The final score is: 1 - 0 GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G P.S. = Please don't post results of other soccer (including MLS) games and other sports' games in this thread until at least 24 hours after they've ended.
thanks for the effort Almeyda. i think your project to turn us into the only man marking, tough defense and then quick counter team in MLS, did not succeed. you can go now. and take Andy Rios a few others with you. thanks.
Can't win scoring only one goal in four games. Have we even stressed the opposing goalies more than a handful of times over these four games?
Espinoza has a good hard shot. Rios hit a good shot that should forced a spill that should have resulted in goal but Bond - James Bond got his hand on Salinas's shot.
I missed the 1st half - thought it was an evening game, but based on 2nd half I thought we played OK. Unlucky not to get a point really. We created chances. Biggest problem is still our defense. There is just so much space at the top of the box it's unbelieveable. I would have to think that Matias is going to try to get these guys to close down. All in all, not that bad of a performance for a road game. There were a few good developments - Haji looked useful, The Beas(t) had another good game - bad luck on the own goal. These things help you build depth over time, and it pays dividends as the season wears on. Not too pleased with what I'm seeing from Fierro. He just can't seem to handle pressure out on the wing, and gives the ball up way, way too easily. He just can't beat a defender - a giveaway machine. I'd much rather see Salinas out there at this point. I think he's easily better than Fierro. He knows how to take on a defender. Been doing it for many years.
The league need not worry. If a team is not playing well enough to beat us, we can always score on ourselves.
FWIW, once again we had the higher xG - 2.2 to 1.5. I think in our 4 straight losses we have had the lower xG in only one match. I know "Dude! You don't win matches with xG!", but it's an attempt to get an objective sense for how well you played in the match and is a better indicator for future results than PPG or GF and GA.
I knew there'd be "that guy" when I wrote, "Dude! You don't win matches with xG!". Congrats, bsman, you're "that guy"!
This kind of sums up 50%+ of our possessions in the offensive half over the past few games. Our defense has not been bad, the problem is we don't put any pressure on their defense. The turnovers have led to most of the counters.
Even worse! My point was, on the other (trade & free agency ideas) thread the premise was 'its not midseason yet', 'we've only played 7-8 games' and 'there (supposedly) is no need to panic'.....
Well most of the time you're going to lose it in your offensive half unless it results in a shot. The bigger problems are losing in the defensive half or close to center line. Some of those Fierro dispossessions happened pretty close to center line. I think we're creating enough chances, but our defense just leaves way too much space for attackers.
Fans (except for me ) always get too high when the going's good and too low when the going's bad. Remember all of the grand proclamations that "we've improved!" after our 3-game win streak. Wasn't buying it. Now it's all doom and gloom. We're not that bad. Not good, but not that bad. We'll be up and down just like the last 2 seasons. And why not? We have more or less the same roster and the same coach. Most likely we'll be fighting for the last playoff spot again, as I've been saying all season.