March 10 News: Santa Clara County, CA bans gatherings of more than 1,000 people through the end of March. San Jose Earthquakes official statement is they will "comply immediately" with the order. This is likely to impact SKC at San Jose game on March 21. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id...-county-bans-gatherings-1000-plus-first-death Will have to stay tuned to what this means. Speculation on possible outcomes: SKC will play in front of < 1,000 SJ supporters (which doesn't seem to match the "spirit" of the ban) SKC plays in an empty stadium (this is already happening in Italy and now Spain) MLS/Earthquakes moves venues to another county without a ban (although I suspect more counties surrounding that area will also follow suit and impose a ban - so I this doubt becomes reality) The game is deferred to later in the year
The other option I saw floated on the San Jose boards was to switch the series with SKC to have us host the 3/21 match and have them host the match later in the season. I have no idea if that is practical from a CMP perspective.
And if San Jose replicates last season where it took them a while to find their form - I would not want to face a revitalized Earthquakes squad in SJ in the middle of a 4 game hot summer road trip. Right now they look kind of lost... Sure, all points mathematically count the same in the standings no matter when you earn them. But I believe there is a psychological impact on when you earn them. Sticking a 6 pointer to a conference opponent late in the season has a much bigger emotional and momentum impact. I would prefer SKC maximizes this opportunity by playing the SJ home game as scheduled in August, not March.
OTOH there is something to be said for the fact that we're looking at back to back away games as it is in the next two weeks. If we get 3 in Atlanta, it would not be a disaster to come home for back to back games. A hot start does not mean more than a hot finish (which sounds like a porn movie storyboard), but early season momentum is a good thing.
not to argue that it's a bad thing, nor am i insinuating that you're also not aware of this fact, but we had some great momentum in the early season last year. we were sitting pretty at the top (or thereabouts) of the table.
Yep. We had a pretty damn good March. It wasn't until Monterrey kicked our shit in and we wobbled for the rest of the year that it was clear we were flattered by our early fitness. It's a very common thread with Vermes. The team usually starts really brightly. It's a great time to play teams that don't, though. Get some points in the door, and hopefully we'll do a 2018 and rotate well enough that we don't see the typical Peter summer swoon again.
I had that conversation earlier this week - twice. I was excited last year after Toluca and the 7-1 massacre of Montreal. The PTSD from the rest of the year is keeping my excitement this year tempered to a state of hopeful optimism.
I think we're a better team this time around but our defensive liabilities are only somewhat repaired. We are better at LB and CB than last year, but I have even more significant concerns over DM and RB now. I hate to say a season might hinge on our weakest links, but the durability of Zusi, Espinoza, and Ilie (the latter two of which should be well mitigated by Gutierrez and Busio) is going to speak quite a lot to how this year might go. We have first team offensive quality and some significantly great depth, so I think we'll knock in goals pretty regularly all year long.