LEAGUES CUP 2024: San Jose Earthquakes - Los Angeles Galaxy (Wed., 7/31) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

We can't have nice things. Ian parked the bus for the last 10 minutes and we got burned by it. Nothing new of course for this team this year.

Two great chances for 'Grino - both blown, and a blown chance from Gruezo and also Hernan (rebound that he jammed into the ground and over the net).

 

Gals also have nothing to play for except I guess seeding. They're already in.

 

FWIW, we're the only team in our group that didn't get the opportunity to play against a team on 3 days rest while being on a week's rest (or more) themselves.

Chivas (7 days rest) - San Jose (7 days rest)
San Jose (3 days rest) - LAG (10 days rest)
LAG (3 days rest) - Chivas (7 days rest)

Not sure where we were on subs but I saw Costa unable to track back late in the game and he was beaten on that ball to Puig for the Gals 2nd goal. Not an excuse, but a factor.

 

This one is on Russell for channeling the loser spirit of Luchi.

We were already outplayed in the midfield the whole game. And you ceded more ground and applied less pressure by sitting deeper with more defenders? See how it worked out with that pass from Puig?

Also. everyone, Russell included, should know our defensive did not hold up to pressure towards the end of the game. Saw it too many times. And you invited more pressure?

 

Lopez hasn’t been able to do much lately so I wasn’t too disappointed to see him come off. On the other hand, that’s exactly when you need your attacking midfielder DP to do some creative playmaking…it was 1-1.

 

I actually won’t trust the refs who may influence the results to let Chivas win and go through.

 

Quakes apparently go thru if either LAG beats Chivas or LAG wins PKs. Yeh?

We haven’t been playing badly. I wouldn’t mind a shot at another game, but it may be early exit to the showers for us again.

 

He wasn’t great but I think he had the thru ball to Pellegrino early in the game that should have been our first goal.

I think we have to come to terms with the fact that Hernán makes us a little better but not by much. Would help if he had some better technical players to play off of. And I don’t think I’ve seen him hit one really good medium to long range shot. He is pretty good at pressing and ball winning and when he doesn’t lose it trying to beat 3 players he draws fouls in some good areas. And he drops an occasional dime.

 

I had to watch on delay.

F#$% el-lay!!

We didn't do enough to win. Pelle had three good chances to score and flubbed them all. But aside from That, he played OK.

None of our guys were as good against the filth as they were against the GoatF-ers.

The Ref sucked too, but not enough to change the game. Had we score when we had good opportunities, we'd have won. Had we not fallen asleep on their second goal, we'd have tied, and that would have been good enough. Grrrrr!!

In his post game comments, Ian said that we made four mistakes on the filth's second goal. So I can't just single out Costa, but Costa should have marked the guy that Pooch passed to to set up their goal.

Dang!!

We just can't put two good games together. We play well, and then collapse at the end. It's mental weakness.

I'm not happy.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Edit: that was Benji that was beaten on that ball from Puig out to the wing. He was ball watching and not paying attention to Yamane. Yamane knew he was wide open and no one was paying attention and was waving for the ball.

That play happened just as Edu was talking about how narrow we were. The way to beat us was to go wide and back in and they executed the perfect play. Perfectly timed pass, one time volley to a well timed run with position by Berry. They probably couldn’t pull that off more than once out of 20 times but of course they could in the 90th minute to beat us and probably knock us out of League’s Cup.

Now watch LAG have their worst game of the season on Saturday. They’re in regardless so may not be very motivated plus they’re playing on short rest and Chivas isn’t. Plus the crowd will probably be mostly Chivas fans.

 

They're also MUCH better than Chivas.

 

They’re better but Chivas didn’t start some of their key players against us, and will be better and more rested. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if Chivas wins. But it’ll probably go to PKs and we’ll get knocked out because Chivas wins PKs. We have to go out in the most painful way. It’s a law of nature at this point. It’ll be something like Puig’s PK hits a seagull that’s flying across the goal path, and the ball falls short, Chivas wins, Quakes out. Something like that. You read it here first.

 

A flying goat would be more appropriate.

 

Could happen.

 

That would be easier if he wasn't supposed to be the dynamic playmaker we've been waiting for since DP's became a thing. Dude seems more concerned with hiking his shorts up as far as possible, runs into traffic, gets easily dispossessed, won't track back or win a ball back, so not much help defensively, mostly walking around, watching.

We have one DP left over from Matias days, and Gruezo & Hernán. The last two are Leitch signings and, despite being the most expensive signings in Quakes history, our team has only gotten worse.

I'm just not seeing that star quality with Hernán.

 

Oddly enough. "Flying Goat" is the middle name of the ref in game 1.

 

I'm not that down on him, but we do need for him to make more of an impact for us. Part of that is him figuring out how he can be most effective in this league (both on his part and on the part of the coaching staff), and part of it is getting a better supporting cast around him.

 

Hernán could probably also use a break. Godoy Cruz ended the previous season in mid-December and started up again late Jan. Then he comes over here and it’s a congested schedule. If we go out of Leagues Cup at the group stage he’ll have a 3 week break from matches, which might help a bit.

 

Better supporting cast might help. Luckily there's still two weeks left in the current transfer window, plenty of time for Leitch to show that he hasn't quit on our 50th anniversary season.

 

he's young, he's a pro and he's getting subbed off at 1-1 in a game against our chief rival, in a tournament which is all we have left to play for. fitness and match readiness shouldn't be an issue for our big time DP.

 

I’m speaking generally, not about last night’s game - he could probably use a break, and it was Ian’s decision to take him out. He didn’t ask to come off.

 

because it's such hard work being the worst team in mls history?