Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Minnesota United FC "Quarterfinal" (Saturday, 8/1) postgame thread [R]

Not 2-5 but 1-4!

Still losing by 3 is not acceptable!

They were completely outclassed!

 

well a couple of entertaining games.....then the true Quakes showed up.

You could easily go to the majority of post games threads from last season and just copy and paste them here......same old headliners (Vega, Vako, Kashia, cheap ownership).....same sh*t fans have to put up with season after season, USL quality team playing in MLS....

 

A better than expected tournament for us. Some high points. If you’d given me the quarters at the beginning I’d have snapped it up. However, how we fizzled today will take some getting over with.

Having said that right now I would fancy our chances against any teams not called Minnesota or LAFC.

We desperately need pacey center backs who can tackle one on one and a DP who is consistent..

 

anyone place a bet that Jack Skahan would get playing time?

to be honest I had never heard of him.....what was up with Cade or Cavillo?

 

I thank they knew the game was over so wanted to give him some minute.

 

I'm not sure if I'd put the holes in the defense or the lack of a real attack where players work together higher on the list. The attack is like rec players playing on a select team. "Give me ball and get out of the way. I can score!" No. Not when you're playing against real players. No short passes up front. No moving the ball around. Just individual dribble and shoot. Against RSL, SJ scored when the passed up front and failed like tonight most of the other time. Tonight was back to the old ways. Now, that said, MN packed it in a little more and for certain played tighter on the midfield and attackers making it more difficult, but it's a recurring issue for the Quakes that needs to be addressed.

 

this has been posted every season since 2008 except 2012.

 

The man to man marking became many yards of empty field where the defense gave up way to much space for Minnesota to make runs....

Either the Quakes reverted back to their original selves or the loons are very good. I think it’s a little bit of both. San Jose was completely out of their element tonight.

 

Not sure that is fair or accurate. I lost count of the turnovers that Mangus and the rest of the team had or how many shots were launched into the stands by “no pass” Vako or how many goals our defense let up that looked like Youth Soccer at its worst tonight In reality, Minnesota should have had ten goals tonight the way our defense played. Unless you have been at every practice and are in Matias head, then we can’t blame a 22 year old rookie making his professional debut! What I saw from that kid, near the end of the game was a 30 yard through ball that was perfect and was the best pass ANY Quakes player made in the entire game! We had a great tournament. We had a bad game and lost. It happens. That’s soccer. If you would have told me before the tournament that we would have been playing to get in the Semis, I would have said you were nuts. Minnesota was just the better team tonight. Go Quakes!

 

Vako is not much of a DP...he is good but to be a DP, He should be a lot more dominating than he is. He isn’t any better or worse than anyone else in the team. Espinoza also played bad tonight.

 

Minnesota is our daddy

 

1st half I thought Vega, Alanis, Vako, Yueill, Magnus were poor. Thompson, Lima, Kashia, Rios a step up from that but nothing to write home about. Espinoza did not dominate, but I don't know if that was on him, his teammates, or Minnesota.

I think Heath turned the tables on the Quakes. Instead of bunkering and playing counterattack, (which EQ probably expected) he opened the game with pressure to force Quakes to play without space and time in their own third. EQ were hitting hospital balls, and looked like they were deliberately trying to stay calm and unhurried, but that ended up being being so casual that passes were intercepted or turnovers took place. Quakes were on their heels just like under Stahre and part of last year. Teams used to figure out that if you pressed the Quakes hard in their half they would lose the ball; it seemed that way in the first half tonight as well.

I thought that when LAFC lost, the remaining teams would all perk up and become super-motivated, figuring they now had a real chance to advance. It looked like Minnesota felt that way more than the Quakes did.

 

Vega must go, I've been advocating that for some time now.

Kashia must go, too many mistakes and he just isn't good enough for a CB, no soccer mind.

Vako must go, he's a ballhog with tunnel vision.

Rios and Fierro must go, I'm underwhelmed with their "contributions" to our team to put it mildly.

We have a work-a-day, mediocre team that occasionally gets the job done, they should aspire to do better, including our cheap-ass owner.

 

Yeah they aren’t consistent and are only good in streaks. They are also very bad when falling from behind. The Goonies are not evident with this bunch.

We need a GK , Defender , Midfielder and a new Forward!

 

The style of play is fun. That said, speed in the back, along with precision play by those speedy backs, is essential when you play like that.

 

Our cryptonite came back: pressure. I really thought we might be doing better in that dept. after the RSL game, but we had the same problems as always. I think that is a credit to better defensive players on Minn, they were killing us on solid tackling in our half of the field. I thought they might get tired but they really didn't (they did pull their really high defensive line back in the second half).

Almeyda's system requires near perfection to succeed with the ability to win duels 1:1 (both offensively and defensively). We are generally pretty good in defensive tackling... when the other team makes us miss though (like LAFC does), it's going to be a long day. On the other side, if we can't dribble out of a 1:1 (like with Minn), we're also in for a very long day.

A few game observations:

1) The defensive in general was bad, but our think our two center defensive midfielders were worse. I credit Minn for taking them out of the game.

2) Vega and Magnus had howler games when we need them to be almost perfect to succeed.

3) Rios is still not the answer to any Jeopardy question but one: Who is someone who should never have been signed.

4) Go home Vako, you're drunk. Like always drunk, iv of vodka drunk.

5) God bless TT and Espinoza. They are the only two players that consistently generate sparks on offense.

6) If I was Wondo I'd be ready to retire after seeing that game on the bench.


I think the season is done now as I can see no way to have a safe bubble for players going forward. So here is my 2020 conclusion, after 18 months of Almeyda observations:

1) We need among the best center back pairing along with the GK in MLS to even have a chance to compete in this system.

I agree that two capable center backs could make the system doable, but even with the best CB pairing, a few good opportunities are going to trickle through. We also need among the best shot stoppers in the league. We can get this pretty easily, but I'm not sure we can afford all three players (GK, CB1 and CB2).


2) I don't think any team in MLS cab play our system well, except for the biggest spenders.

Almeyda's system can't be played by lower quality teams like us. LAFC could pull it off with better talent and so could Atlanta I think. Minn is showing how lower middle teams need to play to complete (the Dom empty bucket special) and it's even more important now considering the amount of money the top teams are spending.


The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

I agree. We have two experienced, but, aging centerbacks, neither with a great deal of pace, let alone the stamina required for Almeyda's system. A pairing like that would be better suited to a traditional zone defense where they can take advantage of their positional experience. It must be killing them to have to man mark. We need a couple of young, fast CB's, with the legs to go 90. With that, Kashia and Alanis are warriors, they give their all, they're just not the best tool for the job they are being asked to do.

 

Agreed we need faster and younger and hungrier Center Backs. Does Beason have any wheels? We saw something in him to use the First Round Draft Pick on him.

All in all, we are rebuilding and not reloading. If we are going to play this system, we need younger and faster players on the field. Cade is very fast and should be out there. Spend the money on the best goalie we can find and trim the roster of the older and slower players

 

We need a system that can work with middle of the road players. We won’t be successful with Almeyda unless Fisher decides to spend substantial amounts of money, and he’s not going to. Pisses me off, but there we are.

Also, our good players are going to bail out on us as soon as they can. Very few players will be loyal to a team that fundamentally won’t make the effort to be the best, or even competitive.

Go Quakes!!
Go Quakesfans!!
FU Fisher!!!!!

- Mark