Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Real Salt Lake (Saturday, 7/30) post-game thread [R]

I’m sticking around for the special Olympics match

 

Tonight we saw the team self implode.....put a fork in it, season done.

 

Missed most of the game but saw Jebo’s goal and RSL’s equalizer in the 95th minute.

Seems like I didn’t miss much and it’s just more of the same crap.

Does anyone truly believe this team has any hope at this point?

I think it’s safe to say the season is pretty much lost and it’s time to think to 2023.

 

Lopez got a double yellow for kicking the ball after the game I think.

Missing him against Miami is gonna be a problem. We probably should have signed some defensive reinforcements by now.

 

The team needs a complete overhaul and maybe 6-7 new players, if not more.

 

Our defensive organization is crap. That’s on the coach.

our inability to kill off a game is also down to crap coaching.

I noticed that Cade actually played some defense tonight, so coach gets a feather for that.

The “referee” sucked butt tonight. BUT we still should have won.

 

I truly wonder what the locker room sit is - it can’t be good…

 

There comes a time with a lead, even 1 goal, where you just want to play some keep away. I’d say from 80th minute on. We couldn’t resist going going to next goal and gave RSL too many at-bats. Eventually something’s going to go sideways.

Now we’re going to have all these people complaining that we don’t play direct enough complaining that we played too direct at the end. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I don’t think it’s just on the coach though.

The players really aren’t that good.

I mean other than Jebo, who can you call out for being good?

These players are mediocre at best and even the ones who stand out are middle of the road players.

 

Well just frustrated I’m sure. Playing pretty well on balance but can’t hold leads. We’ve had way, way, way worse stretches than two 2-1 losses and a tie. It’s one thing to get rolled. It’s another to lose or tie tight games. But I’m sure they’re frustrated.

 

it appears to be unraveling

 

Killing a game is an art, and the Quakes have yet to master it.

 

True - but other teams are loading up…

 

Quakes don't have a strong enough defense to park the bus. And not a potent enough offense at the end of the game to put the game out of reach. They let the other teams hang around instead of finishing them off.

So frustrating....

 

We had the team to play keep away, with Grey Goose, Yueill, and Monteiro in midfield. That would be the only reason to play Grey Goose over Judson (and I predicted it would not end well in the in-game thread - that was a mistake). You could see Grey Goose caught between two minds when he had the ball at the top of the RSL box and couldn’t decide if he wanted to pull it back or attack. We should have been doing more pulling back at that point. It takes time off the clock and starve RSL of opportunities.

That’s the cruel irony of our team. We are a good possession team but don’t use it when we really need it.

 

Pretty sure Marcos Lopez just got a red card as the ref walked off the field #Quakes74

— Quakes2024 (@sjeq74) July 31, 2022

 

Was pretty sure that was going to happen as soon as Monteiro didn't take his late chance and tried to pass instead.

 

We dominated possession until the last 15 minutes when RSL dominated possession. That’s the problem right there. We are not a good bus parking team. We need to play defense by holding the ball.

 

Watching the postgame interview, Christian Espinoza speaks pretty decent English.

 

As for the defense at the end, the right side was doing OK against crafty players - Meram and Luna - at least they were engaging them, but what the heck was going on with the left side? RSL attackers were running into acres of space!?

 

Covelo just loves to send his flank fullbacks up field late in the game while protecting a lead. That is his tactical decision. I complained about this in the Houston debacle...saw it again against Portland and tonight as well. I was hoping to see a more pragmatic approach...an easy adjustment...keep your flank defenders back...and when you do win the ball back, string more than 3 freaking passes...we didn't do either adjustment. Judson must have been not exactly fit...there is no other explanation for Gregus over him. What stressed us greatly was the Bouda sub on the left side, he was completely lost defensively. Cade did a little better than normal defensively, but not great in that situation. Imo, Salinas and Skahan would have been better subs to grind out that game. Salinas eventually came on, but the damage was done on the left side...they had two players wide open on the backside on their second goal...and a lot Quakes floating around the middle marking no one...back side coverage should have been Lopez and Bouda.

Sorry to bag on Covelo, but he's leaving points on the table...

 

If I'm reading Covelo's comments right, he's saying "we didn't park the bus well enough".

“There is a moment when you cannot apply enough pressure to recover the ball high and then you have to have a more compact team, you have to recover behind the ball and have a good structure there, avoid crosses and understand that’s a team you need to control very well."

That's true but we can also limit the number of times that we have to defend in compact spaces by holding the ball more in these "hold the lead" scenarios. We just let RSL have way too much of the ball at the end. Lots of time on the ball, lots of opportunity for something to go wrong.

IOW there are 2 ways to limit mistakes. One is to simple reduce your "rate of mistake making". The other is to reduce the number of "potential mistake making opportunities". I think our failure was more of the latter.