Latest / Tectonic Takes / Episode 177: Can Quakes Fight Back?

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Episode 177: Can Quakes Fight Back? · Tectonic Takes

• Tectonic Takes: Welcome back. I forgot how we start the show. Devin, what's the what's the word that I say when we start the show? Welcome back to Tectonic Takes. What's what's up Quakes fans? That's how we do it. ⁓ we are back with another episode of Tectonic Takes. I momentarily forgot I was distracted by my intricate lighting setup and You guys might have noticed. You can't see it very well from where you are, but I have a new ⁓ display behind me and I'm very excited about that. looks beautiful, Avery. Thank you very much. It's the only positive we have going on right now ⁓ in the Quakes fandom. I think it's the only thing anyone in the Quakes fandom is happy about is that I have a new display. Because ⁓ the Quakes display on the pitch has been absolutely abysmal. ⁓ what do you have to say about? The the state of the fandom right now. It feels like everyone is going into panic mode. Abram, was there a game over the weekend? I wish there wasn't. No. ⁓ yeah, no, another disappointing week after the international break. ⁓ there's not too much to say really and it's just another disappointing loss. I I actually had high hopes heading into Cincinnati away because we've only lost two games out of all the away games we've we've played. ⁓ I thought maybe, you know, if anyone can pull away a a win or a draw away it would be Bruce Marina's earthquakes. and sure enough I thought, you know, we we had the chances. We definitely had the opportunities. We were up one nothing, then we were up two one. You know, we we had ⁓ two leads and ⁓ that that got washed away pretty pretty quickly, so Yes, we had the lead in the beginning with a goal from Muni, our All Star, and it looked really good ⁓ up to that point. So I'm not saying that the match overall looked that great for us. I think I agree with Bruce in saying that Cincinnati were probably the better team for most of this game. ⁓ maybe you guys disagree with that, but that's how I felt. ⁓ I felt that they were knocking on the door and we we had to do a lot to stop them. They kept getting breakaways and You know, our chances were just, you know, kind of like they w they were okay. ⁓ but Devin, ⁓ the man of the match for the earthquakes would probably be Timo Werner. If you look at his goal and assist. ⁓ and it's hard to deny that, though, you know, it was a good cross. It was a really good cross. And we're used to a lot worse crosses from ⁓ corner kicks, right? But how did you see that goal ⁓ that Muni scored in the twenty sixth minute? ⁓ I you know, I thought that was probably one of the more funny goals that we've we've set up because I don't know if anyone noticed, but before the kick was taken by Timo, ⁓ from the corner, he was chirping it up with a bunch of Cincinnati fans in the stands. And, you know, he takes the kick, Muni heads the ball in and There's a moment where Timo just looks right back into the crowd and just stares at them. And, you know, our our our Discord ⁓ made a bunch of comments about it and thought it was funny. But I especially thought it was funny because you know, there's not many opportunities I think that Timo has where he can he can, you know, look at the opposition fan base and and really get under their skin. And, you know, I I'd I would like to see more of that. I think Preston does a good job with that on the players and I think Timo does a good job with that for the fans. ⁓ and that's that's what creates like villainy in MLS. I is those types of actions and I not that I like I encourage it, but I think it it adds to a level of atmosphere in the game that just takes things to the next level and and you know, I'm happy that that Timo was able to connect across that, you know, landed somewhat far post when normally in in Quake's history we would see near post crosses from the corner ⁓ that don't get past the first man. So the fact that Timo was able to lob it over to the far post and found a defender of Daniel Muni who was already ⁓ headed in at least one goal this season. Yes. ⁓ is four goals for Muny this year. Yeah. It's it's a lot more than he's had in previous years. But ⁓ no. ⁓ happy ⁓ Muni was able to get onto that and and you know, we take an early lead. ⁓ so You know, on on that part I was very very thrilled with with the entirety of the play. Yeah, and it was a goal against the run of play. We on the momentum chart we have a little bit of ⁓ momentum showing up around that goal, which is good. ⁓ but you know, I have to say, ⁓ Timo is only second in ⁓ goals ⁓ goal contributions, I should say. second to Preston Judd with fourteen. But I think Timo's probably at number one in terms of contributions to the Quakes fandoms memes. ⁓ a lot of the faces he's made this year have been fantastic. actually I think number one is probably Bruce Arena with the Coronas and Coors Light that he drinks during the press conferences. Yeah, which is a big postgame drinker. ⁓ to be a hundred percent honest with you, if I was in that position, I think I would also be slamming Coronas and and Cores Light. Probably not quite as light, but uh's right, Modello time. Yeah, Modellos. yeah, and especially after a game like this. ⁓ but ⁓ there's not a lot to talk about. I don't really want to go over ⁓ the goals that ⁓ Cincinnati scored. I thought that they were a very strong side. They had ⁓ almost double the amount of shots we had, almost double the ⁓ XG. Double the touches in opposition box. A very comprehensive performance from them. And ⁓ you know, that's great for them. They they didn't have a lot of confidence going into this game. ⁓ I spoke to ⁓ I can't remember the name of the show off the top of my head right now, but I did feature on a ⁓ Cincinnati podcast and they thought that we're gonna come in and tear them ⁓ tear them apart. and I think that's a misconception these days about the Quakes and what they are capable of. ⁓ we haven't really been doing that without Nico Shikaris. ⁓ and the ⁓ the form charts we've seen just took a massive dip after Nico ⁓ you know, got his injury. ⁓ but we did see another Werner goal, which is really good in terms of his campaign to make Tim Howard get a ⁓ tattoo of someone swinging a banjo at a cow's ass. ⁓ That is like my main I I think I would sacrifice a home playoff game and and have a away playoff game. I still want to be in the playoffs for that opportunity to see Tim Howard get that tattoo. I I I'm probably a minority, I understand, but I I'm curious what your thoughts are down. No, I I love the correction there, Abram, and and adding the away playoff game because I still want a playoff game. Yeah, I want a playoff game as well, but I think it would just be so much like It would just be so catastrophic to Tim Howard's ego to to see him get a tattoo of a banjo, what is it, hitting a cow's ass. Yeah. ⁓ specifically due to the fact that that Timo Werner gets I think it's ten goals this season. Ten goals, ten assists. Ten goals, ten assists. Which is a high bar. You know, like not a lot of players are getting that. But he's doing well. He's halfway there in both stats. So Exactly. and if he can just if he just needs to start putting away those penalties and he he will probably get there. ⁓ just look for Buddha and start scoring penalties. ⁓ think it'd be good. That goal was a very good pass from ⁓ Preston Judd who a lot of us thought was outside. I'm sure in the stadium the Cincinnati fans were freaking out about ⁓ how that goal looked. ⁓ I think in the replays ⁓ Judd was ahead of ⁓ Werner when he played the ball across. It was a very nice ball. ⁓ it's how we want our attack to be working. So I'm you know, I have no complaints about that goal. it's just unfortunate we couldn't hold on to that lead. ⁓ how did you see the goal, Devin? I think those are the types of goals that the Quakes need more often, you know, to have more than one attacking player in a counter attack ⁓ to support each other in those in those offensive runs. You know, there's a lot of times where we'll have one player ⁓ making a run run wide with the possession and there's no one else to really support him. So to have that additional speed in both Preston and Timo getting behind the back line ⁓ and able to to just pass it ⁓ next you know, across the field and and just slot it home. And and I think that's that's what Timo tried to do with ⁓ I I can't remember who it was against Orlando, but they were off sides. Muni Was it Preston is it was Muni, yeah. ⁓ So there's definitely effort there to support each other as teammates and and I think the camaraderie is great. ⁓ but you know, just the execution there. I'm glad to see is improving. Is improving. But you have to not concede goals in order to get those wins. And and I I'm thrilled that we're able to score those goals and generate those types of chances. But yeah, just really unfortunate that that goal didn't really mean much at the end of the day. Right. Looks like we're conceding ⁓ an average of three goals a game in our last three. ⁓ so that's four against Orlando, one against LA Galaxy, and four against Cincinnati. That's nine total in the last three. ⁓ Devin, without looking, I don't know if you have it up already and and you're gonna cheat, but the the the the last two games against Cincinnati, what would you say the combined score line is? The last two games against Cincinnati? Not not not the one that we just played the prior to that. So apart from the last game. Yeah. With two games prior to that. And we only played I think we we play them like once a year, right? Is that? So I'm gonna give you a hint. These are the only times we've ever played Cincinnati. So we've only had two games. We played them three times. Take out the score from the the game we just played. What do you think it is? I so goal scored, I wanna say seven or eight. just just t both teams combined? ⁓ both teams combined. So so what I'm asking you is like say say it's like a aggregate. It's like w who has who has you know, what's the score? Okay. So so totals I think one of was like a four two Quakes win. Or it was like a it was it was a pretty big difference in the the deficit. So maybe like ⁓ Gosh. Are you so wait, I want to confirm you're asking for total goals combined so or just the aggregate score between the last two? The aggregate of the last two matches. Like what's the score for both teams? I'll say nine for Quakes and four or f no, five for Cincy. Okay. So we played them once in twenty nineteen, May fourth. Quakes won one zero. That's long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. I I that's much longer than I would have said, right? It's twenty twenty six now. In the last three matches, I'm gonna tell you the scores from from the first to to the last. So the first time we faced them in twenty nineteen, Quakes won one zero. The second time we faced them in twenty twenty two, Cincinnati won six zero. The third time we face Cincinnati is june fifteenth, twenty twenty four. Cincinnati win four two. And again, on august first, twenty twenty six, Cincinnati win four two. So if you if you add up all the goals that Cincinnati have against us in our last four ⁓ confrontations, that's ⁓ what, eight, six, so that's fourteen goals to the Quakes ⁓ five. So that's that's the aggregate ⁓ across every time we face Cincinnati. And we have beat them before, but It kind of looks like a curse where we can't not concede ever since ⁓ COVID happened, we can't not concede less than four goals to Cincinnati. How much has COVID cursed us? 'Cause I feel like the Stanford Galaxy and now Cincinnati at any time has cursed the the earthquakes. Except except the Portland rule. We have finally overturned that. Finally. But the other I I feel like there's just additional curses now since COVID. And I I trust you to cut that in a way that it makes sense to the watcher. Because since the in the twenty twenty four game was also four two, I thought that that was the same match that we just played, but I didn't look at the year. ⁓ totally fair. Yu Yokubo actually came off the bench and scored a hat trick in that game. I vaguely remember that. Yeah. ⁓ but that just goes to show ⁓ you know, maybe we underestimated Cincinnati. ⁓ there wasn't a lot of definitive answers from Bruce Serena in the press conference. He just said that they were better. And I can't disagree. a question I asked, which I I'm curious about I I want your honest input about whether this question makes sense. ⁓ I wanted to know what Bruce thought about how Jamar Ricketts reacted to coming off the bench as opposed to being a starter like he had been in the previous two games. Right? And to the context to that is, you know, there's consequences ⁓ to your performances. If you're not gonna play well, you're gonna be on the bench. You're gonna have to come off the bench and and make an impact that way. And, you know, some players don't have the heart in them to, you know, come back from being benched and then, you know, put in a better performance than the the times prior. I thought he looked much better than he did in the previous two games. He he was going forward a lot and doing nutmegs, all all that kind of stuff. D did that make sense to you? Yes. Well your question made sense to me and your question made sense to a lot of fans watching, whether it be from from our press conference or Quake's Epicenter, ⁓ through live stream, it ⁓ you know, it was good feedback. And it's a good question to ask because a lot of people want to know, you know, whether or not that, you know subbing him or it benching him had an impact on on his, you know, development since the last couple of games. Yeah. ⁓ or just like a mental improvement or physical improvement, whatever it may be. just him giving you a dirty look and not directly answering your question with a huff and a puff. Also affecting my question, which is just really funny. But past that, going back to your question, ⁓ I think it did improve ⁓ Jamar Rickett's you know, ability to to perform on the field and and gave him a bit of confidence and maybe relaxed him in a way that we didn't expect to see from that reaction. You know, I think it was a good thing overall. But I think it it played benefit to to Ricketts's mental confidence, I think, than physical confidence. Because we know what Jamar Ricketts is capable of. I think he may have just been in a mental rut. And obviously this is based off of no sores, but just observational purposes that, you know, it just seemed like he was struggling to figure out what he wanted to do next. He kind of had to sit, at least for part of a game, to figure out, you know, from a third party perspective or from an outside perspective, not being on the field, exactly how we can contribute to this defense and and build up to the attacks. ⁓ I think yeah, it definitely supported him and his his confidence and it went a long way in the second half. Right. I th I think that he he wasn't a rut like you said. He you could tell he wasn't confident. ⁓ he didn't know what to do when he got the ball and he'd look forward. If it's not a hundred percent on, you he would like hesitate, then turn back, then make a pass. And you know, you wanna ⁓ make those things faster. ⁓ he even gave the ball away for the goal that Griezmann ended up scoring against Orlando. And, you know, we don't wanna criticize Ricketts too much because we know what he can do and so it's it's a hard thing to be like, well, you know, don't play Ricketts. Like 'cause I wasn't super happy with everything Costa did. I thought, you know, he looked good in the first fifteen minutes. I thought he had a tackle, ⁓ maybe two tackles. And then he went back to the Vitokasta that we know. ⁓ just kind of like baffling, like why would you why'd you choose to do that? ⁓ but Jamar Ricketts came on, brought in a lot of energy, has much more pace than than Costa. ⁓ was able to beat his man, ⁓ like I said, nutmegs left and right, ⁓ crosses into the box. ⁓ I I thought that he needed to be kind of shaken to be like, hey, ⁓ get back in the game, you know. ⁓ and ironically the thing to do that was to take him out of the game. ⁓ anything more to add on on Rickets? Yeah, I think that's just some how sometimes that's just how it goes for pr professional players, you know, and and the benefit of being on the bench is you get to take a look at the game from a perspective where you get to watch other players play and see how they impact the game and what attributes are beneficial to certain opponents and you know where their personal attributes can, you know, perform better when you know being subbed onto the field and and I think that's exactly what Jamar needed as as stated before. But you know, hopefully we don't see him on the bench in coming games. I think He warrants and deserves more starting minutes. given the fact that we don't have DJ, ⁓ Dewan Jones. ⁓ he'll be out for the rest of the season most likely. And ⁓ I think the best replacement for that is is Jamar Ricketts over Viter Costa. ⁓ yeah, like you said, Viter had a good couple first minutes, but you know, then slowly tired his way out of the game. Maybe not physically, but it just seemed like he was losing his ability to showcase what he really has and just there was just a lot of struggle with the the tandem between he and and Timo Werner. It's just a lot of confusion and you know and and I think that that all you know comes down to game management and time management between the two. Like they've never played with each other on the field for more than ninety minutes time. And that definitely showed. And You know, just the fact that Vitor kept making runs where Timo just wasn't looking for him. And and there were times where you can tell Timo's ⁓ expecting Vitor to track back and he made the pass behind Vitor instead of in front of him, expecting Vitor to track back, but he didn't and then Cincinnati took that and tried to counter on our left hand side where Vitor's ⁓ you know, physical absence was was duly missed. Yeah. ⁓ I think ⁓ another substitution ⁓ that I want to talk about is ⁓ Dave Romney for Ronaldo Vieira. Which, you know, I I can see the thinking of add another center back to try and ⁓ hold on to the draw. ⁓ and I'm sure that he's you know, initiated that substitution when we're still two one up 'cause ⁓ so the timeline here Tom Barlow scores seventy-ninth minute and then ⁓ Dave Romney comes on as eighty first. ⁓ you know, substitutes don't work like instantaneously. He has to make a warm up. So right, so it makes sense to you that he would probably be wanting to hold on to a two one lead and bring on another center back, right? ⁓ Devin's nodding for for audio listeners. I feel like Vieira wasn't the guy to take off. Because he's he has a lot of stability in that midfield. ⁓ you know, I I I don't think you take off Ian Harks and we never want to see Bo leave, so it is a difficult decision. But I didn't think that Bo LaRue was like, you know breaking the whole game open. ⁓ I I feel like if you want more defense stability, you leave on Vieira and probably pull Ricketts if that's ⁓ not Ricketts, ⁓ Bo Larue if that's what you're gonna do, if you're gonna go with an extra center back. It didn't matter because they scored a minute later with Evander just launching a rocket from the midfield. What a goal that was. It was incredible. Do you s I wanna hear your thoughts on ⁓ what I just said about ⁓ the substitution there. ⁓ and then ⁓ we'll we'll talk about that goal a little bit. Okay. I definitely want to get into that goal. You know as ⁓ FC Michelin fan where they won the twenty twenty championship watching a vendor play through that. We'll get to that in minute. ⁓ but yeah, just the overall substitutions in our midfield and defense. I didn't agree with us bringing Romney on. I thought it I thought Bruce's answer in our press conference was a bit weird about that. He'd he'd mentioned like, you know, defending our attack or ⁓ adding attack with that. It just didn't make any sense to me. You don't bring Romney on for any attacking purposes whatsoever. You don't you don't look at his stats and think, ⁓ that man can score a goal. He can contribute to a play. He just doesn't do that. No. He can defend a goal, but clearly that might not be the case because after we substituted him on, I believe we conceded two goals. We can't blame him for that goal because he what's he gonna do? Jump up ten feet in the air like you know. Right, yeah. And I don't think Guns at fault for that either. It's just, you know. Everyone on the Quakes was caught out ⁓ by a wonder strike from long distance. You you just can't blame that. It's a good goal. But back to the substitutions, if you want to have good defensive structure, our captain, Ronaldo Vieira, should stay on the field because Ronaldo provides really good communication, both English and Spanish and whatever whatever's needed to keep this. Yeah, five languages. That's the guy that you want on the field. And the fact that he's just an overall physical beast. He commands the midfield and and possesses the ball really well, shields the ball really well, and distributes out wide where it needs to be distributed into space in a very smart you know d in just a very smart way. Yeah. And and I that's what I really appreciate about appreciate about Viera staying on the field and playing ⁓ in that sort of And his his own unique ability. Yeah. ⁓ is the best I could say. And and yeah, losing that definitely felt like the Quicks struggling to find that physical presence in the midfield because once Vieira was gone, I it it seemed to me that Cincinnati had taken complete control of the midfield presence, both attacking and the midfield and defense. Yeah. ⁓ Jack Chzinski also came on alongside Dave Brownie. I I can't blame him. for ⁓ that goal either. But ⁓ we it does have to be said that Benji Kakanovich didn't have his best game. He's looked a little bit shaky lately. ⁓ hoping he can get back to his regular form because I think he's been one of the best right backs in the league. and it's it's really unfortunate 'cause how consistent he's been, ⁓ it's it's it's difficult to look at his game and see anything that's like Well if he just does this, it'll be better, right? ⁓ like, you know, Jamar Ricketts is is a little bit obvious. It's like get your confidence up, you know, just focus, do what you're good at. Benji is like ⁓ do you even know where you're supposed to be? Like like he looked It's a stark it's a stark difference between the first half and second half thus far. I mean, like you just said, Abram. He was one of the best defensive players in the league. ⁓ objectively speaking here from, you know, slightly biased sources, but yeah, second half he hasn't looked that great. I don't know exactly what it is, but especially in the the Cincinnati game, you know, he was at fault for our I believe the first goal. ⁓ where he had stepped is the first or second. He had stepped towards ⁓ one of the defensive players when Muni was already stepping and that left the right side vulnerable. Evander plays it off to the to their left hand side. And you know, they they find a spot and they take a shot, goes right past gun and and they've they get the equalizer. So, you know, that I I would put most of that fault on on Benji, but it's really unfortunate because he's in in the first half he's locked down some of the best players in the league and and now I'm not sure what's going on. I really don't know what's going on. Do you do you have any inkling as to, you know, maybe observational wise that Sieta Benji's game that's different than the first half? It it's possible that he, you know, is injured or something and and we don't know about it. ⁓ but he he just kinda looks in his head. I I wouldn't be able to diagnose anything at this point. but yeah, he looks lost. He doesn't know who to stand with. for me, on that goal, I think it was the first one. ⁓ Evander has, you know, two assists here. So it I it's hard to decipher which one from looking at who assisted it. Right. But say it's the first one for Brian Ramirez. You have to go with that guy who's running on the outside 'cause the center back has like I know it's a Vander, don't get me wrong. Like I understand you don't wanna give him space and you want to double up. But it's just the basics, like the chess pieces. And it was kind of, you know, clear that ⁓ Cincinnati knew that this is what's gonna happen. ⁓ Evander's gonna stall, people are gonna double up, and then there's gonna be space somewhere else. And ⁓ that's kind of you know the ⁓ philosophy that was used for the first goal. ⁓ and you can't blame Gunn there. I think a lot of people are. ⁓ you know, Gunn hadn't had a great start to to life as an earthquakes player. ⁓ but ⁓ for me it's like Benji, I know that you don't want ⁓ Evander to score. But you just have to do your job. if he scores on on past Muni, ⁓ from the center, you know, c the just outside the box, if he scores from there, it's not really your fault. You have to do your job. that's all I can really say. I'm not like I'm not a professional soccer player or a soccer coach. So, you know, take what I say with a grain of salt, but that's just how I saw that one in particular. ⁓ And ⁓ it's happened a few times. There's been players who get behind him, they get the ball. It it's kind of ⁓ a similar thing to ⁓ it's it's a weakness the same way that Paul Marie couldn't defend a header and so they would just cross it to the back post and then dunk on Palmerie ⁓ with a header. Like three games in a row it happened. Or or when Charco was here they would just like beat him for pace every time and cross it in. You know, it was it was like ⁓ when you see w the the weakness of a fullback and it's obvious, you you're gonna wanna exploit that. So I'm sure that that played into it. Of like they saw him have this weakness, he doesn't know who to mark. And so we'll exploit that. ⁓ but that's just speculation. ⁓ anything to add, Don? I think just overall there's at least in terms of our our midfield presence, there was a huge talent disparity. And we have just talked about this. We were actually discussing this at at length ⁓ before we started this podcast. And and something that you see out of Evander is something that we wish to see out of out of Nico. You know, Evander is incredible at facilitating their attack. And something that we lack is a facilitator in our midfield, for attacks. And you know, looking here at at Nico Sikaris, we miss him dearly. I know there was a quote unquote ⁓ rumor that ⁓ Nico would return in about two weeks, according to some summer camp, ⁓ where he was answering questions. I don't necessarily know if I believe that, but y seeing the the difference between Nick Fernandez and Nico Sicarius, Abram, I don't know if you want to step in here, but it's just it's night and day and I think in order to regain that midfield confidence, we we need we need that ten back because in the second half of the game versus Cincinnati, I think you you would notice this, but we weren't playing with a ten. We'd we'd seem to have a lot of dropped midfielders and that kind of ruined our ability to to attack or counter. Yeah. Yeah. so i i if you want to add to that. Well I think I heard somewhere I don't know if this is true. We might see him next week, but I I think I heard that Nick Fernandez picked up an injury. ⁓ and so at halftime he was subs for Ian Harks, ⁓ who is like a workhorse in the midfield but not the most creative player. So ⁓ yeah, Devin and I saw that w there wasn't really a ten anymore after N ⁓ Nick came off. It was just kind of the the more traditional ⁓ four three three. ⁓ just no, you know, attacking midfielders, just center midfielders and ⁓ defensive midfielders. ⁓ I think on FIFA that would be called like four three three holding or something. ⁓ regardless, ⁓ Nick Fernandez I think we've seen a lot better from him. ⁓ he had a very good start to the season. He could he can produce when given the opportunity. ⁓ you know it's not really normal to see someone like him ⁓ get two goals and an assist or two assists and a goal ⁓ in the limited minutes he's had. So that shows that there's ability there. ⁓ he's able to link up. He ⁓ I remember for one of those assists he got he literally just stripped the ball off a defend ⁓ off of a defender and passed it over to Judd who scored ⁓ off of that. That was a Portland game. ⁓ so, you know, that's just I'm saying that to show that there is value in in Nick Fernandez. But for whatever reason, he hasn't been ⁓ playing to his ⁓ capability. He looks a little bit shaken. There's a few players who are lacking confidence, but I don't think it shows on anyone quite as much as it does for Nick. and for being such a crucial part in the team where Bruce obviously really wants to have a ten. He's tried really hard to make it so that his team like plays with the tent somehow. ⁓ even Buddha has played there. ⁓ it looked like Nick could be the best stop gap between ⁓ you know Nico not being available. ⁓ and he was pretty he was pr ⁓ providing decently well for a good am amount of time, but it really shows that ⁓ he he's not ready yet. You know, Nico wasn't ready yet ⁓ a few years ago. ⁓ he needs more time at this level to to be able to rely on your experience and know what to do when things aren't going right for you. and I don't think Nick knows that yet at this level. he's too good for MLS Next Pro. He just destroys when he's there. ⁓ so, you know, I I'd love to see him ⁓ pick up his game again, but ⁓ Like we've been saying ever since he got hurt, ⁓ you know, we're really missing Nico right now. ⁓ Yeah, I think I'll I'll pick up here, but I I think Nick is at a point like you just said where he's too good for the second second division, but also just he doesn't necessarily have the talent and that's to say he's not good. That's not to say he's not good. He is good and skillful at at his age and ability, but I don't think it's good enough for a starting role. I think what he can provide is enough off the bench right now until he can find his way to maybe add his unique traits to the game where, you know, he can add whatever he wants, he can he can ⁓ distribute the way he feels most confident in and his teammates kind of adapt to that. But right now as that ten, what you really need is someone to step up and and you know, contribute. holistically to the team in a game and I think Nico one hundred percent can can add to that and obviously as you could tell by by our you know statistics since missing Nico or since losing Nico we've we've barely won a game and we've just been sliding down every single ladder whether it be the power rankings, the MLS Cup standings, and ⁓ you know, just overall performance wise, we are desperate for for Nico to return. ⁓ but you know, we don't really see that much out out of Nick. I do think I think I've said it stated this before, he has the potential to be a starter in MLS, whether it be for us or another team. ⁓ I think he just may need like Nick d or Nico did, maybe two or three more years of development for him to reach that starting role. ⁓ I think he's got the perfect size for a cam. You know, you don't need to have like a tall, tall player facilitating the midfield. ⁓ You know, his size is is pretty much perfect for for that cam roll, but he just needs to control the ball a little bit better, closer to his his body, and he needs to have better and quicker decision making when receiving a pass and immediately deciding what he wants to do with it in that moment. I think when y you can tell when he receives a pass, he stands there looking around, trying to figure out what he wants to do. ⁓ where, you know, the normal cam like like Nico. Or even a Vander, you know, already knows two or three passes before he receives the ball, exactly where they want to go and how they want to facilitate that attack. And I think that's that's the area of the game that Nick needs most improvement at. Or yeah, Nick. Yeah, it's hard when it's Nick Nick and Nico. ⁓ it's a little bit difficult. Yeah, struggle in there. Yeah. ⁓ the just decisiveness in between the lines, ⁓ and in those pockets of space, that's what we're missing. ⁓ going forward it's kind of like, okay, give it to Timo. Timo's gonna switch or beat his guy and those are the two things we can do. ⁓ you know, before we had a lot more dimensions with Nico and what we could how we could progress, ⁓ and also how we could ⁓ keep the ball in the final third and not just like, okay, we're gonna shoot or we're gonna lose the ball or you know, ⁓ Nico had ⁓ another element there could that could, you know, phase between the lines, make make ⁓ small gaps become, you know, detrimental holes in their defense. ⁓ but ⁓ I I also want to say that, ⁓ you know, closing out here, we weren't ever really gonna be MLS champions. Like, maybe maybe in a few years, sure. But that that was never what this season was gonna be. ⁓ This season, you know, is we're we're gonna have to try and salvage the first half as much as we can. ⁓ but if he told us at the start of the year that we'd be in this spot and trying to get a it looking pretty good to get a ⁓ a home playoff game, we'd be happy with that. Like I don't think anyone would complain. But we've obviously reached such great heights and ⁓ you know now it's starting to c ⁓ revert back to the mean and people are upset. And I understand that. I think that, you know, there's reason to be upset. There's there's a lot of things that happen on the field that, you know, shouldn't be happening. ⁓ but I I think that Quakes fans need to remember ⁓ why we're here and you know what an actual successful season looks like for us. ⁓ we're not inner Miami. We're not L A F C ⁓ we're not LA Galaxy even though they're also struggling. ⁓ and when I hear, you know, people saying that we'll well let's let's just sign Memphis DePi, let's sign ⁓ Robert Lewandowski, that'd be great. You know, who doesn't want that? But that wasn't ever gonna be the thing that we do. ⁓ even Timo Werner was like, you know, a surprising leap for for us. ⁓ and that's not to say that you can't want those things, but when you expect them you're gonna be disappointed. and so I think that we have to restructure how we're looking at this season, ⁓ because it's doomsday mode again for everyone. ⁓ and I don't think that helps anyone. so, you know, let's just really try and support the team to a playoff push, ⁓ and not necessarily be upset that we're not, you know, nailed on for MLS Cup champions. Yeah, I think the The emotional aspect is warranted because we had such a good first half and I think our fans know full well what our capabilities are and and that, you know, we can scrape out more wins than we have. given that we've conceded a lot of goals late in the game. ⁓ you know, that that we could have just finished the game off. I think there's a lot of that To show that we're one of the top teams in the West, but also understand that we are the Quakes and we may not have a perfect season. We may not finish top of the league. We may not finish top five. But the goal, like you said, for this year was to to just make playoffs and to gain a better understanding of where we need to go for twenty twenty seven. Given that twenty twenty seven is already going to be such an interestingly weird season anyway, 'cause we'll have two seasons in that year. Looking at this team now, yes, there is a lot of confusion on the field and the frustration is totally validated. But I think, you know, some of our players are under hot fire for somewhat ⁓ not unnecessary reasons, but I think they're just taking a lot of the blame and and given as like confirmation bias like like gun. I think, you know, a lot of the the examples for gun or a lot of the ridicule for gun is just confirmation bias and just ov under you know, looking other issues that we have holistically, defensively, where our you know, in possession, we give a lot of the midfield ⁓ passes away and defensive third and then, you know, other teams counterattack and and destroy us. in that aspect. And, you know, then Gunn has to make yet another attempted save and whatnot. ⁓ I think the the claims of him not moving and acting like a tree are definitely valid, like we talked with Eric. ⁓ but I think most most of the issues stem from our in possession and turnovers, ⁓ turnover ratio since we've begun the second half. and Yeah, I'm I'm not exactly sure what Bruce wants to do. He was asked that question, you know, how are we gonna get this team back to where we were in the first half and he didn't necessarily have an answer for that either. So ⁓ you know, just everything is up in arms and and hopefully for the next two weeks we can find ⁓ you know, the team can find a a bunch of video to review and and straighten things up for for the next game versus Saint Louis. Yes, ⁓ well said, Devin. And ⁓ speaking of the Saint Louis game, we'll be back in a week to preview that match. ⁓ we have quite a bit of time before that match and ⁓ it's like another mini break after the break. Yeah, I I'm I'm hoping to see us turn things around. ⁓ Saint Louis, let's see how they're doing in the league. ⁓ let's see see Okay. They're seventh in the Western Conference, so they're ⁓ quite a bit below us, but ⁓ looking at their ⁓ form, they have four wins in their last five, no losses in their last five. So that's much different from us who have one win in our last five and three losses. not a great look on paper, but thankfully the game's played on grass and not paper. ⁓ this is a game that we'd like to win, but ⁓ we'll take a deeper look at that next time on Technonic Takes. Before before we go, I do have a question for you because it was asked to me and I just want to know what your thoughts are. When might it be time to hit the panic button? So for my answer, my answer was if we don't get a point between now and the end of the away galaxy game, I think is when you start to sound the alarms. Because the two games after that is Minnesota versus or Minnesota and Houston. And those teams are competing for a playoff spot and if not moving up the rankings, especially Houston who's now below us, directly below us in the standings. ⁓ I think if personally, if if we don't get a point, I may start to hit the panic button ⁓ after the Galaxy game. But I wanna know what your thoughts are and when when you may think the panic button, you know, may need to be pressed. I mean I don't see the point of pressing a panic button. ⁓ so say like, ⁓ my god, I'm so angry that we're not winning games. What happens? Right? Nothing changes if we hit the panic button, only that this place becomes much less ⁓ pleasant to be in. Right? ⁓ the the Discord, Twitter, Instagram. I I don't see a point in in freaking out. ⁓ I understand that it's it's not rational. But then like why are you asking me for a rational answer f to like when do we get to start being irrational? Right. And so that's why I struggle with that ⁓ kind of thinking, I guess. Cause like I can be as mad as I want to be. The nothing's gonna change on their end until they decide, like the earthquakes decide to make a change. the better people to ask who gets to hit the panic button are are the people in charge of the people with the button. ⁓ which is, you know, not Abram ⁓ Technology Takes. ⁓ I think I I wonder if this is the case. I think that the president would have to fire Bruce, but ⁓ I think the sporting director, you know, would I think he has to fire himself. I don't know if that's actually the case. ⁓ but yeah. Maybe Shawley would have an influence on that. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure if he needed to he could fire him. But sh I'm just saying like ⁓ Bruce has a lot of ⁓ sway here. and you know, most of the changes that he's made have been positive. So and you know, I think we'd all agree with that, ⁓ for the most part. I I think that hitting the panic button in from a fans perspective would be the worst thing we could do for the season that we can actually impact. Because we can't change who's in charge of anything. We can't make the club be sold, we can't make the players play better. We can't make anyone be sold or or the quit the coach be fired. We can just make the fans feel supported or not. And I think to to hit the panic switch for me it looks like not showing up. It looks like booing our own players, ⁓ booing our own coach. You know, ⁓ so for me I'm like that doesn't sound like something I ever want to do. ⁓ you know. I know that maybe I have a different like l perspective of what that actually is than most people. ⁓ I'm sure you're asking just like when do I get to be more upset in Discord and stop coming on the show and saying like ⁓ less actually it's it's less upset in Discord, less upset socially but just more of like understanding that, you know, this team may not take us to more wins for the rest of the season than than we expected, you know. ⁓ looking at the standings in in twenty twenty five, we finished the season with forty one points and currently with eighteen games in and only just ⁓ reaching past the half point of the season, we are eight points away from that marker of just missing out on the playoffs. I obviously I think we can get eight points by the end of the season plus more to reach playoffs, which I think is the ultimate goal is to to play some playoffs games, whether it be an away game or a a home playoff game. But you know with with how the season has gone thus far, you know, it's it's not necessarily for me like a matter of of like crying out on socials or or like Discord. It's just more of like understanding that, you know, this season might be reaching a shutdown point. Yeah, and I mean I think that for 'cause I'm a very literal person. If you ask me panic button, I think of panic button. Like weo weo weo like something happens very loud, very negative. ⁓ if you ask me when do you lose hope? That's the question I think that you were trying to to ask me, ⁓ based off of your explanation just now. yeah, I'm not there yet. ⁓ I d I do I think that's closer to what you said and that's a I think that's a more reasonable question. Like when do you lose hope? ⁓ I will say that like I don't have one right here 'cause I'm not looking at like all the all the fixtures in in line. but there is a point where you lose hope, of course. ⁓ it's just It's ⁓ a lot further away than it would be last year or the year before, ⁓ just because of how well we've done the the ⁓ the margin for error that we've bought ourselves with our great start to the year. ⁓ so I I I I have space for the question, when do you lose hope? ⁓ if you ask me like when do we start panicking, when you know I don't think it's ever a good idea to panic. ⁓ but that's just my literal interpretation of that question. ⁓ maybe when half the team gets injured, but that's that that won't be the case. And and you know the the people online ⁓ will have a different ⁓ definition of panic button to you as well. Because we know that you know, I you're not you're not somebody who's criticizing the team like crazy on social media, but we know it happens. We see it all the time. ⁓ yeah, I may be emotional in games and I may st start saying some erratic not erratic. But you know, irrational things from time to time, but that's just how a fan is. Yeah, and I I I've met people when waiting for the players after games, before I was in media, who would be like, I wish when there wasn't this gate here is that we could walk up to the players and tell them how we feel and yell in their faces. Like, Bro, like What I don't want my players to hear that. And he's like, when are we gonna sign someone like Vinny Jr.? And so I'm like, Okay, well this guy obviously isn't like Smart. but to me doing that is panic switch. Like that that's the the worst case scenario as a fan to be doing that. And and ⁓ and so I thought you were asking me when is that behavior okay? I just don't think it is. ⁓ No, I'm with you a hundred percent on that. I think we're on the same page now. It it'd be nice to know from from fans watching this in the comments, whether it be on on Spotify or on YouTube, to let us know in the comments what your version of a panic button is. And when you feel it may be appropriate in this season to to press it. Yeah. ⁓ that would be ⁓ great. Thank you for the call to action, Devin. ⁓ but like we said, we're going to be returning next week to preview the Saint Louis game. Doesn't look good, but we'll look more into it in depth ⁓ to see where we might have an edge. ⁓ and we'll be a little bit closer to Nico coming back, which is ⁓ always a good thing. ⁓ but until then, go quicks. Go quakes.