here are my post game thoughts The Good: -the crowd -Keller's freakin save on the corner header! -zakuani's 1v1 -the defense, especially the president hurtado -alonso, the little giant -great win to end two game losing streak The Bad: -confettis everywhere -Jaqua, Jaqua, and Jaqua -easy giveaways in midfield/own third -zakuani's too much 1v1 -players missing ljungberg's good runs -montero's presence in the game/wasted opportunities this might be a little bit early, but this is the starting eleven i'd like to see against chicago ------montero----le toux------- --zakuani---evans---ljungberg-- ------------alonso------------- scott--marshall---hurtado--riley or -----montero---ljungberg------- --zakuani----evans----le toux-- ------------alonso------------- scott--marshall---hurtado--riley
Thanks Goodsport. There were a few SJ supporters that I bumped into on the way out. most were pleasant and congratulatory, but there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the north exit area. About 20 SJ fanswere having heated words with a similar number of our fans. Nothing became of it so far as I could tell, so that is good.
From the opposite point of view: http://www.thebaysoccer.com/node/64 Congratulations! @import "http://diacache.daylife.com/_static/release-46080/v2/css/daylife/thickbox.css";
Quakes played well. Getting Huckerby back will help them immensely. They basically have Jaqua and Jaqua as forwards. In other words utter crap. Guess who I think needs to not be a starter for the Sounders?
Don't get the Jaqua hate. He lost a couple balls but was otherwise solid and I think he links very well with our talented midfield. I'm a little disappointed that he hasn't scored more goals yet but I think he'll have good production this year.
It's not just losing balls but also his decision making. He seems to rarely make a good decision at at a critical moment. He either holds the ball too long or tries to create something where nothing is possible. I mean, I love a good target forward but Jaqua is no Ibrahimovic. Even Ibrahimovic looks clumsy at times but at least his decision making is solid. Jaqua also tends to get muscled off the ball a lot more than someone of his size should. I see the same deficiencies in Jaqua that I see in Le Toux and look what's happened to Le Toux... I'm hoping that Jaqua gets benched as well.
Except Le Toux has actually performed as we as fans expect as a pro. Jaqua has been the same oaf his entire pro career. FWIW he's playing better than he ever has and we can hope he'll find a scoring/passing touch consistantly. He's so frustrating because he's so close to actually being a real threat, but consistantly makes on field decisions that leave you simply dumfounded at their ineptitude.
AmericanSoccerNews.net match report, complete with player ratings here: http://sounders.american-soccer-news.com/?p=81
The PI has quality photo galleries of each Sounders match: http://www.seattlepi.com/photos/archive.asp?sectionID=5
we wouldn't win one single header with montero and ljungberg up top. I think people are misunderstanding jaqua's role. He owned the air last night in San Jose's end of the field. That skill is incredibly undervalued by some on these boards. Jaqua isn't going to out-run people and he isn't going to do five stepovers and then pass -- but that is not his job. He owns the air, controls the ball and gets it to teammates. He is very good at his job.
I had no idea San Jose was so terrible. They looked dreadful in the first half. They were a really poor opponent, the worst I think we've seen so far. There was that awful anxiety late in the first half, where we had (once again) squandered pristine chances to score, and were in danger of going another game without pulling the trigger. It made Zakuani's goal not only a thrill, but a welcomed relief. I think the flow of emotion from the Sounders themselves after the goal really illustrated that. Tyrone Marshall continues to mock me for suggesting the trade for him was a "bad trade". He may well have been the player of the game for us, and he has consistently bailed us out of trouble in our own end. Then there is this: Except Le Toux has actually performed as we as fans expect as a pro. Jaqua has been the same oaf his entire pro career Le Toux has under-performed, which is why he's now benched - and his replacement Zakuani will probably permanently keep Le Toux on the bench, so this is just flat out wrong. This isn't me talking, this is the coach's thinking; obvious from Le Toux's benching and Zakuani clearly making our team substantially better when Le Toux is benched. Le Toux has consisently made poor decisions with the ball, or failed to his target on a pass. He also lacks the speed that Montero and Zakuani provide, that Ljunberg is able to exploit. I know Le Toux is a fan favorite, but he was holding our team back. He belongs on our bench, and as a sub, I think he works really well, because as we've seen Zakuani runs out of gas arond the middle of the second half. Jaqua has made mistakes, but also played well in spots. He is not an "oaf", but he's also not infallible, the truth is in the middle. I thought he handled himself well in the second goal - and while it was a simple play, we have on other attempts messed those opportunities up. Montero for example (as much as I love him) has blown gifts the last few games and I don't see anyone calling him out. Jaqua does need to get a little more physical - and could use a little more footwork, but he's the best we have at this position and role. He's also unselfish, and seems to be genuinely liked by the other players. I am not so sure about Sturgis. I counted four mistakes in the first 15 minutes. He settled down later in the game, but he was either really nervous; or he's the kind of defender that makes dangerous mistakes. I was nervous every time he touched the ball, and he nearly cost us a goal early in the game. He was less of an issue in the second half, and maybe this was just opening-night jitters. We're still not a cohesive unit. You can see the frustration on Ljunberg's face when the rest of the team doesn't seem to be moving with him the way he would expect. You can see Montero a little unsure of himself since his incident with those awful accusations; and a solid strike from him will probably do wonders to his confidence. I think Ljunberg hasn't found his touch, several of his crosses/passes were overshot or undershot and that hurt us. Still, there are times when both Ljunberg and Montero show us absolute magic on the field. The kind of magic rarely seen in MLS. So we have a long way to go I think, much to improve upon, but I think the potential of our team is really high. We could go a long way, if we gel more, and learn how to play with one another more. I don't think benching Jaqua is the answer to improving our cohesion. Jacqua just needs to get more consistent, but I think that could be said about a lot of players on our team right now.
I thought Jaqua was decent yesterday. Sure he should have nailed that one header minutes after our first goal in the back of the net but he surely made up for it with that assist to Evans, outside of maybe 2 games I think He has played very decent this season his goals will come just be patient. What I am glad for is that Zakuani started over Le Toux and should continue to do so. Evans is also 2 for 2 in the Five Hole catagory of scoring goals. Also glad to have Keller back he truly is the foundation of this team and congrats to him for breaking the record, hopefully we keep on adding to it. BTW Marshalls setup to Zakuani for his goal was beautiful. A good neccesary win and it was def very fun to be there. GO SOUNDERS!!!
^^^ Well said WS! My frustration with Jaqua's poor decisions in every game (there were at least 5 moments last night) has caused me to lose faith in him. But you make a very good point about him. And I do agree that we need a big target forward. I'd just love to see him stand his ground more and hold the ball rather than getting pushed over and losing the ball as seems to happen 80 percent of the time. Let's hope he continues to improve.
well he hasn't exactly gotten a goal with his head just yet. he wasted a great header chance yesterday by heading it right at the keeper. and the assist he got was good, but evans was wide, and i mean, wide open. with the height advantage inside, you'd expect the sounders to cross the ball more, but there were hardly any crosses into the box yesterday or even in the Chivas game and most of the time the crosses were horrible. even with a big target, jaqua isn't going to score header goals if no one crosses the ball. from the games i've seen, i don't see the sounders as much of an arial threat caliber team. i see them utilizing their speed, passing, and counter attacks to win games. you don't necessarily need a tall guy to win headers. good placement of the ball will do that for you. even zakuani got a goal with his head before jaqua. i'm not saying jaqua sucks at headers, but they sounders haven't really utilized his height to their advantage.
If Keller is intent on continuing to boot the ball upfield every time he gets it, then we definitely need someone like Jaqua on the field to get a head on those balls.
Jaqua made a great run in anticipation of Zak's interception and Zak fed him nicely. Jaqua looked up and saw Evans' run, changed pace on his dribble to split the 2 defenders and delivered a quick ball outside of the boot for the assist. It was a great play. People are giving Zak props for his through ball but I think Jaqua deserves a lot of credit too. Of course, Evans' finish was money. 2 goals, 2 megs (ok, the first one was lucky). Also, how about the cheeky flick over the shoulder to beat his defender on the run down the right with a dangerous cross off the volley in the first half? There seems to be a perception that he's a consistent starter due to some sort of patronage by Sigi but this guy can flat out play.
Greg Roth SOUNDERS FC: Keller key in Seattle's win and other post match info from Aaron Weinberg / Next Season Sports: http://tinyurl.com/cb7hnk
I wasn't liking Evans at the wing the last couple of games but he definitely pulled it together last night. He had a awesome game.
SoundersInsiderS SOUNDERS FC: Slideshow from match - San Jose Earthquakes by Greg Roth / Next Season Sports: http://tinyurl.com/cotd9k
A Quakes fan here... just wanted to say it was a great trip to Seattle (but I grew up there and didn't expect anything less). Qwest is definitely set up well to support great crowds. Of course there was heckling going both ways for fun but tons of Sounders fans were giving us props for travelling up to the game... thanks for that. Looking forward to 06/13 already... hopefully we can get Huckerby on the field.