Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Orlando City SC (Saturday, 5/18) postgame thread [R]

Luchi sent out the same troops who were shell-shocked in Portland. Game was lost before the anthem.

 

I've been thinking about how to get Skahan on with Hernán also. Not sure I'd want Hernán to play a false 9 with no actual 9. He's going to have trouble getting service. I'd rather have him driving the ball from the center. Maybe Skahan can play on the left and Pellegrino in the middle, Hernán in his usual spot. Not ideal but I don't think we're going to find ideal. We can't have them both playing in the center. They're both trying to do the same thing.

 

This team is not worse than those teams. This team is just the anti-2012 Supporter Shield Winner who won so many last minute games!

 

But in 1999 we had 19 wins lol

 

Sorry, I was thinking of 2000. Not really considering 1999. I'm still recovering from 2000!

 

I think that this pretty much covers it. Quakes were Ok the first half, but both teams went into the Twilight Zone for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half. Really poor soccer.

The problem was our subs (Benji, Nico, and Judd were worse than the starters). Nobody called out Nico for losing the ball on the counterattack that led to the goal. I was pissed at Judd screwing around the whole warm ups in front of us.

Gruezo and Yuell both need to sit. It's going to be a long season!

 

How does this work? I confirmed on mlssoccer web site. In 1999 were 19W, 13L and 2nd to last with 37 points and Dallas was 2nd with 51 points and the exact same record - 19W, 13L. I assume this is some kind of shootout nonsense? Taken at face value it looks ridiculous.

 

Weren't regulation wins 3 pts. and shootout wins only 2 pts.

 

Just looked it up. A shootout win was 1 point. I did a little algebra (this would make a nice SAT question ), and got 10 shootout wins and 9 regular wins. We'll be lucky to get 9 wins this season, and we have a few extra games to do it (34 vs. 32).

 

Back in the day shit was 1 point if you had a shoot out win, 0 for a loss, but all accounts if those were all 3 point wins, we'd be really close to the best team in MLS. The problem wasn't the team or the players we had a great rookie class, great team, we just couldn't figure out how to hold the leads early in the season, towards the end of the year we started getting 3 point wins when Espinoza then Osiander took over.

1999 gave us Quakes National Treasures, Mulrooney, Cannon and Conrad.

2000 was the worst season ever nothing entertaining about it at all.

 

2000 was the worst season in the entire history of this club, this includes the Starhe season. Nothing in 2000 was fun. Especially on a team were John Doyle is one of the 3 best guys...

 

Man, you could almost apply that sentence to this year (one can hope), even down to the name "Espinoza"!

 

There weren’t any refs anally-raping us in Portland back in 2000, though.

 

At least Anal Rape games are entertaining, in 2000 we anal raped ourselves. Gabe Eastman the worst player ever to play for this team was on that team. We've had very bad, this guy should have never played soccer in his life. They saw he was from the Galaxy and thought he would be good.

 

Finally saw the last of this match.

Both teams suck.

The Orlando Oscars are better organized than us, which is a reason to fire Luchi right there.

We had Rodrigues attack several times, which is inexcusable. Some other player has to stay back for him, and it was usually Jackson. WTF?!

We are obsessive about playing the ball to Espinosa. Frequently, Pelle or later Benji were wide open on the left and didn’t get many passes to them. We have to spread the ball around more.

Orlando plays a higher defensive block than we do. I wouldn’t call it high, but they are farther up the field than us.

We send our defenders into the attack often, which leaves us exposed at the back. Also, offensive players are almost always better with the ball in attack than defensive players. I don’t get the over-reliance on defenders to generate your attack. - That’s another reason that Luchi should be fired.

Jebo was bad Saturday night. He got the ball plenty and usually made a mess of it. Poor first touch, poor passes, poor shots, just sucked hard all the way.

Judd didn’t get much of the ball because he was farther over on the left.

Benji didn’t get much of the ball because he was over on the left. He blew the few opportunities he had.

Hernán didn’t get the ball enough because our guys kept passing to Espinosa like he was the only option.

Luchi sucks. I’ve had enough.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I'm probably in the vast minority but I like it when Rodrigues attacks with the ball. It's usually Gruezo who goes back to cover, and what's the point of having Gruezo contribute to "the attack" anyway? He's just going to play a safe pass in our half and that will be about the end of it. Secondly, Rodrigues almost never loses the ball on those attacking forays. He's very strong on the ball and has good feet. Third, it's a new look for the defense to have to deal with, creates overloads, and allows Hernán to drift closer to our goal. It's a way to drive an attack down the middle, which is where we tend to struggle. Everything goes to the sides usually.

It's not like we should be doing it all the time, but when we need a goal it's a good tool to have in the toolbox. FWIW, our 2 best chances in the first half were Rodrigues shots - one saved, one wide IIRC. Those were set pieces but he's a guy that can score for us. At this point I'm not sure he shouldn't be playing forward for us given the issues we have at that position. I think he’d be easily more effective than either Jebo or Judd. Monster in the air, good feet, very strong on the ball, etc.

 

I also like it since it really unbalances the defense with him running at them, but, I think it sometimes takes our players by surprise as well. What I don't like is when Rodriques dribbles deep in our end!

 

Luchi says that they know how to cover for it, so by now I hope that is happening. I assume that Gruezo drops back but I'm usually not watching what's happening at the back so much. I'm watching Rodrigues dribble into midfield. It's exciting in a way like your car is swerving around on an icy roadway. Hey this is kind of fun, I hope I don't hit the embankment or another car!

 

Every coach knows how to cover for it, theoretically, drop a dmid or rotation to cover the middle, but in reality, bad stuff happens when the players aren't disciplined enough to actually do it...Gruezo is a freelancer and a poor option to read the play...he usually gets caught out trying to cover. So, it is an entertaining, but crazy high risk for this team.

 

I'll have to watch sometime to see what's really happening in the back. When Rodrigues does it, he's not racing thru the midfield. He's pretty deliberate about it, taking his time and looking for options. Seems like there should be plenty of time to adjust. Also, he rarely has the ball taken from him. His eventual pass might be a risk if it doesn't connect but usually it's a longish pass and we should be in position to track back, not to mention that Gruezo should be covering by that point.

 

Put Muni in the back and Rodrigues up top for a half or game and see what happens. Need to throw poo at the wall and see what sticks.

 

With the exception of Missael Espinoza and Eddie Lewis, there was not much to root for from '96 to '01

 

Well, at least it was novel and weird in the beginning. I really liked the whole Clash thing, because I was a big fan of the band with the same name since the 70s. It was weird, but everything about early MLS was weird, so it was all good.

 

If you lived near Hammersmith Palais in West London, you had the choice of supporting Fulham FC a little to the south, Chelsea FC a little to the south east, Queens Park Rangers a little to the north, or Brentford FC a little to the west. And when I say "a little" I am talking just 2-3 miles.