Leaving out DeRo is ludicrous. I am begging for the Quakes to NOT return to target man soccer. Ching's injury forced them to go back to a ground based - hit and run offense. Even with a hobbled DeRo and/or a rookie Walker, the offense - and the goals - flowed. Quakes scored 12 GOALS in our last three games (playoffs!) and they might go back to target man? No way. My preferences: 1. Donovan/DeRo 2. Donovan/Walker 3. DeRo/Walker - Donno in midfield. 4. Donovan/Ching Not only do the Quakes score more goals with this kind of attack - they are far more entertaining. That should be a consideration when the Quakes are desperate to draw and keep crowds.
Me bad. No, I did - this was supposed to be a reply to the Mark Connelly thread. Ever since the Quakes frame took over my bigsoccer, I 've been accidentally hitting "New Thread" instead of "Reply." It's annoying, but if I don't catch it promptly I can't delete my post. Sorry.
Though this thread should either be merged with the Connolly thread or moved to the Quakes board, I'll still add in my $.02: Don't forget that after Ching's injury that pretty much left the Quakes without a true target man, the goals didn't always flow - as a matter of fact, there was a string of games where the Quakes faced a goal-scoring drought. Having all their forwards healthy is the best solution, so that Coach Kinnear can adjust his starting forward tandem depending on the opponent and the situation, where sometimes a Donovan/Ching tandem would work better while at other times a Donovan/DeRosario or a Donovan/Walker tandem would (and that's not mentioning the times Donovan will be on U.S. Nats duty during the season). That was similar to what the Quakes did in 2001: while they didn't have a true target man that season, they were able to adjust their forward tandem from game to game between Donovan/Cerritos (when they needed more maneuverability) and Donovan/Agogo (when they needed more pure speed). -G
Ching Yup. I definitely value Ching in the toolbox (and I don't mean HDC.) I just hope they don't reach for him too often. Connolly had him starting, with no mention of DeRosario. DeRo has his off games like everybody else, but at the end of the day he's just about up there with Donovan as a Quakes threat.
The long and short of it is the Quakes are (by MLS standards anyway) loaded at the striker/forward position. Even Levesque has a relatively good resume to stand on, and if he has fully recovered from his injuries will be a great addition as a #5 forward. Connolly pretty much only mentioned 3 forwards for each team. We don't even know if Ching is all the way back from his injury yet: last we heard he only felt at 80% about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. There'll be a lot of combinations played before the season is over. Personally I think Donovan/Walker is the most lethal, though probably also the most erratic.
Uh...guys. Taken out of it's proper context (the Quakes board or the thread concerning the latest Conolly article) this conversation is fairly insufferable.
I bet it's insufferable. I'm getting to like this thread right here, where the non-Quakes fans can read it and wet themselves in envy and fear.