Pre-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Vancouver Whitecaps FC (Sunday, 9/4) pregame thread

As my wife continues the journey of convincing me to get season tickets next year, this will be our first game in almost three which we will be attending. Should be fun?

 

I was optimistic about the SKC game and we lost.

Not sure how to read this match, i guess we might win?

 

I'll predict a win here. Even thought they are higher in the standings than us their current form is bad. One of their best players just got sent out for literally walking on someones head. That gives just enough insight into the frustration levels this club is going through right now.

No chance we lose to them on Sunday.

 

We got embarrassed and exposed by SKC who was below us, who were without Pulido and Melia 2 of their best players.

Vancouver lost to a very good Nashville team, Cavalini didn't even start the game, they've been rotating their roster quite a bit to keep guys fresh. Vancouver has a good chance of kicking our asses. If they play a high press like they have been, it will expose our slow janky ass team.

If they win and Portland loses, they will be in the playoff picture. We will further slide the pipe pole down our throat from every team.

 

I'll admit you make some good points. We do have a slow janky ass team - especially our defense. Whenever I think about our defense I lose all my confidence.

However I'll stick with my prediction that we'll get at least a point out of this one.

 

1 point isn't a win, but a point on the road is a win for us. In 1999 all we ever did was win the shoot out and got 1 point... so that remains status quo for us.

 

Cavalini is not the Whitecraps best player. They’re fine without him. They are at home, and we suck. I’m thinking two to nil for Vancouver.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

The game is in San Jose.

 

Cavallini is definitely one of their best players and they will miss him. Also, game is played in San Jose.

We do suck.

 

They won't miss him that much, they do just fine without him. They still have Galud, Gressel and Raposo.

They also have a highly motivated disciplined coach who owns up to his bull shit.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/sart...st-apologize-to-our-fans-after-nashville-loss

We will struggle against this team. They will be very dangerous, coming off the big loss, this team will look to rebound and use us as the perennial whipping boy.

 

He shredded the Quakes in Vancouver. He was too much for SJ to defend.

 

But Vancouver is not doing just fine. In their last 10 games they've done about as well as we have - which can't be described as 'just fine'.

 

True, he got a goal and an assist in our last match. He's also their leading goal scorer overall.

Not only will he be absent from this game but he's absent because he purposefully stepped on someones head. Call me crazy, but to me that indicates not all his happy in Vancouver.

 

My mistake. Thanks for the correction. I still think they beat us two to zip. Because we suck, and they will have watched our game against SKC.

 

Slo-mo head stomp: https://streamja.com/0Ovwg

 

That was really crappy of Lucas and I hope he gets a multiple game suspension.

 

While your correct about their last 10 games being on par with us, if we base it off trajectory they will beat us, however being on the road, their road record isn't the greatest neither is ours. But the season isn't measured by 10 previous games, its the stretch, they won early on, which has them in position to contend for a playoff spot, we aren't even in that fathomable discussion. 1 win, and they're above that preverbal red line.

They're scoring a slightly better goals per game than us, we actually have the 2nd lowest in our conference right above Houston, who's the only team below us now in the standings.

But since you want to discuss the last 10 games, We lost to Houston which is the only team below us, while Vancouver beat them. At the point we lost to Kansas City, we were above them in the standings, which we are now below them due to that loss against them over the weekend, and they've been on an upward trend, if the put some more wins together, they could end up fighting for that last playoff spot depending how the other teams playout, as anyone should know who has a half brain for this league, knows Kansas City is far better than their record says. If they didn't start the season without some key players like Pulido, Melia, Salloi, Russell, Espinoza and Kinda, they would be a lot better positioned right now then it says.

Vancouver is beating the teams they should, and losing to the one's you'd expect, with us, we LOST to Houston and based off standings as people point out, we should have whooped KC's ass and lost bad to LAFC. But we are so scatter-dicked we lose games we should win, win games we shouldn't and tie everything else.

I personally think the game will go a few different ways, super boring, super sloppy, someone wins (Us or Them) on some bull shit goal or call, We tie 2-2, We get stomped out, or we stomp them out.


SJ 2-5-3 (13th)
Tie vs Toronto (10th)
Win vs Galaxy (7th)
Loss vs Dynamo (14th)
Loss vs Timbers (8th)
Tie vs RSL (6th)
Loss vs Miami (6th)
Tie vs Austin (2nd)
Loss vs Dallas (4th)
Win vs LAFC (1st)
Loss vs SKC (12th)

Vancouver 2-4-4 (9th)
Loss vs Minesota (3rd)
Tie vs Cincinnati (8th)
Tie vs Timbers (8th)
Loss vs Chicago (13th)
Tie vs Nashville (5th)
Win vs Houston (14th)
Loss vs Galaxy (7th)
Win vs Colorado (11th)
Tie vs RSL (6th)
Loss vs Nashville (5th)

 

We're playing at home to a pretty equal time (closer than normal). Certainly the odds favor us.

 

You're really going out on a limb with that prediction.

 

Right. The oddsmakers are a lot smarter than the typical BS poster who insists on handicapping games based on who’s a “good team” and who isn’t. Oddsmakers will almost always favor the home team as the road team win rate in MLS is usually around 20-25%. Besides there’s very little difference between MLS teams anyway, even top vs. bottom teams. If LAFC played SKC next week in SKC I would certainly favor SKC.