The CR wasn't good, that's why. What he allowed Portland to do is inexcusable, not to mention the no call on an obvious foul in the box and the inconsistency of foul calling (sometimes just breathing near someone would get a call, others would take a full mugging). I assume there was an assessor watching this game and I would think that is going to be a difficult conversation for him.
Portland is always like that regardless who the coach and the players are. Pushing, cheap shots, sneaky. And the inconsistency of MLS refs lets them get away for way too long. I hate LAG as a rivalry and the history between the clubs. I hate Portland because the way they play on the field.
I'm guessing the Portland players can't stand Phil Neville, what an annoying piece of crap he is, never stops yelling , constantly trying to direct players on the field while play is going on, they must just tune him out during the game, Harkes laughing at Neville after the game while Neville was throwing a temper tantrum was hilarious.
The goal is credited to Skahan. Can't really tell he actually took a touch. And look at Portland's LB #5, another chippy player, he made a bad pass to MAK, could not dispossess Judd, then rushed back to his box to stand on the goal line to keep Skahan onside. Brilliant! He deserves an assist.
I couldn’t attend the game, so I watched the broadcast (still have only seen 1st half). You could clearly hear Neville constantly yelling like a madman and throwing f-bombs one after another. I was thinking about how miserable it must be to play for him. Seems like a bit of a sociopath, even when he’s calmed down and doing postgame. I get serial killer seething rage vibes. No thanks.
Yes Skahan took a touch, otherwise it looked like it might be going wide. But yeah what a great team goal. Shows you what fresh legs can do. Beau pressured the ball, Kaye intercepted and immediately (one touch on the interception?) passed to Judd, who made a run while Kaye made a run into space on his left. Judd to Kaye, Judd crashes the box and draws a defender, Skahan makes far post run, Kaye hits it across goal mouth, goal. Portland’s GK came up holding his hand like offside until he noticed his teammate standing practically inside the goal. I had a bad feeling we were going to lose - one of those games where we blow a bunch of chances and then concede against the run of play. BTW I wonder if the Hernán sub was planned or a tactical decision. He wasn’t bad but not great either.
Yeah he is simply annoying, i mean telling a player run here or run there during the game is just annoying and i would just tune him out, even my wife who is no expert noted the difference between how Neville runs the game and how Bruce does it.
I said that I've never seen a coach behaving like that. Someone said "Vermes?" and I said, not even close. Peter is intense but he doesn't spend the whole game appearing to be on the verge of a meltdown.
Soccer America stated the Quakes used mostly first stringers. I don't think that is an accurate statement.
It is. Espinoza, Beau, Harkes, Romney, Munie, Jones, Costa, Bouda, Edwards, and Bouda are all starters, at least until Daniel, Wilson and Chicho come back. It’s unclear whether Floriani or Rodriguez is the starter at this point. Hernán will probably be a starter at some point not hasn’t reestablished that spot yet.
I noticed that we seemed to be failing to win 50/50 ball / challenges in the game, especially early. Our guys just seemed to be hesitating or late to react. It looked weird. Then I realized that Portland was probably sneakily pulling them back just enough so that they couldn’t win the ball. There’s that critical moment where who reacts the fastest wins and if you can hold a guy back without shirt tugging just at the right time and subtlety enough that a foul isn’t called you win the ball.
I didn't see him but I was distracted and mostly saw the second half. I missed many games but as far as I know, Lopez though has been out quite a bit this season.
Was there with a decent view... it was Skahan's goal... I think it would have went wide without him as well. Check the angle at 0:50 of that clip.
I thought he was pretty bad but didn't think we had better on the bench. Judd wasn't any better and the game changed in Portland's favor after that so whatever happened tactically wasn't good (Portland also stepped up the press all over in the second half and we weren't dealing with it well).
My son and I were some of the few, but proud who attended the game (actually not too bad for a Tuesday game). Quakes were the better team in the first half with Bouda having two excellent chances on goal. Portland was the better team in the second half, but good defending from the backline and Edwards kept them in the game. Agree the CR was poor and missed the PK. His handling of the scrum with the AR was horrible. We left after regulation and I watched the remainder of the game at home. Quakes controlled overtime and deserved the goal/win. Credit to Judd and Kaye for creating the goal and Jack for sticking his foot out. Hate to say it, but Edwards had a good game. Overall, the defense played well, but both Romney and Jones had some key mistakes in the second half which almost gave Portland goals. Fortunately, Portland's finishing was like the Quakes. Surprised Espinoza played the whole game as he had died by the end of regulation and not coming back on defense. Hernan was horrible. He is a shell of his former self. All of the bad and none of the good. Credit to Arena and staff for managing through injuries and the number of games. Team is playing hard, and will execution is mixed, they are getting results which is the sign of an improving team.
We talked about EEJr a lot during the game. After his prior howlers, I was wondering if Bruce would replace him. Instead, we saw a different keeper last night -- someone who played with confidence and didn't hesitate to make a move vs waiting for the ball to come to him. I don't know how he would have looked in PKs so glad we didn't get there, but based on what I saw last night, Bruce is capable of working miracles.
I didn't think Edwards could possibly be as bad as he initially looked because Bruce is a good player evaluator, and he was a GK - he should know. And we actually paid $150k GAM for the guy. Still not totally convinced, and his career stats are terrible, but at least it looks like he's capable of playing well. I think for GK's it's kind of like strikers - they need to get confidence to go on a roll, and things can also spiral the other way (see Pellegrino).
Not sure what the center was thinking not calling it, but I've worked with the young AR many times over the last five years. After watching the broadcast today it confirmed what I saw. The young and upcoming AR (which I've worked with many times) correctly called the foul that the center missed. You could see him instinctively move his right foot on to the field to set himself up for his position for a penalty kick. The center referee must have overuled him in the insuing response from Portland. The correct call, imo, would be holding which continued into the penalty area and should have been a PK. You could hear the Quakes coaches in the backround screaming for the PK.
I think the ref was following the "marriage counseling" style ref advice given by TyffaneeSue's friend: "Say 'I hear you' and set your boundaries!"
The refs also missed the clear handball on a shot by Beau in the 2nd half. Unfortunately the camera angle we saw was from behind but it looked pretty clear, and the color guy on the broadcast (who is that guy - seems like he does every single USOC game somehow - has he been cloned?) said it was a "clear handball". Anyway, I think the Quakes were the better team throughout and with any competency in finishing that could have been a 3-0 / 4-1 game. It was 29 shots to 14, 9 to 5 on SOT, 12 corners to 2, etc. I thought Benji played really well in his short stint. He played two really good long passes to put guys through, one just after he went around a guy by I think megging him. I've been wondering where Bruce would use him, and looks like he's gonna be a wingback. Kind of crowded in the wingback department though. We have: Jones, Costa, Ricketts, Lima, Marie, Benji, etc. Skahan just barely got a touch on that ball from Kaye. It was literalliy just scraped with his studs. Anyway, this win just proves that there's more than one way to Skahan a cat.