Philadelphia Union - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 3/7) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

If Leitch was so great,, why was he fired and is presently listed as "Without Club" according to his professional manager profile?

 

Freebird blaring during Bruce's press conference :\

 

One game at a time, one game at a time. I played on a team that won the championship for New England Private Schools, and the mantra of our coach was "One game at a time". Seattle next Sunday at home. Beat the Sounders!

 

Agree, although so far Philly is 0-3 with just one goal scored. I think Philly's way of running things have caught up with them. No major DPs, Bedoya still getting minutes. They didn't look good at all last night playing at home.

 

I'm really happy but that's tempered by the memory of May and June last year where we put together eight= and four-game unbeaten streaks before we ended on one of the deepest non-Cubs late-season skids ever seen in sports...

 

The Quakes last night anyway, started a bunch of former college and one youth team player.

Our only DP is Timo and he came on in the second half.

So Philly are 0 & 3 and San Jose is 3 & 0.

So far this year, I think Bruce Arena has found a winning formula.

Let’s hope it lasts.

 

I don't subscribe to the Merky News.

What does the article say?

 

MOTM for me was Daniel. He made two point-blank shots and several others to save the win,

 

It’s unlikely they’re gonna be as good this year as last but also, it’s unlikely that they’re gonna go from a Supporter’s Shield winner, finishing ahead of Miami and everyone else, to a bad team in a manner of what, 4 months?

 

“Werner assists on another Bouda goal as Quakes edge Union, improve to 3-0 for first time in MLS history.”

 

Pretty cool that Werner has two assists in consecutive matches and still has not played a full 90 minutes.

 

Yeah, i thought when Bruce started subbing in Skahan etc, the team cohesion rapidly fell apart and looked like scattered ants defending inside the box. Kind of shocking, really, that PHI didn’t score. I’m not sure what’s their problem, but apparently their fans are up in arms.

 

Like I noted in the first Timo appearance, he tried to defend. Yesterday, it looked like he had been told not to defend at all. Is that for fitness or for the discount-Messi-attack-formation? I’m not smart enough to know…

 

I took a shallow dive into the PU subreddit this morning. They want a new owner. Sound familiar (except the coming off a winning season part...)?

 

Our DP was the difference. Without Timo we wouldn't have scored.
Also having Bruce is an advantage as far as knowledge of MLS and how it best works.
Philly doesn't have a difference maker. And I personally think that their coach is not very good and got lucky last season.
At the end of the day our DP made the difference.
I'm not even sure who are Philly's DP's.

It's a great start to the season but we've been here before. Just last season as a matter of fact. Let's see once we play the top teams how we fare. Our defense already looks way better and we're playing more organized than last season. We're on the up and Philly is going the opposite direction it seems this year.

 

Yes, I just started browsing that a little bit too. To address also the "who are even Philly's DP's comment", the thing is, they've spent club record transfer fees the last few years ($3 - 5M) on a couple of big signings, Damiani and now Alladoh. They are both young (22 and 20?) but could be busts. They were not impressive last night. So maybe the problem is not so much the owner but the GM or whomever is making those decisions. They are doing big DP signings. But you have to make the right DP signings or you just saddle your club with dead weight and you start to drop down the table.

 

Quakes have never been 3-0 before. Uncharted territory.

 

Yes!
I'm aware.
Let's hope this season ends better than last.
If we can bolster our team with another DP in the summer it would be great.
Bruce doing his magic early in the season.
So far so good.

 

I was aware of Damiani and he most definitely should not be a DP. I knew of him from the Uruguayan league which is not that great (although Uruguay produces great footballers) Damiani wasn't great or anything. Philly got suckered into paying millions for an avg. player.
Alladoh I've never heard of though.

 

I think Alladoh is only 20, so there's opportunity for development. We'll see... Club record $4.5M transfer from a Swedish club where he had decent success. They may regret this one - we'll see.

 

I blame Harkes more than Skahan, but it's probably more the message Bruce is sending at that point... park the bus.

 

MLS as a league is a trip.

Superstars and World Cup champions have failed miserably so I don’t think it’s about the DP, I mostly believe in what type of DP is brought in.

For every Messi , there are many world class name players who have been complete duds like Pirlo, Giroud and Sweinsteiger.

So far , The Bruce has been spot on with the Timo signing.

Let’s see how it holds up in the next few months.

Go Quakes!

 

Bruce said we lacked composure towards the latter part of the game. Lost the ball too often. There was a play around 80’ or so when Bouda had it around midfield, held it too long instead of passing when there were clear options, and lost it, and I thought I heard an audible “pass the ball!” from Bruce.

Good teams can kill games off with possession rather than just panic defending or purely bus parking, lumping of balls forward to recycle another attack for the opposition. We're not there yet.