Chicago - San Jose (Saturday, 5/10) postgame thread [R]

Chicago/San Jose post game (R)

Yes, I agree Onstad MOTM. He should win this unanimously. Awesome saves by him. Awesome game pace too, I couldnt believe how fast that game flew by.

 

Onstad almost singlehandedly earned back one of the two points he lost on the volleyball own goal.

Is he really giving way when Conway returns? Seems to me Onstad's not only redeemed himself but could seriously take the Quakes places.

Landon didn't seem interested in being on that nasty carpet in the middle of a tornado.

 

I agree He was yet again outstanding and made some amazing saves tonight. And better yet, the 'quakes remain unbeaten

 

Not the finest of matches, but given the conditions (grass-like substance, gale-force winds, driving rain, etc.) a good result for the quakes. This gives us 4 points for the two game trip, puts us eight points up on the (still deservedly, gloriously, and hilariously) winless LA goal-less-y. Coralles and Donovan both picked this night to have an off game, but it didn't matter in the final analysis. Chicago had way too many chances on goal, but Onstad came up HUGE! Definately MOTM for this week.

Looking forward to next week's game against the ever-pesky Crew.

 

Donovan definitely ran out of gas towards the end of the second half and it was good to see Frank take him out. Of course, maybe if Arena had taken him out at 60 minutes on Thursday LD would have had some reserve.

The other reason Donovan seemed to run out of gas was that he worked hard during the match.

How many times did Mulrooney get the ball tonite? He seems to be dropping awfully deep, but then again with that lousy camera angle, it was always kind of difficult to see who was who.

And keeping Mulrooney deep is fine if the attacks are effective coming from the wing(s).

Go Quakes
Tony

 

Onstad got save of the day on MLS Wrap

 

Good for Onstad!! We needed for him to come up big soon. Good time for a good match.

How did the rest of the guys look? I'm trying to get an idea from the MatchTraker report on MLSnet and the radio broadcast.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Donovan worked really hard and was just spent at the end of the match. Ching also worked hard and took some real physical punishment. Mulrooney had an excellent game, I love watching him play. DUnivant, Goose, Dayak all did really well, Waibel picked up a yellow card so that wasnt too great. Lagos and Corrales i didnt feel like they were really involved in that game. Mullan still needs to work on his crosses, Onstad was remarkable. Alvarez got to come in but he didnt get many touches in his 10 minutes.

 

The Quakes, although having an off night overall, come away with road points with a workmanlike effort and some stupendous goal keeping from Onstad. It's the sign of a good team when they manage to grab points even in off nights, on the road, in bad weather.

Next week the two best teams in MLS meet at Spartan - I hope people are paying attention.

 

Yup.

...and I can still see Mullan bursting down the right wing in the second half with Donovan and Ching (I think) running with, but Mullan couldn't have had a clue where they were because he spent the whole time with his head down cruising forward... Finally, he slowed, and almost simultaneously looked up and hit a cross in towards the box... You could almost see him thinking, "So... did anyone run along with me and will the run into the space where I just kicked the ball? ...Oh... dang... time to hustle back on defense."

...quite a pity...

 

I was wondering the same thing. JoCo may have to work hard to get back in the lineup once that ankle heals. Sounds like its time for the Onstad denouncers to suck it up.

 

Lagos sucked again.

Sigh.

 

Most entertaining 0-0 game I’ve seen in a while. First time this year we lost the battle for mid-field. The Fire had way too much possession in the second half. Our passing stank maybe it was the wind. Chicago looked fresher than us at the end. As for individuals:

Onstad – Man of the match. His FSW save of the day wasn’t even his best of the night.
Dayak – Superior again. He is always in the right place at the right time.
Agoos – Same as above, but he was inconsistent on his free kicks.
Dunivant – Mostly solid defense but exposed a couple of times
Wiabel – Tough to get by, but the opposition should just kick the ball straight at him and he will give it right back.
Mulrooney – Mixed it up with Armas all night, he played the best of our midfield.
Corrales – Not his best game, I think FSBA said he was playing with a bulging disk in his neck.
Lagos – Played well at times, not so well at others, looked very tired in the second half.
Mullan – Played hard but he wasn’t involved in the attack enough.
Ching – He was very physical up front, had a lot of touches but not a lot of chances.
Donovan – Had to drop back into the midfield to help with defense and possession.

 

Way to be Onstad! And Dunivant is playing as if this was his third year with the Quakes instead of his first.

Quakes: Undefeated in five matches.
Galaxy: Haven't won in five matches.

Somebody pinch me.


Let's cheer the Quakes past the Crew this Saturday!

 

Just to let you guys know, I think another keeper will likely have to play in a few weeks if you guys have a match the weekend of May 31st/June 1st. Canada is playing Germany on June 1st and with our regular #1 Lars Hirshfeld still out due to injury Pat Onstad is likely to get the call for Canada.

 

Crap, we are playing Chicago that weekend. Anyone know if Conway will be ready by then?

 

At this point, there is no way that Onstad should lose his job once Conway returns. He singlehandedly earned us the point last night.

Some other impressions:

Does Wiabel have any ball skills at all? It gets a little tiresome watching him just boot it done the field everytime. Though, between him , Dayak and Agoos, we have the most fearsome looking backline in MLS.

Lagos looked lost and subsequently, our midfield disapeared for long stretches last night.

Ching and Dunivant both looked very active and committed to carrying the attack. I especially think that Ching will end up as the find of the season.

 

Onstad saved the Quakes' bacon.

The Quakes' midfield disappeared the 2nd half. All four of them pretty much stunk.

Terrible place to play. If there were no victories, it was a victory.

Take the point and run. Just be glad no one got struck by lightning.

 

Nothing new. With Goldberg, The Beast, The Goose, and the Loving Brother, our backline is monsterous. Not a big step back from '01 with Conrad/Ibsen and Barrett. And when one of them begins to suck, we will have E-Rob to insert.

 

I agree that Donovan, Lagos, and especially Corrales had off nights. But it was well played and exciting. I really like the new quick counter-attack system we have now - it really shows Donovan to his strengths. To anyone that said Ching has no skills with the ball at his feet, this game proved them wrong. We score when Mulan plays well, but he seems to be doing less and less of that lately. Nice to see Roner get some field time, but he only touched the ball once and made a very careful and well directed pass to the Fire.

 

I'm extra pleased for Onstad. If he gets to play for Canada against Germany, good for him.

...at http://www.mlsnet.com/statistics/ you will find:

2003 Individual Leaders

Brian McBride
3 Goals

Preki
2 Assists

Pat Onstad
0.38 GAA

 

A good point on the road

The one thing that disappointed me was the whole team in general and Donovan in particular was awfully deep. We didn't have enough people upfield to make counterattacks work. And Donovan couldn't play off Ching much because he was all the way over on the touchline.

Ching has been playing great but I expected he would be our assist leader, not goal leader. It's been more Donovan feeding the ball to Ching than vice-versa, which seems odd.

Yes, great for Onstead. Besides his saves, he finally looked loose out there.