Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Inter Miami CF (Wednesday, 8/3) postgame thread [R]

Clearly a real "team first" player.

 

If Covelo doesn’t already know he’s not getting the permanent gig, he’s a fool.

 

Someone who is such a fool doesn't deserve the permanent gig

 

Rodriguez didn’t do himself any favors in that one.

 

You could know that you're not getting the gig now or before, but you can also be unhappy about being hung out to dry a bit with the open senior roster spots. Even if he doesn't get the Quakes coaching gig, I'm sure he'd like to do as well as possible for consideration for other coaching jobs, even if not at the MLS level.

I think coaching the Quakes has been his dream job, and he may have had hopes things were going to work out when he had good success early. It's slipped or slipping out of his grasp now, but I would not fault someone for trying to keep his dream alive at some level - for having some passion for the club even if a little naive. I feel a little bad for him TBH, but looks like I'm the only one . Fair enough.

 

Leitch really treated him poorly, I feel bad for the guy. He never had a chance. He’ll be lucky if he gets his old Q2 gig back.

 

Covelo could have played the hand he was dealt better than he has. For example, his starting lineup last night was befuddling. Didn't someone on here recommend Espinoza as a fullback? (Hire, whoever it was because they're more clever than Covelo). Maybe put Espinoza back there and play BOTH Benji and Cade on the wings?

Covelo is gonna have to tweak things significantly in the absence of Lopez merely to buy a goal, let alone win a game. I wonder if that has sunk in yet. Should have after the Houston fiasco.

 

I would feel more for Covelo if he had managed to figure out how to defeat Sacramento. I'm still numb from that disaster and therefore am unable to feel sorry for him.

 

My point is that he's been dealt a difficult hand, not the he's played that difficult hand particularly well. I think he's played it OK. But my point was more about the human element.

 

he was facing a massive uphill battle to begin with but he accepted the challenge probably under assumption that if he did well the job would be his. since then CL has slowly been dismantling his team, shipping his players off to distant lands. CL completely set the poor guy up to fail. I doubt he was ever a serious candidate and he certainly wasn’t given the opportunity to prove it.

 

In 2017, Chris Leitch was an interim coach under similar circumstances and performed far better than Covelo has in 2022.

 

Again, I'm not arguing so much about the technicalities of performance measurement, but feeling bad for him as a person. I think coaching the Quakes was his dream job. There was a point where he probably thought it could happen, and it's slipping thru his hands. And CL hasn't made it any easier for him.

There was a point fairly early on, during a postgame interview, where Covelo said, unprompted, "I love this club". I think it was genuine, and I don't know that I've heard that from any other Quakes manager. He also said when he took the job with the Quakes one of the 1st things he learned was "Goonies never say die". Again, never heard a Quakes coach say those kinds of things, and it was kind of funny to hear it with such a heavy Spanish accent.

Finally, although he's had a thin roster - with some unfilled open senior roster spots, etc. and would have some right to complain about it if he were any kind of complainer, I've hadn't heard him do it once. Not yet anyway .

 

Leitch isn't doing ********all so I have no faith in him.

 

11,806 according to MLS.

But how many of those sold/give away tickets actually showed up?

Would love to know the true attendance number and the current number of season ticket holders.

Anyone got a spy on the inside ?

 

I actually thought attendance was pretty good for a Wed night, and the crowd was into it until the end. Not 11.8k but that number seems about right given the usual “inflation rate”. It’s that odd phenomenon where smaller crowds seem louder and more into due to greater % of real fans.

 

It was PayPal day and I assume a ton of tickets were given to them.

 

Agreed. Last night was the season's low point.

 

I forgot Ebobisee was playing until half way through the first half. Was a very demoralizing game.

 

between now and 8/20 Quakes will play three of the top four teams in the west, and then, 8/27, Quakes face SKC on the road, then there's still seven more games to play!

steeper decline seems almost inevitable, we need to prepare ourselves.

 

That's also how I read from the body language of some players once the game kicked off. One particular player was the most obvious and you would expect someone with such status on the team would actually be the one who tried to jazz up the team. When I saw it, I knew it would be a bad night. It was even more obvious once Miami scored. Something may changed at half time and the team came out with more fight.

 

I honestly think that not getting the win against RSL messed with their heads / confidence and had a carryover effect into this game. They knew they had dropped points at home at the last minute, and they felt pressure to win last night. Playing with pressure --> playing tight, i.e. not to make a mistake --> loss.

Once they got down a goal the "playing tight" eventually gave way to a bit of desperation / resolve, which is actually a better mindset. That's what changed at the half. But they couldn't get the goal.

This is why teams tend to go thru streaks. It has to do with confidence breeding relaxed and instinctive play vs. playing tight and thinking too much / playing not to make a mistake with tends to snowball. They've gotta try to turn it around, but it's going to be tough with the next 2 road games. So things are likely to get worse before they get better, and they may never really get much better as there aren't that many games left.

 

When the season started off with a lame duck Almeyda doing crazy shit to get fired I think most of us knew it was going to be a write-off. You can't even say at this point that we're rebuilding, because usually that involved bringing young and talented players in whereas we've spent most of the season dumping players. We'll see what's announced for today, but unless CL brings in a half-dozen known talents at critical positions next year is also going to be a "rebuilding" season. God only knows how long that excuse is going to be used...