Vancouver Whitecaps FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 9/14) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

You saw him play a total of 5 times max for us, 4 regular games and 1 open cup. He couldn't even crack the bench for Colorado when they had his former NZ coach at the helm. He sucked as a professional soccer player.

 

Again, I'm open to the idea that he might have "sucked". But I did not see him suck. So I don't feel comfortable with saying he "sucked". I'm not telling anyone else what to think.

 

Did you see our previous game? This was a step up!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Yeah, playing crappy on the road at Vancouver on a crappy plastic pitch is one thing, but playing arguably worse at home on your own field is another. Sad to say it, but we were worse against Minnesota.

 

I understand your view, and I don’t really disagree with it. But, does Leitch have the resources to sign better players? We could sack him, bring on a new, “better” GM and still have the same roster issues. Maybe just give Leitch a bigger budget?

Firing coaches and GMs may be necessary, but if we have to pay another season or two of their salaries, RottenFish will take that out of our operating budget and we will continue to suck. If we cut people (from any position) one of our concerns has to be if we need to eat their salaries.

What about Adin Brown? He’s our GK and set piece coach. On the evidence, he’s crap. Can we ditch him without eating a year of his salary?

We’re between a rock and a hard place. I want to cut eight or ten guys, more if we had twice the budget. But, RottenFish is a cheap bastard and if we have to pay guys who aren’t playing, then our “new” roster will still be shit.

Sorry.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Wasn't good enough for MLS? How about that. Because Judd sucks.

 

Judd I agree with. Haven’t seen much at all positive from him.

 

You're way too positive. You'd make a horrible scout / evaluator. It's ok though.

 

Thanks! I may be “horrible” but it’s OK!! Relieved!

 

LMAO fair

 

I fell asleep before HT. I guess Quakes games are a great cure for insomnia.
I did wake up for about 2 minutes at the end to see us lose and to see the Gals beat LAFC, quite a comeback.

I’m thinking there is a better use for $4,400 than to renew my seats…

 

One tiny silver lining to watching this game is that Paul Dolan was doing color. He's the regular color guy for VC but he's done some of our other games. He's done his research on our club and says reasonable things about it. He actually does his homework and seems to care about his craft. Very rare.

 

@mjlee22 can we get those little giveaway spoons printed with

yes! use it to print Fisher Out! on those little wooden spoons.

 

Right now you have a better chance trying to win with the $4400 at a casino than at PPP with the Quakes.

 

I'm so glad we all agree on this and can all get along. Even if I never see Judd suit up for us again it still won't make up for the time he did. 1 goal in 695 minutes, no assist, and a bunch of blown passes and wasted opportunities.

 

And the stupidest red card ever, elbowing a dude for no damn reason.

Caleb 'Red Card' Porter > Preston 'Red Card' Judd.

Jud is the worst striker we've ever had. That includes Fucito, Sherrod, Guzman and Somma.

 

I thought maybe Judd had done well in training and that's why he was starting over Bouda, but on the broadcast they said Bouda arrived "late" from his nats duty - for whatever reason - delayed flight or something. I don't know what "late" means but maybe he had only a few days of training or something.

 

OK, finally watched the whole game - blech. From the 80th minute on, VC was hammering our goal and if not for Daniel could have scored 3 more just in that short span. The Bouda offside goal was actually very close (half a step) - it looked like more because he made a move forward for the ball, but it was actually very close. And then Bouda had another great chance when, for the 2nd game in a row, 'Grino headed a ball to him. But he shot wide. A few other thoughts:

- I'd rather see Morales in there than Niko. He's an experienced player, and makes plays on both sides of the ball even if a bit slow at this point in this career. He said something to Bouda when he came in - I'm guessing he told Bouda to watch for some long balls because Morales was trying to send them his way.

- I've already complained about Niko's one-footedness but overall I think he just doesn't add much on either side of the ball.

- Nice to have Akapo back - he didn't play badly.

- I didn't really want to see Benji come out. He is consistently one of our better players these days. Low bar, but I think it's true.

- Espinoza had a few moments but Hernán not so much again this game.

- 'Grino had a couple of chances in the box but again was just way, way too slow in getting the shot off. You would think that by now he'd know that in MLS you just don't have that time and space.

- Marie was pretty useless on both sides of the ball and has turned into a pretty consistent defensive liablity. He's been a disappointment after a pretty good year last year. Maybe he needs consistent minutes, but Akapo, Costa, and Benji are all better options at fullback.

- Daniel had a strong game and saved it from being a laugher.

 

I think you're right about Tsakiris and Morales... but at this point in the season we need to be looking towards next season. Better to blood a young up and comer than waste minutes on a guy in the twilight of his career.

 

Yeah, I thought about that, but you could reverse the order (Morales starts, Niko comes in at 60-70') and give yourself a better chance to win while still giving Niko minutes. And then why are we even playing Gruezo, who is almost 30 and who we should be trying to move (to free up the DP slot). In any case, this may sound extreme, but I'd tell Niko to take a year off and do nothing but work on playing while marked from the general right wing part of the field and in general using his right foot, and then report back. I don't think he'll ever be a good MLS player unless he can fix that.

 

He played on Tuesday in Burkina Faso. Probably not a lot of direct flights back to San Jose from there. If all travel goes smoothly, maybe he can arrive jetlagged to Thursday training. Then they flew to Vancouver on Friday, probably had a light training session up there. That's it.

 

First, I was impressed with Vancouver. Speed, movement, and a diverse attack. The only thing more impressive was Daniel who one handedly (ok, two hands) kept the Quakes in the game. Too many poor performances (Rodrigues, Yuell, Hernan, Espinoza, Niko). Essentially, our midfield sucked. Ian didn't help with the lineup. My only hope was that he was trying players and a formation with any eye on next years.

Disagree with the comments that Quakes didn't give up. Espinoza and Yuell were walking at times in the last 15-20 minutes of the game. If Niko is trying to get traded or move to another team, he needs to not suck.

Credit to Beason, PM for fighting and playing hard. You don't have the luxary of playing soft in defense.

What happened to Jebo? Did I miss an injury?