Latest / Tectonic Takes / Episode 159: We Have Liftoff

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Episode 159: We Have Liftoff · Tectonic Takes

• speaker-0: What's up, Quicks fans? We're here with another episode of Tectonic Takes. We are coming off the back of a wonderful 3-0 win. Devon, how are you feeling after that win? speaker-1: feel fantastic not only for the fact that you know I've kind of blown the the media off my chest or the first first time being a member of the media but also you know winning three nothing at home it's a great feeling what are your thoughts Abraham? speaker-0: I mean, yeah, we had a similar thing last season, right, where we beat RSL really bad. And both cases where like RSL was really struggling last year at that time. then SKC also, it's just they have a hell of a time, you know, even getting a roster together, to be honest. But ⁓ no, it was a great game. Very glad that you were able to experience that for your first time in the press box. ⁓ Speaking of press box they they put my bite they put my boy Devin outside In the cold and I felt so bad because like I'm just there with my laptop in the cozy press box and Devin's like fighting for his life and speaker-1: It's gonna be the coldest game of the season, I reckon. And I was outside for it. speaker-0: It could very much be. But I mean, you can't say it's not worth it, right? I I thought you did really good in your we're going to talk a little bit about your experience because that's probably more important than the game. could be a lot of games this season. You're not going to get another first time doing a press conference. So we're going to talk about that a little bit. I remember you looked over at me and you're like, this is good. And I told you to shorten your question just because like the last bit was like. speaker-1: Mind you, this is the post game. speaker-0: Press conference. We were talking to Danny Mooney who of course got the brace and a clean sheet great game from Mooney. We'll talk about that later. But you wanted to ask him a question about his partnership with with Roberts and also something about like the the being in the third at the back instead of a four at the back or being at a fourth back instead of a three. And I was like, you know, for me, my issue is that I complicate my questions. And so like for your first one ever, I was like, shorten it and you that's a perfect question right there. Just the partnership with with Roberts. He's going to love talking about that. The shortening and you asked it perfectly. You had it written down and you asked it and then he was super excited to answer just like I knew he would. And then after he answered you like I really wanted to talk about. speaker-1: He really wanted to add the additional details. So the full question was going to be to Daniel Muni Asking him, you know out of the four games You've had three clean sheets with Reid Roberts in the back What are your thoughts on playing with Reid Roberts and getting those clean sheets, you know I'm paraphrasing here. There's a more refined version of the question But I wanted to add the fact that they've had three clean sheets out of the four for the earthquakes, which I am obviously obviously presenting to you now, which is an amazing stat. We haven't seen that in a while. Three clean sheets out of four games, even if it's preseason, know it's preseason. Fans will have their opinions on that, but three clean sheets out of four ⁓ and Daniel Muni and Reed Roberts kind of facilitating that ⁓ I think is fantastic. And I really wanted his thoughts on it, but you did say to shorten it as the very first question asked in the press conference for me. I took you up on that and I was like, okay, that's fine. Maybe I can include that with Bruce Runa, which I ended up not doing. speaker-0: Yeah, and no, I didn't realize the way you wrote it, really, it was really shorthand. He literally texted in his phone and he showed me what he was writing. And I was like, so yeah, I misinterpreted it as like you're asking about the difference between a back four versus a back three, because they played together in a back three last season. So I thought what I thought you were asking, which is a little bit more complicated than what you intended to ask. So that's my bad and misinterpreting your question, because I do think that that's an interesting stat. And I do think he would have had good things to say about that as well. ⁓ But moving on to ⁓ the other question of the night, we talked to Bruce Arena as well, of course, which for me is the scariest person to talk to on any given day. I don't remember what I asked him. I was just glad I got a question out. I think you asked him. ⁓ I asked him about Viera. He was very complimentary of Viera. ⁓ david can you recap how your question went speaker-1: I mean, my question was based on Jonathan Gonzalez. I just wanted to know what his thoughts were on Jonathan Gonzalez's Quakes debut, because obviously he made some debuts, or one debut, with Minnesota United. So this wasn't his first time in MLS. ⁓ But with the Quakes, it was nice to see him on the field and just signing him the day before. I wanted to see kind of exactly how Bo LaRue went through, except Bo started. and Jonathan came off the bench, I just wanted to see what Bruce's thoughts were on the matter. And he laid out a good answer, he thought, you know, Jonathan played well, he was somewhat impressive in the minutes he played, and he's hoping to see more of him in the coming games ahead. So I do think he would pose a ⁓ good threat as a super sub. ⁓ And I'm not gonna say that Bruce Arena agreed, but it seemed like that was the way Bruce was. heading towards when answering the question. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I think that in terms of keeping the ball, him, ⁓ Gonzalez, Jonah Gonzalez, as he likes to be known, and Bola Roo, they're both very good on the ball. And that's obviously really good to have. And yeah, I was curious, like, because his his main concern with Bola Roo, right, was his physicality. And Jonah Gonzalez is a much smaller guy. So that's ⁓ you know kind of curious like where he sees dollars ⁓ At this stage of his career versus balleroo who he was, you know, obviously he liked him He started him a lot of the game, but he had some criticism So that's the main thing that we were, know looking at but the rules like is he gonna bulk up he did end up poking up and is Bruce gonna trust him more now that he has and he started again So and he played really well. I don't know if you want to get into that Devon ⁓ But I think I'll start with the first topic. Nico Chakaris, ⁓ Belarus midfield partner, ran the game against Sporting Kansas City. Didn't get any direct assists, but was super influential in every single goal scored. ⁓ What are your general thoughts about how you played? speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, I wrote down some some general statistics here that you can find on MLSsoccer.com, but you know, he leads the league after the first weekend after game week one with eight key passes. ⁓ I think that, you know, that kind of contributes to. most of our arguments in favor of all of 2025 as to why he deserved more minutes because he produces impressive numbers and now that he's been given the 10 and he's been given the almost official cam roll in a 4231 he's showing it by you know giving players like uh Ricketts and Judd and Buddha all these opportunities to take you know take shots on net and Here he is with eight key passes, one, ⁓ I guess, secondary assist, button assist nonetheless. ⁓ And, you know, part, was like he was directly involved in basically all three goals in the game. And it could have been like six goals in the game and two of those could have come directly from Nico Tsikeras as well. So yeah, he played a direct involvement and, you know, if it wasn't for Mewney's two goals, I would have put Nico as man of the match. speaker-0: Yeah, no, I 100 % agree. It's really hard in those circumstances when the player gets multiple goals. ⁓ And not to be, I think Muni played an amazing game. If he didn't score a single goal, I think that he had an incredible game, right? Clean sheet, very good on the defensive end. ⁓ Obviously playing out from the back, fantastic at that. But he did score those two goals. And so, you know, even though Nico was like everywhere making everything happen, you know, probably, you know, other than the goals more influential than Muni on this game. The fact that he scored those two goals are the big reason why he won. also, you know, in my opinion, Sporting Kansas City didn't look like the worst team in the world until Muni got that first goal. And it was kind of fluke goal, but he managed to finish it. And then after that is when to me, Sporting Kansas City just completely fell apart. ⁓ All the wind in their sails was knocked out of them and ⁓ we're obviously able to take advantage of that. What do you think about that? speaker-1: Yeah, I think SKC had a decent first half until the very end. Actually, I wrote in my game notes while we were watching the game, I had wrote, I think it was in like minute 39. It just looked like SKC was kind of wearing down after all their defensive efforts because, you know, the earthquakes are absolutely dominant in possession for most of the first half. And it seemed like SKC couldn't keep up with defending the earthquakes with, you know, back and forth, side to side. passing and movement and shifts and ⁓ It was like three minutes later we got our first goal and then four minutes later we get our second goal It seemed like SKC kind of capitulated right off of that ⁓ And it was very evident in in the media area where you know, they started to slow down And I'm glad that the the quakes picked up on that and kind of turn on the Jets Muni getting the first one and then Jed getting the second ⁓ so I You know, as much as pundits and fans and analysts alike will say that SKC is definitely worthy of last place ⁓ and the MLS rankings, the preseason rankings, ⁓ I think it's worthy. But I think they also showed good structure until halfway through the game. And then that's when everything just kind of to shit. speaker-0: For like a better words, I agree ⁓ No, and so so I want to pivot a little bit to ⁓ the pressing structure Which is we we we go into two tactics a little bit on this show I'm gonna try and get us more toward that technical talk Not that Ivan didn't like tactics, but I love tactics and so, know that I'm hoping to talk about more When we were watching the prison games, was watching the pressing triggers to see when are they doing it. And I wasn't really sure about them. was like, obviously the shape changed. So in defense, when the other team has the ball and they're playing out from the back, our wingers drop very deep. Devin, you agree? We both noted this. They drop very deep right next to ⁓ their fullback on their respective side. And Nico goes forward and kind of is parallel with Judd and they're just kind of like, you know, waiting. They're not running straight after the ball. They're not like immediately trying to get the defender to, you know, play a long ball or anything. They're just waiting. They're they're they're in the spaces where they can't really progress forward that easily. And I think that that in itself, without talking about what we will discuss in a minute, in and of itself. is very helpful and I think it's a good way to not commit to any people forward and then you know leave spaces behind to be exploited. ⁓ And then also the triggers that I mentioned you know previously are when the keeper is distributing out from the back. It's not just the center backs. They kind of like chill out when it's a center back distributing but when it's the keeper playing out in the time the ball is traveling from the keeper to the defender. they go crazy. Buda is on that guy like white on rice and especially the six. I've noticed that when we see the opposing keeper to shibby to the six. ⁓ my God. We are on that guy. We saw a corner kick ⁓ come from that this last game. But also, if you remember when ⁓ Edwin Mendoza was on the pitch and got that back heel assist. What happened right? He the keeper played it out to the six Edwin press that guy Won it back and then play the back of Nico Nico shot it and Buddha got the rebound That that's you know, very clear and that's something that we saw In my opinion we saw again ⁓ On Saturday where he played to that six. He's not going to turn around He is gonna have a hell of a time, you know receiving that ball. What are your thoughts on the pressing structure overall? speaker-1: I mean, you listed a lot of consistencies from preseason that carried over into the inaugural, not inaugural, but you know, the home opener. And one of those was also the fact that, you know, yeah, we press high. We win possession of the ball in our attacking half of the field. And that's something I had noticed. I think in game three, like you just mentioned with Edwin Mendoza. Yeah, when Edwin wins the ball back, it's in the attacking half of the field. know, Bouda many times in sporting Kansas City, against sporting Kansas City, won the ball back in the attacking half of the field. That goes the same with, you know, either Boulourou, Nico, other players that had pressed that high line and won the ball back to, you know, trigger a counter attack, which I believe is how Nico was able to retrieve possession. pass it out to Jamar Ricketts, then to Preston Judd, and then we get the goal. So there's many instances where we have a new ⁓ triggering press, high press system, and it's working, it's paying dividends for us. This coming along with the fact that we have a bolstered midfield. What Bruce kind of alluded to in many press conferences and questions asked of him is, you know, Addition by subtraction and I am now starting to fully understand what he means by addition by subtraction Because we had a different midfield set. We had a different attacking set We had somewhat of a different defensive set and the guys like Nico were substitutes last season they're coming onto the pitch as starters this season and players like Oseni Buddha is capitalizing on SKC and opposing errors And especially, I want to give credit to ⁓ Ronaldo Vieira here because he was an engine. You know, he's gained a lot of praises in our Discord server mid-game. ⁓ A lot of fans are very happy with him. I'm very happy with his performance against Kansas City. You know, there were a lot of moments where SKC players, attackers were almost in behind on goal. There was a point where Daniel Muni got dragged out with Benji Kukanovic on the right-hand side. and the Kansas City player managed to send a thread, a through ball thread into the middle. And who was there to pick up the pieces? Ronaldo Vieira with the sliding challenge. You know, that's the kind of six we're looking to see, or we were looking to see in 25 and now we're actually kind of reaping the rewards of building a solid foundation. And Ronaldo Vieira is basically taking care of business. speaker-0: Right, and he wasn't exactly fit when he came to us ⁓ in the summer transfer window last year. ⁓ And so the question I asked Bruce was basically, you know, ⁓ how do you feel about his impact now that he's had time to, you know, integrate with the team? And he was just as complimentary as the Discord was, ⁓ very happy with how he played. And I mean, the stats show it. He's got a lot of, you know, tackles. He won the ball back a lot. And he was in really key areas like Devin pointed out to cut out dangerous opportunities for their opposition. ⁓ But ⁓ yeah, before we move on from the press, want to say that what I want you guys take from this is basically that it's not a relentless press like maybe a Red Bull would have. It's not crazy like that. It's a very opportunistic press where we look at the right opportunity and then we really, you know, Then we start pushing and then if we can get those those moments where we know that we're gonna have a good chance of winning the ball back we commit to it and We've been pretty successful so far at Executing so if we can continue that this will be a very dangerous team to play against ⁓ What else we can talk about we want to talk about both Leroux and how he played on Saturday speaker-1: You know, I was pretty impressive with Bowleroo and actually there's many players who now have ⁓ point tallies and assists to their system because MLS is allowing secondary assist, which I think is really cool. It kind of sparked a debate this afternoon in our Discord server, but I actually really like it because it portrays a new variation of ⁓ involvement. in goals and who's directly involved in the last three touches of or the last three important touches of each goal an important play and and been ⁓ bolero was one of those players you know i want to honorably mention reid roberts as part of that play because he was the the the engine that could he hustled down to the corner where there was a loose ball ⁓ won the the 50 50 battle played it back to bolero who chipped it over to daniel muni and headed it off the far post and then you know that was almost ⁓ alan gordon-esque 2012 believe it or not ⁓ to win the game for the earthquakes against galaxy that's that's the kind of vibes that i got from that goal brilliant ⁓ floater up to daniel muni who was somehow able to flick it back on target. But these are the kind of set up plays that we see from Bolaroo that if I were to go to other podcasts, I would boast about Bolaroo for this exact purpose. He knows exactly where his teammates are. He's got the awareness, he's got the technical ability, he's got great hold up play. I think there was a moment in this game specifically that Abram was impressed with. where Bo had sent a long ball over the top to Benjik Kanovic, who then kind of took it to the end line, played it back to Senya Buda, who had a wide open chance to put it on frame, which he did and the keeper barely, you know, got his fingertips to it and flicked it over the crossbar. But, you know, plays like that is what... kind of impresses Earthquakes fans and I think is going to catch the attention of the rest of the league at some point. speaker-0: 100 % agree. ⁓ Well, not 100%. I think that the stats wise, to go back to that, I'm looking at read-drop assist stats right now, which is why I think it's pertinent. ⁓ I agree that ⁓ hockey assists, as we've come to call them, should count as assists, but I do think that they should have their own categorization as well if you're trying to differentiate the two, because it paints a clearer picture of like, who's actually getting that final assist versus like the guy who's setting up the path that is the assist. you know, obviously if the goal ends up at the back of the net, same thing, but like it is useful for people who are, you know, really into stats. ⁓ But speaking of stats, ⁓ let's look at Reed Roberts, ⁓ 89 pass percentage. ⁓ He tried some passes forward, like I think he had like a ⁓ cross like he tried to whip in it didn't end up going anywhere but that is you know really nice to see and ⁓ he has the ability to put in that cross which is the main thing for me I'm like can he do that or they're just gonna be like you know some center backs can't play with the ball but he's not one of those he can definitely ⁓ he has the chop MLS has a kind of what's it called limited availability of stats, but what we have here is that he won 66 % of their duals that's up 11 % from last year. Obviously only one game, so a much smaller sample size. We'll see how that progresses throughout the season. Three clearances, which is very good. You know, obviously that contributes to our clean sheet. Only one foul this game. It wasn't a particularly, you know dirty game in my opinion Obviously there was some some thousand some kerfuffles, ⁓ but the rules getting really into it I don't know if you noticed that but he's bringing the passion as well as everything else he brought last season ⁓ And and to look at the foul So he had one foul in this match on Saturday in contrast to that in 14 games played Last season he got 19 fouls and obviously there will be a lot more opportunity for that to happen, but he was averaging over a foul a game So far is only one foul a game. So looking better than last year, but Still 100 % rate of getting fouls Which is obviously that's fine for a center back. I'm not expecting them have a completely clean game I don't think he got a card. So, you know, that's the main thing as long as he's not racking up cards Not too worried, but no speaker-1: and get a card, honestly? speaker-0: ⁓ I think there might have been if you give me a second, I can you know confirm that for you. ⁓ yeah speaker-1: Because I genuinely can't think of a moment in the game where it was like a yellow card worthy tackle. ⁓ There could have been like persistent infringement maybe, but I genuinely can't think of a time where... speaker-0: Yellow card Daniel Mooney in the 36 minute. I don't remember what it was for ⁓ But according to Google maybe that could be it like cat profile or something ⁓ But no, yeah, we only got one yellow card and that's the only yellow card in the whole match so yeah, you know pretty good and speaker-1: also think the ref was actually somewhat impressive too, you know, in podcasts like these, we usually kind of refer back to the refs as kind of giving us a really hard time in every game. But I actually think like whatever the rules and regulations or whatever style, referee styles have been implemented in, you know, in the introductory part of the season here. I think it's working because I didn't have any issues. I know other games may have had some significant issues, but for the earthquakes versus sporting Kansas City, it felt like an evenly wrapped game. speaker-0: Yeah, I wouldn't disagree. I didn't think there was anything too egregious. ⁓ There was some like, you know, throw ins I thought could have gone the other way. But obviously that's like one of the most minor things. And the the ultras were not they wouldn't agree with you. They have their, you know, iconic chant that we will not repeat on this podcast because we can't. ⁓ But, you know, obviously that kind of helps us. gets us an advantage. I have no problem with them doing that. ⁓ But an interesting stat, I didn't know if you know this, but we only had 39 % possession. speaker-1: it sound right. No, it really doesn't sound right. speaker-0: So, but every 13 % possession, we got a goal. So, so yeah. And that kind of like, you know, goes back to the pressing system, right? So we were able to win the ball back in high areas and make chances immediately. So even though we only had 39 % possession, we got five shots on target, 11 shots overall. And was it 3.9 XG? That's a lot of XG for a game like this. speaker-1: What, second in MLS and XG? speaker-0: We're doing very well on XG and obviously it's very early in the season We acknowledge that but we are an earthquake podcast and we don't always get to be excited about things like this. So we're gonna we're You know, take what we can we're savor it. You're right. ⁓ No ⁓ very poor showing from ⁓ SKC they got two shots on target both were saved by Daniel ⁓ One of them was an incredible safe. This game could have been 3-1 if Daniel did wasn't a spider monkey. Do you remember the chance I'm talking about? speaker-1: I believe so. was a shot to the near post and Daniel kind of ⁓ threw his body down and somehow made the arms. speaker-0: Yeah acrobatic save ⁓ but other than that other than that one incredible save it wasn't a very ⁓ Active game for Daniel. He did his job, ⁓ but he didn't have much to do ⁓ But you know speaker-1: credited a lot to the CBs and Renato Vieira for preventing any shots from reaching Daniel. speaker-0: Yeah. And obviously Benjic Kanovic and ⁓ Dwan Jones were the fullback partnership today. Not today, Saturday. ⁓ I think they did a fine job. I couldn't really tell you that I saw anything that was disappointing from them. ⁓ speaker-1: Something I did pick up on that and thank you for reminding me ⁓ When when defending on the left side actually most times whether it didn't really matter what side possession Was was being brought up on but it looked like there were many times where Jamar Ricketts sat as deep as as the one Jones. Yeah and Became it like the the back line became a back five. That's how how deep Jamar Ricketts was saying I know it's any Buddha dropped probably as far back as as Bo La Roux ⁓ to be like a wing back in a way, but like a more centralized wing back, if that makes sense, like another DM. Ricketts was sat amongst the back four to make it a back five. And that kind of pushed the Juan Jones to kind of step up. speaker-0: Yeah, like I said earlier, they kind of like they were like this together, like both sides. were like this. ⁓ Buddha isn't as, you know, defensively minded as or defensive minded as Ricketts, who played left wing back all last season. ⁓ So he, you know, naturally isn't going to be dropping quite as deep. I did notice that that Ricketts was very far back. And I think that helped us out. I think that SKC had a really hard time getting to the end line. you know, had a really hard time breaking this down in general, but that the end line option for them, it was unavailable completely. They locked it down. And I think that's kind of what the tactic is. We're like, we don't know what's going to happen, but they're not going to win the battles on the wide areas of the pitch. And I'm super happy about that. That's, know, really huge. ⁓ But Rickett as a winger is something we've seen all of preseason. We don't know if that'll continue once Timo Werner is here. We don't know what the actual formation is gonna be at that point. But he did get an assist. how would you say he is doing in this fight for his maybe spot in the future? speaker-1: You know, I think Ricketts is really slotting a ticket for a starting position if Werner is to play in another position. I really like Ricketts' ability to find space off the ball, and I like his distribution. I really like his distribution in the offensive third. ⁓ It's pinpoint accuracy. ⁓ he's very optimistic anytime in possession. ⁓ it's, it's pretty hard to stop, ⁓ Jamar Ricketts when he has the ball at his feet. You know, I, I've mentioned in past episodes that, you know, we kind of watched him closely and, and he was struggling somewhat to finish his chances. But as a winger, you're also equally asked to distribute the ball. for others to create chances as well. And he's doing just that. You he got his primary assist based off the NECO pass, or from the NECO pass, and he gave it to Preston Judd, dead center in the goal. He somehow managed to slot it between three SKC defenders, right to Judd's feet, who put it away. ⁓ You can't really ask much more of an impressive feat than what we saw out of Jamar Ricketts against Kansas City. And... ⁓ If he continues his form and ⁓ know, Timo Werner is to be a sub in the second half of Atlanta if he's to get his visa as Bruce was unsure of ⁓ coming time to match day against Atlanta. And Jamar Ricketts impresses again with either a goal or another assist. You know, it's gonna be hard to ask Ricketts to step back into a substitute position. because he's putting the numbers forward. At least he's put one number forward. But if he was consistent, or is to be consistent, you can't bench a player that's in form. So it's a tough call for Bruce, honestly. And I'm glad I'm not in his position to make any of those calls because the option of Timo Werner, a world-class player, versus Jamar Ricketts, who's currently in... Good form is a tough call to make. speaker-0: I agree and I think the most like obviously that ball over to Judd very well placed It's not easy when moving at pace Judd is moving The defenders are all moving and to pick out the the trajectory of the pass, know brilliant But it's also the movement off the ball You know a lot of players will make the kind of inside run They'll want to go to goal themselves. Chi-cho 100 % every time he was He wasn't going to make the wide run into the box. He wanted the ball to score basically. ⁓ And Ricketts, you know, he did a job better. He spread out the defense where like if he's running out there, then you know, if somebody follows him, that's more space in the box. If they don't, then that's him, you know, free. But no, he made a really good run off of that Nico, you know, stampede. Like he just... He picked up the ball midfield and they could not stop him. That's what I've been saying about Nico is that like, you know, he's a young guy, but he does already have, you know, that pace. ⁓ He's not like crazy fast or anything, but there is a huge difference between a slow center attacking mid and one that can move. It is mobile and Nico is quite mobile. ⁓ And just the awareness to not just, you know, be able run fast, also to cut off the defender who was running like, you know, behind him, to cut off and move to his left. So he had no angle to take the ball away from him. Beautiful. And then just the placement of the pass to Ricketts who made a great run. then Judd, you know, has the easy job there. ⁓ And that's not to say his job was easy, ⁓ but everyone coming together to make that play happen. It was beautiful to see my favorite goal of the game by far. ⁓ Obviously, ⁓ Muni had really, ⁓ I'm really happy for Muni, but just aesthetically, the Judd goal was the best of the game. What else? speaker-1: I'm honestly inclined to agree with you there. You as much as I really like the Muni goal, the flick header, ⁓ you can't draw up much of a better play holistically than the Nico-Ricketts-Judd combination. ⁓ I still think about that slot or that slit between those three centre backs or the three defenders very often since it's happened. ⁓ It's almost like one of those FIFA sweaty goals that you would see. But, you know, in real life. And I'm just glad to be there to have witnessed it, to be honest. speaker-0: Right, we had a few more opportunities to get even more goals. 3.9, like I know that it says 3 and we scored 3. With 3.9 you could have scored more goals. ⁓ And unfortunately a lot of those misses are due to one JackScan. And it's hard to blame him but it's hard to, you know, absolve him here. Cause, you know, one of those I felt like it was kind of like in his stride. It wasn't really like set up for him to It was an awkward shot. He should have done better, but it was awkward. And then the other one, the second chance, it was like, ⁓ my God, dude, I know it's on your left, but you like, kind of scrambled to get his right foot on it. You got to do better. Not saying I could do any better than that, but you know, you would really want your, the player coming off the bench for your right winger to be able to finish there. I think Buddha, you know, in that position, I know he was playing different positions at that point. But Budo would probably finish there. ⁓ And I like scan, so I want to see him keep getting those opportunities. And hopefully, with time, he will start finishing those and keep getting those chances. ⁓ But really unfortunate for him there. speaker-1: Yeah, I actually want to add to that. I will get to Jack's game in a second. But I do want to cover the overall substitutes that we made throughout the game. And it seemed like, you know, we were three nil up, but Bruce did not want to take his foot off the gas. You know, bringing on Jack's game, bringing on Jonathan Gonzalez, bringing on, uh, hold on brain fart here. speaker-0: Harks. speaker-1: Thanks speaker-0: He built Pingan Rocks though. speaker-1: He did, he did. The fullback. Can't think of his name. Brazilian. Yes, bringing on Vitor Costa. ⁓ Those players added a lot to our attack and it seemed like three nothing wasn't enough for Bruce. He wanted to go for the throat for a five nil, four nil, whatever six nil victory like we had versus DC United last year. ⁓ And that's something that Quakes fans had. speaker-0: Victor Costa. speaker-1: specifically asked to improve on, obviously they didn't go to the FO, they didn't go to the front office, barge into the office and be like, we want more attack. No, it's just something that fans had a general opinion on. And Bruce is kind of taking that front and saying to other teams, hey, we have a lead, but we're not gonna stop attacking, which I'm very thrilled to see. ⁓ But back to Jack Skehan, I do want to give praise to Skehan ⁓ because, you know, to have those kind of chances, you need to put yourself in the right position off the ball. Jack Skehan has great off the ball awareness and he does a great job putting himself in dangerous positions. I just think it's really unfortunate that, you know, he wasn't able to finish those two chances we thought should have been buried. But you can say that about a lot of current and former Earthquakes players, you know, so it is game one You know, let him dust the dust off his shoulders and try again next week ⁓ I know he has it in him. We saw it in preseason Hopefully he can do it not do it again, but hopefully he can improve his form against Atlanta and be given another opportunity Yeah, any thoughts? speaker-0: I know I 100 % agree. I think that you know, we don't want him to miss again, but we do want him to have the opportunity to miss again in a weird way, right? We want him to not miss this time. And you know, he's a player that is, like you said earlier, very optimistic, very positive and very aggressive as well. So I have no doubts that if he keeps getting the minutes, he can, you know, continue to get those opportunities. But That brings us to our game against ⁓ Atlanta United coming up on Saturday. It's going to be the Grateful Dead day at Paypal Park. Devin, outside of soccer, Grateful Dead mean anything to you? speaker-1: It means something to my dad, but I actually did not know who the Grateful Dead was until last year. ⁓ speaker-0: I definitely heard of them, but Devon and I are both I'm 25. I think 27 28 Yeah, so We're we're a bit on the younger side in terms of people who know about Grateful Dead and not for us Obviously not everything can be for us. So Star Wars day was for us We'll take that last year. That was that was pretty cool but no Yeah, that's gonna be really fun I'm actually really excited for that one speaker-1: Only it. for Hello Kitty Night either. speaker-0: But, you know, regardless, like I said, not for us, but we will be there. ⁓ We'll be covering this game. But the main thing I'm looking forward to is the football itself. Atlanta United coming off the back of a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Cincinnati. ⁓ Not a great showing from them. We saw the highlights, so obviously we couldn't watch the whole game. We could have, but we didn't. And ⁓ something that we saw was just, for me, their attack, like they were taking shots, but they didn't look very dangerous. What do you thought, Devon? speaker-1: Yeah, I was kind of digging into their game stats. Obviously, I had heard that Evander was subbed off early in the game, so that kind of affected Cincinnati's attack. But I don't think it really mattered. They ended up winning 2-0 anyway. know, Atlanta did lose the possession game versus Cincinnati. Their stats had showed Atlanta as a high-fouling team. There are many attempts of sending through balls, lots of which were called offsides. ⁓ You know, with Tata Martino's style play, that seems like a very attacking thing of him to do. They love balls in behind. Miguel Almiron is back on Atlanta United and he showed somewhat impressive performances on the right hand side, but ultimately didn't really put anything away or didn't contribute to too many dangerous opportunities. I think that's a testament to the rest of the team, not just Miguel Amiron, ⁓ but something that's advantageous to the earthquakes. They love playing from the back, ⁓ which as we were just talking about, Bruce's system can re-rewards from, know, what do you think ⁓ could happen in Atlanta just based off the fact that, you know, we saw Atlanta playing from the back. speaker-0: Yeah, mean, playing from the back isn't too uncommon, but what I did see that stood out to me was that they could have lost by more because sometimes when they put out from the back, they would just pass it to the other team, the other team that's coming out of them. just, they had a really hard time with that. know, 44 % possession doesn't really show a team that's like amazing at passing out from the back. You know, we didn't watch the full game, but... some of the highlights where they tried to pass out from the back and then got countered immediately because of ⁓ a terrible miss kick. And it was up to Cincinnati to put it away and they didn't until the last 10 minutes of the game. ⁓ So I think that that does bode well in our favor. I think that we also have a pretty fast counter ourselves, especially if ⁓ Timo Werner ends up being able to play, which is an if, not 100%, but. ⁓ Bruce said that if he is here, then he will play. ⁓ I think that's what I remember him saying. speaker-1: Yeah, he went back and forth between if and when. Yeah. Like it seemed like, he will be here and then started off by saying if he's here. So, you know, we're not exactly sure exactly what to present to you viewers, but there's a high chance that Timo Werner could, you know, be in the 18 for the game, but not a guarantee, unfortunately. speaker-0: Right. And I think that both were in our favor because I like to play with a very high line. was a few chances where I was like, oh my God, they're playing with a high line and they're just getting, you know, ripped apart and they keep doing it and they just don't. They're very stubborn about it. And I'm like, if you can't, you know, play out from the back, you have to not have a high line because you're going to get torn apart. And obviously they didn't exactly get torn apart, but I think that's more of That's more on Cincinnati than anything else. know, with the Vander in the team, I think they win this game by a wider margin. Yeah, I think that we should have a really good chance in the game. The thing that I think Atlanta has on their side is that their wingers are very strong. I mean, technically, not exactly physically. I'm sure they're fine physically. But what I mean is that they're really good at dribbling. They have a lot of technique. ⁓ We saw some shots from them that if you know a better place You know could really challenge the goalkeeper Thankfully, I'm not really scared of conceding shots from outside the box with our keeper Daniel is pretty safe ⁓ very very good keeper that we have and then also ⁓ Honestly, I think that if Benji can lock up Wilfred Zaha, he should be able to lock up most wingers in this league and that's you know, I could get you know burned saying that but That's that's what it looks like to me Like I would Know I think that our fullbacks should be strong enough. I also think that you know Danny Mooney is the fastest center back in the league and so if Benji can't catch him Danny Danny Mooney can so I'm confident about this game after seeing what happened against Cincinnati Maybe Tata Martino gives him the hairdryer treatment and they you know swear everything out speaker-1: Not gonna win right? speaker-0: I just don't see that happening in a turnaround of one week. ⁓ I think that we have a good chance in this game. What do you think, Devin? speaker-1: Look, I'm fully aware that every team kind of, you know, changes their tactical style per team. You know, they, they do the research, they change their style to present themselves in a better opportunity for next game. I get it. The current form that we saw versus sporting Kansas city with that high press with, with our way of possession, with our system of, ⁓ of late goals, late opportunities, late chances, whether they've put the, you whether our team puts them away or not, they're still presented as dangerous in front of the net of the opposing team. I think we have a good advantage versus Atlanta. You know, the last game they had versus Cincinnati, they conceded two goals in the last 10 minutes of the game. Their first goal was from a counter attack. and a near post header from set from a set piece in the 90th minute off of a corner. What was what was our first goal? A corner kick from Nico to Judd flicked off the goalkeeper Daniel Muni put it away. Second goal counter attack Nico to Ricketts to Judd boom in the back of the net. All these things that Cincinnati exposed Atlanta are the exact same things that we exposed on on sporting Kansas City. So unless Atlantic comes to San Jose with a brand new tactical style, I think Tata Martino's philosophy is at stake. speaker-0: Yeah, I agree. think that, you know, I'm not we're not saying that Santa's earthquakes are going to win the league that we're like the best team ever. We just I think that it's like Pokemon where our match our types, you know, match up well, it's like a fire type versus the grass type, ⁓ you know. And so I think that we have a really good chance of winning this game for that reason. I don't think that, you know, if if we have the the Miguel Amarón of old, I think there's a much different game. But he hasn't been that player so far. So, ⁓ you know, with that being said, you know, I think that we can win this. ⁓ we're not going to predict the score because we don't do that anymore. We don't do that. but, you know, before we close the show, I want to, ⁓ do a shout out to, I don't know his name. He didn't tell me his name, but, ⁓ this, this big guy walked up to me as, as I was waiting for Devin to, do his media stuff. This guy walked up to me and I was like, ⁓ God, what's happening? And then he puts his fists out like that and he's like, hey, I like your content. I was like, ⁓ my God, thank God you like my content. Because if you weren't a fan, I would have to run away and I don't like to run. ⁓ So shout out to that guy. You know who you are. Nobody else ⁓ on Saturday. ⁓ you know introduce themselves. So if you introduce yourself i'm talking to you I was I was a little bit unsure of ⁓ your intention when you walked up to me But i'm glad that you like our content. ⁓ and for anyone else, ⁓ if you happen to see us walking around paypal park Feel free to say hi ⁓ we we are very nice. ⁓ what do you have to say about that devin some of us are nice No, no, we're all very nice. I'm kidding devin is nice speaker-1: I'm I try to be as polite and smiley as possible in every situation. ⁓ But yeah, I think that wraps up this episode of Tectonic Takes. ⁓ I will not be here for the Atlanta game. I will have a ⁓ ski weekend break. So I'll be on the slopes while you're at the game. So I do hope that you, the viewer, and you specifically, Abram, enjoy the match. and ⁓ I'll end up seeing you guys the week after that. speaker-0: ⁓ I'm looking forward to it Devon, but until then go Quakes. Go Quakes.