New England Revolution - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 5/17) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

Well, that was actually much better than I thought. I think we were actually the better team on balance. Our defense played well, but man, NE's attack :smh. No wonder they went 5 games or whatever w/o scoring a goal. I think it was a bit of a trap game for them. They thought it would be easy. Credit to our B team for making it hard for them.

Finally we got one of those "off by 3 micrometers" offside calls to go our way.

The 3 CB's all played well. It's gonna be hard to take off Munie for Wilson. Maybe you do it and move Munie to the right, but he's playing really well in the center. There was that one play towards the end where a guy had a step on Floriani and Munie ran in and calmly chested his pass / shot to Edwards. Then there was that play where he got in Urruti's face. Urruti didn't know who the hell he was and was peaking at his jersey to get his name.



Fernandez did OK for his first start. Not great, not bad. I think he can do better. I felt like a few times he didn't anticipate a guy coming up on his back and lost the ball. Just a matter of getting used to the speed of play and physicality in MLS. Pellegrino continues to have the yips. He seemed afraid to shoot on that last breakaway. He did play some nice passes today.

Marie did pretty well. Lima was fine. Kaye was solid.

I guess Judd is like that NBA center who rarely scores but does "the dirty work" or something. One thing that frustrates me is that he somehow manages to rarely win headers despite almost always having a solid height advantage. Between not being able jump much and mis-timing his jump he's just not getting it done.

All in all, it's gotta make Bruce feel good that he can rotate virtually the entire lineup and still get a result, on the road even.

Jackson Yueill NE subbed in about 30 guys, and he couldn't get his name called.

 

Daniel... let's hope he's back soon.

I asked Bruce Arena if Daniel was replaced at halftime due to his collision with Ignatius Ganago in the 1st half

Bruce corrected me & said Ganago collided with Daniel

He then said, “That was like saying JFK shot at Lee Harvey Oswald”

Video Attached:#Quakes74 | #NERevs | #MLS pic.twitter.com/GP63RzKck8

— Caleb Pongratz (@CalebPongratz10) May 18, 2025

 

Well Pellegrino was brought in specifically to score goals and certainly NOT to wear the captain's armband!

 

Bruce will not hesitate to poke a little fun at your question if he thinks it's dumb in some way. I forgot after which game (I think the Sac game?), Robert Jonas said something like, "In the 1st half you looked like the team we've seen all year, which is disciplined and organized in the back...". Bruce: "Really? That's your assessment of the team so far? That's....interesting."

Robert was trying to kiss a$$ a little bit and it backfired badly .

 

Revs not happy about the call they posted the video of it lol

🤷‍♂️#NERevs pic.twitter.com/XKihZF41bE

— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) May 18, 2025

Noel Buck in a knee brace

San Jose Earthquakes Midfielder Noel Buck is in a knee brace & is on crutches

Sources indicate that he sustained an MCL Injury & will be out for the foreseeable future.#NERevs | #Quakes74 | #MLS pic.twitter.com/IfAf5puwxW

— Caleb Pongratz (@CalebPongratz10) May 18, 2025

 

Caleb Porter: “I would say we did pretty well, against the best offense today,” Porter said. “Just one shot on goal I think, over the course of the match. They had some looks for sure that weren’t on goal that were probably good looks."

“I thought we were excellent in terms of our mentality, in terms of our organization, in terms of our fight.”

Really? The "best offense", but he's gonna just conveniently gloss over that it was our B team - i.e. minus all of our attacking weapons: Espinoza, Arango, Josef (except for a tiny cameo at the end), and relatively short appearances from Beau and Jones.

 

Chance for Nick Fernandez to get some minutes. He moves up into that 4th 6/8 spot.

 

Yeah, he frustrates me too. He ought to have bagged at least four or five league goals by now.

 

I would not have called their guy offside. We got a break from the ref there.

 

In the first half, I thought Judd did a good job of receiving aerial balls and dishing to forward-facing teammates. Unfortunately, not much more than that. I keep thinking that Pellegrino's will turn some magical corner and start finishing chances. One of the Spanish-language announcers said he deserved a yellow card for his big miss. (The other announcer was full of praise for SJ all game long and kept emphasizing how a team of subs was generating more chances than NE. He also made the point that the back line was almost entirely recent draftees.)

 

Yeah which means one more guy in the rotation, which I'm sure Buck will be back in as well when he returns from injury.

One thing you have to hand it to Bruce for, despite bringing in a bunch of his favorite vets, he is playing a lot of young guys, 25 and under we have 12 with MLS minutes already: Leroux, Bouda, Munie, Ricketts, Judd (okay not credit there), Floriani, Tsakiris, Roberts, Lopez, Fernandez, Buck, Verhoeven (no credit there either as he shipped him out)... that leaves only Kikanovic just coming back from injury. Weirdly the homegrowns (Verhoeven, Tsakiris) seem to not do much for him, whereas he loves his college defenders...

 

All in all a really encouraging performance for squad building. The athleticism of the young back line really shone, and Edwards played a heads-up game behind them. Kaye had his best game for SJ so far and overall the team was smart and aggressive in their pressing against the ball. Judd and Marie worked hard and looked really hungry. Fernandez and Ricketts acquitted themselves well enough.

 

Yep, from what we've seen so far, Bruce loves the college guys and doesn't care much HG players.

 

FINALLY!

 

Edwards will probably move up after this game but this rumor that Inter Miami is about to sign Yarbrough who was the worst GK in the league last year reminded me that so far this season Daniel in the top three and Edwards in the bottom three...

MLS GK leaders in post shot xG minus goals conceded:

Carlos Coronel, +4.7
Sean Johnson, +4.2
Daniel, +3.6

Bottom three:

Earl Edwards, -3.3
John McCarthy, -3.1
Andrew Thomas, -2.5

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) May 17, 2025

 

Imagine being as lucky as Will Yarbrough. He goes from being retired (probably a year or two too late), thinking he'll never play again, to playing with Lionel Messi .

 

Meanwhile Oscar Verhoeven got his first start for San Diego and helped keep a clean sheet

Oscar Verhoeven makes his first start for San Diego FC since being acquired early in the season, starting opposite fellow ‘06 fullback Luca Bombino. https://t.co/aVy5MmuhSG

— American Ultras Talk (@usmntaut) May 18, 2025

 

The back and sides are made of maple. The top is Carpathian spruce. It costs $7,310. It’s really pretty and sounds amazing! I’d buy it if I could afford it.

And it’s definitely magical.

 

I want credit for saying that was a bad call in our favor. BUT my view of offside, at variance with TLOTG, is if your feet are onside, you’re onside. Your knee offside is just bullshit in my view.

I thought the ref was pretty decent.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Munie of the match

put the clamps 🙅🏻‍♂️

Your NorCal Honda Dealers MOTM, @DMunie 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/adLe54D8iq

— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) May 18, 2025

 

We got lucky. NE's goal was onside.

 

Why are Lopez and Martinez still on the bench and for that matter, why was there such a high turnoever in the lineup from Wednesday's games?

San Jose 3-3 Miami (May 14, 2025) Game Analysis

3-4-2-1

• 42
  Daniel
• 12
  Romney
• 5
  Munie
• 26
  Rodrigues
• 94
  Costa
• 34
  Leroux
• 6
  Harkes
• 22
  Jones
• 11
  Bouda
• 10
  Espinoza
• 9
  Arango

SUBSTITUTES
24Nick Lima

36Earl Edwards

18Reid Roberts

19Preston Judd

https://www.espn.com/soccer/lineups/_/gameId/726996

NO.NAME
42Daniel

36Earl Edwards

5Daniel Munie

18Reid Roberts

25Max Floriani

14Mark-Anthony Kaye

20Nick Fernandez

34Beau Leroux

2Jamar Ricketts

22DeJuan Jones

24Nick Lima

19Preston Judd

7Amahl Pellegrino

11Ousseni Bouda

3Paul Marie

17Josef Martínez


SUBSTITUTES
23Hernan Lopez
6Ian Harkes
12Dave Romney
28Benjamin Kikanovic

 

You could have sold your Messi tickets to cover that.

 

his right knee is off. good call.

 

I live in WA, near to Portland, OR. So I don’t have tickets. And I’d have needed a lot of tickets. ¿Maybe if I’d sold my ex-wife’s car? Nah, it wasn’t going to happen. (I could raid my savings, but …)