That's not Brian's foot. Our boys don't wear black socks with those kits. Looks to me like it's attached to Metro. Edit: Dang I'm good! It is indeed attached to a Metro. I looked at the pics on the Quakes site from that game. The caption says "Brian Mullan wins a slide tackle." Pic makes more sense when you see the whole thing.
Remember the very last scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, when The Ark of the Covenant was nailed shut inside a U.S. Army Intelligence crate and carted away in a gigantic secret warehouse stacked with similar crates? Roughly half of those crates are holding those third points. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Perhaps Guy might enlighten us on the purpose of wearing the yellow jerseys at home. In the Revolutionary War days, British soldiers wore red uniforms to intimidate the opposition. When the Brits were shot, they wouldn't be seen bleeding. Similarly, Italian troops during WWII wore brown pants.
Aha! No wonder it looked so strange.....I thought it was Mullan stretching of something weird....thanks, I was starting to think maybe his body was taken over like in the Exorcist...
At the end of the season MLS HQ holds a random drawing where-by the extra points are allocated to the superclubs NY and LA.
Sa-weet! But hopefully you'll be rooting them on. No routing on the Quakes this Saturday! (Sorry. I think I've been reading too many of Goodsie's posts! ) Anyway, pop by and say hi- I'll be somewhere in the South End.
OK - I got a chance to go watch the practice today, so here's an update. First, Robinson did not practice, Cochrane did and he seemed fine on his ankle. There was also a Roger Levesque sighting at practice, not sure if this is significant or not. He participated in all of the drills, but as I'll describe below, he was not put in at forward in any of the 6 v 6, or the scrimmage at the end (he played left wing, but I assume mainly because there was nobody else to play wing). They are taking 6 extra guys to Columbus (they fly out tomorrow), as they don't know whether Eddie will be able to play. I guess the good news is that he's going, so he may be ready by Saturday. Travelling team: same as last week, minus Califf, plus Russell and Aloisi (although it seems that if Robinson is ready to go Aloisi would be the one not to suit up). Projected starters (based on 11 v 11 today): Onstad Hart - Gray - Cochrane - Barrett Mullan - O'Rourke - Clark - Chung Moreno - Cerritos Subs: Conway, Nash, Wondolowski, Russell, Aloisi (or if Eddie is able to go, he probably replaces Hart in the starting lineup, and Hart replaces Aloisi on the bench) Notes on the practice: They started with about half an hour of agility drills, short sprints through markers, side to side, etc Then they went into circles of 8 guys, 2 in the center, playing one-touch keepaway. Did a few variations of this, for about 15-20 minutes. Then did some two touch passing drills, in different variations practicing controlling on the first touch. They then moved to a 6 v 7 drill, looked like it was focused on the defense keeping its shape and moving. Defense consisted of back 4 defenders, and 2 central midfielders and a goalie. Offense was 2 forwards, and 4 midfielders. Starting defense is what is listed above as projected starting lineup; starting offense was Moreno and Cerritos, and Chung, Russell, Wondolowski, and Mullan across the midfield. Offense went at defense for about 7-8 times until a shot was taken or the ball was turned over. Then, Dom rotated different guys into the defense (Dombrowski in the middle, Goldthwaite at LB, Califf at CB, Aloisi at CB, Gray playing some RB as well as CB....Rodriguez was not in the mix for whatever reason). On offense, Ramirez and Nash substituted in at forward, and Levesque went in at left wing for a short period. They then went to a scrimmage, starting lineup from above against a lineup of: Conway Rodriguez - Califf - Aloisi - Goldthwaite Russell - Wondolowski - Dombrowski - Levesque Nash - Ramirez They finished with some passing/finishing drills. The first one had Clark and O'Rourke in the middle of the field about 40 yards out, with sets of left wings and right wings set up on each side (this included Barrett, Goldthwaite, Levesque and Chung on the left; Mullan, Gray, Russell, and Hart on the right). The rest of the guys were in the middle at the top of the box. The drill consisted of a long pass from the center to the wing, one wing one touched it to another wing on the same side, who drove to the end line and crossed the ball. Two guys in the middle ran at the goal and tried to one touch the ball into the goal. Very interesting drill; the guys who made some of the nicest crosses were Chung and Barrett from the left, and Mullan on the right. Then they guys who wanted to went and rested, some of the guys stayed out for some other shooting/finishing drills, where 2-3 guys combined on one touch passes and then the last guy took a shot from the top of the box on goal. The guys who I thought had some of the best shots in this were Barrett and Mullan. (It looked like it was voluntary as far as who stayed out and did this drill....Barrett, Mullan and Clark were the only starters that were out there) Overall a pretty lively practice, lots of talking and some joking around. Dom was really pushing the defense in the 6 v 7 drill to talk and communicate; and he was pushing the guys in much of the other drills on the quality of their first touches. I was impressed with how he ran the practice.
I think they save em up and at the end of every season they'll award 10 points to Chivas just they don't feel their season is a pointless effort
Oops - correction on practice today. It was NOT Roger Levesque, it was Ramiro Corrales (who played for the Quakes last year, is on a break with the team he is playing for this year, and just joined them for some practice..wasn't a tryout or anything...he was wearing Levesque's #23 and he kind of looked like the right build for Roger, faked me out). That explains why he was playing midfield instead of forward, since Ramiro is a midfielder.
Now, THAT would figure! As for FAS' notion of MLS awarding Chivas 10 points at season's end to lessen the feeling of futility--perhaps, that's it. Did we read the fine print in that expansion agreement? There was an expansion draft where each of those teams got our players. Did we also sign away all of our "unattained points?"
Lol no, but this is MLS and there is always ample room for "adjustment" to the rules as has been shown over the years by the allocations and salary cap "magic" to LA, Metros and DCU.
Oh, that's right. I forgot who we were dealing with. The relationship dynamic between the Quakes and MLS has been and likely will always be like Judge Smails and his nephew, Spalding, in Caddyshack... "YOU'LL GET NOTHING AND LIKE IT!!!"
OK, Chaverim! Am I the only besides Nick losing sleep a/over our D this weekend since IMHO, meither EdirO or Cochrane should even sniff the bluegrass of C-bus; so we're looking at Aloisi, Hart, Gray, Wade - D ? b/ having Russell and Nash as the only offensive mid - forward options for subs? c/ not having ANY realistic sub options for D or D-Mid? Also, am I the only one gittn' giddy thinking of having Onstad Gray EdierO Califf Wade Mullan Clark DerO Davis Ching Ronnie mit Chung, O'Rourke and Moreno - on the bench for the playoffs???
I know, it's great that the team has grown as much as it has. I'll admit that at the start of the season I was extremely sceptical about our chances, i still was even a few weeks ago, especially after the Dc game. but now I am feeling far more optimistic, based on the lineup you just listed. player by player: Onstad: among the top 3-4 keepers in the league, i'd rather have Joe c but Onstad has being getting better and better all season Caliiff/Ero: Nuff said, the best central D this team has ever had and one of the best in the league's history, hopefully they can stay healthy (and return to health in Ero's case) Barrett: Started out slowly but is really one of the most improved players in the last few weeks, great runs, good passes, stopped giving away the ball and even scored a great goal Gray: great addition, very solid at the corner, brings offense to the wings, and did a great job to get off the ground against dallas and still make the pass for the game tying assist Rico: What can I say, this guy has just gotten more and more impresssive, should be a candidate for MLS player of the month, he picked up the slack when first Davis, then Dero left Davis: fantastic energy, really missed him in the last few games but luckily for us ...Rico Mullan/Chung: Either one is a proven commodity Dero: Quakes player of the year Ching: Let's just hope he gets healthy for the playoffs Cerritos: God bless him he plays he's heart out but if there was a single position I'd want to upgrade it's this one
Yeah, the team is worried about Cochrane's ankle apparently, as they are taking Goldthwaite on the trip as a "backup" to the "backup" plan (per my earlier post, Aloisi appears to be the backup plan to Robinson). Bottom line, both Robinson and Cochrane are travelling, and Cochrane participated in all practice drills today, but they are taking two extra subs on the trip (Aloisi and Goldthwaite) in case either or both Eddie/Ryna are not ready to go. On your point b, they also are taking Wondolowski who has done quite well in the Reserve games at a-mid and outside mid, so there is one more option. And on your third point, not sure what you mean by not having any realistic sub options for D or D-Mid. The sub option for D-mid would be to move Chung or perhaps Wondolowski to a-mid and take out either Clark or O'Rourke; the sub options for D are possibly moving O'Rourke back as was done briefly in the Dallas game, or putting in Aloisi. Overall, if you're going to be moving guys around and/or giving young guys some action, I'd say doing it against Columbus is a pretty good time for it. And, as you pointed out, all of this shuffling and playing of new guys is really making the team deep for the playoffs.
Let's see, Columbus without Hejduk, Martino, and Cornell Glen. That's not a very scary team. They're missing the players who have scored 5 of their 12 goals, and 5 of their 11 assists. The defense should be able to focus on Buddle, who is the only offensive threat that the Crew will have. And with 11 men on the field (hopefully ) the offense should be able to generate some great chances; this front 6 now has one game together and should come out more confident. I predict a 2-0 Quakes victory, goals by Cerritos and Mullan.