San Jose vs. Rubin Kazar [R] and all comments Hey, I know, I'm a DC fan, but nobody else set it up yet and I'm pulling for the Quakes of course. Go kick some tail. Also, Rosenborg beat Viking 2-0. Let's go Quakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some background info on Rubin Kazan: I believe Rubin was one of two teams promoted to the Russian Premier League after the 2002 season.
Man, you're really starved for soccer, aren't you? As far as I know, there are no plans for an AIM chatroom or PBP thread considering our only source of info is going to be the post-match report at SJEarthquakes.com Game should be starting in 30 minutes I would guess.
Not an overly impressive result against a newly promoted team, it would be nice to know who played for the Quakes. They still have a chance to play for third with a win in their next match, or a tie if Ruben Kazan looses to Rosenberg.
Either that or we were. As the famed explorer Indiana Jones once said, "I've got a bad feeling about this..." ...or was it the famous star pilot Han Solo?
the results mean nothing; it's just good they're getting some good competition in against unfamiliar foes.
The Quakes didn't get a goal in the run of play against a team that just plain sucks. If this was about determing what players are supposed to be on the team, Yallop wouldn't have played Ekelund. The Quakes stink - there is just no other way to interpret it. Oh, and the new uniforms just plain blow.
Lets see...Viking ties Rubin 1-1, Rosenborg drops San Jose 2-0. San Jose ties Rubin 1-1, Rosenborg drops Viking 2-0. See a pattern? The 1-1 result against a newly promoted side is not a bad thing. Remember Kaiserslautern winning the Bundesliga after promotion? BTW, I think the third games will end with Rosenborg defeating Rubin 2-0 and San Jose v. Viking ending 1-1. So San Jose will be as good, in theory, as a side (Viking) that was in the UEFA cup this year. Viking knocked Chelsea out of the competition, 5-4 on aggregate, before being dumped out by Celta Vigo, 4-1 on aggregate. San Jose will be a good team this year. Maybe not as good as 2001 or 2002, but still good. Conway is a decent 'keeper and given the games this year could develope into a solid MLS player. Maybe not USNT caliber, but a good pro. A defense of Dayak, Robinson, Agoos, and Corrales is first rate. Waibel and Dunivant are good subs. Russell, Mulrooney, Ekelund, and Lagos are the same midfielders from 2001 and 2002. What is the problem here? Mullan can play on the right and Alvarez could play on the left as he has for the U18's. Donovan and DeRosario will be a good tandem up top. It is a shame Barclay is gone because he could have seen some time up top and IMHO is better than Mullan and Alvarez at the moment. Now, if injuries occur, San Jose are the 2002 Chicago Fire, but this would happen to most teams in MLS as well since each club only has 13-16 players that could really play MLS to begin with.
It was Han Solo in Star Wars. Both Han and Leia use that line in the series. (Ironically, George Lucas originally wrote it for Indiana Jones, but Jones was always alone when he got into dangerous scenes, and Lucas didn't want Jones to look weird by talking to himself.) However, I'll go with Luke on this one: "I have a VERY BAD feeling about this."
Have you ever seen a Russian premier league game? Alexi could probably comment more accurately than I, but even clubs that are pretty consistently mid-table, like Rotor Volgograd, would be towards the bottom of MLS. And believe me, promoted teams don't have the quality of a club like Kaiserslautern, or even Tampa Bay (RIP) for that matter. I'm not saying this with any sense of alarm - its early, its preseason, players are still familiaring themselves with each other, Yallop might have rustled Donovan's feathers, etc. But I don't think we should take this result as a positive by any stretch.
It's hard to believe you saw the Shanghai match if you really believe that Barclay is better than Mullan or Alvarez. Especially Alvarez, who may end up being something special.
I know Rubin Kazan just purchased Sparta Praha captain Jiri Novotny. I wouldn't read too much into a friendly pre-season match. Also, Rubin has probably been training longer then San Jose (a few weeks?).
I haven't seen an RPL game since 1998, but my general impression is that the average level of teams (except the leaders Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, and CSKA Moscow) are pretty much the same as MLS. ... maybe Rubin is not that crappy after all...
I've seen Alvarez, Mullan, and Barclay all play in person. It's only my opinion, but Barclay is by far better than Alvarez is at the moment. My post did say "at the moment". I too think Alvarez will be a good player can probably better than Barclay. Interesting how both took the same route. Mullan has never impressed me and my thoughts on Barclay v. Mullan are more geared towards 2003. Mullan has easily performed better in MLS than Barclay.
Looking at the full write up and box score, sounds like San Jose was the better team, but blew it (and may have been the victim of a bad call). A handball call on a ball into the wall sounds really rather sketchy, unless Waibel was doing something extremely stupid with his arms. Otherwise there is no way you can call it intentional. Apparently going over finishing in practice didnt work this time, starting to sound like its going to be a theme this year. Overall though you want to see more, this kind of result is not especially encouraging.
Nope, haven't seen a Russian league game in person in my life. My point was that promoted clubs aren't always that bad. Sure some go straight down, but some stay up and are mid-table clubs, in any league. I'm also of the opinion that the Russian League - outside of Spartak, CSKA, and Lokomotive - aren't bottom table MLS clubs. They perform decently in the UEFA Cup. It's not like the Russian League is the Scottish Premier League when you take out Celtic and Rangers.