Post-match: Austin FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 8/6) postgame thread [R]

Here's the thing: I totally expected to turn off the game at around the 60th minute, pissed off, and then go on with my life. Wife and I watched to the end, with me performing a flying High-5 across the ottoman when Jebo scored!

Absolutely frustrated that coach didn't sub earlier, but, the game (I thought) was actually interesting. Didn't really know which team would win.

A this point, I'll take a tie on the road.

P.S. I don't care what anyone else says, I friggin' love Tommy! In a lot of respects, he reminds me of the blue collar Quakes of the Spartan Stadium days. Put me on the field, whatever position you want me to play, coach, and I'm gonna' give it all I got!

 

And, yeah, JY had a rough night.

 

I don't think anyone is trying to use the Hebrew pronunciation of Nathan (Natan) . But in Portuguese "Nathan" is pronounced more like "NAH-tahn". If you listen to this Brazilian Portuguese broadcast, Nathan scores a goal at around 1:43, and you can hear how they say it.



In Europe they also used a pronunciation like "NAH-tahn" as well. Of course there is always the decision - do you go with the name the way the player would say it, or do you anglicize it. I was disappointed that we went with the anglicized version, but let's face it, hardly anyone was going to get it right here in the states, where we generally have poor aptitude and fluency in foreign languages.

I tried to set people straight on this when we acquired Nathan, but apparently to no avail .

 

I thought Tommy was somewhere between solid and good, showed some good combination play with Espinoza reminiscent of the 2019 days when they would play off of each other really well.

 

Also made a number of plays on defense and still hasn't been a primary or significant at-fault party on any goal this season that I can think of. He's always going to be susceptible to speedy wingers attacking on his side, but other than that he makes a good amount of plays on defense.

So now with Akapo coming in, maybe TT subs in. I don't think Akapo is a particularly attack-minded RB, so TT could come in when we need a goal. Or better yet, come in at midfield somewhere, but that's probably not going to happen.

 

We got lucky, Broccoli FC missed two sitters last night that they should have put away.
I don't mind playing spoiler as it's the only thing we got left.

 

The Austin announcers in the 2nd half made a comment that TT was not picked up again on an overlapping run and wondered how that could happen. Given he sailed the crosses 15 yards long I feel like maybe it was part of Austin's strategy. He's just so inconsistent. Better than he was 5 years ago when he wouldn't even warm up with the team, but still you never know if he's going to make a good play, take a dive, dribble too much, or ??? Like I said, better than in the past at least.

 

I think he “sailed” a cross once if that last night. I know Skahan did when he subbed for TT. You might have been thinking of that.

If TT crosses it’s usually a low driving ball in those situations to try to pick out an attacker. He has also won a number of PKs attacking with the ball in the box. If anything I think he could be less conservative in those situations as he too often makes the safe pass.

I think Quakes fans are just used to Espinoza or others not passing to TT when he makes those runs. To other team’s commentator / fans I’m sure it looks odd. Actually I think Espinoza passed to him more than usual last night. But TT is one of the few on the team that consistently makes off the ball attacking runs. We could use more of it vs. the usual standing around.

 

What a laser by PM. Just wow... a real highlight of the week. That should be a GOTY candidate.

 

Overall, that was a really good game to watch. Tons of excitement, and three legit goal of the week contenders (PM’s thunder strike, Driussi’s sneaky goal, and Jebo’s monster header). Also, a couple of save of the week contenders.

We played much better than on Wednesday. That was good. Looked like we were trying to win. Our defense was better organized, in spite of giving up three goals. We have to get better at picking up the late runner.

We still need reinforcements! Judson still isn’t playing like he used to. Covelo needs to sub earlier. He has no faith in his backups, but they are the backups he has, so he needs to use them.

We could sell Bersano to another team in the off season. He’s good enough to start in this league.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I watched a little bit of The Aftershock and Colin Etnire was essentially blaming the Quakes defensive struggles on TT, calling him "fish bait". Really? The trouble from Austin was coming from the other side. On the 1st Austin goal, TT was in the mix on the marking in the box, but it was Jebo who ball watched and lost his man. The second goal Driussi came in centrally on a long run with no trackers from midfield. On the 3rd, again the attack coming from the left side of the Quakes D. I didn't even see TT getting beat for speed much in this game. Even the near misses from Austin in the 2nd half tended to come from the center and left side of the Quakes D.

It's not that TT doesn't ever struggle on defense but I didn't really see it in this game. I thought he did fine. That's why I tend to avoid those shows. The analysis is at times very bad. We'd be much better off if @TyffaneeSue's old wise soccer sage guy had a show.

 

...in the PM.

 

PM^3 damn... (can you do superscript in bbcode? lol)

 

The first goal I don't think you could even say that was Jebo's clear mark. It looked like 3 EQ players were just covering space. TT was in position at one point but then ran around and to the backside of the play. I'm not sure what he was doing. It would have been a good move if on offense. Jebo was closest in the end, but you could pin this on any one of 3 players. It was great teamwork for them all to allow that. Odd if he was being called out on this one as the issue though. Other two goals were certainly not on him.

 

No, I watched that a few times. You can see how they're lined up 1v1 in a line. Someone (closest to the ball) had #8, TT had #4, and Jebo had #18, the goal scorer. As the kick went up, TT followed his man, #4 and bumped him, then he adjusted for the ball. Jebo ignored his man and moved towards the ball - clearly ball watching and marking no one. I think Danielle called out Jebo on that one too in the broadcast.

On the 2nd goal, again these "Aftershock" guys, smh, another Aftershock guy, Phil, tried to blame that one on TT also, saying he was "ball watching". If you watch the play you see #14 coming in from midfield - Judson was marking him and let him go as he entered the box, and TT picked him up - the right move there, otherwise he's wide open right in front of the goal. Then Driussi, #7, came in from midfield, also unmarked. TT had to stay with #14 and only left him at the very end as he saw the pass come in. So he gets blamed for being in the general area when the goal is scored I guess? But a midfield runner like that has to be tracked by CMs - Yueill or Judson. You can see Yueill just sort of doddling around at the top of the box. TT can't mark 2 guys in 2 different places.

 

Thompson did hit a balloon ball, at 71:55. Skahan also sailed one long, at 89:26 (and later scuffed one along the end line, right to the keeper). I'd have to go back and evaluate any of TT's attempted crosses prior to 71:55. I don't recall any off the top of my head, but I too was frustrated by the one at 71:55 (and Skahan's).

 

Right, as I said - I only recalled one possible "sail" from TT. He usually doesn't hit them in the air at all - he usually hits the low driving types or just passes against the stream.

 

It was your comment "you might have been thinking of that" (suggesting that he was thinking of Skahan's) which felt misguided.

On Austin's first goal, which I just re-watched, let's just call it a cluster-f. Beason mis-timed his jump for it; Thompson gave up his goal-side position (perhaps knowing his relative height was a natural disadvantage) and drifted past the goal-scorer into no man's land; Jebo failed to stay goal side of his man; and Benji didn't move toward the ball (instead, he does a little jump for no apparent reason).

 

My comment was based on the idea that TT sailed "multiple crosses" ("Given he sailed the crosses 15 yards long..."). That's why I suggested he may have hit one and why I wrote "I think he 'sailed' a cross once if that last night", but not multiple. And the OP may have mistaken TT as the source of a 2nd one (which was actually from Skahan). That's the only way you can get multiple out of that game.

The goal scorer was Jebo's mark, and he left him completely and ball watched. TT followed his mark, bumped him away from goal, then kind of went into no-man's land - around the other side of Jebo. But the goal scorer was clearly Jebo's mark all the way and he never made an attempt to mark him.

 

Ok. When you said "if that", and "possible" sail, I thought you were casting more doubt as to whether TT had actually shared in the day's infamy.

If anybody looked like they might have been "man marking", it was only TT. But he ended up not marking anybody (and he was very well positioned in the center of the chaos before drifting forward and creating the empty space for the shot to be taken). The rest of our defenders appeared to be more stationary (more like they were zone marking), but nobody managed to get on the end of the cross when they definitely could/should have. Jebo could have done better too, but there were three guys better positioned (Beason, Thompson, and possibly Benji) to handle the cross from a "back to the goal" position, whereas Jebo would have probably needed to try to head the ball over the target rather than clearing it. Anyway, Cluster F.

 

Beason was like... "I got it, I got it... I ain't got it"

 

You can see them lining up to mark the 3 guys at the beginning of the play. Jebo is clearly squaring up with #18, the goal scorer. I doubt that they'd do that and then try to somehow fall into zone marking. That's not going to work. Having watched it again, here's what happened:

1) They square up man-to-man as the ball is kicked.
2) TT tracks his man - #4, who shoulder bumps him and then essentially shoves him out of the way. Looks like a foul to me.
3) Jebo's man - #18, fakes a run toward the near post, Jebo falls back, let's him go and ball watches as his man then goes around Jebo's back for a free header.

It looked like it might have been a bit of a pick play. #4 pushing TT out of the way and #18 running into that space, except he wound up faking that run and taking a wider route, probably due to the flight of the ball.

I suppose you could fault TT for getting shoved out of the way too easily but looks like a foul to me. Leaning shoulders is one thing but then he brought out his arm and shoved TT.