Yeah sorry, that's what I meant. I also agree, Landon looked to be playing midfield last night but Ekelund works much better.
I was watching this game by myself. If I'd have been at Spartan, 100 parents would have asked security to have me extricated for base, foul, and obscene language and gestures corrupting to their children.
Anybody notice they have much better merchandise too? Except for the colors, logo, words and stuff. P.S. Don't know how festive that Torrance post-party was, but I saw Danny Califf out in Manhattan Beach - all smiles. He'll be on top of the world again in two weeks if we keep expecting Faria to do the Brian Ching thing.
We went a long way just to drink. And that's just what we did. By the way, next week, if Serna plays as I believe he told someone he might, we MUST have our boos ready any time he touches the ball. Diego touches ball, Quakes fan boo. Got it?
Toolbox Verdict: Nice, but Missing Character So yesterday was my first visit to the HDC, hereafter known as the toolbox. My impression at first sight: Holy structures, Batman! The blue lighting is a nice touch and the white stadium structure looks very modern and sleek. The video screen is nice as well. So nice, in fact, that my friend and I realized we didn't have to actually buy a ticket to watch a game at the stadium. In retrospect, however, my ideal stadium would be nothing like that. I came to realize that the toolbox is the epitome of everything I dislike about LA - all flash and shine with little class or character. Now contrast this to a stadium like PacBell, er SBC, Park, which is also shiny and flashy, but blends in nice touches of character and old-world class. SBC Park is organic to the toolbox's pesticide-filled, hormone-pumped GMO. SBC park is human (ok, glossed-over human - with a whole lot of makeup, a wig and breast enhancements) whereas the toolbox looks like the centerpiece of a robot theme park. In short, the toolbox is sleek, metallic, septic, sterile, and constructed with enough faux-space age material to build 2 faux space shuttles on a Hollywood set. In a word, it's a facade, just like the rest of LA. Oh, and the whole video introduction was so, as my friend put it, '90's NBA. MLS is making progress! Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999! Not that I think Spartan is close to the ideal stadium either. It's a little too, uh... "organic". But damn it, our beer's better! Basically, if there is ever to be a new SSS in the Bay Area (notice I didn't say SJ), I want a similar look and feel to SBC Park. That is the ambience that stadiums should aspire to.
Careful there, A58!! Some people may think you're a Mexican fan, as they seem to believe all Mexican fans act that way!!
I was kind of wondering about this. Have you had a chance (or chances) to observe the Q's in practice by any chance? The reason why I ask is because, when I coached HS varsity, we would sometimes get to play some of our home games in the football stadium where we could only get a 55-yard width to the field (talk about a narrow field! but it was one way we could play games at night rather than at 3:30 in the afternoon and more parents could attend). In the practices leading up to our home games, when we went to a full field scrimmage, we would practice with a 55-yard width dimension. I would think that FY's practices would also simulate the field conditions of the field they are going to play on in succeeding games.
I agree that this game as well as the one next week are meaningless (especially now that we have lost the supporters shield ) my concern is giving the galaxitives confidence going into the playoffs. It would be much better to face a demoralized opponent in the first round.
yeah John and John had him in the commentary booth for a while where he spouted unintelligble gibberish for about 10 minutes while the game was going on.
Re: Toolbox Verdict: Nice, but Missing Character It's funny, cuz I feel the same way about Pac Bell as you feel about HDC. I mean, obviously the whole space ship look is not what I mean. But when I went to Pac Bell for my first baseball game in years, I couldn't stand it. It felt like an office building to me. I grew up going to A's games. And I missed walking in and feeling the cold breeze whipping around and smelling the cold cement and hot dogs and beer and all those ball park smells. Pac Bell was way to sterile to me. I actually really, really like HDC. I think it's gorgeous. The only thing I don't like about it is it's "sterile" feel. But I really think that will wear off in a few years.
Taking over for ldb...We are in trouble... Although it may appear our offense is the main problem, it's really our defense. With Dayak and Robinson being injuried and Roner and Waibel out of form, we have not been playing "Quakes" defense. Both Roner and Agoos got burned by Moreno on the second goal (and Moreno isn't a speedster). Waibel's head is up his ass. His play was adequate before, but has steadly gone to poor in the last couple of games. Dunivant is starting to look like a rookie (getting caught up field, wrong position, etc.). Onstad kept us in the game and almost got lucky on the last goal... I believe our success this year has been that the Quakes got away from the pressure defense on the road (even Donovan mentioned it). Yallop tried this tactic in the game and it failed as LA counterattacked well. I didn't have a problem with Landon playing attacking midfielder (Ekelund is too slow on big fields). However, Ekelund tends to stay back more than Landon (Ekelund is almost a second defensive midfielder). On a positive note, it's better to have this type of game in the regular season rather than the playoffs. So far, the Quakes have been consistant enough to recover and play well after a bad loss. More rambling later...
ElJefe is right. Anyone who doubts that it was the right call can check out the video at www.mlsnet.com in the multimedia section. Eventually, Schrader admitted that he's not sure if it's onside. But Doyle, ever the homer, insists that it's offside.
Yeah, even though I was sure it was offside when I was there, I knew it wasn't when I saw that video.
He made one good point that I remember (Maybe it's the Brooklyn accent that you can't get through?) and that was that it might be tougher for the Quakes in the playoffs because, having finished their crappy season, LA might get a second wind -- feeling as if it is an all new season for them. With the playoff structure as it is, a team that has been crap all season might just get a shot of something [?] and start looking brilliant.
Oh, and Doyle asked Bruce that when he came to one of these games where was his focus, on the MLS players, to see how they were doing or what? The Bruce replied that he watched to see how players were developing and that he also made mental notes on non-US players (I suppose Flopping Fish and Che Guevara might be examples) for future reference when the US meets them in qualifying.
That's exactly what I have been saying. And exactly the issue I have with the playoffs leading up to the Cup. It means nothing to the season. It's stupid.
I see the same stuff on the DC boards complaining about the penalty awarded to the Crew. same thing i saw there ........... good call by the refs. I have that goal on tape and played it in slow-mo, and that play was not only onside, but he was a good 3 or 4 yards onside at the time the ball was struck. the ball was 3/4 of the way to the player, by the time Agoos got himself into the trap position.
I saw a few crowd shots on TV and notice, a few faces from the Ultras and the Casbah, plus the Ultras banner. Roughly how many Quakes fans were there?
Re: Re: Los Angeles - San Jose (Saturday, 10/18) postgame thread [R] Your correct. Agoos had another one earlier in the game where he turned away from the play to complain to the refere while play was still going on...and, this was in the penality area. Common, get a clue! I'm actually surprised that more people aren't complaining about the handball by Marshall. As they like to say on television, the no-call "could have changed the complexsion of the game". Or, sometime like that...
While They did create some chances and Yallop seemed to treat it kind of like a tune up scrimmage, there's no escaping the fact that this is three straight games without a goal (Have we even forced a serious save in these games?) Right now they are starting look more like last year's first-round losers than the class of the league. Hopefully Eddie and Troy are ready to go and Waibel and Roner never see a minute of post-season PT. (While we certainly miss him on the flanks, I would give Mullan some serious consideration at right back.) Hope they get it going, they have that same lackluster look that doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
I was thinking the same thing. I was hoping Waibel would get maybe a 4-5 game suspension for his red card, so we wouldn't have to worry about him disrupting the playoff run. If Yallop needs some extra cones, I have a few in the back of my car.
OMG! I just realized something. This is really, really sad. I forgot to tape the LA game this past weekend. Guess which game I forgot to tape before that. My Metros. And before that? Colorado! See the pattern! This is all my fault!!!