It's come to this friends. We have six games left. We sit on 22 points. Last season, we ended with 33. I see no chance of making that mark this year. We would need to win three of our remaining six games, and get at least two ties. That's a win and two ties on the road. (Fixed because I'm dumb.) Just to get to 30 points would be a huge achievement. We have not won back to back games all year, but we need to do it now. Our best hope would to beat NYJ and FCKD at our place, then get ties against the Hosers and the filth on the road. 9/27 at D.C. United 10/03 New York Red Bulls 10/07 FC Dallas 10/10 at Toronto FC 10/17 at Chivas USA 10/24 at Los Angeles Galaxy For those of you still defending Yallop, what does it take for you to realize that we have regressed badly this season? What sort of sign do you need to understand that we have wasted an entire season when we should have been getting better, but instead have fallen into the pit of despair? How is it rational that we give Frank and JD another season to ruin our team? And don't try to pin it all on JD. JD does not prepare the team for games, nor choose the starting lineup, nor make sure the guys are fit, nor give the pep talks before matches or at half time. Go Quakes!! We Suck!! - Mark
That is correct. Our results were 8-13-9 = 33points. I think eleven points in six games is also unlikely. What I'm still not sure about is how markmcf8 feels about Frank Yallop's coaching job. Stop mincing words and tell us what you really think.
Ha Ha! Oh damn! Alright fine, how are we going to get to 33 points? We have 22, you think that even getting eleven points from these remaining games will be tough. Personally, I'll be wowed if we get to 31 or more. go quakes! we suck! fire Frank and JD now!!!! - Mark
as if the point situation wasn't bad enough, FSC news last night said (when discussing Wednesdays tie game) that we've gone 20 road games without a win...20. I understand the concern about Frank, but Frankly (pun intended), he doesn't have the talent to work with. Doyle is in way over his head, and Lew is too tight with the purse strings. And I don't hear a single word from the FO on what's being done to deal with the situation...very frustrating.
i suppose we are on player payroll.....but are we spending the money to scout effectively, to establish contacts in other countries, to effectively coach and develop young players if we decide to go that route, to establish a top-notch player academy to tap into all the young talent we have in this area? i feel like we could be doing more to establish the earthquakes as a model mls franchise (how much do fruit baskets run anyways?) but that would require that the quakes bleed even more money, and i'm not willing to delay the progress of our new stadium if these things are related.....while i am glad lew and mr fisher gave us a team to complain about, i wish we had ownership that was willing to eat a little higher losses as we get this going in the right direction
News flash: we're not as good as last year. I haven't posted on here very much this year but it seems to me having watched us play a lot that we haven't had a very talented team on the pitch. I suppose that's gotten a bit better, particularly in midfield, but I still look at our 11 vs., say Houston, and they are materially more talented and deeper than us at just about every position. We won't have any players in the MLS Best 11 and we don't even have any that are really that close. - Cannon is clearly a top-half of MLS keeper but this hasn't been his best year. - Ryan Johnson might be a top flight MLS striker on a better team where he got more service but that's hard to prove. - I do like Hernandez as a centerback but he's hardly Eddie Pope in his prime. Beyond that while we have some solid players (eg., Leitch), there's not much about our squad that is noteworthy. Huckerby has hardly played and Convey has been a total bust. The lesser signings have mostly not worked out. Who to blame? It's hard without knowing the inner workings of the front office but if I had to pick someone, I'd point to Doyle. As for Yallop he hasn't experienced much success now in 3 jobs running since and his one term of success (and let's call that what it is - absolutely heroic success in his first term with the Quakes) was with the best coach in MLS, Dom Kinnear, as his assistant. I actually don't like criticizing Doyle or Yallop because they both seem like great guys. However, if I were in charge and had to make a decision, I would fire Doyle as he has done little to prove that he is worthy of being an MLS GM.
And we could spend on a fitness and strength coach that hung around for more than a week and worked with people in the offseason.
Amen! We have to win two games just to TIE our worst record ever. This has gone beyond sad and pathetic, it's now laughable. Honestly, I don't see us beating DCU away, Chivas in LA or the filthy SOCAL swines. That leaves us trying to beat New York, Dallas and Toronto and I shudder to think of those results ahead of time. Frank and John must go for the health of the team and the fan's sanity but "Cheapo" Lew doesn't give a damn what we say so we're stuck with them.
And very busy, it would seem. (I posted this elsewhere): "The Mustang web site http://www.mustangsoccer.com/BoardContact.htm lists JD as the 'Director Coach & Player Development' ".
Screw points. We're already out. I'll I want is to beat LA on the final day and hopefully to spoil something for them.
Actually we're 4-5-5 with a GD of -2 since losing 2-1 at the Crew. Not really all that bad, especially when you consider we dropped 3 road victories after minute 86. While more of these games have been at home than on the road, playing at Candlestick was no advantage against the Crew. I would say that dumping Nick Garcia may be looked at as the turning point in the franchise. Not that he was necessarily the cause of all the problems, but unloading the big salary and letting new guys play may be paying dividends. While losing Huckerby hurts a little, the fact is we never won a single road game with him on the roster, despite winning 2 without him. We need another impact player to be a playoff contender, but we actually have pretty good depth and no glaring weaknesses.
I tend to agree with most of this. I don't really get the "we're so bad!" hand-wringing after the last two ties with Colorado. I don't look at the results or the way that they happened, etc. as much as the general flow of the game, number of chances, etc. In the home match against Colorado I think they played them about even or a little better. In the away match, they got out-played but not by a big margin, as had been happening earlier in the year on the road. And I would say that Colorado is a middle of the pack MLS team. And the Quakes have been a little short-handed in these matches. So based just on these two matches as a measuring stick, the Quakes are probably about middle of the pack now, or close to it. Definitely room for improvement. But now downright bad. I like the collection of young players the Quakes have on the back line. Maybe add one more seasoned guy, and I think they're good. In the midfield, I'm not totally sold on ALuiz and Sanchez yet in the midfield. ALuiz still makes a lot of bad passes (how long can we keep making the "not used to teammates yet" or "not used to the league" excuses?), and Sanchez doesn't seem to really make his mark on the games, but I need to watch him a little more closely to make a call. But I think they need to add a really solid central midfielder, hopefully one with more offense to his game. Quakes probably actually need another outside mid now with Hucks gone, to go along with Arturo, Salinas, and Convey. As for forward, I was pretty high on Glen until the last game. A little disappointed in his apparent unwillingness to even go up and try to win a header, and his tendency to take a shot any chance he has, no matter how low percentage it is. Most of the Quakes have the opposite problem - too slow or reluctant to pull the trigger. This guy is trigger happy. Hopefully he'll be back before the season is over and we can see a bit more of him. But I think they'll get one more "proven" guy, and I hope they keep the rest of the guys - RJ, Q, and Wondo. Also, next year, Quakes need more stability in their roster. I think they were bad enough this year that they had to make a lot of changes. But when that happens you suffer also because of lack of familiarity. Next year they need to get something together, hopefully a lineup that has some more success at the start of the season than this year's lineup, and more or stick with it.
Agree with this post. Other than your man crush on Quincy (while I like Q, just don't "love" him yet), you and I are generally in synch! I posted most of these same things in a different thread: Defense - lots of the right pieces now, could use an experienced central defender. Also could use someone who can play right back as a backup to Leitch (maybe that's one of the other existing guys, not sure) Midfield - still short in both central midfield and wing, need guys who can maintain possession and serve in some crosses Forward - good depth, but would prefer to see Glen gone and replaced by a true #1 forward But in priority order, I would invest in the midfield first, then a top forward, then defense. If the team shores up midfield, I think the rest of the team will look a lot better.
No "man crush", just trying to defend the man from the undeserved persecution he often receives in this forum.
If true, the Quakes should be able to tie DC United (4th in the East with 36 points versus Colorado, 3rd in the West with 39 points) and then win the final two home games against low-standing FC Dallas and New York. I don't see our team being good consistently enough to garner two wins in a row. I think a win, a tie, and a loss (probably not in that order) is more likely and the best that can be hoped for. I'm with you on Quincy. He may not be scoring goals but he's one of the more entertaining players to watch on the pitch, especially with the departure of Huckerby. And at this point in our season that counts for something.
If Hucks can stick around long enough to give some intensive tutoring to Amarikwa and Salinas, the team would benefit greatly.
Let's make that [result]5-5-5. The curse of the Huckerby is broken![/result] This team should be in playoff contention in October 2010.
I don't think this season is on Frank at all. The Earthquakes don't have a ton of money, are not a deep team, and were never going to be deep this season. Given lack of depth... our best defender missed the entire start to the season due to a calf strain (if you've never had one, they suck and 100% prevent you from playing soccer)... 3-4 of our best players who depend on speed as one of their main weapons have been hampered by recurring hamstring issues... and our super-star franchise player dealt with a debilitating hip injury that turned out to be career-ending. A healthy Earthquakes team from start to finish has a better season than last year (or maybe about the same given we lost ROB and Lima). The last 7 games have been a decent run and there are a few opponents left on the schedule we have a good chance to beat... Blame Max Bretos... he picked the Quakes to win MLS Cup this year... talk about kiss of death!