Pre-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Toronto FC (Saturday, 3/25) pregame thread

The challenge will be getting us thru this rough patch in terms of player availability due to nats and injuries. I think we will be missing:

Due to nats:
Monteiro
Trauco

Due to injuries:
Gruezo
Judson
Niko
Daniel
Rodrigues (possibly - don't know)

That's a lot of players, and that's going to make it tough. I know other teams are missing players too, but given callups + injuries, I would be OK with 3 points over the next 2 games.

 

Big if true.

 

"Good to go"? Training is one thing, real game quite another.

Hoping he is ready, as I'm missing that engine we saw when he first joined us. Coaching staff must still see it...

 

True. He may be able to sub in but may not be ready to start. He's been out a while, not sure about fitness. To me he hasn't looked really fit like he did in 2019 since, well, 2019.

 

Earthquakes win 3-1. Both teams will be missing several starters but Toronto has to travel across the continent. In particular Cade will have a good game and score a goal or two.

 

I agree, if the Quakes are a legit playoff contender this is the type of game they have to win, Toronto isn't playing well, has a bunch of injuries (including their $16 million dollar man Insigne), is missing half their team to international duty, and traveling across the country.

 

I think that the Quakes will probably more or less control the game because that's what home teams usually do in MLS, and even though we'll be missing a couple of key pieces, arguably 2 of our top 4 guys, they'll be missing guys too.

But in soccer controlling the game doesn't mean winning the game - you could have a bad finishing day and the other team gets a goal or two against run of play etc. So I'm never really into the "must / should win" or "if you're a legit team you have to...." kinda thing. I think we'll get our first draw: 1-1.

 

Dropped by the Toronto board to see how they're seeing this one. No one has posted there in six months, and the last person to do so was -- @falvo.

 

Since they're missing a ton of players and traveling, I'm expecting the full Bob Bradley treatment. whatever formation (4-3-3) they were playing it will be a couple stacked lines in a mid to low block...a token forward...probably a dense 4-5-1...I wouldn't put it past him to go christmas tree
4-3-2-1.

Per usual first goal will dictate the game flow.

If we score first...I think we beat them by at least a couple goals.

If they score first...nervy slog against a packed D...clawing the whole game to even it up. I'd be leery of them on deadball situations. We still give up crap soft goals on those...Imo, that's their biggest threat in this one

It will be a slog unless we can get the first goal.

 

I'm going to make the TFC board my playground lmao

 

Let!s beat the Hosers, eh?!

 

It'll be your own private playground because there are no TFC fans posting there ever. Maybe we can use it as a private EQ channel when folks want to take a conversation off this board without using the conversation faculty. That would be sort of funny - if it started to fill up with off-topic convos between Quakes fans!

 

Every other post must reference some aspect of the lessons of Canadian culture imprinted on the fans of McKenzie brothers

 

This is what we could possibly see as lineups I'd suspect.

Marcinkowski
Akapo, Mensah, Beason, Marie
Yueill, Skahan, Thompson
Espinoza, Ebobisse, Cowell​

Toronto possible starting lineup:

Johnson
Marshall-Rutty, Rosted, Hedges, Petretta
Vasquez, Bradley, Thompson
Servania, Kerr, Bernardeschi​

 

Biden is rooting for TFC. "It's a bloody big deal!"

"I like your teams, except the Leafs."

President Biden takes a shot at Leafs in speech to Parliament.

WATCH: https://t.co/vUBtBZBObF pic.twitter.com/SkcHB2FpmU

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) March 24, 2023

 

I guess he’s probably a Flyers fan.