Really good USOC match between St. Louis and Houston. I thought Houston looked like the better team by a bit, especially after Burki went out. But their backup GK recovered after giving up a soft goal, and made 2 saves in the PK shootout. Kind of glad St. Louis won because they got jobbed on a 2nd yellow / red call in extra time. It was just a shoulder charge and in fact that guy who got the 2nd yellow had a little better position on the ball than the attacker. Bad call. BTW, HH looks washed, and had the 2nd / game-ending PK miss on a pretty weak PK.
I also saw the St. Louis vs.Houston match. So if the Quakes win tonight , St. Louis CITY SC hosts San Jose at Energizer Park. If Colorado beats the Quakes tonight: St. Louis travels to face the Colorado Rapids at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park.
LAFC defeated Seattle. That guarantees that the EQ will be ahead of Seattle at the 15 game mark for Seattle.
As well as LAFC. Oh no, wait, they've played 15 games like us and are 8 points behind. You hate to see it. The truth is that there are a lot of good teams in the west, and it's gonna be a continuing battle for the top spots. Vancouver, Quakes, Seattle, LAFC, and RSL might be the top 5, but Dallas and Minnesota are in the hunt, and Houston is not bad either. Not convinced on San Diego. I think they've lost their mojo, but we'll see.
And now Philly has fired Bradley Carnell. Philly was SS winner last year and Carnell won Coach Of The Year, and now they can’t win a game (1 win in 15 games).¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ya know, we should start planning our next coach after Bruce leaves. I don’t expect him to stick around after his contract expires, whenever that is…
Bruce is sporting director so if we're "planning our next coach", it would be Bruce to do it. And this may actually happen. He could hand over coaching to Shalrie for example and keep the sporting director job. As sporting director Bruce could still use his influence as talent evaluator while not having to do the daily grind of coaching.
Bruce and I are the same age. If he gets the Quakes to a good playoff position this year and next, I'll bet he retires. I think he took this job because he couldn't end his football career on the Revs scandal. Also, he looks like he's on a GLP-1 (like 25% of the country), so he's got health issues. He's from NY, he probably prefers big city life, and housing here is way too expensive. If he owns a home in LA, Boston, or NY, I can't imagine him sticking it out here longer than his current contract. Also, there's the question of team ownership. It's been great to see him turnaround the Quakes, and if he wants to stay in SJ, great. I just don't expect that to happen.
Bruce likes to golf. And as a (Western) New Yorker, I can say (except for Woody Allen) we prefer the vibe in Cali. Not saying you’re wrong that hell retire soon but doubt he’s pining for the east coast.
He's made it clear that he likes it here - likes the weather and everything else. And I'm sure he wouldn't have any problem affording a house here. But sure, he could decide to retire at any time. My guess is that he stays at least one more year after this one, and then we'll see. But it's unclear if his contract goes into next year (if it doesn't, he's probably gonna want a nice raise). And yes, new ownership is a question mark, if it ever happens.
I agree with @JazzyJ, this is almost certainly Bruce’s last job. So good chance that one or more of his dudes takes over. Probably Shalrie takes over as head coach. In the event that all of Bruce’s coaching staff bails, then Steve Ralston, who’s ours, could take over and still run Bruce’s system. And of course, we need for the team to be sold. Even if that means that the new owners bring in a whole new FO and coaching staff. Of course, if we have a successful program going, then new owners would probably want to keep that going. Go Quakesfans!!
Ralston was our coach briefly, I think after Stahre got fired. Small sample size, but I wasn't impressed. And they used to have that "axis" thing where they'd sometimes show him giving game plans in the locker room, and he was speaking so fast that the English speakers were probably having a hard time following, let alone the Spanish speakers, who looked completely lost.
Yeah, I’m not impressed with Ralston as a coach and would not want him to succeed Bruce. Loved him as a player tho
That was a fair number of years ago. I’m pretty sure that Steve has learned a lot since then. Let’s say that il Bruce retires after 2027. If his staff remain in SJ, then we can carry on with the same strategy and tactics. But if his staff bail, then we either need to go in a new direction, or we can try to keep one or more of Bruce’s staff. Steve isn’t part of Bruce’s team, but he’s on the coaching staff. So we can probably keep Steve should Bruce’s guys leave. Go Quakesfans!!
I don’t know - being able to communicate with players - all players, clearly and simply, is something that may not necessarily be learned so easily. Maybe I just got a bad impression based on those videos and it’s not as bad as it looked. But what makes Bruce tick is the way he sees the game and evaluates players. It’s not so much the tactics. So I’m not optimistic about how things will go when he leaves even if we retain tactics, unless we somehow hire a really good coach again. Bruce is really the 1st really good coach we’ve hired in 18 years. We’re not likely to hit a triple again the next at-bat. Another popout to second base is more likely. We’re a team that requires a really smart GM and/or coach to be successful. Just a good or decent coach is not gonna cut it. I look at how Columbus crashed after Nancy left. I think we’ll have a similar crash.
i disagree -- i liked Almeyda. We were really fun to watch for awhile at least, and the spirit was good.
I don't know how anyone can call Almeyda a "really good" coach for the Quakes given....scoreboard. 33 W, 26 D, 44 L, -34 GD, 32% win % Before Bruce the coach who had the best win % while having the team playing an attacking style was Chris Leitch. But that was very short lived. And Frank had his moment in 2012 but given his cumulative track record 2008-2013, it wasn't very good on balance
did you read what I said? He was a very good coach for awhile. He didn't get the roster support he needed, and eventually he gave up. In my eyes, he still remains a good coach; he had good relationships with most of the players, the style of play was entertaining, and he went on to success in his next job.
I wrote that Bruce is the first really good coach we've hired and you responded with "I disagree". That means that you think Matias was a really good coach. Yes, you followed up with something about "fun to watch for a while and good spirit", but being "fun to watch for a while and good spirit" and lousy record does not equate to "really good coach" in my book. To me, a really good coach is one that wins on some consistent basis. But that's just me...