Post-match: Colorado Rapids - San Jose Earthquakes (Wednesday, 9/23) postgame thread [R]

Right, at first that quote sounded kind of like a "blame the youngsters" quote, and I think it was maybe some of that (and blame the "thin roster" for forcing him to play more youngsters), but I think it was also about not wanting to destroy youngsters' confidence with horrible losses. But in any case, I'm not really buying it either. The only youngsters were Cade, Beason (and he's 23), and Lopez, and he's in his 2nd year. And it's not like they were the reason we lost. We were bad all over.

Along with the defensive breakdowns, we were so hapless in the final 3rd that it was comical. A promising counter and Fierro crosses to no one out of bounds. Rios gets another free header in the box and again pops it harmlessly over the bar. Lopez shoots from medium distance and it's so wide it almost goes out on the sidelines. Fierro gets a bounce in the box and takes a bazillioin touches before getting dispossessed.

By the way, all of those guys mentioned in the "hapless offense" are Almeyda players (though not sure about Lopez), i.e. players that Almeyda presumably had a hand in signing and wanted to sign.

I'm not ready to give up on Almeyda, but he's gotta take accountability and get better - get better at selecting players and get better at putting the team in a better position to compete.

 

Of course like everyone else here I desperately WANT Fisher to spend some real money... BUT:

If I'm Fisher, why would I trust Jesse and Almeyda with my money and expect them to actually turn this around? That would be foolish. We didn't just lose to LAFC or Seattle, we got blown out by the freaking Colorado Rapids! Is there a massive spending gap between the Quakes and Rapids? Is there a massive talent gap between the Quakes roster and the Rapids roster? I think if you asked MLS fans going into the 2020 season which of the two rosters had more talent, the majority would have said the Quakes... and yet somehow those guys look like Neo from the Matrix against us.

Fisher should fire Jesse, hire a competent experienced GM from a well run Euro club where the person had some real decision-making power (unlike Jesse at Roma)... someone like Ernst Tanner who turned around the Philadelphia Union immediately (and not a temporary bump, they continue to improve on and off the field, near the top of the standings and they just sold their first homegrown), and let that GM select the next coach... as long as that coach wants to play a style that didn't fall out of favor multiple decades ago. Then and only then open up the checkbook for players.

https://www.transfermarkt.us/ernst-tanner/profil/trainer/10055

Who exactly are these world-beaters from the Quakes roster who are not getting into games??

This is getting to be just like when Klinsmann started flailing about and making excuses that put the blame on everyone but himself... when fans work from the assumption "well obviously our coach is competent, so there must be some explanation for the bad things that are happening..." you end up with more and more ridiculous conspiracy theories to explain reality... see also certain politicians with cult-like followings. It's like a form of Stockholm Syndrome.

 

Careful though, Philadelphia has a lower payroll then us. Everyone here wants us to open the check book.

 

I hate to admit it but upcoming talent should steer clear of this club.

Really. It's sad to think what some guys could have been. I hope Lima can go to LAFC, or better. Yeuill too. Of course I want us to have prodigies and effective young professionals and players who can entertain. I was proud we got TT. But really? I don't enjoy watching their capabilities wasted and maybe their careers go down the tubes. Even guys like Fatai and Godoy spent too many important seasons at SJ. Guys like Cowell should get out like Beita and Morrow.

 

This sums up our season and team and everything in general.
First Stone Cold Stunner... Doesn't kill us, but we have the beacon of hope in our clowns so we are dazed.... but then MLS reminds us we suck.

 

'Nuff said right there. Despite his celebrity, when we hired Almeyda, I wondered if his trademark game plan would make the Quakes Academy a place to avoid. Are the youth teams and Reno playing this style? How's that for development?

 

it's gonna be a loooooong six weeks, I don't see us winning any of these next 10 games.

 

Fatai is finding career resurrection under Caleb Porter and is a pivotal part of his midfield playing the AM/10.

Godoy is very solid for Nashville and he and Dax have built a good partnership.

Yuiell and Lima's promising potential National Team careers and World Cup inclusion is diminishing by the second, and they have probably fallen off the radar, but all is not lost. They should be sent to another club immediately to salvage what is left.

Cowell, should go to Sacramento before we destroy him, and then his stock is so low for being on such a shit show, no club wants to touch him.

I was once proud of Thompson too, and thought he was a bright prospect, but if he was ever good enough, he would have played his way onto the field. No matter the coach, or reason, elite players find ways to get themselves onto the field. It leads me to now believe he is nothing more then a below average MLS player, who should be playing in the USL. He's great there, below average here.

Vega is the absolute worst keeper to ever suit up in Major League Soccer. There's a plethora of American Keepers we could have our pick of the bunch that are available, and there's some good solid USL keepers. Salinas has been kept his sell date, Kashia and Alanis are trash, and we should have kept Cummings and Affolter. Espinoza is getting worse by the game, and he's probably regretting every minute he signed a permeant deal with us. The Wondolowski nostalgic honorary run is no longer fun. Does anyone like watching a legend like him, on a bull shit club like this? His last season potentially in MLS will forever be tarnished by this bull shit. Bersano and Marcinkowski aren't good enough for MLS either, Marcinkowski is the first keeper in MLS history to not record a win in his first 10 games (He still has 4 to go to reach 10 however). Bersano will never see the field. If anyone thinks Calvillo, Skahan and Lopez are prospects for the long term solution to the future you will be heavily disappointed.

The roster has to be gutted and people's feelings may be hurt seeing favorites go, but its literally the only way. Like I said this off season, I bet 16-20 players are replaced. But how do you sell a prospect player coming to MLS and to this team, on the fact we get blown out consistently? I would NEVER move across the globe to America of all places right now, to play for this abysmal team.

Also - that's to say if we can even recruit guys from certain parts of the world with this Covid-19 Situation, it has changed the game for transfers across the glove. With the risk and reward being... you get sick as shit, or you play for a shit team and get sick as shit away from the comfort of home.

How no one has been released or fired yet after this clown show is disparaging.

I also don't buy the whole spend money shit = success.
Bold = playoffs
Bold w/ Underline = us
Earthquakes - 9.25 Million

FC Dallas 9.15 Million (4th Place)
Nashville FC - 9.12 Million (9th Place)
Minnesota United - 9.12 Million (4th Place)
Colorado - 9 Million (5th Place)
Philadelphia Union - 8.88 Million (3rdPlace East)
Houston Dynamo - 8.8 Million (11th Place)
Whitecaps - 8.5 Million (7th Place)

We are also within the pay range with
Cincinnati - 9.44 - 1 point out of the playoffs.
Miami - 10
New York Red Bull - 10
Nashville - 10.6

 

I'm sorry but this is nonsense... Jose Nasco played in 4 MLS games... in his second MLS game he got red carded after 34 seconds (a record that will likely never be broken) and his team lost 6-0... in his third MLS game he conceded 5 goals.
His Rapids got one point in Nasco's 4 starts, against the Quakes in his last MLS game of course!

https://www.mlssoccer.com/players/joe-nasco

September 1:
Have the Colorado Rapids unearthed yet another goalkeeping prospect in Joe Nasco?
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2014...ed-yet-another-goalkeeping-prospect-joe-nasco

September 5:
Colorado Rapids' Joe Nasco earns the fastest red card in MLS history with first minute ejection vs. LA Galaxy
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2014...st-red-card-mls-history-first-minute-ejection

 

I wouldn't give him a red card for that, and Nasco also didn't give up 5+ Goals consistently. He also wasn't brought into be a starter.

But I recind what I said, Cesar Delgado, Curtis Spitieri and Russell Payen are the absolute WORST, then Vega.

 

Completely unacceptable. 12 years of excuses. The last MLS win outside of the goofy mid/pre-season MLS Is Back Tournament was on 8/31/19, 17 games ago.

Heads must roll. The Quakes are the MLS equivalent of the Thailand Women's National Team in last year's World Cup.

 

That's not fair to Thailand's women, the Quakes are well paid professional athletes.

 

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was continuing my long-standing habit of following Quakes games just in case one or two of their players eventually got called up to a professional sports team.

That seems increasingly unlikely, so I'm now just following them for comedy.

 

The cheap long shot ones do

 

Fisher - GONE!
Jesse - GONE!
Almeyda - GONE
or
Fans - GONE!

 

Haji is with the Quakes. There has been no player movement since Covid hit.

Hilliard-Arce has 9 appearance this year for Excremento. Scored once from 4 shots. 690 minutes, 8 starts. 91% passing accuracy. 21 clearances, 19 interceptions.

 

Not exactly a hot take, but I think it's time for Almeyda to bite the bullet and abandon the man marking, and just go to a 4-5-1-ish zone. Stay compact and try to win the ball in midfield. Keep your center backs deep enough that you've got some cover and you don't wind up with open 1v1's in the box.

You still have the insistence that everyone "defend and attack", you still have to try to win your 1v1 battles when they arise, but you have some cover if things go sideways, you can still try to prioritize possession and playing out of the back if you can, and you still have the esprit de corps. IOW I think there's enough to take from Almeyda-ism that it can be applied to a more traditional defensive approach and still matter. I mean it's not like they need to go all the way back to DomBall.

Not sure how easy it is to make that transition, and it could be rough for a few games, but it's real rough right now anyway.

Also, not sure how practical it is especially with limited training right now and everything, but imagine if one day you were at least reasonably competent in either system and you could flip a switch and go into either one. You could confuse the heck out of the opposition and also pick and choose which one is going to help you the most given the opposition and their strengths and weaknesses and preparation.

 

You answered yourself here.

So if the odds of them sticking are so low why even spend the resources having them come in just to cut them?

 

This is ridiculous and I'm sure you know it.

Our starters suck. That's the problem. It's not like we've started games off well and then collapsed when we had to make a sub or two, we've been getting blow out from the get. Most of our starters wouldn't make the game day 18 on other clubs. Espinoza, Jackson, and Judson would probably start for other teams, at least some of the time. A few more of our guys could make another MLS roster as subs. But, it's not Beason's fault that our defense sucks. Sure, he's playing like crap right now and we should send him to Reno, but too many of our guys are injured. No, the problem is that Alanis and Kashia are crap, and Flo isn't good enough. Jacob might be alright one day, but he's injured now too.

And, because we are relying on older players, our older players are more likely to get injured and they will take longer to recover from those injuries.

And other teams have worked out how to disassemble our defense. Their dudes run to the sidelines pulling our center dudes with them, which leaves a gaping hole down the middle. So Almeyda is a big part of the problem too. Not just in his coaching and methodology, but in the guys that he brought in who were supposed to be good.

Every bit of our organization sucks. We need a thorough going house cleaning and a complete reboot with new coach, new GM, new players, new ownership, new everything.



Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

We are down to the foundation of rebuilding already. What is there left to rip out... Oh right, ownership.

 

How quickly we have forgotten about Tarbell.

 

Tarbell has found new life as the Crews understudy. He's turned into a very solid keeper. His performances with Columbus have been very good when he plays.

Tarbell was also better then Kramer and Kirk.

 

That's what I said... Our subs are scrubs, our starters should be depth pieces, and we need to find a starting lineup.