Los Angeles FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Sunday, 4/19) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

This game will be Bruce Arena's biggest test so far this season.

 

F&$# el-lay!!

 

LAFC looked great in beating Cruz Azul last night in the Concacaf Champions Cup.

It will be great to see how the Quakes contain David Martinez , Denis Bouanga and Son...

David Martínez brace powers LAFC to Champions Cup rout of Cruz Azul

 

I knew David Martinez was going to be a problem (for opposing teams) and posted about it in March of last year:

“Speaking of handfuls, this 19-year old Venezuelan kid David Martinez on LAFC looks very good, and will be trouble. Scored a goal yesterday after beating about 3 defenders as he dribbled into the box. That's the kind of U22 we could be signing. I think he was about a $3M transfer but he'll probably do well and they'll be able to gain from that and then transfer him for a good profit.”

I don’t know about the rest of their team but a front 3 of Bouanga, Son, and Martinez is pretty nasty. This will be the ultimate test for our defense.

 

I know. We only have 1 Ronaldo.

 

Ronaldo (not THAT Ronaldo) Vieira (not THAT Vieira) is the perfect embodiment of the Fisher-era Earthquakes...

I agree this is a stern test for the still-young season. If we can snatch a point, I will be ecstatic. If we come away with three, I will probably require medication. Oh, and a Sunday afternoon game is utterly ideal and delightful for this denizen of CDT - what a nice accompaniment to supper!

 

Bouanga and his son play on LAFC?

 

Going to be a big match, our A team starts, hopefully Timo is ready to roll with the 1st team.

 

Hopefully Ricketts is ready to start! I’d be happy with Timo as a second half sub.

We need some more players!! I was concerned about this before the start of the season. When everyone is healthy, we’re a pretty good team, but any injuries to our starters exposes the fact that we still have four empty roster spots.

I remain alarmed!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

If they play all their starters i think we're boned. If they rest a bunch like they did against portland, we'll be fine!

 

I'm sure they'll play their A team against Cruz Azul tomorrow (at >7,000 ft), so maybe they'll be a little tired still by Sunday? Probably not. Would be better if they went Wed and then Saturday. But we can't hide, we're gonna have to bring our "A" game either way.

 

We’re in trouble. They are deeper than us too. They’re going to hammer our goal. Maybe our defense are awesome, and maybe Daniel stands on his head (entirely possible). But they are going to get a lot of shots. Maybe we can get a tie, if we’re really focused, really disciplined, and a bit lucky.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Gareth Bale is sitting this one out, so we’ll be fine.

 

I disagree, they're up 3-0 right now, why tires your starters when you can bunker for 90 minutes?

 

Because Cruz Azul can drop 3 on them. These games are usually pretty lopsided in both directions. Cincinnati had 3-0 on Tigres and then got blitzed 5-1 in Mexico. And that stadium’s not at elevation like Cruz Azul’s.

Also Dos Santos has already developed a reputation for grinding his started down.

 

Saw a tweet that had LA Times survey of favorite local sports teams. Dodgers way ahead at over 40 percent. Lakers 28 percent. LAFC at only 2.2 percent, behind Chargers 2.9 and only marginally ahead of Galaxy 2.0 percent.

Angel City ahead of Sparks in the under 1 percent co-ed division.

 

Didn't memorize, but they were all single digits ahead of Chargers as I recall.

 

We get a well rested, fully healthy LAFC to face, yay us!

 

A lot of their main guys went 90 yesterday...