Pre-match: Vancouver Whitecaps Fc - San Jose Earthquakes (saturday, 5/5) Pregame Thread

Joe had a bad night last time he met up with Wondo, but they're currently on a three-game win streak. Too bad it ends on Saturday. 3-0 Quakes...

BTW -- anybody know where there are active Whitecaps discussions? The Whitecaps BS board is sort of:

 

The Southsiders board is open and active... southsiders.ca

I'll be at this game. So excited. USA v. Canada in the morning (Go USA!), Quakes at Caps midafternoon, and a friend's birthday party that night. gonna be a loooooooooong day.


/counting down til I get attacked for being on the Southsiders board....

 

Hmm -- no discussion thread on the Quakes game that I can find yet. Perhaps they're hoping if they ignore us we'll go away?

 

"yet" being the operative word. Hopefully they get it up soon.

 

Do they need help?

 

Vancouver has been back to playing good defense after giving up 3 goals to the Quakes and 3 goals to KC. But the Quakes offense is playing so well it's hard to not expect them to score every game.

This would be a huge win to get, beating another Western Conf team that is in the top half of the table, and completing a 3 games/8 days stretch getting 9 points. I think the Quakes should be able to win, but even a draw would be ok, as it would keep Vancouver from getting the 3 points at home.

But it's going to be tough, playing on 2 days rest and on artificial turf will likely make it a more slow paced game. Expect a few changes to the starting lineup to bring in fresh legs - probably Cronin and Baca and maybe even Guvenisik to give Lenhart a rest. Also, if Corrales is hurt or just needs a rest we may see Opara starting. Maybe a lineup like this:

Wondo -- Guvenisik
Dawkins -- Baca -- Cronin -- Chavez
Morrow -- Opara -- Hernandez -- Beitashour
Busch

The only guy in this starting lineup I'd be worried about fitness would be Dawkins, he hasn't played this much in a long time and he may need a game off. If so, then maybe Khari plays and Baca plays wing, or maybe Garza starts. Even with all of these changes, this is still a lineup that can be competitive (unlike LA last night in Seattle)

 

Agree with your lineup. Two days rest is really not fair. It's going to be tough. Vancouver will be motivated and I'm still not comfortable with Opara and Hernandez pairing.

Still, this team is playing with confidence and is putting a lot of pressure on other teams which is leading to mistakes and goals for the Quakes.

 

Don't forget that Vancouver played last night as well in the Canadian Championship, although it was against a weaker team (FC Edmonton). They started a lot of their normal starters, but did rest Camilo, LeToux and YP Lee. So it's not a big disadvantage to the Quakes, not like playing a team that has been off the full week.

 

In my experience (as a referee and player) the exact opposite is the case: Artificial turf speeds up the game. There was a fair amount of slipping & sliding on the damp grass/hard surface of Buck Shaw last night, but that sure won't be the case on a field-turf pitch...

 

I mean that both teams will slow down the play because they'll come into the game tired, and running on the artificial turf can be more tiring than running on grass. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I was thinking. There will certainly be spurts of fast play, but I think there will be longer spurts of slower passing and trying to play more under control. But the Quakes do have quite a few young guys in the lineup who may recover quickly and bring more energy to the game than I'm giving them credit for.

 

Another 4pm start time!

 

Is this game being broadcast nationally? I'm not sure why the East Coast would care what time a West Coast game starts if it isn't. My guess is they probably think more people will go to the game if it's in the afternoon than the evening.

 

The 4pm start time is for two reasons

1) The Vancouver Marathon is the next day, so they want to start street closure work early as the course sticks to downtown this year.
2) THey weren't expecting the Canucks to get eliminated so quickly, and wanted to allow for a 7pm hockey game just in case.

 

That would be Dawkins 3rd game this week in midfield. Id kind of like to see Garza get a runout, with 3 games this week and a Vancouver team that has a hard time scoring more then 1 goal, giving Garza minutes seems like a good way to rest some guys against an opponent who is unlikely to put the game out of reach before we can make subs.

 

Yeah, Garza, Ring, Alexandre, and Sercan should all be options in the game, I would think, as guys who may be ready to contribute but have barely had a chance yet. I would also consider resting Dawkins as he has had injury issues that could be related to overuse (whatever that weird injury he had was called, the one where his leg muscles basically outgrew the capacity of his body to contain them). Ellis and Ampai would maybe be outside shots. What about Bingham? I remember Frank giving Weber a few starts in 2010 (or was it last year)?

 

Hey guys, i'll be in from NYC tomorrow morning, I wanted to catch the game on TV, but my parents said the lovely big screen is kaput.
Anyone know where I can probably catch the game at?

 

Doubt Mr Conservative would rest his regulars and put in the likes of Garza, Guvenisik for a game against a Western Conf team. I must say I too want to see what the other new players can do.

 

They may not start, but they may get into the game at some point. Garza and Sercan would probably be the most likely to get time. Looked like Sercan would have gone in the game on Wednesday if Ramiro didn't have to come out.