What bugs me is how little reporting of it media relations is doing. Most teams have more video from the draft, some feature from the first day of camp, have released a list of names of who is in camp, and have put out full (even if tentative) pre-season schedules. Our info tends to be things like "4 out of 5 draft picks and new faces" and throw up 5 pictures without captions to even say who it's a picture of. The BigSoccer crowd all know it's Opara that's not there, but even so some of the more casual fans probably don't and why he's missing. And who are the new faces and who is not there? Really they should have had at least 2 QuakeShake video segments by now with interviews. These seem like simple ways to try to build some anticipation before the season and also to keep some of the more devoted fans like the BS crowd a bit more informed.
Exactly! Now if only we had an e-mail address to write to! I bet some of you have phone numbers to call? Go Quakes! - Mark
From the KC Wizards weekly report: Surely the Quakes will be scrimmaging against some of the other MLS teams (Colorado, Columbus, LAG, Chicas, Chicago, etc) while down there in Arizona. Edit: The Quakes are in Arizona from 2/7 through 2/15. They might be leaving before most of the other MLS teams get there. Quakes Weekly Update: Friendly opponents:
Embarrassing too! Grand Canyon University was the source of David Hague of the Portland Timbers. Hague made "Team of the Week" honors that week. I'm not saying that he was a great player, but the idea of looking at local Community College players to find one of those local guys that can't play in league games might be worth it. You find a guy who is 18 to 20 and has some potential, work with him, it might pay off. It's another potential source of players, and thus, should not be overlooked. (Ah wait! GCU is not a community college. But Hague did play at a community college before GCU and was player of the year or some such.) Last I heard, Hague went to Uruguay to play for Danubio F.C. Danubio F.C. is a Primera Division side, so not bad. I see that he is no longer with them. Interestingly, they ditched the color of their third jersey because they considered it cursed and won't wear green anymore. Hmmmm. Go Quakes!! - Mark
wait wait wait...they play real san jose?...lol funny i used to play for em. there training sessions included...scrimmages..all...practices...well the two days out of the week they practiced anyways.. this has to be like a warm up TOO the warm up of the season i expect a 15-0 win for the quakes(considering RSJ cant hold 3rd place in there own league).... when do the quakes start pre season friendlys again?
I know that Tottenham Hotspur also has built a relationship with other clubs like South China in HK, which is a top club in the area with very long history. They played a friendly in 2008 or 2009 (which Tottenham lost). In the later part of 2009 the Hong Kong club sent one of their promising young strikers to train with Tottenham Hotspur and probbaly would do it again in 2010. Also, just last month Tottenham Hotspur sent a trainer to Hong Kong to help them with better fitness training. The coach and players of the Hong Kong club all think it is very beneficial to them. It helps them with new training method and also helps the players to keep up for the whole 90 min every game. Sorry, the news report is in Chinese and I can't find an English version. When I read it, I keep thinking these are exactly the things we can get help from this relationship between the Quakes and Tottenham. Why can't we do the same? Money? The boss of the Hong Kong club in fact is very willing to put money into the club even when the local soccer market there is rather weak. Like many here, people there prefer EPL or La Liga. Still that team's boss wants to equip the team to compete with other strong teams in Asia.
Whatever the problem is, we need to correct it. Our guys fitness was crap last season. I was really pleased to hear RJ say that they guys looked a lot fitter at the start of camp this year than last. That's good. But we need to make this a formal deal with more fitness training, probably some focus on diet, and various balance and focus techniques. We need to more in this direction. Go Quakes!! - Mark
I wasn't trying to correct you. I threw it out there because I had didn't no Montez was a woman until I met her. I walked up the the hospitality table and asked for Montez, and was pleasantly surprised. Willykirk is right, she's a quite pretty.