Post-match: Portland Timbers - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 7/7) postgame thread [R]

Rock bottom.

 

One point above DC Utd and they have 4 games in hand. Shambolic from top to bottom, this has been years in the making.

How does Tarbell continue to start? Bersano cannot be worse. One hopes that a GK will win you a few games, when I see Tarbell gets the nod, a draw seems like they over achieve.

Again, shambolic.

 

Nah.. there is still another half of the season to screw up.

 

Yet another awful performance from Tarbell. I wish the rumor from a few months back about a goalie from the Mexican league coming to the Quakes was true.....

Entire team has zero confidence in themselves and each other......

 

Which brings new sponsorship opportunities.

 

Hate to break the news to you Mark, but, players can get injured when no foul occurs, and not every foul is a yellow card offense.
As far as MLS officiating goes, Unkel called a fairly consistent game. That early yellow on Cummings was a bit unfortunate, but, certainly a cardable offense.

 

Current playoff odds are 0.3%. With almost half the season to play. Worst in MLS. About the same odds that Stahre, Fioranelli or Fox will raise his hand to accept responsibility.

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/USA/SanJose.html
http://www.sportsclubstats.com/USA/MLS.html

 

The front office is feeding us shit and telling us it's ice cream. We deserve better than lip service from disinterested parties and people that send out renewal notifications in capital letters.

STAHRE OUT NOW!
FIORANELLI OUT NOW!

 

I wish I thought firing Stahre and Fioranelli would make any difference whatsoever.

 

I know people think there are bigger issues but goalkeeper is by far the biggest downgrade the team has seen over the past season plus, especially if you count Bingham getting worse before they switched.

Beaten at the near post on both goals and they weren't even great shots. Our midfield and back line are so bad we need a keeper that is always ready.

 

Ding ding ding!

This goes beyond playing musical chairs with our coach or GM. This is foundational, starting with ownership and the entire organization.

Every year the Quakes suck, and every year people think firing the coach will make it better.

Fire Yallop! Oh no, we still suck.
Fire Watson! Oh no, we still suck.
Fire Kinnear! Oh no, we still suck.
Fire Leitch! Oh no, we still suck.
Fire Stahre! ... any guesses as to what we’ll say soon after?

The ownership needs to treat this team like the big market team that it SHOULD be. THAT is where all of this team’s problems begin. Doing the bare minimum, content with mediocrity while their investment increases year over year largely thanks to the bigger spending and investments from other clubs in the league, not investing in a capable front office and management that can scout talent and bring better players here, are what this team’s problems are.

It’s like we’re in a race driving a compact sedan while other teams have super-charged sports cars, and we keep losing at the back of the pack, but the only solution people want is to change who’s driving the car. The problem is spending more money and getting a better car!

Open the spending on DPs to make us competitive. Attract better players. Stop treating this team like a minor league product. Yes, fire the coach and GM, but replacing them won’t solve anything! These are structural problems stemming from the ownership and organization itself.

 

Good post. I don't think anybody actually believes that firing the two stooges will solve anything, we all know it's the absentee landlord owner who's the root of the problem.

 

We made the playoffs last year, barely, but we did in fact make the playoffs. This year we are the very bottom of MLS. It is not a top to bottom drop but a halfway up to bottom drop. A huge drop. If it's "the owners" we must have changed ownership in order for such a big drop to occur. Was their a change of ownership that somehow went unannounced?

 

I wonder how much of this has to do with Lew Wolff’s ‘retirement’ from any active ownership function? Although he is still listed as a minority owner on the Quakes’ website, after he sold his interest in the A’s, I have not seen hide nor hair of him, and he used to show up not infrequently (although he lives in LA).

I think that of all the ownership group, he is/was the only one with any actual experience and interest in actually helping run a team. I wonder if we are now essentially rudderless - with a President (Fox) only responsible for the continued increase in the value of the team and not held to any expectations regarding performance?

 

Here's my problem with the "blame ownership" tack. It eliminates the the GM and coaching staff from accountability, which is especially troubling to me when there are clubs like FCD and NYRB with similar "absenteeism" and financial commitment in ownership to ours, and yet manage to get good results year after year.

 

two things could scarcely be more obvious to me after years of futility: the ownership situation in San Jose is absolutely, 100% the root cause of our long-standing suffering (as evidenced by our year's long track record of utter failure despite numerous changes of personnel in every conceivable position) and, Tommy Thompson was never an MLS-level soccer player.

 

Two things could scarcely be more obvious to me after the last 4-5 years:

1) When teams like FCD and NYRB and RSL, with similar owner financial commitment can run out winning teams most every year, there is no reason we cannot do the same. We need good, smart management at the GM and coaching levels.

2) After his first year of getting significant playing time (roughly half a season's minutes) Tommy Thompson was near the top of the team in assists per 90, and the top defender of the outside attacking mid types. Clearly he is a good MLS player, and he only needs a coach who believes in him the way Leitch did.

 

IMO one example of the difference between Wolff and Fisher would be the EQ playing today in a stadium like the original Toronto stadium with no roof or amenities vs playing in Avaya. A second example would be an ownership content with a Buck Shaw level team budget product and no Stanford game vs today's current midlevel MLS budget. (I'm not saying a midlevel MLS budget is enough for this market, I'm just saying it is a higher level). A third example would be the difference in ambition between being self-satisfied with having provided the city with a second tier "family-outing sport" and a relevant pro team. (Note again I am not saying that the relevant pro team has been well-executed only that the intent is there).

 

This year is our year for the wooden spoon, it feels like that special kind of a year. We are always in contention, but i dont think anyone truly sucks as much as us.

 

Let's not glamorize Lew Wolff. Sure he came to some games, but the dude is cheap as ****. If he had his way Avaya would be more comparable to a mediocre high school football stadium. He PUBLICLY stated "I don't know why Fischer is spending so much on the stadium, I wouldn't"... that's our savior??

 

we've taken it to a new level this year, I think there's consensus on that.

 

set the tone for the whole organization, the results of his cheapness haunt this organization and are on full display this year and every year. It's just that this season was particularly bad, it was over before it started, really.

 

Post of the year right there.

The players simply are nowhere near good enough. We can yell all we want about Stahre but major restructuring and investment is required, on and off the field. Some of the exasperated comments at the coach, GM, and other usual targets (my personal favorite is every referee is seemingly out to be biased against us) is understandable, but so so misplaced.

As things stands, we're perpetual losers. Damn that's depressing.

 

The SF bay area is one of the wealthiest regions in the country, but you'd never know that by how much Wolff/Fischer spend on their sports teams

 

Bad news: Our playoff odds peaked one game into a 34 game season....



Worse news: We've still got 16 games of this **** left.