Post-match: Los Angeles Galaxy - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 3/19) postgame thread [R]

The referee didn't help matters, in my opinion.

A scrappy game which he never truly got hold of. At first he went for the 'yellow for everything' approach, then he suddenly stopped giving yellows and then he whipped out the red for Dawkins. I don't think that was a red.

It made him practically impossible for the players to understand.

It wasn't a pretty display and I certainly never expected it to be once Quakes went down to 10.

There was some fight, which was promising, but little by way of creative endeavour - until perhaps the final 10 minutes. I suppose you can put that down to Kinnear's substitutions.

You guys know far, far more than me on this front, so I guess it make sense if you're far more frustrated with the coach than I am. Maybe in time, I'll join you on that one. But it wouldn't be fair for me to kick up a stink when I've only started following San Jose this season.

That's two of this season's games I've managed to watch in full, and on the whole, I've found it worthwhile. I've also enjoyed the company on here and on social media, so thanks.

I'll be back next time, but now, it's 04:40 over here in the UK and I'm gonna hit the hay.

All the best guys!

 

Going to stick to the positives... got to watch all 3 DPs + Wondo play in the same game, Wondo on pace for 34 goals this season. Go Quakes.

Not a red card, but also not a great tackle.

 

Same shit, different day.

 

Although not a great performance I don't think we'd have lost without the b/s red.

We never seem to do well when we get calls against us and Dom never seems to do well when going down a man. I think LA are totally beatable this year and we (with a lot of help by the ref) blew it.

I am still optimistic for the Season, but....

 

MPG and Innocent looked good. It's a shame the attack is so lethargic even with 11 men.

MPG should start next game in place of Alashe and Innocent in place of Dawkins.

 

MLS is the top soccer league in our country. The refereeing of this game was an embarrassment to the US on the world stage of soccer. And I reached that conclusion before the red card.

 

Respect *thumbs up*

 

The refereeing is certainly not good enough. However, fans in every league in every country say that about their referees.

Changes need to be made throughout soccer, whether it's more technology, adding more referees (didn't UEFA do this for the Euros?), or some sort of automatic video replay from a centralized command station...

 

The ref definitely seemed out of his depth.... I agree with TyffaneeSue, looks like Bruce outplayed Dom handily.

Thoughts about some of our guys:

• I was pretty happy with Colvey, I think he's got a chance at being a starter.
• Bingham didn't seem to even try on the PK, and some of his distributions was absolutely horrible. But he had some good saves.
  
• Salinas seemed to be an improvement after he came on. Less sure about MPG and Innocent (especially the latter).
• Loving Wondo's consistency, but was kind of hoping Wynne would connect with Innocent.

 

I think the team is best with the empty bucket 4-4-2 with Godoy and Alashe, so I'd leave that alone. Dawkins and Quintero aren't cutting it, so I'd start MPG for Quintero and Innocent for the suspended Dawkins.

The red card was harsh, undoubtedly. However, only the score was even up to that point; LA was bossing the game.

The team is too easy to defend. It will be hard to continue to win games, generating less than 5 good chances per game.

Quincy works hard, but so much of it is far from goal. The four starting outside players (Wynne, Colvey, Quintero, Dawkins) were super weak tonight.

Bingham is much calmer, confident and better than last year. However, he was somewhat to blame on the second goal, standing in no man's land, in no position to react to Colvey's miscue.

So far, DC United looks like a bottom level team, so let's replay the 4/6/96 inaugural game and kick their ass on April 2nd, but by more than that historic 1-0 margin.

Van Damme is quality and so is de Jong, even if he is thuggish. Ashley Cole was invisible to me. Keane. Well, he's Robbie Keane. You hate his attitude while wishing he was on your team.

 

Or maybe fans of teams are just inherently biased, and will never be able to objectively analyze plays involving their team?

It's not just soccer. Fans in EVERY sport say the refereeing isn't good enough, everywhere in the world.

 

Game is a wash thanks to the red. I hate losing but I hate not being able to fairly assess a performance with a man down for the entire second half. We still scored on them so there's that, but I'm already eager for next week to see where this team really is.

 

And refereeing in other sports has improved with technology like replays.

 

I disagree. The early calls went against LA, they got three soft yellows imo. That then pressured the ref to even things up. Dawkins didn't commit his foul because he was angry, he was just stupid. Arena didn't out fox Dom at all, the ref made the game into what it was.
MPG was the spark that at least made things interesting at the end. He needs to be on the field instead of Quintero, whose passing is mediocre at best.
I was not that impressed with LA, and agree with whoever said we wouldn't have lost this game if we hadn't been down a man. With that, we gave the ball away too cheaply, too many times. This was a game the screamed for our more technical players, MPG and TT to be on the field.

 

The great thing about soccer is that everyone from AYSO to the World Cup (except for the NCAA, of course) plays by the same rules. And referee error is a part of the game. The Laws of the Game are few and simple, unlike the byzantine complicated rules in other sports with each league having its own version.

 

Looked like LA's game plan was just to deny the Quakes possession by shoving guys who are trying to hold the ball. And it worked. The Quakes had a hard time holding it. 1) The ref needs to call those. 2) The Quakes may be able to defeat that strategy if they play the ball quick with lots of movement. But they just aren't built to do that. It's long ball to Quincy, watch Quincy try to take on 3 guys and hope that he manages to hold them off long enough that the attack will catch up and he can distribute the ball.

On the whole, I wasn't totally disappointed in the effort. Before the red I thought the Quakes had a chance to get a point, and maybe even steal one. I didn't think that Quintero and Dawkins were poor in general. Colvey again looked like he belonged even if he contributed somewhat to that 2nd goal. And Godoy and Alashe were fighting hard in the center as well. I was more concerned about Wondo because looked like his lack of pace and his inability to win a ball in the air or with back to goal was taking him out of the game. But then of course he went and scored the goal.

 

Have to agree with Dangerfield about this ref. In over his head, spoiled the game.

Not too much to shout about in terms of Quakes performances. Wondo looked decent, but his goal was a bit of a gift. Amarikwa was his usual active self, but some of his decisions in the box could have been better (as usual). He still tries to do too much on his own, and isn't good at seeing the field and linking up quickly with guys making runs. It gets frustrating (although I do appreciate the effort he puts in and the occasional danger he creates). Dawkins looked pedestrian to me again, and the foul for the card was reckless and ill-advised (but then so were a lot of the fouls in this game... and by the way, I come away from this game happy in the sense that Nigel De Jong didn't snap anybody's leg). Simon hurt the team badly with that decision, even if he couldn't have expected red. Quintero still looks timid and unsure of himself, and had a couple of turnovers to kill attacks. I still think he has the talent to be a lot better, but he's going to lose his chance unless he picks up his play soon. Godoy is still a defensive stud, and has a great motor, but he doesn't help a whole lot with his passing. Same with Alashe, unfortunately. I wasn't very impressed with Shea, but the spark that MPG brought was bold and striking. His ability to keep the ball and allow some time for others to move into space and make runs is invaluable, and he delivered some classy passes. He needs to be playing. The back line looked pretty good generally in terms of defending, especially considering the number of waves they were forced to deal with. Vic's error on the PK is harder to complain about in a game like this where he had to be tiring significantly by that point. It was mentioned above, but I'll say it again... Bingham was pretty awful at distributing the ball tonight. Too often shanks it out of play, and there was one throw that he put right into LA's midfield and set up an attack for them.

Edit: I forgot to mention Innocent. Glad to see him get some run, but I didn't see much to impress me. Hopefully he will get sharper (I would expect so).

As frustrating as Simon's red was, I jumped out of my chair when Imperiale got the yellow for having Keane back into him and fall down. Unbelievable.

 

Too often Quincy's first thought when he gets the ball is that he has to try to bulldog it past a defender or two. Yes, he occasionally pulls it off, but, more often than not he loses it, or slows the attack down and it lets the defense recover.

 

Colvey may be fine against a fast player but he has much to learn when playing against a smart veteran like Magee who is kind of like Wondo with very good sense on when and where to pop up. Colvey left Magee open twice in the box in the first half and contributed to the 2nd goal when he was trying to mark Magee. He also lost his guy in the last home and that resulted in a goal. I like how he always intends to keep the ball and play forward but as a defender and as a rookie, there is much to learn, especially his positioning and awareness. That is something his team mates around him should remind him on the field.

Dawkins was pretty poor with his possession and passing even without the red card. Wynn also wasn't solid. Alashe lost track of his guy a few times in the Portland game as the Portland midfielder made runs into the box. I remember Wondo, Godoy and the CBs were letting him know those mistakes. In the LA game, he also seemed to lose concentration in LA's first goal.

I think it growing pain with some of these young players. At least there is upside. Giving them playing time is better than playing veterans making similar mistakes.

 

Quick fixes for this game: MPG and salinas/I.E.(as salinas' sub) and take the out the outside mids. I still don't see what makes Dawkins a DP player? He went to England and added that to his resume? Therefore he costs much more?
Sucked we lost Goodson before the game.
And it was a red card. I hated the ref this game but it was a clear red...according to the new rules in place this year to stop two footed tackles. Want another example? Seattles' jones for a red card even after getting all ball and almost(or completely none) none of the player. I hated the call but it's consisten so far.

 

Got home late, just saw the match.

The foul by that assh0le deJong was more of a red than the stupid unnecessary foul by Dawkins.
If we go into the half with the score 0 - 0, I think we either win or draw.

Pathetic MLS ref.