Wait a minute, isn’t that the same period where he said that Stahre and company were youth soccer coaches??
He said that the team was playing like "youth soccer", not that the coaches were coaching like youth soccer coaches. The way he frames it is that the coaches are doing their best but ultimately, it's no use, they just don't have the players to compete. So again, I ask, how did we make the playoffs in 2017 but in 2018, getting a full year of Vako and Erisksson coming in, we suddenly don't have the players to compete? There wasn't much turnover I don't think - 2017 to 2018. https://quakesepicenter.com/2018/07/12/florian-jungwirth-we-dont-have-the-quality-to-compete/
Id answer this, but rather then waste my time with logic and the actual reasons... Id rather waste my time derailing threads and stalking your posts.
I appreciated Flo's candor -- he didn't try to hide his emotions off or on the field. He was a fan favorite when he was here and I know a lot of us were sad when he left, but such is the way of Quakes fandom.
I liked everything about Flo, but I think saying that your teammates are just not good enough to compete is very much the wrong thing to do IMO. But it was just one comment or handful of sentences one time, and doesn't affect my overal opinion of him.
He's only 34 which isn’t young but he is only a defender who doesn’t have to run too much. Looking at his stats, he only played in 13 games last year. He must be injured so he probably decided to retire and start coaching.
Jungwirth's value as a player plummeted pretty fast after the first couple years in San Jose. He just couldn't move fast enough to keep up with the pace of the game. He was constantly out of position, made poor late challenges, and was generally ineffective. I thought he was older than he is, so it's a shame his playing career couldn't have gone longer, but I hope he finds success as a coach. He definitely seemed to enjoy the leadership role.
He was healthy all year for the most part, he was just out of favor with the coach. He couldn't beat out the guys in front of him.
The Quakes last season anyway, could definitely have used Flo either on defense or midfield. I’ll never understand why Almeyda got rid of him because I think he could have helped out. He certainly wouldn’t have been worse than anyone else on the roster.
They didn’t “get rid of him”. They made the trade for Jebo because they needed a striker. That put them over the salary cap and they had to trade a high salary player to be in compliance and Flo was the guy. Basically they traded Ebobisse for Jungwirth and that was a great deal.
Considering he hardly ever played in 2022, they should have tried to get him back. Whether he dropped in quality or form is another story. If he was still the player he was when he left, Flo wouldn’t have been worse than any other defender or midfielder on the roster in 2022 anyway. I haven’t seen many better players to replace him.
Players who are already on the slow side are not going to be able to extend their careers much into their 30's. They can't afford to lose another step. I'm surprised Flo made it to 34, but then again, he started only about 30% of the games since we traded him to VC, so his career was already winding down.