San Jose Earthquakes - Los Angeles FC (Saturday, 9/13) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

Does anybody really care anymore?

 

Quakes are a mess, again.

 

Meh.

 

Nope. As USMNT fan, I'm not wearing Mexico colors (or any other country).

 

pander
1 of 2
verb
pan·der ˈpan-dər

pandered; pandering ˈpan-d(ə-)riŋ ; panders
Synonyms of pander
intransitive verb

1
to say, do, or provide what someone (such as an audience) wants or demands even though it is not good, proper, reasonable, etc.

 

I care, but I am resigned to us missing the playoffs.

We choked in too many games this season. Now we have to win a bunch of tough ones down the stretch.

I can whine about the referees, but the fact is we just aren't good enough. We gave up way too many goals. We need at least two new starting defenders, a lights-out d-mid, and maybe a new GK too. Not that I don't like Daniel, but he's too fragile.

And we might need a new striker to replace Josef if he can't keep it up.

And I think the refs hate Arrango.

And Espinoza isn't getting any younger.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

LAFC just pick up grandpa here: Alexandru Băluță

 

But we have hope now, in a sale.

 

Cool! You can be immersed in crap soccer! LAFC hasn't been world beaters and Quakes generally keep games close. They need to get up 2-0 and play smarter in the past. Also, make sure Daniel has stickum on his gloves.

 

With Son on the right and Bouanga on the left, we're pretty screwed. Not even Munie can match their speed and no one matches their quickness. Maybe we can double mark both and just try to tie the game?

 

We are prone to counterattack when our forwards and mids lose the ball. Do you think playing a lower block would eliminate the space for the other teams to run on? Do we have the players to play counterattack ourselves? Probably more Judd and Bouda than Martinez.

 

This is going to be a pretty odd game in terms of the crowd makeup. The Quakes are selling it as a Mexican heritage / independence celebration with Mexican performers etc., so there should be a sizable Mexican-American contingent, and then Korean fans (the bay area has a sizable Korean population) + Tottenham euro fan boys, and then of course Quakes fans. The Quakes are claiming they've sold 45k tickets so far.

 

I think it needs to be more than a low block though... maybe 7 or 8 defenders (with one dedicated to each of Bouanga and Son) a midfielder or two and maybe Judd alone up top.

 

If it's not an ugly loss I'll consider it a victory, of sorts.

 

If we're going to go low block or "super low block" I think we should start Bouda - somewhere. He's the only one who's really a threat running at a defender out in space w/o much support. He's reasonably fast, but his main asset is his strength, not his speed. He regular wins duels. Judd also has decent speed but tends to not win duels.

Play Bouda on the right, Espinoza to RWB and Jones to LWB. Bruce won't do it of course, too many changes and he refuses to play a righty at LWB, even one (like Jones) who can cross with his left.

 

Certainly Bouda is better in transition and holdup.... but with such a low block and focus on D, there isn't going to be a midfield. They will pull their D way up and the only option we have is to boot the ball over the top. Judd has the best speed to maybe get one of those.

 

Judd is *maybe* faster than Bouda, but tends not to win duels and is not a good finisher. But you could play both. Bouda on the right, with Espinoza behind him, and Judd in the middle, Chicho on the left (3-4-3).

 

I'm not aware that we've ever played a low block with Bruce at the helm and cannot imagine he'd pull that out for this game...