Re: New England - San Jose (Saturday, 4/17) pregame thread A fine first half for the Quakes. Clearly the better team, which is a pleasant surprise on the road against solid opposition. Some good opportunities created, finishing left something to be desired but this is always an issue and I'd much rather dominate in other aspects. I hope SJ won't do what that other team did today.
Re: New England - San Jose (Saturday, 4/17) pregame thread We played like crap in first half. They forgot how to pass. Both Donovan and DeRosario are blackholes for this offense in first half.
Re: New England - San Jose (Saturday, 4/17) pregame thread If this was a "fine first half" I'm really worried about our team. A complete lack of possession, most of our chances have come off of the counter. The defenders seem unable to clear the ball to anyone but New England, and we're clearly being out-muscled and dispossesed in the midfield. It's been a weak performance, marred by poor finishing. I hope for better in the second half.
Re: New England - San Jose (Saturday, 4/17) pregame thread Like the first game, we look drunk in the first half (to steal someone elses discription). Yeah, we've had some chances, but we need to play a hell of a lot better. More energy, more coordination, more commitment. I dont care if we win 3-0 like this, our commitment and energy has been pathetic. What makes it so frustrating is you can see glimpses of a really good team out there on the field, but its just glimpses. That needs to be strung together.
Was the Revs goal offside? Here's the appropriate text from the Laws of the Game: A player is in an offside position if: - he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent A player is not in an offside position if: - he is in his own half of the field of play or - he is level with the second last opponent or - he is level with the last two opponents Schrader and Vermes were looking at the replay and discussing whether or not Twellman was even with Moore when the pass was made. Onstad was the only man back, though, and the LOTG refer to "the second last opponent." From that description, it sounds as though it was offside. I'm not sure I've ever seen it called that way but then again, I don't see too many situations where two players are in alone on the keeper. Can anybody shed some light on this?
Finally...they're back. And decent refereeing didn't hurt--I was glad to see those early yellows. And yeah, that goal looked offsides, but given the outcome, I'm not that upset. Plus those were three beautiful goals. DeRo's is already destined to be among the season's highlights.
On the NE goal, I thought Twellman was ahead of the ball, but frankly NE had enough chances that Im happy to call it even and move on with things. 2nd half had its moments of the Quakes of last year. Not just glimpses, but whole movements. Clearly this team is not going to come out of the gate like in years past, but hopefully as the season goes on we will see a coherent team. I am pissed that Franchino basicly hacked Mullan out of the game. F'ing thug.
great performance by the team,finally it seems like they were clicking again.Everyone did their job,even though De ro got MOTM,my vote was for Onstad he made some incredible saves to perserve the win.first win by the DOM as a head coach.
Dom finally gets his first win. Onstad denies the Revs twice on goal and plays solid. No clean sheet, but did enough to keep the lads off the loss column. Landon still is snakebit on the goals--another easy one doesn't go in, but he makes it up with the 2 assists. Ching is back! After sustaining the injury last year, cutting short his 2003 season, he's overcome that obstacle to score that goal. Alvarez did fine with the goal--he might be making a case to get more minutes. DeRo--bike--nuff said. Possible GOTY. However, he's not the player of the game in my book--maybe on some other day. That goes to Landon for the 2 assists. Too bad about the miss though. Now, with Ching and DeRo on the scoreboard and contributing, how can you get these guys to play on the same pitch next week? Maybe, take out Russell and move Landon back as an attacking midfielder. Twellman gets on the board early, but gets stopped for the rest of the game. He might have to ask the kit man to give him a better pair of pants. Anyway, finally 3 points for the Quakes. Colorado in the Mile High City is going to be a very fierce match, especially since it's the first match with The Joe as part of the opposition. Cheers!
What a way to come alive. Once I saw the Twellman goal I knew that was the fire the team needed to get going. Now some player ratings: Donovan - A: Very active game from Landon. Finally the exciting combination play we've seen from him before. The two assists were great, and that was an excellent cross on the Alvarez goal. DeRosario - A: Has Dwayne settled into his role of target forward? I don't know, but I hope so. I can't fault him for the few times he tried to turn when he should have just held because the finish on that goal was a thing of beauty and warrants an A in itself. The job of a target forward is to score and he did. Russell - B-: Not so good from Ian, but he seemed to settle down more once he was able to slide into the right. Either way, no glaring errors and no yellow cards means at least a B. Mulrooney - A: Through the first half, Richard was certainly our man of the match. He was all over the field, stopping Revolution attacks and contributing offensively. He seemed to do less in the second half, but judging by how we played I suppose "less is more." Ekelund - A: Great game from Ronnie. He was controlling possesion and I sliding in through-balls the entire game. Clever passing, pin point accuracy, and strong ball control means Ekelund gets an A. Alvarez - A-: I won't give Mullan a grade because he was clearly hurt, but Arturo looked pretty good, and the finishing gave him the A for sure. The minus is for a lack of output, but he didn't kill any of our attacks, put in a few good balls, and even tracked back on defense. Hart - B: Wes played a pretty solid game but there were some pretty scary moments. He played a few good balls forward, but in the first half almost everyone in the back was guilty of poor clearances. As such, he deserves a B. Robinson - A-: Defensively, a solid game from Eddie with a few minor errors. His balls from the back weren't so good though, warranting the "-", but central defense was solid the whole game. Dayak - A: Troy played an awesome game. He won balls, out-muscled New England, and nearly even scored a goal. He was constantly involved on offense and did very well marking and tracking back onto defense. Agoos - A-: The defense only yielded that one poor goal. It was clear that Jeff was being beaten a few times due to speed but he's such a strong defender that he more than makes up for it with his skill. A nice try on goal with that free kick. Onstad - A+: To all the Onstad haters, "shut up." Onstad made three fantastic saves that kept us in the game. There was nothing he could have done on the Twellman goal, offsides or not offsides. A good game and I hope for another solid performance on the road in Colorado next week.
In first half they looked like they were allergic to soccer ball. They were too eager to boot it down field once they have it. Donovan and Derosario were not helping because they keep losing the ball or making bad passes. The constant long ball is getting tiresome to watch. In second half, we were able to knock the ball around more and keep possession. I have nothing against long balls, but we should mix long balls with buildup's.
1st half sucked....I admit, I was worried. 2nd half was fantastic....by end of the game Dad and I were saying that our boys are back. Let's hope this is what they needed to jump start things this year. Great game boys!
I second that. Where is Noah Dahl? Maybe he wasn't watching the game and had to play goalkeeper with his O-89 league (old ladies 89 years of age and older). Too bad, that is certainly the best goddamned goalkeeping I have seen today (not Noah Dahl's) in MLS.
OK - I have a confession to make: I slept through the game!!!!! I was taking a nap, and somehow my circadian clock malfunctioned and.... Is this game going to be replayed on TV later, or am I SOL?
You can watch it on Yahoo! webcast, it's pretty good quality (if you got DSL or cable) http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/audio;_ylc=X3oDMTBpZGpxOWI1BF9TAzk1ODYyNDM2BHNlYwN0bQ--
Whoah CQF... we had some good moments, but I hardly would say our performance was that outstanding. Ill take the win every day of the week, but there was plenty of room for improvement.
It will definitely be rebroadcast on FSW later. I thought it was Monday, but check it out for him, Ringo.
Yep. There's a bit of the fans that still love Joe, me included, but Canuck Pat was in the driver's seat aside from the early goal that Twellman scored early. He's back and in form, especially with the win. Preserving the lead and denying a chance on goal is certainly going to get a goalie some cred. Too bad he didn't have the blocker and glove to go along with those moves. Cheers!