Official San Jose vs. DC United Post game thread (R)..

No flames, no trolls, leave your weapons at the door. No flames, no trolls, leave your weapons at the door...

I think Milton is being cautious exactly because the D-Mid is...well...Ivan. *Ryan* had a breakaway, kind of. This is exciting, for once.

I loved the quote during play from whicheve of the announcers it was who talked to Jaime in warm-ups. "Jaime said his muscles aren't fit, because he was out preseason getting his injuries seen to." Well, I'm sure that's true as far as it goes, but it's more than just the muscles that aren't fit. His "goal-dar" is just all Tango Uniform.

 

Due to me being at work, I didn't get to see much of the game, but it was encouraging to see Olsen back in the starting lineup. Here's to hoping he can get back in the National Team picture.

 

I move this over from the pre-game thread . . .

IT WAS AN OPEN NET, JAIME. AN OPEN NET. KICK THE ************G BALL INTO THE WIDE OPEN NET.



Now, scoring a goal was indeed a happy little event.

 

At this point in the season TIES WON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am SICK OF THESE SO-CALLED MORAL VICTORIES

JAIME MORENO PUT THE BALL IN THE NET OR SIT DOWN

 

Final Score: 2-2 tie.

Or, to put it another way:

Q2: 2, Eklund: 2, Moreno: -3.

 

That's why we're televised

Wow ... THAT is why these two teams should be televised. The Casual fan could not ask for more than that. Four goals, wonderful passing, dribbling, shooting and ballwinning. Drama, controversy, emotion, generally good ref'ing (I still take issue with the PK and Prideaux not getting a second yellow card), and good announcing.

The Make A Wish Foundation bit was priceless. Kudos to Donovan, MLS and ESPN2 for featuring it so prominantly.

We broke the scoreless streak despite our futility, and completely earned the point. Yeah, we probably should have won but we definitely should have been playing a man down for the last 20 mins + OT. All in all that was a good and fair result.

-Tron

 

Is there any satisfaction in being the only team to take points away from Spartan Stadium (which should be named Sparsely Stadium) ? Eliseo scored twice. The first goal was a nice one, deft touch with the outside of the left foot. The second was lucky, but better than anyone else over the last six games. The best thing about this match was almost 90 minutes from Benji.

ALMOST 90 MINUTES FROM BENJI!!!!!!!!!

 

Jaime must go!

What he said.

If we're going to lose a Bolivian this off season, it's pretty clear to me which one it should be. Marco seems to be finding his game again, and was still right in there making nice plays in the 2nd OT. He clearly still has the competitive drive to win. Jaime just doesn't seem to give a f***.

Great to see Ben go the full 90. But then really, who would you have put in?

I thought we looked much more "menacing" with ITT in there for ABMOD. And with Benji on the wing, we actually looked sort of like...DC United!

And what the f*** is going on with fghdjsdlas;a' Little fighjhbnasj League ffghskaio Base fucjsiom Ball? I thought MLS had paid for the TV time!!

 

Jack & Ty

Hey, I think it was correct to follow the LLWS in it's entirety. I was happy to see that Jack Edwards was calling that game, as he continually plugged the MLS game, and it was clear that he has much more passion for MLS than for the LLWS.

I always love Rob Stone calling the games, he puts so much more emotion into it than most, and keeps his comments relevant or funny ... sometimes both. It's good to see Ty lighten up a bit as well.

But, Ty was dead-wrong on the Quakes shot that hit the post. The replay showed that Rimando had it covered ... barely, but his hand was there, and if it had been below the crossbar it would have been punched over the goal.

On Eliseo's deflected goal, he made a perfect shot that was destined to go inside the far post and Cannon was beaten. Without the deflection that would have been the play of the game IMHO, perfect placement.

 

..

Good game good game...for the most part

Did anyone happen to tape this game? I will do anything for a copy. Please.

 

Hudson "buys" time for Olsen via stoppage time

Marco indeed looked very good today. I am very happy to see this. Also, with Moreno in front of him to receive the ball, Ivan linking the ball from the back, and both Olsen and Convey as options on the wing, and Eliseo frontrunning, Marco finally had a lot of passing options. His ballholding was stellar today, but usually is.

He overlapped and even took a few stabs at defense, which is encouraging. His free kicks were awesome, with no wind in Spartan he scores I bet.

I was happy to see Ben going so long but very very very worried. When someone is not game-fit and has had a long spell out of a competitive environment, often the entire physical system can be fragile, and I was worried he'd mess up a knee or hamstring going so long. Luckily he didn't, but I'd rather NOT see him going 90 minutes yet, he's clearly not fit for it yet, and Mapp wasn't that bad in his limited appearance.

BUT, Kudos to Hudson, who clearly told his players to periodically go down and STAY DOWN for extended periods of time during the middle and late portions of the second half to allow Ben to re-energize. It was almost like clockwork.

Yes, Marco played much more advanced today precisely because the quakes had to respect both flanks and McKinley, unlike when we play Richie and Lazo. This allowed us to get the ball to our forwards much faster and with greater numbers, leading to several break aways and open shots.

-Tron

 

Really an entertaining game. We have to look back at the when and who will score next threads to see who wins. I hope everyone here is happy that not only did Olsen go 90 but that Mapp replaced him and not Alegria or Alevanja. Ratings:

Rimando- 7. Great, great game saving, uh, save at the last second on a LD drive. Not at fault in either goal.
Nelsen- 6.5 Our central defender for the next decade hopefully. Owned the air.
Pope- 6. Solid game too. He and Nellie just combine nicely together.
Prideaux- 5.5 Really mixed it up with LD and the e-Quakes. Not really very good at left back though as he didn't move up the line to support Convey much.
Reyes-6 Good defense from the right back position. As said above, tended to stay back in support of the defense so didn't do much in support of Olsen. That said he was a reall help with his size and speed in defense.
McKinley-6 I thought ITT did quite well. Yep he's slow and facing LD as the opposing a-mid the center looked achingly wide open at times. But Ivan knows what an outlet pass is and he made several very good plays to stop the opposition.
Olsen-5.5 Nice to see him go 90. (He was sunbbed in stoppage time). Held his own on the right and you can see when he gets fully in shape he will dominate the likes of Lagos and Coralles once again.
Convey-5.5 I thought Bobby hasd a quiet day probably in part because of his separated shoulder and in part because when he went forward, the gap between him and Priodeaux was huge and he had to backtrack a lot. His defense continued to be good as Ian Russell was very quiet until OT.
Etcheverry-6.5 Excellent all-round game. Made the SJ defenders looking silly at times and made more on-the-dime passes this game than he has in years, probably. Of course it helps that he now has two decent wingers. Could have lost his cool but didn't.
Quintilla-7 2 GOALS!!!!!! Some other good runs too though he seemed to disappear for periods of time.
Moreno-4 On the plus side, unlike Q2, he was always in the game, making runs, backtracking, etc. and because of his hustle his rating isn't in the negatives. On the negative side was the fact that he should have had a hat trick. I don't think Rocket Roy ever missed three chances in one game like Jaime had.
The Cartographer!!!!!!!!! The only sub- for Olsen in stoppage. Made a nice steal and started a good counter. Welcome to the bigs, kid.

 

It would have been great to see Jaime finish those two chances, no doubt.
Great follow through effort from Q2 on the second goal, something this team has lacked.
Brandon definitely was cut some slack, and should have been gone.
The guys can be damned proud not to have been handed thier arses by San Jose today.
All in all, well done, all considered.
Mark

 

The Prideaux-Donovan battle was fun. I thought that Rob Stone was having a hernia the way he was going on about golden boy Donovan getting a yellow instead of Prideaux.

Should Brandon have gotten his second yellow of the day on that play? I don't think so. Here's why: On the play, Donovan comes in late with an obvious, deliberate yellow card foul. Now 99% of the time the fouler will then back off from the foulee, but Donovan didn't as he actied like he should be getting the call, which was delusional. Maybe LD is playing too much with the diver Graziani but to act like an punk like that deserves a shove by Prideaux. The, of course, LD goes down like he was shot. Poor thing. The best part is that the linesman and the ref saw everything. And correctly didn't book Prideaux. I will say that most of the time Prideaux would have been tossed, but then most of the time the incorrect call would have been made.

I say this carries over to the RFK game.

 

I am not trolling

DC had a very good showing today - I was hoping they would walk away with the 3 points they earned.

I was not thrilled about having to watch a bunch of "little league" players - a lot of them look way past 12- IMHO The score was 9-2 ! we firgured out who would win!

I wanted to throw something at the TV when they said DC had scored in the fifth minute!!! How cruel to make us miss it

 

It was weird, but from where I was sitting, we were the better team. DC fought well and deserved the 3 points. I can't imagine that Jaime will keep missing chances like that. Regardless, I hope Eliseo keeps serving up chances on a silver platter. Maybe this team has turned some kind of corner? Despite United's inability to win, they don't seem to stink anymore.

 

Great game. Really, very exciting match. DC has the defense, once the offense gets there, DC is on par with SJ.

Marco was great. The defense held its shape. Good match.

 

Another tie. I would not have been able to fathom us pulling off a 2-2 tie with San Jose a few weeks ago. Good thing I was optimistic.

Welcome to MLS, Q2! 2 goals for Q2, nice. Unfortunate for Olsen to have that PK called against him. Moreno, well, I'm pretty much recovering from a massive headache after banging my head against a wall in disgust. WIDE open goal and you missed! *wimpers*

Do not ask me how Prideaux stayed in that game. His push against Donovan deserved another yellow, if not red. Maybe Donovan deserved the yellow he received for fouling Prideaux, but Prideaux's reaction really can't be overlooked.

Good showing for national TV.

 

Player Ratings

Good ratings Skip, here are mine:

Rimando-7 Had the crossbar shot covered, amazing change of direction stop on the deflection shot, and fantastic game-saver in OT. He was so close on each goal, but perfect placement and a fantastic shot will beat a good keeper at those distances every time.
Pope-6.5 Great game, error-free. Wonderful header to Eliseo. Bought Olsen a breather with his stoppage time minutes laying on the pitch. Dominant in the air and kept shape and covered for Reyes' forays.
Nelsen-7 Yeah he fouled to give up a set piece, but he organized our defense superbly, and that was his only flaw. I liked his overlap on the left, which allowed Convey to float into the middle and create.
Prideaux-5.5 Excellent game, but NEITHER shove on Donovan was acceptable, especially the second. RED CARD is not a word we need.
Reyes-7 Fantastic on defense and working in tandem with Olsen to get the ball through midfield quickly. With Mulrooney shifted to right back Ekelund simply couldn't cope with Reyes' speed or the wingers interplay, so we owned the midfield offensively.
Olsen-6.5 Clearly doesn't have the match fitness, and didn't really provide too many great chances in the offensive third, but his tactical awareness was stunning. His ballwinning, midfield defense and energy dominated this game. We were a different team when he was involved. IMHO, the PK wasn't really deserved. Olsen had his leg in that space well before DeRosario played into it. The ref called a good game, but didn't really have the angle to see that one. Blown call by the line judge who should have communicated with the ref.
Convey-5.5 Decent game both offensively and defensively but should have done better with his shot and didn't show his usual creativity. Clearly the shoulder was still bothering him.
Moreno-5 Despite missing two open netters and a third good chance as well as blowing several promising chances, he really did a lot to create space for the other players and consistently exposed the defense. The finishing will come with the fitness.
Eliseo-7 It's always good to finish your chances, and he did that superbly. He earned MOTM.
McKinley-6 Did an excellent job of linking the defense with the offense, and showed he could be a good Hmid. His defense was pretty good in the first half, but eventually his lack of fitness and speed was exposed in the second half. I'd like to see him as a target of more set pieces.
Etch-7 This is El Diablo. Great vision, pinpoint long passes and immaculate holding skills in the center of the park. His set pieces today were exactly what they weren't last season ... great.

Great game United, glad to see we broke the scoreless streak and impressed with a fantastic game on National TV. Questionable calls were both for and against us so I will not dwell, but generally a well ref'd game. Eliseo and Rimando earned this point.

-Tron