Pre-match: Vancouver Whitecaps FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Sunday, 7/22) pregame thread

If Dallas plays rough, the Caps play smart defensively. I seem to remember them reading and staying on top of Wondo's sneakiness. It was no surprise watching the Caps that they beat us. And with no rest, we *will* need a new lineup to compete.

 

Wankcouver did not look that bad against the scum in the highlights. Hoping they come out tired and dejected.

 

This will be an interesting one. Going to be a tough one I think.

 

Hate playing on turf, but we need to again do our bit to prove just how overrated and overpaid DeMerit is.

 

Hope the boys have enough gas in the tank. Looking at the schedule, seven games in July(!) three games in August, so we're definitely on the downhill slope now. The only remaining challenging patch will be the middle of September: We have an away game against the goats on 9/15, a home game against Portland on Wednesday, 9/19 and an away game against the flounders on Saturday, 9/22. Interestingly, of our final remaining 14 games, 11 are against Western conference teams and in fact, the last nine games are against conference rivals. Montreal is the last time we have to travel to the East Coast (with Denver -- Mtn time being the only other trip out of the Pacific timezone) so I would say that things are definitely looking good for the push to the Supporter's Shield and MLS Cup!

 

I'll be at this game! hopefully with awesome seats. Hoping those first row corner seats are still available. Ill be with an American flag and a CAlifornia flag representing my home state and my hometown team. BRING IT, VANCOUVER!

 

gonna be a tough match, cant wait to see it. same starting 11 por favor

 

They better go early enough to train on that crap field ahead of time so we don't have a repeat of the Portland debacle.

 

also how close is Garza back to playing? I wanna see if he can give Salinas a run for his money pretty soon.

 

At training earlier this week, I think Robert Jonas said "two weeks."

 

Rib injuries take a long time to recover from. Ouch!

Garza has real potential and I want to see him develop and be a long-time player for us. But the idea that he's going to take over for Shea, or even seriously push Shea is wishful thinking. Shea is great and he's our starting left mid for the foreseeable future. That said, having a healthy Garza on the bench who can spell either Shea or Chavez would be fantastic.

My biggest concern against the Whitecraps is that our guys will be tired. We've played a lot of games, of course, they have too. Maybe it evens out.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Shea has his moments, like that cross to Chavez, but they are balanced by some pretty crappy crossing too. I don't think he is a lock. He has no competition right now is all.

Maybe if he gets his form back from the pre-Marqez assault he'll be a lock.

 

If Shea is a lock then that means that one out of Corrales or Morrow isn’t right? Or Chavez.
I think if we have a full squad Shea plays from the bench, is no bad thing having depth and completion for places, it pushes the guys to compete for the shirt. Although I’m not a fan of Shea particularly i have to admit he's had a couple of pretty good games & whoever is playing well should play, just have to wait & see

 

All of the players, on every team, have moments where they aren't good.

When everyone is healthy, we start like this:

- - - - - Lionheart
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wondo
Shea - - Baca - - Chavez
- - - - - - - -Sam
Rams - JM - Vic - Beta
- - - - - - TheBusch

I'd rather see Rams on the bench and Jason in a CD, sliding JM to the outside. But Frank's not channeling me. Whoever Frank is channeling is telling him to play the speedy guys outside, and Baca and Croninja in the middle. I love it. It's like I sent messages to Frank in my sleep, and he got them! Except for the part about moving Corrales out to pasture.

Shea is a starter. He starts in front of Dawkins, which has to be humbling for Dawkins, but that's how it is. At the beginning of the season, Shea started and Dawkins was the sub. I don't see that changing.

No, Shea is not perfect, but he does what Frank wants.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Dawkins has nine goals in thirty starts, this season & last combined, i would put him in front of Shea on the depth chart personally but i reckon Franks definatly got he's favorites. By the way why do we still have Gjertsen on the roster?

 

Wow another soul who pays attention to player performance? The thing is Dawkins isn't (or at least, he shouldn't be) LM depth. He's CM or Forward depth... Who am I kidding? Nah! Start Baca at CM instead!

 

It's a matter of expectation I guess. I thought Shea was showing massive improvement from his previous stint in San Jose, in those first few games. The last couple he looks like the pre 2012 Shea and I'm hoping he picks it back up again.

 

As QT points out, Dawkins is not a winger so he does not displace Shea or Chavez. He would displace Baca or a forward.

Gjertson is injured, like, for the whole year, and you don't can someone who is injured in this league.

 

No, he isn't a winger. But he plays on the left under Frank and that's the way it is for now and for the foreseeable future. For the people who are calling for him to displace Baca, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait until the team starts losing quite a few games first before your complaints will carry any weight.

 

Wondo has 3 goals in two games this year against Vancouver, and has 6 goals in 4 games against them overall. I would say that Vancouver definitely has not been handling him well.

Having said that, they have Robson now who has been playing well, and Gherson Koffie has also been looking very good so it will be a challenge for the Quakes midfield. But LA doesn't have any team speed, so they made it easy for Vancouver to defend them in the midfield. Based on today's injury update, Corrales is not going to play (back tightness which they don't want to aggravate on the turf) and Lenhart is still out. So we're likely to see the same starting lineup as Wednesday, with Dawkins and Stephenson available for offense off the bench.

A win would be great, but a draw would be a good result as well, keeping the distance between the Quakes and Vancouver in the standings intact. At the beginning of the year many of us were worried about the two month stretch from late May to late July because of the tough road trip and then the congested schedule. The team has come through that stretch in fantastic shape, hopefully they can get a draw or win this weekend to put the final touches on an amazing first 2/3 of the season.

 

If you want to just look at stats, Salinas has 1 goal and 5 assists in 825 minutes, while Dawkins has 3 goals and 1 assist in 1003 minutes this year. Salinas has been much more productive based on those stats. Even if you include Dawkins stats from last year, he has 9 goals and 3 assists in 2776 minutes - yes, he contributes goals but he's not contributing very many assists for a midfielder. With the forwards the Quakes have, it's more important for the midfield to serve the ball and produce assists than to produce an occasional goal. And it's important for the midfield to play defense, to put the high pressure on the other team which the Quakes thrive on.

Every other regular midfielder on the team has as many or more assists this year as Dawkins (Cronin 3, Baca 2, Salinas 5, Chavez 8, Stephenson 3, Moreno 3, Garza 1). Heck, even everybody's favorite whipping boy Corrales has 5 assists this year. All of the forwards have as many or more assists (Wondo 4, Gordon 2, Lenhart 1). And Gordon, Moreno, Salinas, Khari and Garza have all played fewer minutes than Dawkins. If you look at all players on the Quakes (including defenders) who have played 500+ minutes this year, the ONLY players with fewer assists than Dawkins are Busch and Bernardez.

For me, that's the problem with Dawkins - he is not making good passes in the final third. He looks for his shot, but is holding the ball too long and not finding other players quickly to free them up for shots. I don't think he was as bad against Dallas as some others do, but he certainly made a poor defensive play on the PK and also missed finding open guys in the offensive end on several occasions, instead choosing to dribble around. Salinas also tends to overdribble and lose the ball in the offensive end, particularly when he cuts in, but he has 2 or 3 times every game where he seems to get a dangerous cross in that leads to a goal or at least a great chance on goal. I just think Salinas is playing better than Dawkins this year and deserves to be the starter.