San Jose Earthquakes - Vancouver Whitecaps FC (Saturday, 5/9) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

I think they would rather be in the city, until they understand the cost of building a new soccer stadium in San Francisco. At that point the "rather" might start to unravel a bit.

 

It's Google AI, so take it with a grain of salt, but...

"Based on recent construction trends, land value in the Bay Area, and 2026 inflation factors, a new 15,000-seat soccer-specific stadium in San Francisco would likely cost between $300 million and $500M."

 

Hmm for a couple of minutes, I watched the big screen at the stadium specifically to see that, but I never did… guess you’re lucky. But if they showed it in the stadium, then maybe it will show up on the internet somewhere… if u saw it, didn’t you enjoy it?

 

I rewatched about 15 mins of the game, looking for that Daniel King Kong clip.i was surprised to hear the broadcasters praising Quakes defense at keeping Vancouver in check, along with a ton of platitudes.

I thought the broadcasters must be idiots. I saw a disorganized team that couldn’t string 4 passes together until about the 70-80th minute. I didn’t think the Quakes inability to attack was intentional, we couldn’t even muster a counter attack because we couldn’t hold onto the ball. Did anyone else think the announcers were way off?

 

Vancouver is the best possession team in the league and the Quakes are not all that strong in that aspect, not to mention lacking their key ball progression outlets in Timo and Niko. That part played out as pretty much any observer would have expected. The defending was quite tough and merited praise - I wish they had some plan to address the Vancouver's numerical advantage in buildup with Takaoka but the play in the back was superb.

 

It happened quickly and I was focused on something else. I'm happy he was proud though.

 

Yeah, it's great to have big plans, but I don't see how they're going spend $3-500M on a new stadium in SF. The Quakes built their stadium for $100M. Maybe Fish would be willing to sell it for $150M? I don't know just spitballing here, but that scenario seems more realistic than a new stadium in SF. Of course we hope that we don't lose the team again. That would be hideous.

 

Isn't Bay building a training site on Treasure Island? knida long drive from training to stadium?

 

If they bought PPP they could use our training facility.

 

Yeah when you think about it, it’s no surprise we got completely owned in midfield. First of all you’ve got 3 CM’s vs. 2 on the Quakes. (As far as I’m concerned Bouda was playing more like a 2nd forward). Then consider that our CM’s - Beau and Vieira, are not very fast. Niko is our quickest center mid. And then you consider that Vancouver has a really good midfield and is one of the best possession teams in MLS. A little unusual for Bruce to more or less concede the midfield and try to play direct, but I guess at the end of the day it kinda worked. A tie was not a bad result under the circumstances.

 

Didn’t someone here predict 1-1 score line? And you had the game at 50/50 proposition. Quakes did predictably well.

 

Yeah at the end of the day, I think it was a reasonably good result under the circumstances. The MLS pundits (Doyle, Gass, Humphrey Bogert, etc.) had Vancouver crushing us, basically, and while they controlled the game flow, the crushing didn’t happen.

And I think we should continue to lean on our defense as we get thru this rough period. We’ve still only given up 8 goals on the year which is near the top of the league. Our defense is really good - Daniel continues to play well, Munie and Roberts have been excellent, as have our fullbacks, particularly Benji and Ricketts. And when Ricketts plays left winger it’s like having another fullback, almost a de facto 5-man back line because he tracks back and defends so hard.

 

Already scheduled to open in 27: https://bayfc.com/lp/sports-performance-center/

 

Yeah but if they were to buy the stadium I don’t imagine they’d mind using the training facility at PPP. Or they can spend $300-500M to build a stadium closer to their training facility.

 

Certainly the backline + Daniel carried the team last night. But my issue with the broadcasters is that they made it sound like the quakes intended to play defense all night. I instead thought we were on desperation defending all night. Bruce could not figure out a way to hold onto the ball, gave up, didn’t sub, and left the guys in to suffer through it.

 

And Ricketts was nails on the left side. As I've said, when he play left wing, it's like having a 2nd LB also. He kind of "protects" Romney .

 

Jared S. showed me the expansion plans on his desk (not the detail, just that they were there). They are ready if we ever hit the right numbers.

 

Yeah, Kaval told me they had an idea what expansion would look like, but, never said they had any actual drawings.

 

"Superfund Stadium"?

 

Per Tweet from Tom Bogert, Vancouver leads league with an xG of +22. Yet, in two games home and away they’re -1 in actual G against Quakes.

Quakes are a distant second in league with +13 xG, by the way.

Not that I give credence to xG, but this would tend to suggest Quakes are pretty good.