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

Yueill, Thompson and Jebo look like they could have been thinking in terms of man-marking at the start of the sequence. But only Thompson moves as though he's thinking in those terms once the cross takes flight. And then he doesn't mark any man. And I'm not trying to single out TT here as the culprit. Jebo ended up doing nothing (not good), but he had two large men (Beason and Benji) in even better positions to defend that cross. Meanwhile, Judson, Nathan, Beason and Benji are zonally marking to begin the sequence. Beason actually has a great position to start, then he moves forward (toward the near post) when Thompson abandons #4(?), and the ball eventually ends up near the spot where he began. And watch what Benji does on the play. He doesn't move toward the ball (probably thinks Beason's "got it"), and then does a little tiny jump as if he's making some kind of effort. In order of culpability (imo), Beason, Thompson, Jebo, Benji. Jebo fails to get in front of the goal-scorer, but TT vacated the spot that we're suggesting Jebo should have taken up. Maybe only Covelo and his defenders can really say who deserves the most blame on this, but regardless of assignments, sometimes you have to make the best appropriate decision in the moment. Thus my take.

 

As I said, TT tried to cover his man, #4, but #4 shoulder bumps him then shoves him out of the way. Looks like he actually shoves him in the neck or head area as you see his head sort of snap around at one instant. The 3rd guy in the line of 3 initially squaring up with Austin players is marking his man here (I think it's Yueill) and Jebo is ball watching.

The goal is on Jebo, and also on the ref for not calling the foul.

It's blurry but here you can see #4's hand shoving TT, and just after than TT recoils and he see his head snap around.

 

Here you can see them lining up man to man.



And here you can see that TT is engaging with his man (#4), Yueill with his (#8) and Jebo is ball watching, not engaging or even facing his man at this point. He's running free, unmarked. He'll fake a near post run just after this point, and then go right behind Jebo's back unmarked.

 

I have the recording open in another browser window. I've seen everything you've seen. Don't agree that any egregious foul occurred against TT (of the sort that would ever get called). As I said, only a few players could even possibly have been seen as "man marking", and it's not apparent that this was their assignment (if so, why did TT abandon his man?). Anyway, I've explained my full take, and you're entitled to yours.

 

As I said, you can see the 3 in that group squaring up 1v1 in the 1st screenshot above. TT follows his man, Yueill follows his man (2nd screenshot above), Jebo is the only one of the 3 that doesn't follow his man.

TT "abandoned his man" because he got shoved out of the way. As I said just after that hand comes out, you can see TT recoil and his head snap around toward the camera. Looking at the angle of #4's hand to TT's body, looks like he got shoved in the head or neck. Whether that's a foul that gets called or not, it is a foul. Shoulder leaning is one thing, a shove in the face is another. You could say he got shoved away too easily, but the fact is that he got fouled, and that Jebo’s man went in unmarked to score.

BTW I thought I remember that MLS was going to crack down on shoving and for a while they weee calling it pretty tight. But maybe they forgot and things are going back to the status quo? Regardless there is too much happening on corners and a lot of chicanery goes uncalled. If TT had gone to ground they might have noticed even if only by VAR.

 

Okay, I admit it. It was me. Had some bad mojo working.

 

THAT early in the game?

 

#5hourtailgate

 

Here is the pathetic match recap from the Quakes website:

SJ 3 - 3 ATX


More details to follow.

 

Austin FC has match report up on its website.

 

That’s gonna suck in a few years from now when some kid wants to find out what happened in the match. Hopefully she’ll know about big soccer.

 

The small front office of a small team with a small owner strikes again. Probably, the unpaid intern who was updating the website went off for her/his sophomore year in college…

 

Fixed your post.

 

Do teams post their own match recaps?? I never noticed this before — I only read the match recaps on mlssoccer, which are written by MLSsoccer staff. Altho, they must be understaffed this season, because the textual recaps don’t show up immediately after the game like they used to.

 

Thsy usually come in a few hours after the game. Don’t know what happened on this one. Maybe they’re still trying to figure out Covelo said in his postgame. His Spanish accent is pretty strong sometimes.

 

I laughed when I read that TT was fouled there. That's the definition of trifling in soccer. TT barely got touched. That bump back towards goal didn't cause him to then side step away from his mark and behind Jebo and the scorer. Odd movement. Odd comment. Still don't think TT should be called out on this play as cause of the goal.

 

Watch again. There was an initial shoulder bump and then he got shoved. Why would he fall back like that otherwise? For fun? It doesn't make any sense. We can say that he got pushed out of the way too easily - fair enough, but the fact is he was pushed.

Here you can see #4's hand shoving TT out of the way, and you can also see Jebo ball watching and not watching his man, the goal scorer, who is behind him.

 

We get it. You love TT, but he wasn't fouled. It wasn't his man that scored, but he also chose odd (at best) positioning after normal contact during the corner.

 

That wasn't normal contact. He got pushed. It may rarely get called in the scrum of a corner, but that's a foul, sorry. Shoulder to shoulder, not a foul. Arm out full extension shove that pushes a player out of the way when the ball is in play - yes, that's a foul.

If you watch it at speed you can see that TT didn't really have much time to "choose positioning" after getting shoved. If you want to criticize him I think it's fair to say that he got pushed out of the way too easily and didn't recover fast enough to be of any use on the play.

 

JJ’s TT and Quakes05’s MA are perfection incarnate. It’s probably best that they’re separated now lest their unalloyed magnificence causes the atmosphere to ignite in an extinction-level event.

 

I won’t hesitate to name TT’s shortcomings and in fact just criticized him above for the play in discussion (pushed out of the way too easily and didn’t recover fast enough) and I’ve said many times that he struggles with pace and I’ve said many times he plays too conservatively. But as his unofficial guardian angel I will come to his defense when I think he’s unfairly criticized.

Now as for the MA guys, that’s a different story. They start with the “given” that MA is a great coach and is beyond reproach and “reverse engineer” any of his shortcoming to be someone else’s fault. In their world, MA will always and forever shyte strawberries, and only strawberries.

 

Telling someone to watch it again when they clearly see it differently (without the TT love and taking Quake goggles off) doesn't help. At this point it's just a game of how long you'll keep telling us to watch the same video over and over again to see it how you do. I don't see a foul. This is putting on the '20 years of running around with a whistle in hand' hat. Keep saying it, but it was trifling.

 

The reason I suggested that you watch it again is that you said it was a "bump back towards goal", and then he "side stepped away from his mark" which led me to believe you didn't see the push. He didn't choose to "side step away from his mark". His mark pushed him out of the way. Yes there was a shoulder bump initially, but then a fully extended push out of the way. Why is it not a foul to push a guy out of the way while the ball is in play? I understand there's a matter of degree, but the fact is that he pushed TT out of the play.

My understanding was that MLS was supposed to be cracking down on hand shoves this year. They were calling it tight early in the year, not sure if things are slipping back to normal again.

 

Yeah, they are cracking down on the defense doing the shoving. MLS likes it when there are goals, little Tommy getting a little shove on a goal like this isn't going to be a foul.