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

Is that a joke? Was that a good game? I’ve just been so down on the quakes for so long, I haven’t been able to force myself to rewatch any quakes game for years.

 

I thought Munie marking Son and Roberts+Benji dealing with Bouanga were pretty key to our victory yesterday…

It also felt like Judd was not that into the game, maybe he feels bad going back there? He seemed to give up and dissociate after missing a shot. That’s something he’s done for years, and this year’s difference was that he had stopped doing that. He’s been working really hard on the pitch this season. Hope he keeps it up.

 

Judd played for the Galaxy, not LAFC, I believe. He is a Dodgers fan, too, so I think he’s kinda okay visiting Smog Town.

 

I wonder by the end of the game how many LAFC fans were yelling, “jump!”?

 

Body language - I’m in a position of power and I’m a *bad man*. If anything’s going wrong here it’s someone else’s fault.

 

Our bench frightens nobody.

 

It evidently frightens you.

 

tee hee.

 

So we’re behind Nashville when we have 10% higher points and 30% higher GD. I guess they’re factoring in CONCACAF success, but who cares. One person’s opinion. Quakes just need to keep trying to get better.

 

Power rankings are silly, virtually by definition.

 

i'm sure we'll add at least one more player...imo, that should be a high end 9. I'd be real careful not to disrupt the chemistry the team currently has...we can definitely use some quality depth...but i absolutely do not want to see anybody brought in to supplant the Beau-Niko chemistry...if we can stay somewhat healthy, i think a high quality 9 would put is in excellent shape....have to keep the selfless, hard working team chemistry in place.

 

Late to the party. I would agree and add that our midfield (Niko, Beau, etc.) was the MOTM. Add Benji was his best defensive effort. After the second goal, you could see the wind go out of LAFC.

Such a pleasure to watch this "team". They collectively play for each other and have each others back. Subs off the back were solid.

Little concerned with Rickets injury. Hard to tell what the issue is with him as he just went down.

Credit Bouda with the two goals, but he is frustrating to watch. He is hit/miss on defense and is not super consistent. Still, he is getting results. So what do I know...

 

And here I was thinking push.

 

Not only him.

 

I listened to the Soccerwise podcast today and when they talked about SJ and 1 or 2 DP openings Doyle said "I've heard that the purse is closed". It's Doyle so take with a healthy grain of salt. Of course no sources revealed or even anonymous sources quoted. Just a sort of "I've heard that...". The contention was that we weren't gonna make another big DP signing (and certainly not 2 - there's a question about how many spots we actually have open with the loans that they didn't really go into).

So that would leave a lower level signing or TAM player or trade or something, they thought. And then ironically, one of them said "Yeah, they need a TAM level player who can come in and gobble up quality minutes" or something like that, and their example was Amahl Pellegrino. :facepalm I don't think the idea was that we'd sign him, but he was that player for SD last year.

They also brought up the Chucky idea and said he could be a good fit for us, but it would require SD eating much of the salary. I don't think SD's gonna eat so much Chucky salary that he's a TAM player for us, and hand that to a division rival unless they think he'll disrupt us .

As for SJ going forward they thought there'd be a regression to the mean, worried about our depth and the possible impact, but I think Doyle said, even with regression to mean, he thinks it's a 57 point team (but not a 75-point team which is the pace we're on now they said - actually we're on an 89 point pace).

 

Quakes just need to stay healthy and they’re winning supporters shield. Don’t need anyone else. Just stay healthy.

 

And I don't think our depth is as bad as many people seem to think.

---------------------------Judd / Adimabua----------------
Timo/Marie-----------Niko/Fernandez------Bouda/Skahan
--------------Vieira/Jona--------------Beau/Harkes/Buck--------------
Ricketts/Costa---Roberts/Romney---Munie/Floriani---Benji/Jasinski
----------------------------Daniel/Edwards

Fernandez can play on the outside too but I put him behind Niko because I think that's his best position and otherwise we don't have anyone to put there other than Timo. Weak spots / big drop-offs are Adimabua, Floriani (vs. Munie), and Edwards (vs. Daniel). But at least we have names to put at pretty much every position and it doesn't look too bad.

 

anybody suggesting bringing Chucky in is absolutely clueless...totally toxic to what Bruce has built.

 

As I said I think there are only a few real weak spots. Oh, and I forgot to add Harkes in midfield. I'm gonna update it.

 

Agreed, but the depth at, say, GK, could cost a shield, if not playoffs.

 

I think that's true but I also think that Bruce almost makes it a point to take on players that have a reputation of some kind. He may feel that they've gotten an unfair rap like he may feel he got from MLS.