LEAGUES CUP 2024: Los Angeles FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Tuesday, 8/13) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

This is truly shameful.

We are having one of the very worst seasons in the history of the league, and we can’t be bothered to sign any players in the transfer window? That’s our owner announcing that he doesn’t give a shit how we are.

If the team can’t at least make an effort, a pretense of caring, why should I has a fan care about the team? I mean, other than that I’ve been a fan for decades?

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Some neo-cons are.

 

I think Ian is walking the fine line of trying to get more confidence in the team while playing the players that he thinks will contribute next year. Last night, my thought was that we should start seeing Ocho at least start a few games (not all). May be they don't want to kill Ochoa's confidence playing behind Munie and Rodrigues.

 

They might be trying to sell Ochoa for profit, snd destroying his stats is counter productive for keepers.

 

I fell asleep early last night (it’s been a really tough 2 weeks). How did Benji do last night?

Also, I’m a little disheartened to see people write that Ian is doing a good job if we don’t get the wooden spoon. Talk about lowering expectations to Zero! Yikes!

 

The Quakes are virtually assured the Wooden Spoon. Landing a man on Jupiter is a lower expectation than the Quakes evading the inevitable.

 

Yeah, we're 9 points below the next closest teams (St. Louis and NE). Not gonna happen (catching either one with 9 games). I'd like to see 3 or 4 more wins of the remaining 9.

 

"But overall, Daniel has been really, really good for us. And he's going to compete for that starting job when Bruno [Wilson] is back and with Tanner Beason and Rodrigues.” - Ian

As far as I know Bruno is out for the year? If so then either Ian thinks he's going to be coaching the team next year or he knows who the players are and the next coach and how that coach sees the players competing for spots.

 

Benji continues to look good at RB. And on Ian, he will have coached 14 league games by the end of the season. 4-5 wins and he should probably keep the job, 3 wins or less and it becomes hard to say he’s done well enough to earn it.

 

As much as we like Ian, and recognize he’s got a long history with this team, and did well in Reno, don’t you think he needs to hit some kind of target win percentage to be considered for next year? He’s getting a pretty good tryout run this year.

 

Leagues Cup was pretty good. I'd like to see 3 or 4 more wins before the year ends. He's working with a pretty poor squad given some key injuries, and well, not a great squad to begin with. Hopefully Daniel can go again soon which will help.

 

So far he’s won just 1 (league game) and lost 4 but if he can win just 3 of these last 9 (which is a crazy low bar) then he’s done enough to earn it for next year. Anything less and it’s hard to say he’s done well enough to earn the job.

 

Meh, I'm not that into hard limits. Depends on how well the team's playing in general. Like maybe we play pretty well and get 4 ties, and 2 wins. Sorry, didn't make the cut, you're out? From a qualitative perspective I think we're playing a bit better than we did under Luchi. Is it enough better to warrant a full-time job? Maybe.

I had previously made light of Ian's supposed recent player talks, including with Hernán, where he reminded Hernán not to play hero ball. That seems like an obvious thing that even Hernán should understand. But on the broadcast last night they were talking about Ian showing film to Hernán and Hernán kind of laughing and agreeing about some of his poor plays. So maybe there's more to that than I had originally thought. He does seem to have Benji, Hernán, Jebo, Gruezo, and even Yueill playing a little better. So we'll see...

 

I think we’re playing a little better too. 4 ties and 2 wins down this final stretch would be progress and passable. I think it’s important that he does enough to earn it and so far the jury is still out on that…he’s got to do better in these final 9 than he did in his first 5.

 

I added this part that you may have missed...or not...but it's another data point - to me.

I had previously made light of Ian's supposed recent player talks, including with Hernán, where he reminded Hernán not to play hero ball. That seems like an obvious thing that even Hernán should understand. But on the broadcast last night they were talking about Ian showing film to Hernán and Hernán kind of laughing and agreeing about some of his poor plays. So maybe there's more to that than I had originally thought. He does seem to have Benji, Hernán, Jebo, Gruezo, and even Yueill playing a little better. So we'll see...

 

That first goal was also the fault of Benji. As someone said earlier, “don’t let the ball bounce”. Especially in the defensive end.

 

The jury is Fisher.

I predict Ian Russell gets the full time head-coaching gig.

 

It should be performance based, he's getting a great tryout, 14 mls games is a lot to see if he can make a little progress with this team.

But he's the less expensive option (much more costly to hire a coach with a winning track record in a top pro league, and kind of pointless if you're not prepared to adequately invest in players) so I expect you're right.

 

I wish we were demanding more progress and accountability rather than rewarding all this failure.

Shameful is right.

 

We should recall what happened last time we had an interim coach who had at least decent or better results but we decided that "Nah, we can do better!!" You can toss the bird in hand, but sometimes the one in the bush is no great shakes, to put it mildly.

 

So far, the results haven't been better, or decent. 1 win, 4 losses.

But I think Don's right, this will be a purely dollar driven decision and not results/performance based.

I don't know why they even bothered with the interim tag.

 

The results have not been good but they have been significantly better when you include Leagues Cup: 3 wins and 6 losses - 33% win % from Luchi's 15%.

 

Leagues Cup means nothing. We beat two Mexican teams. I expect the FO will hype that up but its his track record against MLS teams that I care about.

How did we do against the two MLS teams we played in that tournament?

 

Liga MX is roughly comparable to MLS. It's not like we played USL teams. We beat a pretty good Liga MX team and hammered a Liga MX team that MLS pundits predicted we'd lose to. Leagues Cup is another tournament, another chance to win HW. So yes, it certainly does mean something. You can’t say “We need to evaluate Ian by his record!”, and then turn around and cherry pick results from that record.

 

I’m far more interested in MLS and how he does against teams in our league.

Like I said, it was a fun little distraction but we’re still on pace for another wooden spoon and so far Ian hasn’t been able to help out much with avoiding that dubious distinction.