I know that reference has been beaten to death in recent years, but I think it fits the Quakes' MLS Cup hopes perfectly. Chicago is a great team, solid from back to front, healthy and strong off the bench. They play great team defense, move intuitively, have a wealth of offensive threats and can change up their attacking style with the flick of a switch. They may be the best team in MLS. But I haven't seen their higher gear. Many of us - myself included - feared that this Quakes squad had peaked early. And that is clearly not the case. We are peaking right now. We have accessed an emotional high and found another gear. It remains to be seen whether we can get enough fans down to LA to feed the team like we did in the last two comebacks. But I think the Quakes have the advantage of momentum going into this Final, and we haven't seen the Quakes topped out yet. Chicago just better hope they don't score first.
I'm not sure about us "peaking", which is different than the "higher gear" idea. "Peaking" implies that everything has been building up... I think your higher gear idea is more like it. I mean, the Quakes have exploded into another zone. They've totally lifted their level. This match Sunday is going to be intense.
It's almost funny now to think about it. We went through the entire month of October with 1 goal. Then in the last 2 games we've scored 8 goals. Now I truly believe the players when they were interviewed back during the dry spell, they said they hadn't even realized that they weren't scoring goals. The focused on other things and seemed to never doubt that when they needed to score, they could.
Bajoro, are you questioning my command of clicheed soccer metaphors? All I'm sayin' is I see the carrot at the end of the tunnel. The pessi me says we erupted for a pair of hat tricks right before the above-mentioned drought. But this team is obviously different. This looks more like the playoff team of 2001. Albeit hungrier.
HA HA HA....I laughed pretty hard when I saw the title for this post. The funny part is, I just watched Spinal Tap last night.
Sunday we're gonnna rock you. To Chicago I say "Little girl it's a great big world but there's only one of US."
I thought this was meant to storm the palatial KNTV studios at the corner of Park and Montgomery Streets with torches, burning Raj Mathai in effigy...
Talking to Craig Waibel after the game on Saturday, he was saying that the Quakes "are due for a shutout." The amazing thing was that I was saying the same thing to my friend before the game. It's been almost 3 months since their last shutout (I congratulated Onstad after his 9th shutout against DC on 8/24), so they are defenitely due for sure!
No, no, no, no, no!! No! Please say he didn't mean it! The one thing they should have learned from these last two games is that no one is ever "due" anything. They have to work their asses off - leave every piece of their hearts and minds on that field. No, no! That makes me nervous. Bad attitude to have!
I think you were right when you said that we peaked too early. And I think you're right when you say we've reached an entirely different, higher gear. I think I hate writing "I think you're right" so often.
I honestly thought nothing of his comments and felt comfortable with his words. His tone wasn't "Onstad is due for a shutout," but the team as a whole, is due. If anything, it made me feel that they will prepare even more for Sunday's game. They have not beat the Fire this year, so they will bring their ch'A'mp game to the field.
Yeah, we decided to wait outside the locker room to skate their hands, congratulate, and tell them that we'd be down there on Sunday to support them. It was just cool that they take the time to interact with fans after the game. My friend wanted to try to get our stubs signed by Donovan, but I thought it was unlikely that he would sign, considering we had not seen him sign after any game this year, but to our amazement, he signed for each and every fan that wanted a signature and it was cool to meet him. We are going to the Gala awards as well, and my firend does not want to dress up for this "black tie optional" event. He told me to ask Landon what the minimum dress requirement was and he was said, laughing, "Well, don't show up in jeans and a hat!" He told us in the past, people wore suits and tuxedos, something my friend did not want to hear, LOL. Looking forward to a great weekend... GO QUAKES!