Waiter, i'd like a large portion of well done crow and a slice of humble pie for desert. I was way off the mark tonight and i'll be the first one to admit it. Our Quakes came out and played out of their minds in the first half in spite of our player injury situation. Ching was dangerous most of the night, a big, physical target forward. Todd Dunivant was the most impressive player out there, IMHO, and Agoos and Dayak were solid in the center. How much better would Donovan have been without the flue, as it was at 50% he was a threat for the first half. One thing that bothers me though, our second half let-down came back, just like the Municipal game, you can't let the bastards back into the match, you have to put them away. Great job by our make shift midfield, solid without Ekelund in the first 45 min. A sweet and very unexpected three points and to top it off, the galaxatives tied again
      Mullan was very impressive as well!       Also, don't forget that almost half the team was/is injured! Just wait until they're healthy enough to play too!       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
I thought our midfield was outstanding, battling and winning the ball and really taking it to them. Donovan with 2 assists and the flu. Plus his cross on the end line nearly resulted in a score. I was real impressed with Ching and Mullan and Dunivant. They all played with a lot of heart. Frank had them ready. Just imagine when they're not all sick or hurt.
I've ordered a bucket of crow, crispy recipe. I've not been looking forward to the season, but I've changed my mind. They looked very good, and especially the new guys.
After finding out DeRosario is out for the season, I thought the quakes is done. You have to credit Frank for finding these new guys. In his post game interview, he is really high on Ching. He said Ching is the missing ingredient from last year's team. Waibel is really solid at right back. He isn't good offensively, but he is much more dependable than Zak Ibsen. I think we have a better team dispite what people said. I just hope we can get some depth at forwards. Ronnie Ecklund is a good player but not a good forward.
Better than ZaK is not saying much. He was the scariest player on the field and received a stupid card to boot. I'll be happy to see him on the bench.
Althought I'm happy with the results, one game doesn't make the season. We need to get healthy so they continue to play together and Frank doesn't have to juggle the lineup. Otherwise, the injuries will catch up with the team...
I was wrong.....about this game.....happily so, but the only thing I was suprised by was how horrible Colorado played. We didn't play that well......Mullan hustles his ass, I've already said I like Dunivant, Waibel is still a big clumsy oaf. As for Ching, he really did nothing for me, I saw the same Ching i've seen before. I think i've figured out his problem though, he's not good with the ball at his feet(which I knew), what i didn't notice before is that he has poor movememt without the ball, most of his runs are not productive. I think if he works on the angles of his runs and puts himself in more productive situations, he might actually get that ten goals. If he plays like he did tonight, he'll get 5-6 at the most. We will see a much better "team" when KC comes to town. Onstad is afraid of contact......he should have saved their only goal......although, at least he didn't get megged like Garlick.....
Well it looked pretty bad at times but they got the job done. I'll echo what LDB said: Colorado looked flat-out bad. I'll be more than happy when a healthy Ekelund and Robinson return to the lineup, Waibel was really scary out there. I don't mind him coming off the bench but that was ugly. Onstad looked mediocre, not bad, but not very good; the word is still out on him. Dunivant looked impressive. He missed a couple of tackles and got beat once or twice but I'm hoping he starts to fit into his role more as the season progresses. Ching looked okay. Mullan looked pretty decent; great hustle and pretty good on the ball, I expect better things from him as the season goes along. Line-up I'd like to see (with healthy roster): Donovan---Ching Corrales---Ekelund---Mulrooney---Mullan Dunivant---Agoos---Dayak/Robinson---Dayak/Robinson Onstad
Ching did exactly what I wanted him to do, and getting the early goal was a bonus i.e. get in the way make a nuscience of himself, but above all he pulled the defenders away from Donovan. If he can do that all year and not get another goal he will have done his job. Look at all the "great" target forwards there have been, not many were that great with their feet, some hardly ever scored goals with their feet even, they are to creat a target and disrupt...Ching is not going to be one of the geatest by far, but I think he will be adequate and allow Landon to do his stuff. I agree with comments about Onstad..he scared the crap out of me, should have definatly stopped the goal, but once he made the save at the near post just after that his confidence seemed to soar and then he started to take command, which gave me hope. The only player I don't want to see again was Waibel..scary man!! All in all I am very pleased that we get the win with all the injuries and sickness, it showed a team spirit and heart that we lost at the end of last year and at the end o the day thats all I can ask!! -Richard
[q] Originally posted by Beerking Waiter, i'd like a large portion of well done crow Originally posted by Albany58 What do you want? Necks, backs or wings?[/q] Well, let's see....speaking for myself, I already have the feet on the edge of my eyes (best seen when I'm smiling ear to ear after a particularly sweet victory!) What the heck, bring me the whole bird!!!...and water for our horses (those would be Dunivant and Ching.) Great job, Quakes!! I've never been SO happy to have been SO wrong.
We're going to make a lot of teams look bad this year. Actually, that's been a staple of Frank Yallop's tenure - he knows how to teach defensive pressure and filling the passing lanes.
Agreed. I don't think SJ played out of their minds at all. The cRapids couldn't get anything going, and it was as much their fault as ours. Don't watch or play much, eh? (j/k) Most of any forward's runs are not productive. That's why soccer doesn't have basketball scores. But, dude, Ching was pretty high profile and had several chances. That header he almost sunk in the second half would have been one for the ages. Ching did fine with the ball at his feet when it mattered. He dominated in the air (which reminds me, some clueless **** I was arguing with about Ching a month ago said Ching sucked in the air...when those of us who had seen him in preseason had evidence to the contrary already ). If the CHANCES continue, I don't see why Ching can't easily bury 15 this year. I watched it twice, and Ching looked even more like a revelation (in this game) the second time. I like Ching as a target and Landon a little withdrawn, and it worked like a charm. Yallop also commented on MLS Wrap how he thinks Ching's a viable target player in this league. Perhaps Frankie knows a little more than the detractors... PS--LDB, I know you're just sticking to your guns. But as I asked some posters a month or so ago, to give this guy a fair chance, it's probably best to hold off on harsh criticism or gushing compliments until we've seen about 25% of the season. He'll have his ups and downs like any other player, but we'll have to see how he handles the downs, and how often the downs appear compared to the ups.
Re: Re: Pass the crow..(R)       Sort of similarly to how the John Doyle - Mauricio Wright central defense tandem complemented each others' talents back in the day... the former was good in the air while the latter was good with his feet.       Duh!       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Ah! Most excellent!! Sadly, I couldn't see the game up here, so I'm reading the MatchTracker bit and other people's reviews. A-League fans said that Ching was excellent last season. So perhaps his season in the A helped with his confidence and experience. Let's hope that he can keep up the good work. So I guess that Dunivant guy looks like a keeper eh? Perhaps he'll be getting that 1000 minutes? GO QUAKES!! - Mark
I must admit that after the transfers (?) and injuries I wasn’t sure the Quakes could compete this year. But after game one I’m more hopeful than I was. What impressed me most wasn’t any individual player but the way they played as a team. My memories of last year seem to involve a lot of one and two man attacks. Some of the Quakes attacks last night had four or five different guys involved with the last five touches. I still think the Quakes will struggle at times this year but in they avoid more injuries and continue to improve who knows what can happen in November.
Good. And the goal by Zizi took place when that team tightness was relaxed at the start of the second half. As others have remarked about Colorado's sloppiness, I was wondering if Hankinson might not be looking at the want-ads.
There are a 190 something posts in the post-game thread, so I'll post a few brief comments here. Ching played a helluvalot better than the Champions Cup match. I was impressed with the number of opportunities that he was in. Agreeing with BM, that the header would have been a classic goal. I thought his touch on the ball was intelligent/dangerous, and that with time he and Donovan will complement each other well (not that they didn't already). Obviously from the broadcast, Donovan said that he felt good about being partnered with Ching. He could have had a hat trick. Waibel can win balls and retain possession (on the ground), but he can't really control balls on the go or up in the air. He can knock them away, sure, but I was frustrated with his ability to be a clutz with the ball. You can't deny that he was aggressive though, which I liked. Thinking about it, I thought that Mullan eased pressure defensively on Waibel and that Dunivant saved Lagos defensively. I need to watch the game again, but I'm not liking the play by Lagos. He can attack, but I think he's a little too slow now, and can't cut it defensively. Without a healthy Ekelund and only Alvarez as your alternative left midfielder (Corrales stays in the middle), Lagos will stay on the left flank. No coach in their right mind would put two rookies on the same side. Once the rest of the squad is healthy, Lagos could be on the bench. Corrales was awesome. I thought that Corrales and Mulrooney complemented each other well. Corrales leaning left and Mulrooney right. You could interpret Ekelund coming in as a forward rather than a midfielder as an indication of the value of Corrales in the central midfield. Of course the more obvious answer is that Ekelund is still getting back into the swing of things. Corrales is looking to have a awesome year. It looks like he's going to average a cheeky move per game now. Great things from him. I liked hearing from Shrader that mention of the US National with Corrales, but I won't let speculation get out of hand.
An interesting thing to try would be: starting Dunivant at left-back and Corrales at left-mid. So, Dunivant will be able to come forward very often and Corrales will cover for him.
Re: Re: Pass the crow..(R)       Which, of course, led to the com recession.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G