San Jose Earthquakes - Austin FC (Wednesday, 4/22) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

Jasinski may have saved the game for us by getting us on the scoreboard and he has 2 goals in 2 starts as a RB, which is crazy. But I worry that he’s not quick enough to play RB in MLS. In both games he had to pull down guys who had beaten him and got yellows. And he was giving Trauco-like 10 yard cushions while defending 1v1 on the right side of the box that were scaring me. If Nelson had played he would have had a field day. He’s one of the quickest players in MLS.

I prefer Marie there if Benji can’t go. He’s got the speed to play there and tons of experience as a RB.

 

Lol, nivla best me by a few seconds.

 

I’m a big Paul Marie fan. I love his quality off the bench.

They used their last three subs in the 90th minute. I think they were right to take off Werner and Ricketts, but I would have pulled Tsakiris instead of Viera.

 

They gave player of the matchday to Baraboo for his 3 goals in the DCU game. But Paul Marie’s 3 assists came in what…about 8 minutes?

 

Watching Timo's running style it looked at little weird to me at first, kind of robotic. But tonight I noticed how still his body is when he's dribbling. It's like he's on rollers or something. And then it made sense to me. He keeps his feet low to the ground and that allows him to keep his body very still. Minimization of movement and consistency of body position (very little up and down movement) allows him to be technically better and more consistent with his final ball. I wonder if that was coached into him by his youth coaches or if it's just his natural running style or he came into it on his own.

 

Incredible result!

The Quakes are on fire.

They could have easily gone down 0-2 if it wasn’t for Daniel but then they came back.

I haven’t seen results or this type of comeback and team spirit since the great Wondo-Gordo -Lenhart season of 2012.

I really like Timo Werner and Bouda but hats off to Paul Marie as well.

Seeing the ball hit the post three times was also pretty exciting.

Credit also and mostly goes to Bruce Arena.

What a game!

Go Quakes!

 

Have the Quakes/Clash ever put up nine goals in less than a week? I know they had 4-0,4-1 back to back games in 2012 but I think this week was historic results.

 

Just like that, our Quakes are top of the Western Conference!

 

Interesting... I see what you are saying now. It was different last night when I looked up MLS matches and google showed active matches.

However, if you scroll down the stat page you are using (I assume it's https://www.mlssoccer.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2026/matches/sjvsatx-04-22-2026/stats), there is a section for possession that is blank. They must have some data problem somewhere.

 

This is one of the most important areas the team has improved this year. And it was glaring when he was pushed halfway into our penalty box, 5 yards away from an attacker and falling back. That match up should have been exploited more.

Have to give him kudos for what he did well, but I'm not thrilled to see him again unless he can improve his 1:1 defending.

 

I'm afraid i let my cynical side rear its ugly head during the game, it won't happen again. Maybe.

 

Again, my PTSD is still strong, but I felt comfortable the entire game. We dominated every aspect from the beginning and i thought it was a matter of time before we would break through. If it didn't happen in that game, that was ok since we were playing so well.

It was really frustrating to keep hitting the post though.

On a side note, I thought the ref was awful.

 

Yes if I was Austin I’d be trying to get the ball down that wing every time. I’m just not sure he has the quickness to get up tight on guys, that’s my concern. At least not the speedy guys, and there are many speedy left wingers in MLS. Imagine Bouanga going up against him. This is one of Benji’s best attributes. He plays guys tight and he’s rarely beaten. Marie is better too in terms of marking guys tighter but maybe not as good as Benji in that department. Ricketts is also a tight defender. So yeah, this has got to be one of the factors that has made our defense so successful this year.

 

Last year Benji was also playing well off the attacker (the entire defense did). It's much better now so hopefully one of the coaches can spend time with him.

 

I don’t remember Benji ever playing off the attacker but maybe I missed it. To me he’s always looked aggressive and tries to win the ball. Ricketts has some basketball in his background and I think that’s a factor in the way he marks (he’s mentioned it).

 

Plus seven goal differential, too. Narrowing tiebreaker gap with Vancouver.

 

I was worried that Stuvers would stand on his head. Good GK.

Ref was complete crap.

 

Post game press conference , Bruce took a lot of questions , funny exchange near the end when he said getting a little extra money to spend wouldn't hurt.

 

Someone asked Bruce specifically about Jasinski’s defending (it’s rare that there’s actually a pertinent question like that) and he said it was good and then said he’s good physically too and mentioned his size. This is another data point in my belief that Bruce likes bigger, stronger players. To me size for an outside back is not that important. You want quickness more than anything else and that can be a challenge for taller guys. Benji is a more rare case of a taller guy with quick feet or at least good recovery speed.

He then went on to praise Jasinski for being a smart guy because he went Princeton and he knows the coach who really respects and he knew Jasinski would be a smart player due to how he was coached.

I’ve watched Jasinski play a few Quakes 2 games and he didn’t stand out to me really as a good player in those games. Just a little better than average. One thing I notice that he’s good at is long delivery, and I think he had one real nice thru ball in the game last night.

 

Tim Ford is a top ref? Hubby and I rank Ford as one the worst refs in MLS. We rate him in the same category as Lauziere, Chris Penso, Guido, and Bazakos.

 

Paul Marie was on fire, I could sense it in the stands. So sad his strike inside the goal box was a little wide, that would have really put his performance over the top.

 

He's a fine backup and I'm ok with he or Marie based on what I've seen.

I want to see him close down quickly and closely. If that means more support is needed behind him due to a lack of quickness, the coaches should get on that.

 

The size isn't crucial for an outside back but it's nice to have when you're dealing with a big wide forward type and when you want an extra big body in the box at both ends. On the attacking side of the ball I've thought that we don't really play to Benji's strengths enough - we should use him as a diagonal long ball target as well as crosses from the opposite flank, and avoid having him do too much in buildup play deep in our own half.

As far as Jasinski goes I'm not sure that fullback is his best position in the long term. Maybe a center back or a DM? A bit like a right-footed Romney.

 

Yes, nice to have, but only if you also have the quickness that's required of an outside back. As I said, usually the tall guys aren't as quick in those kinds of short movements that you need to defend under those conditions - a winger coming at you outside the box. The physics aren't in your favor.

 

The header for the tying goal was, if not world class, a class above what we're used to from Quakes players not named Wondo over the years.