and then when it mattered most, crash. I was there, standing right in the corner...terrible. And we all learned on that fateful day the importance of getting your DP's right...and yet Quakes never have. Yes, Espinoza is a good player...but c'mon, our DP track record overall has been very poor. You have to get your DP's right in today's MLS.
Any team can have a bad game on any day. Why couldn't LA's DP's rise up to the challenge in the first game of the playoffs when LA lost 1-0. They didn't really care then? This idea that the great players rise up to the challenge and become even greater "when it really matters" is Great Man theory, which I don't subscribe to. In the course of one game, of course you'd expect great players to be great, because that's what they are - great players. But any player can overperform or underperform their normal level on any given day. There are no players that have special powers to elevate their game on demand. If so, why did Donovan hit his PK over the bar in MLS Cup in 2009 to cause them to lose the game?
this is where things become circular and redundant with you. you have to invest in talent if you want to win. yes, there's risk involved. sometimes your best players have off games. but you need quality players to win and we don't have enough...it's really quite simple and holds true for every team of every sport around the world. investing in talent is the key to success. it's how sports works.
Reading between the lines, sounds like Luchi gave Hoppe a little bit of tough love. He said that Hoppe didn't play in the last few games, and he told him to work on the things that he can control, which, when you're not playing, is training. So I'm guessing that got Hoppe to show better in training, and he got a start as a result?
My argument is not circular or redundant. I agree that you need quality players to win. No argument there. My point is this - we had lots of quality players that year - we won Supporter's Shield. We were 3-1-1 vs. LA. We proved we were the best team in the conference if not the league. As you know, anything can happen in one soccer game and sometimes you have a bad game at the wrong time. That's the nature of the playoffs.
Bernardez got hurt and Ike had a brain fart. Ike turned out to be one of the best defenders in MLS history. You are citing an instance where quality did not rise to the top, thereby undercutting your own thesis.
my thesis is that you need to get your DP's right to win. Quakes on that fateful evening were no match for Beckham, Keane and Donovan. no excuses.
are you suggesting that getting your DP's right isn't important? we're simply going to disagree on that.
Just realized I've been arguing the importance of DP's with you and Jazzy for 15 years...same thing every year. We've covered this ground so many times it hurts. I just hope that one day we can all celebrate a successful Quakes season. Might not be this year but 2026 I expect.
Glad for Hoppe to get his first goal. I thought he upped his energy level afterwards and looked better. On the other hand, he clearly wants to drift into the center channel and receive passes on the ground. That’s a problem because not only is he clogging up Jebo’s space, he’s also not helping defensively out on the left. While it’s been pointed out how much Jebo twists himself around to get the ball on his left foot, Hoppe is just as weak with his left foot and will only go to his right. So to sum it up, Luchi needs to play Hoppe at the 9, feed balls to him on the ground to his right foot and maybe he provides some goals here and there. He does look like he will fight for goals all 90 minutes if he’s playing in that central area.
So if you extend this logic to the Quakes performance against NYRB in 2010, you can easily say that the Quakes managed to beat a better team thanks to NYRB having a bad day. The team finished 5/6th in the west with only 34 goals scored. They had a goal differential of 1. They were extremely average. They got some good results, but that doesn't make them a good team fundamentally. It's not really worth arguing about as they immediately got worse results in the following season, but saying the 2010 team was good, to me, is a stretch. They were okay and a bit lucky. It's a far cry from 2005, where they finished 18 points above the second place team in the west with a +22 goal differential (different owners, which is why I didn't include them initially) or 2012 where they finished with even more points than 2005 (66) and a +29 goal differential. Those were the only truly good teams that have come out in the last 20 years, despite their very poor postseason performances.
All depends on how one defines “good”. In my mind a PPG over 1.5 and a record of 13-10-7 is good. Not great but not average either. We had a formula for winning games that year which was to defend and rely on the one or two inevitable Wondo goal(s). And it worked a lot. Also we added our first real DP midseason, Geovanni, who wasn’t great but did make us better. Finally 2010 was a very weird year where we were essentially tied for 5th* in the west but tied for 7th in the league. It was extremely unbalanced between east and west. The east had only 2 good teams and the west had 6. And to add to the madness we wound up playing on “eastern” side of the playoffs bracket due to oddities in the playoff format. That’s how we wound up playing top East seed NYRB. *We tied CO for points but had more wins, I guess the 1st tiebreaker was GD that year?
I just watched the game. It was amazing how many times Jebo and Hoppe made redundant runs and occupied the same space, especially late in the game. Also noticed at least twice were Hoppe was near the middle and made really savvy slip pass runs but his teammate didn't pull the trigger on the pass. it is clear to me Hoppe is a better option centrally with his clever runs and combo potential... and Jebo with his solid left foot is a better flank option. Also noticed when Luchi brings in extra forwards...Espinoza generally goes back to his flank position, which takes his shooting threat out of the middle. But a few of us would rather see the 3-5-2/3-4-3 with Espinoza dedicated to a more central role. Really frustrating we haven't gone back to it.
With two goals in consecutive games, isn't it time to make Matthew Hoppe a starter? Hoppe scores equalizer for Earthquakes in 1-1 draw with Nashville
Only problem with that is that it puts Espinoza in a winger role, ostensibly with more defensive responsibilities and further from goal than his normal right forward role. And it takes Akapo off the field. I'd go 4-3-3, with Hoppe on the left (not a great fit for him but good enough), Espinoza on the right, and start Niko with Yueill and Monteiro. Gruezo has to come off. We can't afford safe and stable anymore. As I mentioned in the Nashville postgame, we were all over RSL with the Niko-Monteiro-Yueill midfield, then Gruezo started in Portland and our attack was terrible. Then our attack was terrible again last night until Niko came in for Gruezo. To add to that, at the end of last year we went with the Niko-Monteiro-Yueill (the NeeMY midfield) and beat Minnesota 2-0 then frustrated the crap out of Seattle, tying them 2-2 when they desperately wanted to send their fans home happy on fan appreciation day after a disappointing regular season. The answer is right there in front of Luchi. Only question is whether or not he is looking.