Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Los Angeles Galaxy (Saturday, 3/2) postgame thread [R]

That's what I thought at the game - he's trying to draw it, but Luchi called it out as a PK and how the defender stripped his shoe. But the replay I watched confirmed it - looked like he was desperately trying to draw a PK, and he didn't.

 

Speaking of desperate, that's the word that best describes Luchi right now... I wouldn't pay too much attention to what he's saying while his team is dead last in the western conference.

 

You need speedy wingers to do that. We have decent speed at forward and then Espinoza. It gets a little iffy after that. Face it, we've assembled a team to play a possession style but we don't have the soccer IQ to convert into goals, we don't have the defensive spine to prevent goals, and we don't have the type of players to switch styles.

The only way we can win is to play a low block, focus on defensive intensity and force them to beat us with shots outside the box, try to send through balls direct to Pellegrino, jebo, or Espinoza and hope for the best - smash and grab to the tune of 1-0. That's it.

It will be boring and will not be a joy to watch, but it's the only way we can win.

The other change to make is to stick in our young gun mids with the above style and hope they mature enough this year. Or push medina to 2nd forward and choose one of jebo or pello. That would at least make it exciting. When is tsakirie expected back?

4-4-2 all the way.

 

We only need two more signings and for Tsakiris to come back and the goals will come

-----------------------Judd/Pell/Jebo---------------------
--22initiativewinger--$$DP CAM/Medina--Espinoza--
-------------------Tsakiris---Yueill----------------

 

Wow, got your reply in there same time as a SJ fan...

Reminds me of a joke:

How can you tell there is an elephant hiding in a closet with you...

You can smell the peanuts on his breath.

 

Yeah, he didn't look as good as he did in a few brighter games from last season...with this current roster, who would you put there? With Niko out injured, do we magically have someone else you have utmost confidence in to play better in that role....no we don't...so I don't see it as an outlandish credibility busting call to give Skahan a shot at stating his case when our options are marginal.

 

For what it's worth all of the "Aftershock" guys were positive about Skahan's performance last night. They tend to be pro Skahan generally but they thought that he was a bright spot last night. Just goes to show you how narratives can vary and sometimes there's a group think that sways things one way or another. I thought he did OK. When you have a bad game as a team, there are usually very few bright spots and everyone's performance is kind of "sullied" a bit by the bad game. For now, yeah, I don't think we have any better options other than to try Yueill there and play Morales with Gruezo. I would like to get Gruezo out of there myself. So maybe at some point, Skahan-Yueill-Morales or Skahan-Niko-Yueill when Niko is ready, and all of this is of course before we have our prospective new #10.

 

Luchi does not get a pass from, nor does Leitch.

Luchi could organize the guys better.
Luchi could leave Gruezo on the bench, or better yet in his civies.
Luchi could star Judd next week.
Luchi could tell Beason not to roam up field, when he gets sub minutes.
Leitch better bring us a DP #10. If it’s Vela, he’d better be a revelation, rather than an aging once great player.
Leitch better bring us a U22 DP dude.
Also, if this shit show continues, Leitch could alway fire Luchi and bring on Ian as our head coach.

The sky hasn’t fallen yet, but it’s shaky as hell.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Bro. We suck. There’s more than enough blame to go around.

 

That's the point. Own your part of it. Luchi is owning it. Coaches like Cherundolo or Caleb Porter or Vermes will blame cast (the refs - often, or the weather, etc.).

 

Sorry, but I have to take exception to this.
First, how much a player gets paid has next to no correlation to how good he is. Remember Rios and who was the other guy? Both of them shit and way over paid.
Second, you don’t know how much the new guys are getting paid.
Third, see below.

Players cut over the offseason:

Mensah ($1,165,000) — Good his first few games with us, crap after his off-field incident.
Nathan ($741,000) — Can’t have two risk taking CB’s. And he’s not as good as Rodrigues.
Monteiro ($1,294,000) — Not nearly good enough. Where attacking plays go to die.
Cade ($690,000) — Not very good, and sold for$4M! That’s a win!
Hoppe ($725,000) — Paid maybe half that amount, and not very good.
Akinola ($772,000) — Paid maybe half that amount, and quite bad.
Trauco ($550,000) — Not fast enough.
Judson ($250,000) — A shadow of his former self.
Agren ($85,000) — Ågren wasn’t good enough, despite the cool looking Å.
Tingy ($67,000) — Not good enough.
Cilley ($67,000) — Not good enough.
*Walls ($153,000) — Why are these guys on your list? They are still in our stable, and neither are even subs.
*Ochoa ($140,000) — ???

How many of the guys we ditched did you want to keep? All of those dudes should have been let go, and a few more besides. Our replacements aren’t showing well so far, but I think that Wilson, Pellegrino, and maybe Morales will all prove to be improvements. Oh, add Judd to that list. He’s better than Jebo.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

You missed the point. Quakes are spending less on players this year, that’s my point, not that we should’ve kept all those players on the roster. And then there’s the $4 million for Cade that went right into Fishers pocket.

 

https://www.soccerbayarea.com/2024/03/04/san-jose-earthquakes-2024-home-opener/

 

Being a Thorns fan helps offset the Quakes fan funk

 

Boy am I glad I watched the match live or I would be really pissed about the headline giving away the result. Consider replacing key words with ****s and adding [R] next time.

 

Pretty spot on article. I can't quibble with anything in there.

 

Read another San Francisco Standard article over the weekend by the same writer, Kevin V. Nguyen, about the potential demise of the SF Cheesecake Factory with the departure of Macy's. Reveals he's from San Jose.

 

Yeah, he seems to know what he's talking about.

 

No. Like you, I thought it was a desperate attempt to draw a PK.

 

By the way, why did we sub out Akapo? There wasn't much going on that side compared to the party LA was having on the left. Injury?

 

Yes he got a knock.

 

Yes, I thought it was a PK.
Their defender clearly shoved Jackson’s back, and stepped on his heel. It would have been a foul anywhere else on the field, so why not in the box? Jackson either gets a shot off, or lays it back to another attacker. I think the foul clearly thwarted an attacking opportunity.

Also, we’ve seen PK’s awarded for much lighter weight fouls in the box.

But it’s us, so it didn’t even warrant a review.

We will give up PK’s on much more questionable calls this season, and we won’t get PK’s when we deserve it. You can quote me.

Also, it’s reasonable to argue that this was not a PK worthy foul. I can entertain that conversation. I thought that it was, your mileage may vary.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

After Jackson's turn the ball went a little bit away from the goal but he turned his run a little bit the other way into the defender. Yes the defender clipped his heel but Jackson was playing for contact there, it's pretty obvious. Play on was the right call there. You can't card Jackson for simulation because he was clipped. But it wasn't a foul either because Jackson angled his run into the defender.

 

On the one hand, Insee your point, on the other hand, you don’t know how much we are paying the new guys, AND you doubled what we were paying Akinola and Hoppe.

We won’t know this year’s salaries for a while yet. Still, you could well be right that we are spending less this season.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Well, we had a good time, even thought Quakes played poorly. Good atmosphere and crowd bigger than expected with the potential rain. As far as the game...

Nobody in defense had a good game. All three goals came down the left side, but Rodrigues was at fault with the second goal by dropping back and not playing for the offside. My main concern is not physical, but mental. They aren't playing as a team, and some players (Rodrigues, Daniel) don't seem to be mentally engaged. I'm concerned that they aren't bought into Luchi.

I actually thought Gruevo was one of the better players this game. He had a couple of decent shots and was active in a good way. Pelegrino was just OK (could have done better on the first goal). He has good school, understood team concept, but I wanted him to be more assertive (Luchi is telling him otherwise?). Wilson wasn't really tested.

Yuell, Beason, Jebo - We have too much dead weight on the team (as others have noted).

Ending on a good note. One game only. Players are still being integrated. We get a win against a Vancouver Team next week and things will be better. Lose - well, the shit storm may start early this year.