Is this the earliest the Earthquakes have ever been eliminated from playoff contention? ATL can join RBNY in playoffs; Quakes eliminated It's only MLS Week 27 but the New York Red Bulls have clinched a berth in the Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs and Atlanta United can join them with a win or a tie against D.C. United on Sunday night (7:30 pm ET | FS1 - full TV & streaming info). Meanwhile, the San Jose Earthquakes were eliminated from playoff contention thanks to their loss against Vancouver on Saturday night and results in two other matches. https://www.mlssoccer.com/standings Just how bad is it? If we had DOUBLE our points total, we'd be in 8th place behind Vancouver. If we had twice as many wins, we still wouldn't have as many wins as 9th place Minnesota United. Remember to renew your season tickets. What does this mean for the priorities of the team? Will they shift their focus from trying to win games ( ) to giving playing time to younger players (Thompson, Yueill, guys from Reno), or making sure Wondo gets the goal scoring record? Will guys like Magnus and Tarbell finally get benched? Who will make all those decisions, will it be the lame duck coach Stahre?
Some 2018 season "highlights": Bobby Warshaw: 1 week in, San Jose Earthquakes are MLS's most innovative offense (the Quakes would win 1 of their next 20 games) SI: Germany's World Cup Title Defense Aided By San Jose Earthquakes (2014 World Cup champions Germany would fail to get out of their group in 2018) Records broken: The Earthquakes 11 game home winless streak was the longest in MLS history, stretching from March 3 to August 29. Mikael Stahre surely broke the record for most post-game lectures to players on the field, as no one else who coaches adults does that...
Jackson Yueill came on for the last 30 mins for the Quakes, had an assist and literally didn't miss a single pass.It was his first game in almost 2 months. pic.twitter.com/SI0RKF3hlv— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) September 2, 2018 why-are-young-domestic-players-signing-overseas.gif— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) September 2, 2018
If Stahre returns next year we might as well expect we’re already eliminated from the playoffs in 2019.
If Stahre returns next year, they might have a hard time getting 5000 people to show up for the California Classico. Seriously, if Jesse doesn't fire Stahre, he need to be fired. And if Fox doesn't fire Jesse, then he needs to be fired. Our results this year are just plain unacceptable.
Down 2-1 on the road, fighting for a playoff spot and the Supporters Shield, George Bello made his debut for Atlanta United tonight... Bello is 16 years old, only about a month older than Gilbert Fuentes... will Fuentes get to make his MLS debut sometime in the next two months of completely meaningless games? https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2018-09-02-dc-united-vs-atlanta-united-fc/feed 1036439349901045760 is not a valid tweet id George Bello got an 18 minute cameo in Atlanta United's 3-1 loss to D.C. United. We're about to look at every single touch Bello took, so sit back and relax.— Joseph Lowery (@joeclowery) September 3, 2018
Fuentes has great energy but needs to bulk up. He has been easily ridden off of the ball in his time in games with us in Reno. He is a great kid and seems to be fearless. He really needs more playing time and time to grow.
Then maybe he should be getting minutes in Reno. Especially if he's not getting any minutes in San José. We need to fire Stahre right away and let someone with some imagination run the team. F@#$%! Go Quakes!! Fire Stahre!! - Mark
Lions balance rest of season with prep for 2019 Are the Quakes preparing for 2019 now? Orlando has four more points than us, 24 points to our 20. Not only that, but the fifth and sixth place team in our conference have 41 points, whereas the sixth place team in the east only has 36 points. So, aside from being mathematically eliminated, the Quakes are 21 points out of a playoff spot, whereas Orlando is only 12 points out.
No playoffs in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014 , 2015, 2016 or 2018! Tell me again why the owner shouldn’t be blamed?
Coach with almost 2x Stahre’s PPG loses his job... NEWS | Sigi Schmid has stepped down as #LAGalaxy Head Coach: https://t.co/1Lr3SY5BH9 pic.twitter.com/2ThxKRIg18— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) September 10, 2018
I wonder if that will go up or down with Kinnear taking over the rest of the season. One has to assume that Stahre's will be higher than it is now by the end of the season just from the sheer odds, but who knows? He still shouldn't have a job, and not because he's lost a lot of games, either. Good coaches can lose a lot of a games, but Stahre has really failed to even lay the groundwork for improvement. It's a team that's just spinning its wheels in the mud of futility.
You're familiar with the term "saving face", yes? Its not uncommon for teams and coaches who lose their jobs to phrase it in a way that makes it seem like a mutual agreement. Teams don't want to scare potential coaches into thinking they'll get fired immediately and coaches don't want to look like petty jerks to other teams that might hire them. Granted, we don't know all the details of this, but unless there was an immediate health risk, I find it hard to believe that he stepped down from coaching without some heavy suggestion from the Galaxy front office that he had no future with the club regardless of the season's outcome.
You think Sigi decided to leave the Sounders in 2016 midseason when they were in last place, and then decided to leave the Galaxy in 2018 midseason when they were in 8th place with their playoffs odds having dropped from 90% to 10%.... LOL If that's really the case (and obviously it's not, but let's just go with it for a second), he's a quitter abandoning his team, which some might consider worse than being an out of touch loser.
Well our coach sticks around when we have exactly 20 points and are in dead last place already eliminated from the playoffs, so our chances of making the playoffs are 0.0000...% Oh, but he's European, we should keep him around because, well... he's European, therefore better. And since we can't win with a Swedish coach and two Swedish players, let's go get another Swedish assistant coach and three more Swedish players, there must be some real gems sitting down their in the Swedish second division.
Are you trying to represent sentiments expressed by Quakes fans or the Quakes front office? I certainly can't think of any fans who are arguing for Stahre's continued coaching of the team. As for the front office, it's up to Fioranelli to make a change, and if he isn't making a change because he's afraid of looking like he made a mistake, then I don't think his tenure with the club will last all that long at this rate. It makes me very happy that Kaval has nothing at all to do with baseball ops over in Oakland, but it's probably going to be a while before the Quakes get some capable people in the right places since there is no Billy Beane equivalent in the Quakes org. They don't even have a David Forst.
That is really the only question that anyone can realistically care about at this point. I mean if we finish in 22nd place do we celebrate (We're not 23!). Uh, no. This season has been a disaster, a total disaster, and we have a wonderful management team of Fox, Fiorenelli and Stahre to credit it to.