Post-match: Los Angeles FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Saturday, 6/22) postgame thread [R]

Unretouched photo of Chris Leitch;

 

Interesting to see what was edited out of Benji's comments when it was published on the Quakes website:
EARTHQUAKES FORWARD BENJI KIKANOVIĆ

On coming on in the second half and scoring a goal:

“We were down 4-1 first half. ... Somehow we have to fix it. I don’t have the answers. To the fans, to everyone that supports, watches ... all I can say is sorry from everyone and we have to be better. Obviously we have a game next week, so quick turnaround, and keep going. That’s the only thing to do.”

On recent results:

“It has not been good. You can’t really sugarcoat it. I’m not the guy that’s going to sugarcoat it. Honestly, it’s embarrassing to watch and to even play in it, it’s embarrassing. But we have to take it step by step. We have leaders in the locker room. We have a lot of experienced guys that we have to look towards. Obviously I’ve been here a couple years now, so maybe myself. ... We can’t continue like this. We have to look at each other. We have to keep going. I know it’s hard to be positive in this moment ... but we have to be realistic and we have to work on things that have been bad. We have to make sure that as a team we keep fighting. That’s the only thing I ask is to keep fighting. We can’t give up.”

On fighting for his season, both individually and collectively as a team:

“I had a rough season last year, so I’m just trying to do the best that I can this year. I haven’t been getting much minutes, but the minutes that I get, I try to make the most of them, give it my all. I’m not perfect, but one thing you get from me is hard work. We have to work our ass off more. ... It’s not going to work in this league if you play like that, if you play scared ... nothing good is going to come from it. In terms of the coach and coaching staff, we believe. He’s here for a reason, and we have to keep fighting. He fights for us every day, The coaching staff fights for us every day, and we have to fight for them. Like I said, we can’t just give up, because that’s not the right thing to do, and that’s not something that we want to do in the locker room. We have some dogs in there, but right now, it’s a tough situation to be in. ... We have to keep chipping away little by little, but you have to look at the tape.”

 

Cannot rely on regime media.

 

Saw the score. I’m still not clear, did the Quakes play poorly? /s

 

I highly doubt he'll have the opportunity, but if he does he will take it (and he should).

 

Don't let the score deter you! Luchi was coaching a masterpiece, it was so beautiful and the tactics were almost flawless, unfortunately, the score doesn't reflect just how great all of our guys are because they try their hardest and put effort... we earned every bit of the result through hard play and heart!!!! /Sarcasm

 

The score flatters us, we were a horror show.

 

Benji has been in Luchi's dog house since Luchi came in.

I'm not sure why but after 2022 it looked like Benji was really going to take off in 2023 but that didn't happen. Instead it was the Cade show and Cade was terrible. Pelligrino is just OK as a left wing (he should be a second forward coming in late to try and score a goal by loading up the box) and Benji still barely sees the field. Benji calling out the team for how they have been playing is the only authentic/positive thing I've seen this whole cursed season.

Enough already CL, let's see an announcement by lunch time today that we "have mutually agreed to part ways" or there was a an "A-Ha moment" or whatever BS spin you want but it's time to turn the page.

 

The Aftershock guys have concluded that the solution to the Quakes' problems is to take yellow and red cards. :facepalm

I get it - we need to put in more challenges for the ball, but you don't do that with the intent to get a yellow or red card. You do that with the intent to win the ball (ideally) or slow down an attack. Yellow cards are not the goals, just occasional collateral damage for fighting for the ball. And red cards in particular most certainly aren't the solution to anything related to winning. :doublefacepalm

 

the aftershock is great, a tremendous resource when once there was none but sometimes i wonder if they are whitewashing for the FO (not alex morgan of course).

their talk track that it's maybe not the right time to change coaches is utter BS. the team is 3-14-2 for craps sake and it's the clubs 50th anniversary year. what an utter joke!!!!

give the kit guy/gal the head coaching job for all i care but do something. maybe we'll get a nate the great out of the deal

 

we have no good media, I keep listening to these guys (since they're the only people covering the Quakes), but they sound like Quakes FO homers. Alex too, they're trying to walk that fine line between objective storytelling, and not pissing off the FO so as to cut off access to players and coaches.

I think the best reflection of where fans stand are the comments on any given Quakes FB post.

Almost 100% of the respondents understand that Fisher is the problem, nothing changes until he's gone, and the comments are pretty much 100% negative, as you'd expect.

It's been that way on FB consistently for years. Doesn't slow the Quakes down, they keep pushing out these puff pieces, no matter how incongruent they are with the reality on the field.

 

I'm critical of the Aftershock guys at times for some of their takes but I think you'll at least get some reasonable analysis on there even if sometimes I don't agree with it. The facebook whine-a-ton stuff is fine but of little interest to me.

And The Aftershock guys are critical of the FO / ownership a lot.

 

I think they walk that fine line and I find it pretty bland and incongruent. I'm glad somebody cares but I'd rather they were more objective. By any measure, objectively, Quakes are an unmitigated disaster, from top to bottom.

 

I think they are reasonably objective and they know that the Quakes are an unmitigated disaster right now. As I said, even Jamon Moore agrees with the fundamental notion that the problem starts at the top, but if that's the only they're going to talk about, there's no reason to even have a show. It would be like being locked in a room forced to read hundreds of Quakes05 posts .

 

you've probably read thousands of my posts by now...we've been through a lot together, and yet here we are, still searching for signs of life from our flailing little team. my hope is that one day we can celebrate together...Quakes are pretty lucky to still have fans that actually care about this team.

 

I believe in his post game press conference Benji also referred to Quakes being a bit soft and that they do need to get yellow and sometimes maybe even a red. He mentioned that their top guys get fouled often and there's rarely any retaliation and in his eyes there should be.

 

Yes, Benji was saying similar things. I think he really wanted to say that they were playing like "pussies" but didn't want to use the word. He said "you know what - I can't say it" a few times. He might have meant to say "shit" there, but that was a bridge he'd already crossed earlier in his postgame interview.

My issue is that yellows (and certainly reds!) should not be the goals. The goal is to win the ball or slow down attacks. Yellows sometimes happen when you're trying to do that and that's OK. But a red is never good when you're trying to win a game.

 

Was gone this weekend and just watched the replay. Luchi has to be gone after this and so does Leitch.

The main thing that sticks out to me about these players and the coaching is the lack of fight and toughness. We will never be signing the sexiest players in the world, but we need to have a roster with 18 dogs that will fight to the death for every 50/50 and make any team, no matter how much more skilled they are, feel some bruises the next day after 90 minutes with us.

Two moments that exemplified this:

1) I forget which goal it was, but Rodriguez plays a long ball up to Jebo who is grabbing his side after some slight contact and basically acting hurt. Jebo doesn't even move for a ball he easily could have got to and it leads to a turn over in our half and a goal not soon after.

2) on the last goal, Yuell plays a dumb and weak cross field pass that gets intercepted. Instead of fighting his ass off to fix his own mistake, OUR CAPTAIN puts his head down and just slowly jogs back and watches a goal get scored that could have been prevented if he had hustled back. I don't care that the game was over at that point, THE CAPTAIN can not do that. To my earlier point, we are not a good enough team for even Hernan Lopez to pull some BS like that, but from THE CAPTAIN it is absolutely unacceptable and really says everything about what mental midgets this squad is.

I don't even think John Fisher is really to blame for this issue. Of course he could spend WAY more money and we could have a team so skilled that a lack of mental toughness can be papered over (like an LAFC), but that won't happen.

There is enough budget to find proper San Jose Quakes players that embody the Goonie spirit. From the current squad, the only Goonie types that come to mind are Espinosa and Skahan. For a DP, HLM seems to be Goonie-ish too but is is early.

This is entirely on Leitch and Luchi and really the whole thing needs to be blown up.

They are having a down season for their standards, but I think the track record for their club type speaks for itself, so I will suggest it again: hire the best HC and GM you can from the Philly Union and from that tree (like from Noonans staff at Cinci)

 

Also, KK appears to be less of a tool these days!

 

Went to the Bay FC Game. They won. Came home. Checked score. Didn't watch the game.

 

My mistake was to check the Quakes score during the Bay FC game.