4/3: Earthquakes @ Loss Angeles [R] All Discussion

I must admit that both goals were world class!
Landan Donovan goal MLS LA Galaxy v San Jose 03/04/08
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HBSw3V1XvnE

 

This is what I'm saying when LA lost to Colorado 4-0. They will really try and win at home, on national tv. It's just too bad it's against us.

On the positive side of things, notice that we did not get beaten the dreaded 4-0 scoreline (top teams like NE and even LA has), so goal differential wise, we're ok for now. Another positive is that, it really looked all nerves to me especially the younger players. We could have peppered that goal with Steve Cronin on (their defenders really worked hard last night)---I mean who's afraid of Steve Cronin? Sorry Stevie.

The downside for LA: if they continue to play the way they did last night, they will be toast when they are against a non-expansion team.

The coverage: Jaysus, you'd think ESPN was owned by the Galaxy! Very few mention of SJ let alone showing them on TV--all glorious comments on LD and Beckham (which is ok but it was just too much).

The highlight was seeing our commercial on national tv This was the Guy Gayle one.

And yeah----WE'RE BAAAAACCCCCKKKK!!!!!

 

An excellent post Richard and might I add well written. LA is not a good football squad, we made them look good by playing like an expansion team and yes, Houston or DC United would have kicked their collective asses yesterday had they played them. Funny how the league scheduled 2 expansion teams and one supposed "soft" team to start the galaxy's season.
The fact that our goal was disallowed doesn't surprise me, MLS officials are notoriously bad and that hasn't changed in 2 years of absence. ESPN's own replay showed that there was, in fact, no offside involved in the goal, why do you think they only showed it once?
Our offense tonight was non-existent, they generated no threat after the goal, I never once anticipated anything to happen when our forwards had the ball at their feet. This is my chief concern, we don't have a proven goal scorer and this will haunt us all seaon long if we don't address it. Midfield has to shoulder a lot of the blame as well, doing "dump and run" soccer is pointless if you don't have anybody to collect the ball with some sort of control.
Listening to those idiot broadcasters kiss LA's ass all night was akin to slow torture. We get it, you like LA, move on please.
Funniest part of the whole evening: About the 80th minutes, Beckham has the ball in our third of the pitch and is cleanly stripped of the ball, he turns to the side official, who is 10 feet away and hasn't called any kind of foul, and looks at him, just looks at him. The said official then starts waiving his flag wildly to indicate a foul only AFTER Goldenballs looks his way. You could just hear him saying "Yes Mr. Beckham" "Sorry Mr. Beckham" Won't happen again Mr Beckham" I laughed my arse off! It was the only bright moment of the entire match.

 

Two well-taken goals and that's that. But aside from Beckham and Donovan, there's only a hair's difference between the two teams. Outside of those two, I'd take our players # 3-18 over theirs any day of the week.

And all I have to say beyond that is thank you, thank you, thank you Frank for leaving Alan Gordon in LA.

 

Glad to see ESPN got what they wanted, a Galaxy win. From the "preview" they did during half time of the NE/Chicago game, to the "Up next, Beckham and the Galaxy" sign off of that game, you'd swear LA was going to be the only team on the field last night.

The disallowed goal doesn't bother me too much. That's one of the toughest calls to make for a linesman. Had it counted, however, LA may have imploded again like they did Saturday night. The Galaxy didn't impress me one bit. Two gifts from the Quakes was all they we're able to muster.

The Quakes lost possession too easily. They forced passes when they didn't need to, but they had nothing going for them in the attacking 1/3. They'll come around, but it will look a lot like last year's Toronto FC.

If I were neutral, I would have had a real difficult time watching that game last night. Very poor quality. However, the Quakes will get better. The Galaxy?????

 

To possess the ball is NOT everything. I agree. On the other hand, there are several positive consequences to actually being able to possess the ball well:
1) It helps the defense #1. If you have the ball, the other team doesn't.
2) It helps the defense #2. If you have the ball, you can make the other team chase, pursue, and run harder trying to get the ball back. Yes, you have to run, move, create options for teammates, etc. but you usually have to run harder on defense.
3) It helps the attack #1. Duh.
4) It helps the attack #2. The long-ball is much more effective when unexpected. If you spend most of the game passing the ball, working it forward, trying to find cracks and openings in the defense, the other team comes to expect that. Hit a long-ball when the team is expecting you to work it forward slowly, and you've got a better chance of surprising the team. Go back to the passing after that and you probably have a tiny bit of extra space to work with because the D jest dealt with a long-ball.
5) It helps the attack #3. If you pass to seek out openings in the other team's D, you may have to try a variety of approaches: work it down the left, doesn't work, pass back, try the right side, not there, pass back, try the left again, switch fields, oops, too slow, pass back, down the gut..... The benefit there is you might identify some of the other team's weaknesses quicker. If you keep lobbing the ball over the midfield, you give the other guys a good chance to win the ball and only find out how the team responds to a lobbed pass.
Finally, I don't care if we have trouble creating dangerous chances with each and every attack right now. I'd rather see us play a possession game, learn to dictate the tempo to suit us, and make the other teams do the hard running. I think that the passing game will lead to a much better team and a much better attack in the not too distant future. I'll raise my standards for attacking quality later.

RSL went that way too. Drafting promising young players galores. Personally, I don't see our team needing more unproven potential -- I see us needing proven talent. I think overseas signings -- maybe MLS trades -- are the way forward right now. Until the draft starts producing several players who can dominate in the league, I'm not sure we need it as much as you suggest. (For example, replace: Razov, Marsch, Galindo, Suarez, and Mendoza with players Chivas could have drafted in the past two years and explain to me how you think Chivas would be an equal or better team.)

That said, I'm a draft advocate -- I just think it won't be until year three or four that it matters that much to us.

I agree with Alan S. I think if we had just come off an embarrassing loss, we would have had more focus and intensity too. I also agree that a proven forward and A-mid would go a long way towards improving our team. I think most of our players WERE playing with intensity, but I seem to have the minority opinion there, so... Finally, ROB is no Brian Mullan. Mullan is the *perfect* Yallop-style winger. I don't know if I want to see us start this way, but what do you all think about Salinas out wide (reminds me a little bit of Mullan) with ROB as AM? I wouldn't mind seeing that for at least part of a game. Then again, it's early going still - maybe Grabavoy is about to turn the corner and find his groove....

100% agree.

Inconsiderate but true. The "inconsiderate" part is valid though. And there are easy ways to keep result talk out of thread titles or non-relevant threads (results tags, not posting results or result give-aways in new threads). A week? That does seem extreme, but the night of the game doesn't seem like too much to ask for. You obviously disagree -- to each their own ...except for that pesky TOS stuff.

In response to (1): I thought most of our players showed good attitude and hard work last night. They ran and worked hard. So perhaps we just disagree about that. My opinion is that they ran too hard -- they ran themselves out of a good defensive team shape sometimes. (Result: more running.) The way I see it, they have the attitude and work-rate, but they need to do better keeping their team shape.

In response to (2): OK. Then again, we just disagree. You are saying that before anything else we need to develop/get/find/have "plain old garden variety toughness", and I'm saying it's more important to learn to keep a good team shape (on D especially, but also in attack) and possess the ball better (better possession, more variety in style of attack).

 

Can't say the disallowed goal doesn't bother me, but it certainly didn't surprise me, the attacker almost never gets that call no matter what the rules say. I thought the Quakes started brightly, and LA looked flat and on their heels. If that goal scores it would have been oh sh*%, here we go again. Then the Quakes lay the ball at Donovans feet, and suddenly LA believes in the Donovan-Beckham dream team and they played at a whole different level. Both goals were on mistakes by the Quakes, 0-0 wasn't out of reach. We have no attack, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. More time together and a good foreign acquisition and they'll be competitive. The Cup is a couple of years away yet.

 

Let's look on the bright side. Did we want to win just because LA sucked? Do we want no mountain to climb? I'm glad the Galaxy got their crap together although I wish we had been more cohesive. It will taste all the sweeter when they're finally looking back at us.

 

Good post, T. Especially this part. Dellacamera sunk to lowest depths of butt-sucking.

 

That is of the essence; A point more should realize.

 

Lots of players just didn't play well but it is nothing that can't be fixed. Yalllop's calm demeanor made it obvious he will be patient. Grabavoy was invisible first half but MUCH better in the second. ROB was way off his game and the players just don't know each other yet. That will come. I do think L.A. would have collapsed if that goal was allowed.

I was happy for the league because if L.A. fails with Beckham it hurts the whole league not just L.A.

I agree about the broadcasters. Corrales' first 5 free kicks/corners were every bit as good as Beckham's but they didn't even mention it. However, we have to remember that ESPN is literally the Beckham MLS channel so it should be expected.

We gave the ball away. You can't mark all the time, even when you are in possession. We have all gone somewhere to support when our team has the ball only for someone to cough it up. You just can't get back in time.

BTW, I think the uniforms are cool.

 

My thoughts:

1 - I am liking our new kit finally. Nice contrast between the shorts and jersey.
2 - I am just happy we are back.
3 - We can't expect much this season. My hope is to not finish last. So I am giving the team a pass this season and taking a more neutral stance in games, otherwise I will have high blood pressure all season.
4 - I know it was a first game but we were pretty bad. I don't think anyone had a great game. First touches were hideous. Some players seemed to slow down when they got the ball instead of running with the ball with pace.
5 - We made the Galaxy look good, especially Chris Klein. He was a regular Cafu out there.
6 - Too bad I don't drink otherwise that is what I am recommending before our games to dull the pain.
7 - Next season I WILL expect MUCH better.
8 - Thank God the Qaukes are back though! Thanks SSV and thanks Lew Wolfe.

 

I'm sure you meant score again, although, given that the Galaxy dog and pony show was being held at the same time, I'm sure the second goal would have been disallowed also.

 

A good amount of your supporters came down and were visible from all parts of the stadium.

Don't think your season will be as bad as Toronto's first one.

Here's to reviving the rivalry.

 

I don't see that at all...
I don't think we were all that impressive either, but to say that was all we were able to muster? no.
our problem last night was that one Alan Gordon was on the delivering end of what we were mustering...
he had a wide open header off a corner kick that he put over, a breakaway he tripped over, i believe a sitter that he screwed up... then Donovan tried to reward him at the end for his hustle by trying to cross to him rather than taking the shot....

Pires missed slightly wide on a glancing header that had Cannon beat, and Cannon stuffed Ely Allen early on in the match, when he got around his man and was in on him. i think we had 8 shots on goal, 11 total, so I'd say we mustered a lot of opportunities, but we only put 2 away.

and interesting how the whole "gifts" idea works....
when it's your team screwing up, "oh, we gave them two gifts"...
but last week when it was the LA D that screwed up, it was because we sucked and we are worse than a USL-2 side.
Apply that same logic to your own team... if people aren't covering their markers, or are losing the ball... then perhaps you suck. If Colorados forwards run through our D, we are old and suck. If Donovan runs past the SJ D, then it is a gift..... hmmmmm...

i'll end on a positive though. I thought all in all, SJ was OK. My personal opinion was that you did get screwed on the offside call. it looked like a valid goal to me. That said, we got a bad call last saturday that changed the outlook from then on, and we got no sympathy, so.... i'm not in too much of a mood to give any here. better luck next time.

 

My thoughts after a tough first game:

Lots and lots of nerves out there. It was like we were trying TOO hard and just not playing smart. You could tell we settled down in the second half, but we're not going to be a "come from behind" team this year. Yallop-ball has always been about getting the first goal and throttling the attack. We almost did that last night.

Now, about improvements. We need to do everything in our power to get Danny Califf if he comes back to MLS. Both Cochran and Garcia are NOT organizers. They are better stopper backs and do well if given a specific assignment. With Danny leading the defense, you wouldn't see as many open players and missed defensive assignments. Also, just how bad are we going to be when Garcia and Cochran have to miss time with cards and injuries? Real bad. Doyle, go get Danny ASAP!

Midfield, it's time to move ROB into the CAM spot. Someone mentioned we could have really used DeRosario. Well, ROB has many of the skills that DeRo has. Grabavoy does not. Take away the majority of ROB's defensive assignments and let him concentrate on pushing forward, taking long range shots and drawing fouls. He can hit a pretty good free kick with his right, and Corrales has a good left foot. We have guys that can score on free kicks, so let's find a way to create those opportunities. Also, we drafted Salinas to run the line and stretch defenses. Give him that opportunity.


In my opinion, Yallop should have started Vide and put him in Beckham's shirt last night. If Beckham gets enough touches on the ball, you will lose period. I don't expect to stop him, but you must limit his time on the ball. Leaving him open is an invitation to disaster against LA. I'd rather have Donovan with the ball than Beckham.

I'd love to see a better striker, but I'd prefer to see Cunliffe and Kamara teamed up as a starting pair for a few games before I'd beg to trade for Jeff Cunningham or someone like him. I think Cunliffe has a poacher's instincts and he would mesh well with Kamara.

If we don't control the midfield better than what we did last night, it's not going to matter WHO the strikers are, they won't get many quality chances.

 

Interesting reading some of the posts here. It started out all doom and gloom, with whing that "we suck", and so and so sucked, etc. But then more rational posts came in, taking the bad with the good, and yes, there was good.

My take - it was a pretty even match, and SJ looked pretty good and organized for an expansion team on it's very first official game.

The differences were one goal taken away on a bad offiside call (and it was a real nice free kick, and run and header). One bad errant back pass that Donvan pounced on and fed Beckham (who took the chance perfectly), then some great combination passing with Beckham feeding Donovan with a world class first touch, perfectly placed, pass, and Donovan speeding past the not alert Corrales and putting a nice lob over Cannon.

That's it - a goal taken away on a bad offside call (it happens), a goal given up on a horrible back pass, and a world class goal produced by a world class player (Becks), and the USA's all time leading scorer.

The rest of the game was pretty even, and SJ looked like a real pro team at times, and like a disjointed sloppy expansion side at other times.

Some individual analysis:

Cannon - good - couldn't have done any better on the two goals. Looked solid throughout.

Garcia - tackling and marking solid. Wasn't perfect, but had a good game.

Cocharane - Same as Garcia. Another post blamed the goals on him, but I did not see that. One of the goals was a bad back pass intercepted by Donovan (I think the pass was Corrales), and the other was just great passing and a great lob by Donovan.

Hernandez - Very good on the left side of defense. Marking was good, good hustle, decent service to mids.

Riley - works hard and has speed, but he had a rough night. Got beat a lot, and gave up to many turnovers in distributing to mids.

O'Brien - had some pretty decent moments, but otherwise a sub par game for a player of his caliber. He seemed to step up the urgency late in the game, and got involved more, but I expect better, and I think he will get better.

Corrales - I think the bad back pass was him, but not sure. Also seemed a bit lackadasical in tracking back on the great Beckham pass that Donovan got. But also seemed pretty skilled and confident on the ball.

Grabavoy - Rather useless as a creative playmaking midielder, but also had good posession play - good tackling and short passing. Based on last night, I see him as a holding mid, not an attacking mid.

Guererro - decent, did not hurt the team, nor did he really help the team much. Not bad, but rather annonymous.

Salinas - looked somewhat dangerous in the first 20 minutes, but was rather invisible after. But then again, did not get any good service either.

Kamara - Did not get good service, but looked pretty good in winning balls and staving off defenders. Shows good hustle, speed, strength.

In short, goalie, the back line (other than Riley, but I think he'll get better), and perhaps O'Brien, look like real strengths. But everyone else is pretty much journeyman level (which is pretty much what you expect for an expansion team).

And that gives me optimism. They played the Gals pretty well (and the Gals played much better than their opening game). Also, SJ still has roster spots to fill, and money under the cap, and a DP slot. I suspect the needs for a real goal scorer and perhaps some more creativity in midfield will both be filled in the upcoming months. Yallop has said that they've been working on signing a Euro player for the forward spot, but can't disclose due to the player being under contract, and that he's pretty confident of landing the player. So we'll see about that.

 

alright, i'm going to give my opinion on this too....
LA has been BLASTED for building thier team as they have... it looks like we are going for glamour with big names ... and given the salary cap, that means we are forced to use some very inexperienced players to fill out the roster.

I believe this is an AEG philosophy for our team: I believe they are going for an 80's lakers showtime type of attacking soccer. i'm not sure it will work in a league with a salary cap like ours BECAUSE you can only fill so many spots with big name players, BUT that is the gamble.

Other teams may adopt a more pedestrian approach trying to build a solid base of role players with a few pretty good MLS men, but no superstars. that approach seems to work pretty well actually.

The whole point is how the philosophy plays out.
It's a little ridiculous then to moan about these players being difference makers, and only them. Well yeah... that's what they were brought in to do!!!
That's our gamble. of course when one of those players goes down, like Beckham last year, and Carlos Ruiz this year, then the gamble looks pretty bad... but when it works, it's silly to make the claim that it's all we have and the rest of the squad isn't up to standard. If we didn't have those players, then we'd have room to buy up more solid overall depth, but we'd lack the difference makers.

 

Scary, but I think this is pretty close to right. The supposed strength of our team, the defense, was poor for a professional side. Cochrane blew the first LAG goal, clear and simple. The second goal was either Cochrane and/or Joe Cannon. Looked to me like Joe might have called Cochrane off. That's the only way I can see Joe trying to close that ball down, because he was clearly in no-man's land.

Also, not liking Riley at right back.

There was a real problem connecting the defense to the midfield. Way too many balls were intercepted by the Galaxatives coming from defense to mid. Terrible linkage. And Ramiro isn't much of a playmaker. Grabavoy? Did he have a touch in the first half? Not sure Ronnie O'Brien at center mid makes sense, either, because I'm not sure he has any range to cover on defense.

The offense was basically non-existent. 3 shots, 2 on goal. Non-existent, but not a total surprise.

Here's what has me really concerned. The LAG are not a good team. I see them struggling to make the playoffs again. Even still, the Galaxatives should have won 4-1 or so, if there was a half-decent striker on their team.

The real positive is that it was the first real game for the team. The team will get better. Tight at home, not shelled on the road, that would be decent for the Quakes.

 

Classic. Did you see Beckham give the half-hearted grin? He knew that he had been given the call and probably shouldn't have...

 

You guys do suck and are a USL-2 side. We are just worse than that because all we got is a average old MLS keeper and the dregs of MLS. We are a expansion team with no players of any worth. You guys are the supposed "super club" of MLS LOL. You can't hold us to the same standard.

 

Huge, huge point and one that I had failed to consider. Garcia had Conrad and Cochrane had Robinson (who may not as a good of organizer as Conrad, but is physical skills are better). I wasn't a big fan of Cochrane with the Quakes because his positioning was horrible and decision making not much better. He is much better, but there was some major defensive organizational problems that need to be addressed...

I don't know if ROB is 100% at the moment. If he is 100%, then he has lost a step and doesn't have the speed to play outside. Another reason to move him inside. He played better in the second half, but some of his passes were surpisingly poor.

Midfield? We had a midfield. It looked like our plan was to hold the ball and dump to the corners. Problem was our outside mids weren't making the runs and our forwards are still learning to make diagonal runs. I expect a lot more from our midfield.