Post-match: Portland Timbers - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 7/7) postgame thread [R]

It’s up to the GM to put structures in place, but that also costs a lot of money. Again, back to why ownership and organization.

I simply disagree with your analogy that we’re all driving more or less the same car. There are some teams in the league with customized sports cars and some with stock sedans. Bring Pep here to coach this team and see how much better he does. It doesn’t matter what tactics or lineups, this collection of players we’ve had on our roster for years on end simply is not good enough.

 

Kaval was a John Fisher hire.

 

Thanks, Who is throwing Kaval's name around . I'm curious, who else is in the mix at that point for the owners to select. Did they hire a firm to identify candidates to run a soccer team for them or did someone in the A's organization mention Kaval and they just went with it.

 

In summer 2010, after the Quakes lost in consecutive weeks at home to Seattle and on the road in Colorado (and Wondo was not yet understood to be Wondo), and it appeared that the Quakes would suffer a third straight season out of the playoffs, Fisher hired Kaval as a redundant executive to independently evaluate David Alioto, who was the executive in charge of the Quakes at that point. (A's president Mike Crowley was nominally also president of the Quakes, but his job was to be the bean counter.) By the end of the season, Alioto was gone.

Unlike Alioto (or Crowley), Kaval was not an internal A's hire. Fisher knew Kaval from having been pitched on investing in Kaval's minor league baseball venture. Fisher took a liking to him.

 

Hiring a firm to identify candidates is not a magical elixir.

 

Hasn’t Kaval now presided over 2 failing teams?

 

Kaval got a decent stadium built in San Jose. He may still succeed in doing the same in Oakland.

 

Yes he has a fascination for stadiums. I don’t follow the A’s, so how has their team performance been since he took over?

 

I don't follow the A's either. I have a standing invitation from Kaval for free tickets to come watch them, but for some reason the urge has not overcome me.

 

Yes, they did hire a firm.

 

It pains me no end to say this (because I try to be an optimistic, happy-go-lucky kind of guy), but my beloved Q's have completely wasted:

1. The opening of a charming new soccer-specific stadium, and

2. The career of Wondo, one of MLS' most prolific scorer in its history.

3. And, all the positive, warm fuzzies with the team resurrecting itself in San Jose.

Except for the fact there's no relegation, we have become Sunderland. . .

 

Tommy and Hyka over Godoy and Eriksson next match. Call up Marcinkowski and bench tarbell.

I don't know what to do about our back line, the cb's are all hopeless. Hopefully the new georgian dude is the business.

I wish we had four jungwirths and could play him at both cb positions and both cm positions.

 

Agree with all of this. Start the new Georgian CB immediately. And Vako should sit until he gets with the program.

 

They're on the upswing, but Kaval doesn't really have anything to do with the on-field product. His job is to run the business and get the stadium built.

 

Couldn't possibly agree more. 100% in alignment. In fact, I wish I'd written it . Well said.

 

I've been saying it for months now with my "#playthekids" campaign, the kids being domestic players: TT, Yueill, Calvillo, Partida (OK, that did wind up happening), Wehan, Fuentes, Jacob, etc. Some of these posts go back to April.

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/lineups-formations-tactics-stats-etc.2065915/page-29#post-36544157

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/or...ostgame-thread-r.2082862/page-3#post-36544460

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/lo...ostgame-thread-r.2083745/page-7#post-36667597

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-official-mikael-stahre-thread.2079027/page-26#post-36726067

We could build a young cheap domestic core that could last for years. And then if you're on a budget you can sign real impact / elite players because you've saved so much money on your core.

I think Jesse could get on board with it. He's shown that he has the guts to make a bold move - sacking Dom midseason and replacing with Leitch. Time for another one.

 

ESPN+ update:

"Please be advised you are currently located in the local network for the San Jose Earthquakes and your local broadcasting network has purchased the rights to exclusively air the live game in your area. You are, however, able to watch the game as a replay after the end of the game."

 

Teams like NYRB and RSL spend comparably to the Quakes, at least in terms of their rosters. NYRB has made the playoffs at least the last 5 years, and won the east two years in a row. They feature guys like Wright-Phillips, who they pulled out of League One in England. RSL had a few down years after several good ones while they retooled with youth, and are back on an upswing. We all have Geo Metros. But these teams have figured out how to modify them to make them competitive year after year. It is the vision of the GM and coach that makes the difference. The Hunts are not exactly known to be spendthrift. They were terrible until Pareja came in with his vision.

 

Thierry Henry, what did he cost?

 

His last year was 2014. Since then NYRB has let NYCFC be the spendthrift / glamour team and they have gone blue collar. And they have done very, very well. NYRB's payroll is about $400k behind the Quakes this year, and they have 5x the number of wins.

 

How about the Quakes start emulating the Red Bulls with baby steps, like signing name brand Euro stars akin to Henry for many millions before graduating to cheap South Americans like Bradley Wright Phillips?

 

At some point there needs the business side meets the soccer side, unless you have a rare case where the owner is somehow a soccer expert. That is a critical "rubber meets the road" interface where the business guys have to somehow make the right soccer hire. Kaval was a business guy. He was not the "rubber meets the road" hire, though he wound up being the guy in charge of the "rubber meets the road" hire. I'm not sure if the executive search was a bad idea or not. That's how they chose to do it. And I'm not sure that Jesse won't turn out to be a good hire. He has certainly made some major mistakes this year. But he is also putting in some strategic things in place. So I think the jury is still out. Will he learn from his mistakes and will the longer term strategic things bear fruit.

You could try hiring a consultant soccer expert (the soccer equivalent of say Bill Walsh or Jerry West) but that in itself is a rubber meets the road hire, and if you don't get that right, you are screwed anyway.

So, no, I'm not buying the "blame Kaval" theory, or "blame the guy who hired Kaval" theory. Kaval was a business hire, not a soccer hire. I would say that he stuck with Doyle for way too long, but I think for much of the time he didn't have firing authority over that position. I know that Lew really liked Doyle and Frank.

 

While we're at it, maybe the Quakes should take a page from the Red Bulls and hire a coach who will leave the team in a lurch mid-season. If they make the right approach, Nick Saban might consider the job.

 

That is one of the pillars of my #playthekids movement. As I wrote, you develop a young, cheap domestic core, and save your international acquisition $ to acquire a couple of elite players, rather than spreading out the $ over a bunch of middling TAM and low DP euros. But NYRB doesn't have any Henry type of players anymore, and have been doing great as more of a blue collar team. There's no reason we can't do that. We just need to be smarter.