The Official Matías Almeyda thread

Just validates how important being in the slow lane is for Almeyda right now. He is super happy being Just A Guy, and anonymous in the crowd. Where he can focus on his job without any outlying stressors

 

Yeah but Sigi built that team and only left at the end of July. Schmetzer already had the nucleus in place. Even if he does get credit for it, he learned how to be a coach from Sigi and even stated as much.

Also, Sigi had already bought Nicolás Lodeiro and Álvaro Fernández in July 2016 when they fired him and they both contributed to scoring 8 goals on the way to the MLS Cup win.

Sigi also qualified for the playoffs in 09, 10, 11. 12. 13. 14. & 15.

This coupled with the fact that he won 4 US. Open Cups.

Quakes don't have anything close to this record since 2008. So if Schmetzer is a good coach, he was just continuing in the same path as Sigi was. had an easier path but he still had a solid team and organization to back him up.

 

he came to the right place for that! Insignificance and irrelevance is what the Quakes do best!

having said that, I'm glad he's staying!

but what happened with this...

"In life you must always have a battle to fight and win, otherwise there is no taste."

- Matias Almeyda

 

The fact remains that Schmetzer inherited a team in disarry and led them not just to the playoffs, but MLS Cup, in his first half year of coaching him MLS. Pretty impressive!

 

Ok but he was Sigi's long time assistant and learned from him. He also had a successful team already in place and they were a 7 year winner.

You can't compare an Ian Russel to a Schmetzer because the Sounders have a great and ownership team in place the Quakes don't.

 

How about the job that Schmetzer did though, taking a team that was struggling under Sigi all the way to MLS Cup in the first few months of his MLS coaching career!

 

Yeah ok and that is great but once again, they still have and had a great team a, solid background , ownership group in place and the Quakes don't and never really have.

Still don't see the how an Ian Russel would come in and do the same in San Jose unless a miracle were to happen.

 

All that you wrote was assumed and prefaced in my comment. I was only comparing the fact that the two are low key, very loyal to their clubs and not given a lot of respect for being good coaches. This of course was prior to Schmetzer taking Seattle to the highest levels. He's a Seattle lifer...the FO gave him a chance. I doubt the Quakes will give Russell the same chance.

 

This is all part of my larger point that many of the most successful MLS coaches have been USL / MLS / American college guys. It's harder here in SJ, sure, but I'm not convinced that such a coach could not do as well or even better than Almeyda has done the last few years with the Quakes. Not that they surely would, but I think it's possible. Heck, the most successful coach the Quakes have had the last 5 years by measure of PPG and win % is .... Chris Leitch. Ball don't lie. Take a bow, Chris!! And Brian Schmetzer too!!

 

I'm glad Almeyda is staying. He's a great coach. I didn't think he could get of his contract easily...

If what Almeyda is saying is true, there is no reason why he wouldn't, if the club performs favorably, sign another contract after two years.

If he wants a better life for his family in a great area, great college for his daughter...and the freedom to live a normal life out of the spotlight, he couldn't have come to a better place.

 

I like Almeyda too, and I'm glad he's staying. And I don't think that's necessarily at odds with the thought that an "MLSy" guy couldn't come in and do as well or better. Maybe, maybe not. And it's not just about coaching the same players, but presumably that coach would want to make the roster out a bit different. Not that I'm expecting it to happen, but if Ian did get the job, I'm guessing he wouldn't have all those Chivas guys on the roster for example. It would be different makeup.

I think a combination of an MLSy coach who knows the league well and Jesse, with his intl connections could be a winning combination. It's a good balance. With Dom and Doyle, we had all MLSy, and we were just completely inept in intl signings. Right now we have in intl-y coach and an intl-y GM, and I think we're missing league knowledge and we're failing to leverage league players for depth. But that combination is not going to happen if Jesse is going to be hell-bent on an intl-y coach.

I fear that in the end, Jesse still doesn't fully respect the league and it's "native" coaches and players, and is still holding onto this idea that we need intl-y guys to come in and teach us the game. To me that's kind of an MLS 2.0 mindset. We are onto MLS 3.0 now. I would hope that people understand the dynamic a little better now.

 

In the olden days of the old NASL, the superstars loved going through towns being unnoticed by people other than at the stadiums.

Best , Pele, Cruyff Chinaglia would walk through LA and NY without being recognized. Best was drunk numerous times in San Jose and Santa Cruz and no one knew who he was.

With maybe the exception of Beckham, I think its the same in MLS. You had Pirlo, Villa and Lampard in New York who would go joy riding and they loved it because no one knew them. That would never happen in Europe.

Thierry Henry I read was approached once by a fan on the subway who asked, why he was here and he told him because its NYC. No one else knew him really. They love the anonymity because in their soccer crazed countries wherever they played or coached, they can't walk through the streets without either being attacked , surrounded by fans or hounded by the media. This will never happen here because other than the few of us on BS or other Internet blogs, no one knows or cares about these people or the sport of soccer, for that matter.

 

Outside of the US Soccer is life itself, we forget that some times.

 

You mention George Best. During his last days with the Quakes, he disappeared for a while, missed a game or two and everyone was wondering where he was. Even Mercury-News had a big headline on the sports section "Where's George?". The day that headline appeared, my wife and I went to Jersey's Tavern in Campbell. Best was sitting at the bar with his arms around a Heineken. I remember going up to him and saying "They are looking for you". He just smiled.

 

I think my friend Brian Holmes used to be tasked with rounding him up before Earthquakes games...

 

I am disappointed that Almeyda is going to stay with us. I think he’s a lousy coach — at least in MLS. I expect us to have another terrible season, and last year was terrible. The only reason we made the playoffs was that the league expanded the number of playoff spots. Otherwise, we would have missed. We’ve made almost no improvements to the roster this off-season. Maybe we’ve got a little more time because the season is going to start later (which I think is a good idea). But Almeyda is not going to take us to the promised land. I don’t see us qualifying for the playoffs this year.

Matías is stubborn, he doesn’t adjust his game plan in games. He doesn’t react to the other coach and team changing their tactics, at least not until it’s too late. He doesn’t even recognize his best players. We’re going to suck this season, no doubt about it. And then when Matías does leave, Covelo will take over, and we’ll suck worse. Then we’ll fire Covelo and Jesse and bring on someone else, rinse and repeat.

Had Almeyda left now, we could have gotten Ian to be our coach — assuming that someone twisted Jesse’s arm really hard. Now, we’ve missed that opportunity. So it will be another dismal failure of a season.

Mark my words.

Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

Its not the coach.

Almeyda is doing all he can , trying to get the most of what is a lousy team.

Why doesn't anyone ever admit we have bunch of crap and mediocre players?

Really, which player since 2008 (other than maybe Wondo & the GK's Cannon and Busch) has consistently played well on a yearly basis?

The Gordo , Lenny and Wondo combo was short-lived and didn't last. Salinas has done ok on occasion but he is also way too inconsistent as well.

Other than them, I can't think of anyone else who has been a great or even good club leader or playmaker.

 

it will be another crap season, but it won't be Matias' fault. As falvo rightly points out, he simply doesn't have the players to work with. we picked up exactly one player over the previous off season, we have picked up one player this off season. nobody thinks these guys move the needle in terms of making us more competitive. Matias performed a minor miracle at the end of last season, we were getting hammered, battered and blown out weekly, then, miraculously, he got the team turned around, believing in themselves, punching well above their weight, and got them into the playoffs. Bravo and well done Matias!

For 2021 we've gutted our already weak offense (Vako, Magnus, Danny, etc) and made no effort to replace them, beyond 'Chofis' who I've yet to hear a good word about. That's it. nothing else. zip.

Coach Matias is the best thing about the Quakes these days, we're lucky to have him. If 'Chofis' is to have a resurgence, it will be because Matias has motivated him to be better.

I appreciate what he's trying to do here, I appreciate that he speaks honestly about Fish, his miserly, visionless ways, his complete lack of investment in players, academy, his obvious lack of desire to compete in MLS, etc.

I just wish he had the players to work with so we could really see what he's capable of. Lucky for us, Matias is apparently comfortable with relative obscurity.

 

You must be new around here - every other post is about how shitty our roster is!

 

Then we shouldn't keep blaming the coach!

All of the foreign players we have are outcasts from other clubs and we don't have quality DP's or big time players who can come in contribute.

I mean Innocent Dawkins , Vako and Wondo are our DP's in the last 5 years . The only one who is worth anything is Wondo the rest were crap so how can we win with these guys?

 

If a coach had any self-respect, he'd probably look at our roster and our history of (not) signing great players and politely decline the job!

 

Almeyda probably wants now out but Fisher wouldn’t release him from his contract. He probably had no idea what he was getting into when he accepted the Quakes job and now he can’t leave.

 

I doubt if he could fully appreciate just how bad things really are in SJ when he signed on, who knows what promises were made to entice him, now he just needs to blend in for another year, make the best of the crap hand he's been dealt and avoid attempts to scapegoat him for San Jose's woes.

completely ridiculous that we would hire a great coach then make it impossible for him to succeed. of course he will put the best spin on it but I don't believe he's happy here, how could he be?