Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Portland Timbers (Sunday, 3/13) postgame thread [R]

Two wins Zero losses! That is a first!

 

How this team manages leads is ridiculously unprofessional. Amarikwa acrobatics lead to a goal against for no reason, the team is reluctant to kill the game in the corner with minutes to go. Add the fact subs were late as hell and you have a recipe for the same crap that happened last year in LA.

 

First ever 2-0 start for the Quakes (although not "over 21 seasons" as they said on Fox)...
First time we've scored two goals at Avaya since early 2015
First goal from long distance since... not sure but it feels like forever
Back to back clean sheets sure would have been nice....

We're one of only three teams with 6 points, along with Montreal and KC.

My concern for the second week in a row is lack of defensive depth, particularly at CB.

If Bernardez had not been able to continue, what would we have done, Silva? With Imperiale still out we have no defenders on our bench!

 

Keep in mind how the team played the 2nd half before and after Alashe went out. We were doing very well, but we lose too much without having either him or Pelosi to pair with Godoy or each other. The team is totally different when we have 2 of our core central midfielders out there.

This is what I mean:

390 - @SJEarthquakes completed 390 passes tonight, the most they've completed in an @MLS game against 11 men since 2014. Connected.

— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) March 14, 2016

 

That was awesome. Quakes fought hard, huge result, beating the champs at home, two wins, two Wondo goals, hard to argue that this season is off to anything other than a great start!

Go Quakes!

 

Well it took almost year and a miracle shot, but the Quakes finally got more than 1 goal at Avaya.

As I predicted, a Quakes win and a big game from Quincy, though frankly aside from the wonder goal he didn't have a very good game.

I think the Quakes looked better than last week but I would still classify this one as a fortunate win. Especially in the 1st half Portland had a lot of chances and the Quakes had one and a 1/4 chance and scored 2 goals out of it.

Much better from Dawkins today.

Oh and Godoy played great. He is a really good player. The Quakes are lucky to have him.

 

One good thing, even though they didn't play well, they have 6 points in their first two games. Considering how they ended up 4 points from a playoff spot last year, these games will come in handy in the standings at seasons end. Hopefully , they can regroup and build on these wins.

 

Yeah the Quakes are one of only three teams with 6 points, whereas four teams pretty much everyone would predict to make the playoffs (Seattle and Vancouver in our division, NYRB and Columbus in the other one) have 0 points.
Some might say it doesn't matter so early in the season, because we have a tendency to focus on games and moments down the final stretch, but all points count the same.

 

The ultras brought the atmosphere but unfortunately drove a lot of people away. And I didn't like to see that. There was one particular skinny guy walking up and down the aisle mugging people who were sitting with the ultras and then they'd gang up on some people that were sitting: "it's on your ticket, standing room!" Etc. there was a huge difference in people sitting with them for both halves.

Good game. We finally passed the ball very well! And we maintained possesion( yes, against a team who pretty much gives the other team possesion) and capitalized when we had to. Colvey is looking good. Silva may turn out to be yet another DM. But he's young so hat works.

And for bernardez injuries by now you should already expect him to take an "injury" late in the game when we're winning. Look back at our games where we had leads, Vic always goes down to slow the game. When he's injured he doesn't roll around. He also does the same when he "accidentally" kicks another player. He'll go down too and act injured. Smart pro.

 

TAKE A BOW, @QuincyAmarikwa. #SJvPOR #SoccerSunday https://t.co/vaaGuLKuTj

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 14, 2016

 

TT was a decent replacement for Alashe, he made some good runs and got into some good offensive positions but he was unable to finish his runs with either a shot or a through pass. Not sure if that's nerves or his height disadvantage but that guy needs a goal. Seems like it might be coming but anything to build his confidence in the box.

 

Fatai in the middle and Simon out wide made a big difference.
We were very cohesive in the middle until we got the lead. After that I think we sat back a bit, but overall it looked a lot better than last week.

 

One single loss with Godoy on the field. Guy is a stud. How many guys has he had to play with in the middle?

 

He did have a key pass to Quincy in the final 3rd - pass that led to a shot, and played pretty good d - had 3 tackles and a recovery I think.

It was a bit of a surprising sub because although TT's d is pretty good now he still balances a bit on the offensive side with all the runs he makes. It allowed the Quakes to keep the pressure on and not bunker and boot for the last 25 min. They eventually resorted to that but not until 80+ min. The Quakes had 2 real solid possession 5-minute periods after TT came on.

 

Let's face it whichever way you look at it and whether he makes mistakes or not, for this league and these tight salary caps, Quincy Amarikwa earning $100,000 a year is a steal!

 

No doubt and with that spectacular gwg, his stock just went up a little.

 

Looking at his opta stats looks like he made about 70 passes with 4 incomplete! Oh and an assist.

 

Agreed. I thought he looked pretty good, just lacking that lethal touch for a legit scoring chance.

 

It's coming I think. He had a good SOG last week. But as guys get healthy it will be increasingly hard for him to see playing time. He probably knows that and is pressing a bit to try to make his mark.

 

I'm totally with you about this situation. There was also a fat guy berating people who were sitting. And the skinny guy almost got into a fight with another Earthquakes fan whom he decided he could kick out of the section and whose companion luckily calmed him down and prevented violence.

We have tickets in that section and we happily stand for the matches. This week, we moved over one section at my partner's request. Not because of the flag waving or the standing or the chanting, but because a couple of d-bags decided to make themselves more important than the game and became huge distractions. As fun as the Ultras section was last week, it was equally dismal today. I'm not attending matches to watch overaggressive, perhaps drunk, guys berate people and start fights with people.

Hint to Ultras. If you want the section to be all standing, fill up the seats. Today's performance isn't going to help that cause. There are octogenarians in that section, often there are families with young children. People can decide to stand or sit on their own. Bullying sucks. Always.

Now about that game. The best in a long time. The Godoy/Alashe partnership is a winner. Getting Salinas off the field is a huge plus. I don't think the Clash/Quakes have ever scored a goal like Amarikwa's, certainly not one that I can remember.

The end was nervy. I didn't like the double substitution. Too disruptive. Maybe Dawkins injury forced Kinnear's hand.

Portland and San Jose were both entertaining today. Some good fortune at the beginning. Thank you, crossbar. Can't do better than two wins in two games or two goals on two first half chances, really just one chance and a great shot from the airport.

Now on to beat LA.

 

BTW I'm not going to make too much of the Quakes jump in pass completion and possession percentage. It was a funny game because the conditions were so wet. It played relatively slowly. Guys didn't want to commit too hard and land on their butt.

 

Portland plays with 3 absolute studs in the middle. The fact that Godoy got on the ball as much as he did and maintained possession was very impressive. He's a true 2 way player. Tough defensively and skilled on the offensive end as well. His assist was inch perfect. I don't see a single player in the league that I would trade him for.

 

Who was the loss against?