Pre-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Austin FC (Saturday, 5/25) pregame thread

that's true, I take the long view and I tend to blame our GM and owner primarily for all the failure we've had to deal with as fans. You have to start with a competitive roster to win, we haven't had that. Since 2008 the level of investment hasn't been there for the Quakes to succeed. Take our DP track record for instance, abysmal. Hernán was the first time Quakes have ever spent any real money on a player and our season was effectively over before we brought him in. I understand he wasn't available sooner, but we needed CL to do more over the offseason to get the team ready.

We've watched 8 or 9 coaches now struggle to find much success here, all for the same reason, we haven't had a truly competitive roster (not since 2012 anyway).

The investment has to be there, and you have to have a super smart GM who's able to maximize all resources (i.e. youth academy, draft, international slots, U22 slots, DP's and MLS journeymen) to build a winner.

I don't think Luchi is a particularly good coach but, then again, without a greater commitment from the top of this organization to progress and ultimately, cup glory, I don't expect Ian to do much better.

I agree that this roster is better than what we're seeing, hopefully Ian can get them playing better together as a unit.

We're all fed up with being among the worst teams in the league every year, I'm sure.

 

It's anti-goonie time, kiddos!

 

No Rigoni but he didn't do anything of note this season anyways. He only produced 1 goal this year and wasn't a regular starter either. Not a huge loss for them, I expect a summer move to fill his vacated spot. Until then we have to worry about Driussi, Obrian, Rubio, Biro, Cascante, Ring and Zardes off the bench.

Austin is on a 2 game winning streak and could easily find themselves with 3, 4 and 5 with very easy games the next 3. We need to figure out a way to isolate Driussi into the middle of the park and disallow him to run freely like he does. Otherwise they're going to press the shit out of Rodriguez and Greuzo again.

If we deploy Rodriguez, Yueill and Gruezo together, Austin is going to have a field day in our diamond third.

This game isn't going to be easy for us.

Fire Luchi as well.

 

At least we don't see him yet.

https://x.com/i/trending/1793315329722011943

 

Why can't the other teams stop trying to get better so that we can catch up?

 

One of my favorite episodes.

 

True, but they could still eat rigatoni as a pregame meal.

 

I usually blame:
1. The coach. - He prepares the guys
2. The players if they suck, or don't play their roles.
3. The GM for signing shit players, or guys who don't fit the coach's system.

But that's just me.

 

Assuming they're putting in the effort - and I think virtually all of them do, the players are who they are. If a player has "B" talent, what's the point of getting mad at him for not suddenly having "A" talent? Similar to what I was saying about comparing Cade vs. Pellegrino. Apples vs. oranges. Why get mad at an orange for not being an apple? Why blame a player with C or B talent for not having A talent?

So...if a team is doing poorly, for me, it's some combination of a poorly prepared / organized team (coach), and a poorly assembled team (GM and owner). And that combination doesn't have to be equal amounts. It could be mostly one or another.

It was interesting hearing CL's comments at the Hernán introductory press conference. I expected him to back Luchi and to acknowledge that there's been a delay in getting the team a player with Hernán's qualities to play as our CAM. IOW, take a little bit of the heat. But he kind of doubled down on "we have a good team", and in terms of Luchi - well, it's a results business and we're all held accountable to our results. The upshot is - in the coach vs. GM blame game, he doesn't seem to be giving any ground. "I've put together a good team, we expect to be doing better". Not sure I totally agree, but not great news for Luchi's prospects going forward. I think he'll hang on this year unless we continue at our current form, but not sure about next year.

 

The Quakes have accumulated — and squandered — a lot of late leads for a team comprised of B (or worse) players. Repeat: the GM and owner are not responsible for dropping points from a leading position.

 

Speaking of implosions, Quakes were up two goals on Austin in the second half, in Texas and without Garlic Nan, earlier this year — before losing. But sure, blame Fisher and Leitch for not providing the horses.

 

So you're team BlameTheCoach™ or team BlameThePlayers™?

 

I’m on team string up the refs.

 

I'm on team hate everyone equally, but because the world doesn't work that way, I hate Luchi just a little bit more than everyone.

 

We lose this one 7- 0. Or not, I don't care.

 

Welcome to team Apathy!

 

Team Hernán for me .

https://www.tiktok.com/@sjearthquakes/video/7370771638327102766

 

This was the title of today’s quakes email. I don’t know if they’ve entitled an email like this before, maybe I’m just sensitized to how hard it is to go to a game versus another crappy team

Five Exciting Reasons to Come to Saturday's Match

 

Rigoni has always been what they call "the big lie". He has always been mediocre at best. Just look at his career. Thanks to his amazing agent he keeps getting chances all over.
I couldn't believe that Austin payed $4mil for his transfer. I was very happy we didn't even try signing him because it would've been such a Quakes signing (a la Gruezo style) to end up with such lousy player.