San Jose Earthquakes - Houston Dynamo FC (Saturday, 5/24) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

While Bond had a great game, Josef is just a shell of his MVP self. He can’t reposition his body or hit the ball quickly or with much force, so his shots are easier to save. I wasn’t the only one groaning in my section.

the old Josef would have had a hat trick tonight.

 

Bunch of hacks on Dynamo.

 

I don't know, didn't he have a hat trick like a month ago...post injury, he is still pretty good.

 

I thought Hernán was much better than he was against Portland (or was it NE - whichever game he got subbed at the half). He was fairly dangerous and was helping with our buildup and attack that resulted in some great looks for Josef and others.

And great game by Judd. First time I remember him really ever heading a ball around goal and he scored 2.

So these are little positives that you put in your bag and put to use as the season goes on. Hernán coming back into form and Judd being useful. On the minus I thought Beau had a quiet game, a little weak, and I’ll have to see how we got beat so easily on those first goals. The last one, was it deflected?

 

Finally postind something positive about Judd, he played a great game tonight. I hope he continues it, I finally see what Arena sees in him.

 

It was disappointing that we coughed up the lead in stoppage time. It could have been a "signature win" / comeback. But still it had the feel of that awful SKC and thankfully it didn't turn out to be that kind of disaster. Three goals in 10 minutes was impressive, when it seemed like we might just fizzle out. It's one of those games where you blow your early chances, get scored on against the run of play and things go south from there. But the fact that we managed to turn it around is something - our first real comeback of the season IIRC, and something to build on.

 

Watching the Houston goals, 1st one was Floriani caught ball watching, and Jones being on the central side of Floriani for some reason. Second goal Houston had something like 4 guys on the back post with only 2 Quakes defenders nearby. We were all bunched up at the near post. I don't remember the exact circumstance of that cross, but seems like we have marking issues with recycled balls from set piece clearances and things like that.

Third goal someone please tell me Romney deflected it, because if Edwards got beat near post on a slow-rolling weed-hopper when he's actually positioned near post, that is an epic GK fail.

 

Romney deflected it. Third replay showed it pretty clearly.

 

OK I’m relieved now. I didn’t want to believe that Edwards was that bad.

 

Yes, but, in the end more dropped points at home.

 

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory yet again.

And anybody that looks at this differently is fooling themselves.

 

Yes but I went from thinking sure another loss at home to (eventually) taking a draw. But sure a win would have been huge. Now it’s 4 in a row on the road and points will be hard to come by. We’ll probably drop to 11th of 12th or so by the end of it and we’ll have dig out in the last 14 games.

 

So Arena made a team out of outcasts and scrubs from other teams and we now have 4 points less than the great MLS fan boys of Miami.

I know it’s still early and there is still a long way to go and nothing has been won yet but if this continues , Bruce Arena will have achieved his greatest accomplishment ever.

Go Bruce!

 

Just watched what I missed last night. Our defense still sucks and without Daniel we’re at best a lower-mid-level team.

 

Bruce postgame. He was not in a great mood and had little patience for the dumb questions. Honestly who are these people. Most of the questions were dumb.

Very unhappy with the officiating (didn’t say which plays) - maybe felt Harkes was fouled before Houston’s first goal, not happy we didn’t close out the game, also not pleased with our finishing (said we should have been up 2-1 at the half), or our defending on the goals we gave up.

 

I like a coach that calls it the way it is. All points are very correct.

 

Yeah, I just wish the folks there asked better questions.

 

I disagree. Bond made at least three really excellent saves against Josef last night. Any other GK on any other night and the Quakes would have been up two to zilch in the 15th.

Sometimes, the opposing GK just has an excellent night, and that's the difference in the game. That was last night.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I’m liking this team. Houston earthquakes are no slouches. Good result and good performances

 

The believe their second goal was an unfortunate deflection. At first glance, I thought Edwards made a hash of it, flailing at it as he mistimed his jump...but the slight deflection put it past his reach...unfortunately, we didn't react to the ball.

First goal is a miscommunication between Floriani and Jones...Floriani should be blazing back, he's caught out, but it looks like he's 3/4 speed...he see's Jones further back and probably thinks he'll adjust to pick up the back post...I think another instance of a better keeper commanding the situation and barking at his defender to pick up would have really help that play...Edwards...also took a step up initially, but then retreated.

It sucked to give up the goals...but learning moments and growing pains from our rookie defenders are going to happen...when you have a lower level keeper who isn't barking and directing his defenders...it doesn't help the situation...Edwards' doesn't command his box.

But the goal that truly hacked me was the third...Bouda did a great job to go into the corner and retain possession and then bring it back out, we're totally in control killing time...only to have Harkes try to dribble himself out of a double team pressure...instead of just cycling it back to our defenders...then it totally unravels going back the other way...Bruce brought that up in the post game, and actually named Harkes, which he probably wouldn't normally call out a player by name, but he was really ticked....really too bad, Harkes had two beautiful crosses for assists, but Harkes loses the ball a lot for a mid in tight quarters...really loose.

 

IIRC someone was saying (Bruce?) that Edwards is a super vocal GK, and that Daniel is a little too quiet.

Anyway, despite the failures that led to Houston's 3rd goal, there's probably very little chance they're gonna score without that perfect storm of a deflection. Edwards had the near post covered. Dorsey was aiming far post. It was a weed hopper, Edwards was leaning to the far post - likely would have been an easy save for Edwards but the deflection completely crossed him up.

 

This was one of those CRs that simply can’t cope with 16+ people moving inside the 18 yard box. So he just makes up fouls on offensive players to bail the defense out and alleviate the feeling of it being too overwhelming. He was not good generally, but I’m sure he has nightmares about cornerkicks week in and week out.

 

I would need to watch the game again to figure this out, but I thought that

- Houston was generally faster than us across the whole field
- They seemed to swarm our midfielders whenever they had the ball, and so Leroux was almost completely neutralized
- Maybe that’s why Leroux seemed to have a poor night, and why Harkes got 2 assists, i.e. HOU focused on Leroux?
​

It’s intriguing how some of the players are really developing under Bruce — Judd, Bouda, Leroux, Floriani, Munie (well, Munie was already well on his way, altho under Bruce’s tutelage, Munie was making hard runs up the middle yesterday) — while others are sliding into oblivion (Tsakiris, Rodriguez, Marie). I think what’s really interesting is how fast the changes are happening. Other Quakes coaches have taken several seasons to develop players, usually with little success (Cade, Benji, Tsakiris, etc). I really wonder what the difference is, what is Bruce’s secret sauce. I read his memoir but have no idea…

 

I saw the highlights again tonight on TV and the Quakes scored some nice goals.

Judd and Harkes came through.

Why couldn’t Almeyda , Covelo or Luchi find these types of outcasts before?