Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - New York Red Bulls (Saturday, 2/26) postgame thread [R]

News flash!! Almeyda was the one who wanted Calvo. He specifically asked CL to try to get Calvo.

Also, I'm sure many of you will think me crazy, but I thought that Calvo was pretty decent. He was played out of position, and his assignment was ridiculous, but he did OK, given the circumstances. He's a pretty decent distributor of the ball. Looks to me like we want to pass out of the back, and Jackson and Calvo (and Beason) can all do that.

Somehow, our outside middies rarely got back on defense. Is that on the players? Or on the coach? I don't know, but it sucked.

And why hasn't Almeyda been fired over the conduct clause in his contract?

Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

I didn't want to bring this up, but yes. They fouled Jamiro repeatedly and got away with it. Their second goal started with them fouling Jamiro. Had the ref called the foul, that would have stopped their attack.

That said ... we were disorganized and sucky. We did not play well enough to win, no matter what the ref did or didn't call.

(I sat next to ref during the game. He thought the ref was shit.)

Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

We were the only home team to lose on Sunday, that is a depressing thought. Had to point it out.

 

I've already pointed out that Calvo is a "FoM". What I heard was that Calvo only wanted to come here because MA is here. It is interesting, but not surprising that MA requested for Calvo as well.

 

As I said Calvo in the middle is .

 

First game. Breath in, breath out.

Nice start to the game by the Quakes, but after 20-30 minutes, NYRB started getting too many easy opportunities. They could/should have had at least one more goal.

I wasn't surprised with the three in back, but disappointed. You are going to have challenges when one (Yuell) hasn't played in the back and another (Calvo) hasn't played with the team. I would have preferred starting the season with four in the back and transitioning once the players got a few games under their belts. In that respect, MA is to be blamed for part of the showing yesterday.

As far as the starting team, I don't think Beason was much better than Calvo. However, I would have had Beason start instead of Yuell. I just don't see Yuell being a defender. Only other surprise was Judson not starting, but MA seems to prefer Remedi.

As far as the players, they have to take a good part of the blame. Both Remedi and Jamiro turned over the ball in the middle of the field which created two counter attack goals. Not good enough. JT pulling a "Vega" and knocking the ball between his legs for the second goal from a poor angle. Really poor (after generally having a good game).

The three new players (Jamiro, Calvo, Gregus) were not good. Jamiro wasn't strong enough on the ball and got caught too often holding the ball. Calvo was plain and simple a disaster. Gregus was neither good or bad, but didn't really do anything. I would almost want to put him defense rather than Yuell (if you had to decide between the two).

Positives? Chofis looked good and scored a nice goal. Early in the game, the midfield did look to be a little more dynamic. Let's see if they can build upon that. Jeremy was getting in some good positions and had a couple of good opportunities (his left foot is weak though).

Negatives. A lot. Frustrated coach. Players making too many mistakes. Too many opportunities in defense. Team ties the game and loses it's focus by constantly attacking (saw that too often last year).

First game. Breath in, breath out. Drink a beer.

 

Seattle lost too.

 

Who’s gonna tell him?

 

Game winning goal by none other than Anibal Godoy!

 

+100

With Gregus' height and obvious knack for finding the ball on his head (although what he did with it was often just launch it vertically) he would have been a much better choice for CB...

 

They were definitely the more aggressive team. I wouldn't call them cheating, although there were more fouls than I expected. However, I thought the yellow cards should have come out a little sooner.

I thought that there approach to defending Jamiro was good. Be aggressive and get multiple bodies on him.

 

Generally teams get away from repeating aggressive and physical tactics in MLS unless the players being fouled are the stars. It is low risk especially the high press and fouls happen in the opponent's half or at the center line and it is high reward as you are able to quickly transition to attack and you are much closer to goal. It is almost like you are rewarded for persistent team fouls in the name of high press. Like it or not, that's the way it is.

Now, how does SJ deal with this when we have been largely unable to handle it for years?

Up our aggressiveness and physical games like everyone else? Play quicker one touch soccer with skills and movement to counter that? We do not have what it takes to use either approach. I think we lean towards the later but not exactly or successful. We are embarrassingly caught in between as a physically soft team with little combination plays and skills.

 

When you want to be a possession-based team and keep the ball two-thirds of the time then the foul discrepancy will definitely be pronounced. At the same time, the referee is not going to call every foul and interrupt the game every few second which ultimately leads to the Quakes losing possession in bad areas that lead to counters. All this was in full display on Saturday.

 

could be true but what's the source of your News flash?

 

Exactly right, and what made it worse is when Quakes players gave up after losing the ball, asking the ref for a foul while NYRB jetted out on a counter.

We are a team that does not convert possession advantage into bettering our chance to win. We can’t convert our long buildups into goals and we get stretched on counters.

 

Not sure, but it may be from this local Spanish language interview with Almeyda, by Carlos Yustis of Telemundo. He is a good source of content for the Quakes Spanish-speaking players and coaches. He has interviewed Chofis as well. I haven't watched it but I think some folks were saying, based on this interview(?), that Calvo was a "FoM". Technically he would not be a FoM because he never played with or for Almeyda, but if this is a player that Almeyda pushed for, it does raise eyebrows a bit. But, lots of season left...

IT’S GAMEDAY! Start your game day and season the right way with QE content.

This is a can’t-miss interview with Telemundo’s @CarlosYustisTV on Almeyda, the Chivas love for him, the challenges with press conf translation, Chofis, and much, much more!https://t.co/H0mCUH6Cy1

— Quakes Epicenter (@QuakesEpicenter) February 26, 2022

 

I think the technical definition of "FoM" doesn't matter too much. The general idea is that the GM shouldn't let MA pick the players because some of the players he has picked have been bad values. Calvo might be another in that category.

 

Yeah, and if Calvo was Matias's guy, it also flies in the face of his comment that he was shut out of the player recruitment process.

 

I'm sure he does feel locked out compared to the process he had with Jesse. On the other hand I would be surprised if he didn't have an opportunity to give some input to CL.

You might have guessed that I'm pointing out Calvo as a FoM because it's a little bit of a fly in the ointment for those who thought CL would be the end of the FoM era.

It sure seems to me that Calvo is a FoM. Of course not all the players Matias recommended are bad, and Calvo may not end up being bad either. Time will tell...

Personally I don't really care who picked what players as long as they're good. I'm concerned about Calvo and to a lesser extent Gregus. Gregus will certainly contribute more than Rios and I hope he can contribute more than Fierro.

 

Yeah, I'm sure it's more nuanced than some kind of binary like "Leitch picks" OR "Almeyda picks". But in the case of players that played with or for Matias it's pretty clear that they would not be targets at all, with players all over the world available, unless Matias was coach. With Calvo (and probably with Remedi) these are MLS players that become available and are easy pickens'. It was probably something like, "hey Matias, looks like Remedi / Calvo is going to be available". "Yeah, bueno, get him!"

 

ultimately, it's Chris Leitch's signature at the bottom of what I imagine is a sweet contract (by Fish standards), next to Calvo's signature.

Not Matias Almeyda's.

It's the GM's job to build the roster.

this just sounds like more of the same Matias scapegoating to me.

 

True, Leitch bears responsibility in the end. But to the extent that Matias lobbied for a bad player (if he indeed does turn out to be a bad player), that doesn't reflect well on him either. The player selection *should* be a conversation and be done in coordination between coach and GM. Sure, buck stops at GM. But again, that does not mean that the coach is completely absolved of giving bad input.

When are you going to finally admit it? This is not happening.

 

here's the problem with that; people like to say things like "Matias asked Chris Leitch to get Calvo!" or "Matias told Chris Leitch he didn't want to have MLS preseason games" etc...

...but then, when asked, there's nothing to support these claims beyond "the epicenter guys said so" or something vague like that.

if you're busy scapegoatin' at least be able to back up your stuff!

and yes, thank you, Leitch is responsible for the signings and the buck stops with him.

 

The epicenter guys have spent the last 3 years in many interviews with Almeyda and have been around the team a lot. They are essentially our best insight into the team. Kind of sad that we don't have any kind of mainstream media there, but that's what it is, and these guys are very dedicated. So what they say bears some weight, sorry. It's not just speculation.

 

Unless someone can back up their claims, it’s all speculation and scapegoating to me. “Cuz the epicenter guys said so” is weak.

And if they did say so, at least be able to point us to the conversation, article, podcast, YouTube video, something.

Always better to verify before making assumptions and hoppin’ on the scapegoatin’ train.