Well, assmonkey (good one, Tree), we won. Hartman came up big to save our backline a few times, but the backline did okay and the midfield did a good job of keeping Donovan quiet for the night. I thought SJ's goal was offside, but frickin' Albright kept Osama bin Rosario onside. Good job Chris. However he atones himself by having his header deflect to Ruiz for the tying goal. Some good performances out there, it'll be hard to select a MOTM. More when I collect my worthless thoughts.
We should have scored more, Onstand really kept them in the game. The quakes look dangerous when they are going forward at speed, and our back line looks a little shaky at times, but considering we had marshall back after about 7 games, and Nutcase Suarez, as well as Aloisi who is making what his 2nd mls apperance, I don't think we did too bad at all. Grabavoy is going to be a very good player in the league. Hopefully Saragosa isn't hurt to terribly. The San HOE annoucers have got to be the most pathetic bunch of guys in the history of the world, I'd pay money to listen to Ty Keough after suffering through that brillant performance. Can someone explain to me how a ball can have a "good shape" WTF? It's a ball it has only 1 shape and it doesn't change.... Mullan is sent off for going in with is foot at least 3 feet off the ground, which is definately a bookable offense. Donovan than sticks his balding, bitchy head into Ruiz' face where he is pushed away, and then pulls a callsic Divin Donovan trying to get Ruiz sent off, nice. Ruiz pulled out of the challenge with Mullan do the the above mentioned high boot, and then procedes to be his annoying self and roll around like an idiot, but it's really hard to hate the guy when he's averaging 1.6 points per game, and leading the league in scoring having played only 10 games so far. Nwgenya should have played a much easier ball to Moreno when they had the two on one to finish the game off near the end, he is still learning I guess, but I like how confident he is with the ball, it's something thats hard to teach. Albright got an assist on the 1st goal giving him a league leading (well tied at any rate) 6th assist, not bad for your right back, who used to be the laughing stock of the league when he tried to play forward. This is an example of why Sigi is a good coach, he gets a good amount of value out of less then sterling players. BTW. WE RULE. Quakes get a nice long bus trip home to contemplate their many degrees of SUCK.
well i'm certainly glad i didn't go now. while the result was right, those last 20 minutes were excruciating (though maybe from the squad seats it wouldn't have been so bad). sojo were very lucky in the first 60 minutes, not to be 3-0 down. we were very lucky in the last 30 not to be tied 2-2. i thought as soon as lewis replaced aloisi we looked shakier in the back (sorry to rif on the lewis sucks thing). he did make some very nice defensive plays, but overall our backline looked frail in the 2nd half. having said that tyronne looked the part tonight didn't he? an aloisi, califf, tyronne, albright backline going down the stretch could be awesome. saragosa's passing needs work, too many times this evening he didn't weight the ball correctly and a galaxy player had to rush to catch the pass, or a sojo intercepted it. ruiz is the man. the ref sucked and lost control of the match 2 minutes in when he gave aloisi a yellow. donovan is a whiny bitch. we had like 5 or 6 really well crafted plays tonight, nice mixture of one-twos and longball that i haven't seen in a long time from this team. we need to keep working on that. overall a very satisfying if unconvincing win. oh yeah, riot squad looked great! didn't hear too many chants, but i did catch the riot squad theme song about 2 minutes in to the match and culejro[sp] when donovan was being a bitch in the 94th minute by the corner flag.
btw, why is it that san jose fans always bitch about the ref after they lose? yeah the ref sucked, i thought in the first half he called a little too many fouls sojo's way and then called a little too many our way in the 2nd. whatever. but san jose fans always seethe and rant and threaten to write letters to MLS about the officiating. i don't know of a single other set of MLS fans on big soccer that whine as much as they do (perhaps they've been watching donovan too much?). you know what, next christmas i'm going to get san jose a cross, so whenever they feel hard done by they can climb up on it and crucify themselves so we can see the true martyrs they are for this league. smurfs, you lost, now man up and prepare for the return visit.
Thats terrible, I don't think they ever showed a reply about what happened, just the stuipid san ho announcers saying saragosa was going to milk it for all it was worth, good call guys.
All in all, a great battle, but we made it far too close. How many times did we come down the pitch with 2 v 1 or 2v2, with nothing to show for it? I thought Kiro was great tonight, truly fought all night, and Ruiz was the sniper doing his best. He's pretty close to top form at this point. Was Donovan even there? Great job for the G-men. ~Erik
useless thoughts. stadium was live, good guys won, fireworks were strong. a perfect evening. the ref had no control out there. consistent only in making horrible calls for both teams. east line judge was both blind and retarded. honestly thought little donny was gonna get a red for dissent. he didn't stop talking all night. goddamn it's good to have marshall back. he never seems to panic... just handles his business. backline stability increases exponentially with him healthy. aliosi seems to be a decent back. aliosi isn't a good replacement d-mid. anyone notice saragosa and jovan pushing/fighting in the first half? couldn't remember what happened on the previous play. what happened? herzog is fun to watch. grabavoy's assist to ruiz gave me a massive boner. was also impressed with his overall play tonight, on offense and on d. has jovan ever had a better half than the first '45 tonight? kinda disappeared after halftime, but he was everwhere early. albright got burned once tonight, and let someone slip past him on the wing later... i blame the haircut. 2 straight wins = good. winning at home after losing 3-0 there = good. i feel bad when sigi gets massive boos during the lineup intro. not a big fan, but i don't have many complaints this year. i like to stand in row z. i don't like it when someone sitting on the concourse asks me to sit down.
So what do we make of people on this board saying Ruiz should be suspended for 3 games for his "horrible dive"? What about Donovan's dive then? Why didn't Donovan get red carded for dissent anyway.... I was at the game and it didn't look like a dive to me. A big time exaggeration by Ruiz after he fell, but he did get knocked down. I'd be very surprised if the league suspnds Ruiz for this. I think he's done worse.
Totally. The dude was busting his butt off to make plays and help on the D. I'd like to see him play for us a long time if he becomes the playmaker. Well, Mullan did play the ball, it's just unlucky that he had his studs up when he collided with Ruiz. I thought Ruiz might have embellished a little. That push (slap?) by Ruiz to Donovan cracked me up. Take that, b!tch! But only after Bruce Arena experimented with him at RB in the Denmark friendly and showed that there was much potential. It's producing results, but Goldilocks still needs to learn how to play D. Marshall was a man possessed! He made some good stops and runs. I didn't think he would start but he showed he was 100% for the full 90! Awesome.
I wasn't going to go that far. Hey, the studs were up and hit a player: looks like a bookable offense to me. Unlucky? Yeah. Unfair? Yeah, right.
As a neutral, I have to wonder what the heck you're talking about. Sure, it's kind of comical when Ruiz is in the middle of his audition to play one of the daughters in King Lear but magically recovers from his death spiral just long enough to slap Donovan back. But it's not exactly the kind of thing I'd be proud of if I were a Galaxy fan. Look, you guys are better than this. One of these days, MLS is going to get serious about punishing divers, and Ruiz is going to be suspended. Moreno had an awful one late in the game that should have been carded, and I think even Herzog took an unnecessary tumble (didn't see a replay of that one). And I don't know WHAT Cobi Jones' trip is other than the fact that he is now getting outrun to every ball and seems to be taking out his frustrations by (A) telling Freddy Adu he should quit the "tricks" and use his speed and (B) getting in pointless arguments with Donovan, who isn't half the whiner and diver that Ruiz is. Again, you guys are better than this. Ruiz is a great goal scorer. Ricky Lewis had a tremendous game-saving clearance off the line last night. Grabavoy looks like a great talent. Hartman is having a good season despite the stats. And I love the fact that you guys attack when so many MLS teams are content to play for a draw. I think those of us in the other three time zones are developing a distinct love/hate thing with the Depot dwellers.
I stopped reading after saying Donovan isn't a bigger whiner, he literally whined at the referee for 5 minutes at the end of the half. He whined for 5 minutes after the Red Card. In fact he whined the entire game. Ruiz pushes him in the mid section, he falls holding his face. Ruiz is a dirty and Donovan is early. Don't bring this crap in here trying to sound high and mighty with your crap double standards, go pound sand is correct.
Check out the Burn Board following Saturday nights match. San Jose fans are pikers when it comes to paranoia. As far as Ruiz goes, love him or hate him, he has a nose for the ball and the ability to put it in the back of the net. That, nobody can deny, dammit.
I was at the game and was wondering what happened too. Kirovski was hot for some reason. I just watched a recording of the game and it seems that Saragosa let his man get past him which resulted in a desperation tackle (foul) to prevent something worse from happening. Seems that Saragosa was being scolded for not hustling ... ? Anyway, it was good to see the stadium full ... I love HDC! Great atmosphere. One complaint ... getting out of the parking lot was a nightmare. The traffic cops (looked more like a security guard) did not know what to do.
on the ruiz challenge, mullan may have gotten the ball, but you cant come in studs up like that. all these idiots that say "he got all ball" need to stop watching basketball.
It was only after watching the play in slo mo that I could see Albright did keep DeRo on side. Albright tried to jump forward and catch DeRo off but Chris was a step too late and it cost us. Grabavoy is fast becoming one of my favorite players. Not only does he work his tail off, but his passes are sweeeeet. And not just the one that set up Ruiz for the winner, but all night long Ned was making the intelligent pass, and was putting the right weight on it. Compare Saragossa who almost always seems to soft touch the ball and makes players come back for it, or Ngwenya's over-played ball to Moreno. On the Landon-Ruiz incident - What the heck was Cry Baby doing standing over Carlos anyway? Get the heck out of there jerk! And are there special rules that Landon can't get carded for dissent? He was in the refs face all night long whining about every single call. Sidenote: to the Sigi-haters: Greece just won Euro 2004 playing Sigiball. Its no wonder the Quacks fans have a complex about the ref - their fearless leader set such a wonderful example. And the gutless San Ho announcers after claiming that Saragossa was faking his injury - absolutley no class. Couldnm't admit they were wrong. Perfectly consistent with Classless Landon, Classeless Fans and Classless City. And Beau - were you there last night or are you judging the game by the telecast? Just wondering. I was at the game and then came home to watch the recording, and it was very interesting how much the telecast missed, to say nothing of how the announcers slanted every call.
Was Greece playing Sigi ball or were they playing bunker ball with a counterattack style? Sigi ball is those worthless long balls hoping for a mistake, and once u have a lead, just give the ball away as quickly as possible a la the San Jose playoff comeback debacle. As for parking, I parked at the church across thr street, no traffic getting out, but then you end up on the wrong side of the street and I didn't know how to get to the 405. ended up takign teh 110, oh well probably saved time anyway, considering that I avoided the insanity that is the home depot center parking lot. By the way, I hate all those empty seats in the expensive section, where were they? On the grass? In the restaraunt?
there was also one point where suarez hustles for a ball and passes it upfield to ?. the resulting play happens off camera, but suarez yells "goddammit" the rest is inaudible, but it looks like sigi is trying to calm suarez down. i think he was yelling at herzog.
Does anyone know if Herzog was on Card point warning and will miss the Colorado game becaise of his second half yellow?