Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Sporting Kansas City (Friday, 10/16) postgame thread [R]

Nice goal by Godoy!

 

Sharks won ugly, almost gave me hypertension. Then comes the Quakes, could have died from a heart attack.

I'm surprised I haven't pulled out all my hairs from following these two teams...

 

Some very nice football at times , but, as usual they made us sweat. What I was really happy about was this team looked like they cared and wanted to win. That's what I want to see in my team!!!

It has to be said... What the f*** is Stott still doing referring in this league. He was awful at his best now...just atrocious and both teams should feel upset with his decisions!!!

 

Considering how much shuffling weve had to do in the lineup the last few months of the season, tonight seemed appropriate. Everything was harder to do then it should have been, but I was pleased with the fight in the team. Team will finish with at worst a .500 record. Thats a big improvement over last year.

And I want to emphasize the total lack of consistency weve had to deal with in our lineup all year. I think it would have been challenging for a team that knew itself at the start of the year, but for as much change as weve had to make from last year it sort of shows up in games like this. Whatever happens I feel like we are setup to do better next year.

 

The supporters sections were much fuller than they have been recently.

 

Nice to see scarves handed out at half time to some deserving folks. We were creating some ridiculously good chances, especially in that second half but our finishing let us down again. Nice that Godoy pounced on that great Wondo cross. Goodson had a great game, MPG not so much.

 

Back from the game.

Good game. The goal was a thing of orchestrated beauty, with about three players setting it up before Godoy applied the finish. Great team effort. There were a number of other nice sequences and tricky moves which, if only they had ended in a goal, I imagine would have garnered quite a bit of replay action online. A shame there was only the one.

Lovely stuff by Amerikwa, giving it his full all game long as usual. And again, although Shea makes mistakes (e.g. a tendency to hold the ball too long), I still think he makes an impression on these games.

SKC came out playing for the tie, and we know how well that usually works out. Their strategy for hanging on to their playoff spot was to amp up the gamesmanship and become a bunch of thugs. Embarrassing, actually. Diver (# 14), as I called him, was especially a piece of work. They got what they deserved. Some folks have been saying on these boards that the Quakes don't deserve a playoff spot; if that is so, SKC deserves one even less.

Stott and company basically phoned it in tonight. I could practically see him dialing.

Anyways, I'm glad we can chalk in a "W" for the last home game of the season.

 

What I want to know - Did Dom actually play only 3 in the back in the first half!?! As if our season depended on this game!?! I know Alashe was announced as a CB, but he spent most of the 1st half in the attacking 1/3rd. Pig fly!!

 

Salinas had another great game. His dribbling skills seem to have finally caught up with his pace. The guys can seemingly get around anyone as of late. Credit has to go partly to Dom for giving him the freedom to roam and to take people on.

 

KC does not have quick outside backs and Salinas knows it, and goes into Confident Shea mode. Same issues with the final ball but given all of the opportunities for final ball he creates, a few of them are going to go good.

 

Glad to see we were much the better side tonight. Also glad to see that not only did we persevere through the suspensions of Muma and Pelosi, we earned another clean sheet too!

Now we'll have to deal with Godoy being suspended for Dallas.

 

Nice to see Dom play Wynne at CB to free Alashe to play in the midfield...Wynne scares the hell out of me though... My heart stops whenever he's on the ball under pressure. So many great chances, we just couldn't get that pressure relieving second goal...normally that bites you in the butt...we caught a huge break on their free header.

I thought we showed some very nice stuff...just couldn't finish.

We live to fight another day...too bad Godoy is out for Dallas, but we should be able to get by with Alashe and Pelosi...I think we'll be okay.

We still haven't seen the first 11 get on at the same time...won't happen in Dallas either.

I don't understand all the gloom and doom...Dom this and Dom that...we're in pretty good shape. If we can ever get our first 11 on...we'll do some damage...no apologies necessary.

 

We are probably going to see the introduction of the Alashe - Pelosi midfield. I'm guessing that they are going to be a bit skittish. The Quakes will miss Godoy's confidence / strength on the ball. Alashe and Pelosi tend to hurry / force passes at times.

I was actually surprised at how KC played. I thought they'd bunker but they kind of did the opposite - they kind of doubled down on their high pressure. And it worked for a while. Eventually the Quakes started to get some good attacks going, largely through strong individual efforts by Quincy and Salinas. Quincy's ability to pull down long passes and just wreak havoc on the defense has been a huge boost to the Quakes attack. And twice he made center backs look silly 1v1 when he was running at goal. Now if he could just finish those chances :--(.

Although it turned out to be another root canal kind of finish as the Quakes struggled to hold onto their lead, they generated a lot of chances in this game, so it was different than a lot of those other 1-0 games. I think that is due to KC not bunkering so much, but trying to pressure all over the field. And then of course when they got behind they started taking more chances going forward and that opened up opportunities.

One more thing - I have watched a number of these Argentinean attacking players now - "Burrito" Martinez, the two guys in Portland, Melano and the other guy who doesn't seem to even play much, and Valeri. I think all of those guys are DP's. Although he doesn't show up on the stat sheet that much, I would take MPG over all the rest of those guys with the exception of Valeri.

 

Yes, some of those were surprises. Not that they weren't deserving folks but because they weren't necessarily members of Kaval's Koffee Klatch / Google Glass brigade. Congrats to Don G, and Dan from the ultras, and all the other deserving folks!

 

A fun one.

Probably the best home performance, certainly at Avaya. The LA match at Stanford was another highlight.

Really, everyone played well. Yes, the finishing (actually, the aiming) should be better. Mikey Lopez missed an easy chance that would have given SKC a pretty undeserved tie.

Bummer that Godoy misses the next must win in Dallas.

No complaints with Kinnear's lineup or substitutions. MPG played his heart out and he was done. Jahn for Amarikwa was a time waster, nothing else.

The atmosphere was excellent. It should be like tonight at every MLS match, save the occasional midweek one. The open end works better in the dark. It is less distracting for me and others on the opposite end line and I figure it is less inviting to sit on the grass in the cool evening, steering people to their seats.

I attribute the increased attendance and improved energy level and atmosphere in 117/118 to the Ultras omitting the big flags tonight. Rather than fleeing the sections for a better view, as in past games, lots of people joined the area during tonight's game. The popularity of 117/118 and the Ultras membership will explode if the Ultras take heed of tonight's success in the upper Supporters Section.

 

Well, this isn't good...

Jeff Carlisle ‏@JeffreyCarlisle 2h2 hours ago
According to a SKC staffer, a drunk fan just walked into KC locker room & started saying stuff to KC players. We'll see what Vermes says.

Jeff Carlisle ‏@JeffreyCarlisle 2h2 hours ago
Peter Vermes confirmed that a fan entered KC's locker room but wasn't sure what was said. "We got the guy out of there. It was ridiculous."

Jeff Carlisle ‏@JeffreyCarlisle 2h2 hours ago
More Vermes on the fan who got into KC's locker room. "He was not lost. He meant to come into our locker room." #SportingKC

 

i guess the traffic was really bad tonight, cause at kickoff it was empty. but filled in nice. i'd say about 85% full.

really wish that Quincy would have done another of the exact same turn around the KC goalie, as he did on that defender. think he had the room. that would have been EPIC and the MLS goal of the year.
i'm glad we got the 3 points, even though KC were being thugs.
i don't see how Godoy thought that he could get away with that two footed lunge and not get a yellow card. really dumb of him.
and i would have liked to have seen the subs 10 minutes earlier, DOM!

 

Enjoyable game, although I about had a heart attack when Nyassi gave away the ball on ANOTHER soft back pass deep in our own end. This one was maybe even worse. Last time it resulted in a game tying goal, right? Feeling fortunate today.

 

As much as you can say the Quakes were the better team all game, if KC had tied it then it would have been easy to say nobody deserved to win. They waste so many opportunities and these one goal games can swing the wrong way on a single bad play (as we saw multiple times in the last month and a half ). They made the GK look too good several times.

Wondo's first assist of the season was a big one.