Latest / Tectonic Takes / Episode 160: Clean Sheet Streak
Transcript
- speaker-0: What's up, Quicks fans? We're here after yet another victory, Devon. I'm super happy that we can keep talking after victories. We beat Atlanta United 2-0. 2-0? It kind of felt like more, but it was 2-0 at home. ⁓ Devon, unfortunately, you couldn't be there, but the vibes were awesome, for lack of a better word. But what was the vibes over where you were watching the game promote? speaker-1: You're right, I couldn't make it. The vibes were immaculate in PayPal Park and vibes were even more wild out in South Lake Tahoe. So I did the best that I could to watch as much of the Earthquakes game that I could. And I'm more than thrilled that we walked away with three points and yet another clean sheet. I mean, when was the last time we were able to say that we've had two consecutive clean sheets to start the season? This is an unbelievable start by the Earthquakes. And including preseason, that's four out of five clean sheets. speaker-0: Yeah, no, it's a it's a really good start to the season ⁓ you know and there We're talking about preseason and we had a really good preseason winning all three games in controller But there were the game against laoc and san diego where we did lose I I if I recall correctly So I i'm trying to temper expectations because there is so much out there I don't know if you've seen it diamond bad one's like we're winning the league and it's like hey quakes fans We're still quakes fans And so we we got a gotta keep it chill a little bit. Right. ⁓ But no, this was a really good game against a team that we should beat. And so as long as we can keep beating the team that we should beat at home, we're in a good spot. This Atlanta team, Devin, you and I were saying last week, we should win this game. There's ⁓ places where we counter them and speaker-1: We're good, but we're not perfect. speaker-0: I think that, you know, that really manifested in the way that we, you know, really gave them a hard time in our press. They couldn't play out of the back. We, could have done more. We could have done better, but we were a little bit sloppy in possession. ⁓ you know, that, that's Bruce's words, but also, yeah, we could have done better, but just, they had a really bad game, but also our defense was solid. So all, all the things that we, you know, could have done better were more than made up for with how solid our defense was and that's not something we can usually say as Earthquakes fans but ⁓ Devon you have any thoughts on the defensive shape overall? speaker-1: Can I just start by saying, ⁓ I think we did a really good job ⁓ previewing the Atlanta game because most of what we said back in the previous episode was almost spot on. A lot of the natural advantages that Bruce's structure provides had the advantage over Atlanta no matter what strategy we changed. ⁓ We worked with the high press, we made Atlanta dispossessed or dispossessed Atlanta in their own defensive third many on many occasions. And you know, it's kind of like what you said, you know, when that that trigger press when the goalkeeper passes it wide, that's exactly what we did. And a lot of the times Atlanta lost possession in that moment when trying to play back into the middle. I think it was like one of our midfielders or Ricketts or fullbacks was able to retain not retain, but, you know, when possession of the ball. And then we got more chances on net. We might have lost the possession game, but you don't need to win the possession game to win games. You just need to win the game. You know, put chances on target and sure enough, that's exactly what we did. you know, in the same process, ⁓ we've conceded less shots on target as well, comparative to last season. So, you know, whatever Bruce's structure has kind of redefined the team, it's working to their advantage. And especially to Atlanta United, you know, they... They just couldn't find the edge. Any edge. It was a dull sword. speaker-0: Yeah, quite dull on their end. ⁓ there are two things that I want to bring up. The first is, on their goal kicks, I noticed that we did this ⁓ interesting shape. And it was a few times I noticed it, especially in the first half, where when they were about to take a goal kick, ⁓ we changed our shape. We did a little bit of a shift. And so It's not a formation, but I'll describe it in the formation so that like it can make sense. So we shifted our 433 to like a three, four, three or a three, five, two. So, ⁓ the one Jones who was playing left back for the majority of the game, he shifted up. He went, you know, more, more up and that left Robert's Muni and Benji as the They're not center backs, but they were covering the center line. Because when the goal kick comes out, they're the guys who are going to win the header. then so everybody else was structured in a way to win the second ball. And the forwards and our wingers and all them, they were set up to counter if they played it short. If they didn't play that long ball, in turn, there are three guys who are there to win the ball there. They were gonna try play it short and we had guys ready for that situation as well And then obviously we clogged out the midfield so it wouldn't be a very good chance for them to just like lump it into the midfield and hope for the best ⁓ and I don't remember exactly the situation but you know, it was it one of those plays where Ricketts, you know gets the ball and then he just like drives it up the field crosses over to Judd and then we get a goal from that ⁓ And I the second thing I wanted to bring up is related. So I just brought up to you defensive positioning, right? Like what I just described to you is an example of how you stand off the ball when the other team has the ball in order to defend them. When I asked Bruce about his defensive positioning, he's like, what are you talking about? What do you mean by that? speaker-1: How dare you expose my strategies? speaker-0: Yeah, and that could be part of it that could be why he was so cagey about it But it was so weird where I had to like so I said so your defensive positioning has changed a lot since last season and that's what I was trying to say until he cut me off and said what do mean by that and so like well the way you stand when you don't have the ball right and Then I got on with the rest of my question and basically like yeah, every team doesn't want to concede like yeah, dude, but You know, we're not conceding, you know, we haven't conceded all season ⁓ and it's been really good. You know, there's a lot of things that we've been noticing that like the main thing about them is just the little tactics, little shifts that give us the edge in those situations. And it's, you know, tangible. You can see it, ⁓ you know, and like you said, Devon, it could be him not wanting to expose the strategy because that, like I said, is a thing giving us a big advantage right now. or you know a little bit of a more nefarious Take on my end is that like maybe one of the assistant coaches came up with the structure for the defensive positioning and he's like I don't care about that. Don't don't give them any credit, but obviously that's purely speculation I don't know anything about that. I'm just salty with with the way that he responded to my question Like why are you giving me a hard time dude? You know, what defensive positioning is? But ⁓ yeah, that's my rant, Devon. Any thoughts on anything I said? speaker-1: I thoroughly enjoyed your rant, Abram. I actually look forward to this every week. No, I'm just I'm looking at our ⁓ overall statistics here. We actually didn't lose the possession game as as much as I thought, you know, forty six point two percent possession for earthquakes and Atlanta had fifty three point eight. I genuinely like watching this game. I thought, you know, the earthquakes would have had like maybe 30 percent position just because the simple fact that every time we got the ball, we were direct in play sending the balls forward. On every occasion. It wasn't really more of like a Luchi Luchi era style of play where we played around the back line constantly and slowly move the ball up in slow pace. It was direct attacking play and we wanted to score goals and ⁓ I'm excited to see that new style of play. I mean, I've said that many episodes now, but ⁓ I really can't stress it enough like I love that style of play. It's entertaining football. It's exactly what fans want. ⁓ It's what puts butts in seats. Every fan wants to see a style of play that produces opportunities. And I'm glad Bruce is instilling this in the players. And one thing I did notice out of the stats is every single attacking player, apart from Paul Marie, unfortunately, ⁓ had collected a point. in the night sitting. you know, Oseni Buda, Preston Judd, ⁓ Jamar Ricketts, Timo Werner, Jack Skean, five players were on the score sheet tonight, or tonight, but you Saturday night. ⁓ I think that that goes to show, you know, we have a new attacking structure and our players are really well in tune with each other. speaker-0: Yeah, and you know, those attackers really benefit from the defenders like they're they're like We can you know lose the ball because we'll win it back We can take risks because you know on the other end we trust our teammates to do what they need to do to make sure that we can keep doing our job and You know, that's a really good place for us to be in I watched the Ted Ramey show ⁓ was like last week, so was old news by that point. But Benji, you know, was on the show and he was saying like, this is the first time that I think like everyone's working as a team. And that's not great to hear, but it is true. When you look at like how we've been over the past couple of years since Benji's been here, you can't really, know, and he's been here since the Almeida era, right? So. It's a hard pill to swallow, but you can't I think we'd say the same thing, but it only hurts to hear when you see somebody like on the inside Who is supposed to be like, you know fine? ⁓ I agree that everything has not been fine ⁓ But yeah, not like Benji has ever been one to be shy about saying how bad things are ⁓ But yeah, obviously a great 2-0 victory, but let's talk about the superstar Timo Werner ⁓ he came on late in the game i think i've thirty minutes overall without the performance speaker-1: ⁓ I really enjoy the camaraderie, the immediate camaraderie that Timo Werner has instilled in most of the rest of the attack. Obviously, you know, he got subbed in with Preston Judd, so there's some players he technically hasn't worked with yet in the 90-minute span. ⁓ But I think the players that he did work with, you know, he interchanged positions. ⁓ He, Usani Buddha. I think there were a couple of times where Jamar Ricketts dropped back and Werner took the left wing spot ⁓ in case there was a chance to send a through ball, etc. ⁓ I really like the fluidity that Werner brings to the team, especially off the ball. And that was something that we had seen ⁓ during his stint at Tottenham, before Tottenham when he was playing at Leipzig, sometimes at Chelsea. Werner is that kind of guy. that will give you those opportunities to open space for others. And I think that's exactly what he did on his assist with Oseni Buddha. You he drags some defenders out. Oseni Buddha, obviously with a lot of pace, capitalizes on that counter attack, to which Jax Gain also got a point off of. So I'm really happy that he bounced back from the previous weekend's ⁓ debacle. So... Yeah, mean, did you see anything in particular, Abham? speaker-0: No, I mean, yeah, I would agree that like the way that he moved around it was different from Judd So I think the team took like, you know five minutes to adjust to that Where they didn't have a big guy to lump it up to anymore And so they had to look to play it on the ground or just like they weren't forcing it forward because Judd will run after every single ball you sent, you know past the back line And that they had to slow it down and be more, you know Conscious of what kind of pass they're playing but there was a few occasions where like like scan he saw that Werner had space in front of him and so he just sent that ball and You know, that's the kind of play that I was hoping for more from Werner where I was like I know that he you know has the You know the culture touch of a European, you know experienced player but I wanted to see if the pace was still there and I believe after seeing you know his assist I think that is still there he's he's ⁓ he's not fit yet according to Bruce arena which you know if you really pay attention you can kind of see that but ⁓ obviously he was fit enough to you know get that 30 minutes in and get an assist just that that run under the wall he you know he beat the defender there and then he looked like he was gonna cut in and then like really quickly went went to the end line and then crossed it that was beautiful just like just such a like a new want little like faint and go lovely ⁓ it looks simple but it's super effective in that defender just like was super car off balance and ⁓ you know put i didn't feel like was having the the best game of his life i felt like a lot of misplayed passes from him ⁓ just like a few a few moments in general where i was like well he looks tired or whatever But ⁓ obviously that goal is going to do a lot for his confidence. So yeah, it was our our intern ⁓ Leonardo Salazar. He got a question in ⁓ in your absence. I had to have a sub and he got the question he asked about his connection with his teammates in connection with Buddha and we're gonna answer. He's given great answers by the way. I love Timo on the press conference, but he said that like You know, he was saying to his teammates and especially Buddha that when he gets the ball, you should run straight towards the goal, you know, no matter what, ⁓ I'll try to find you. Like that's, that's what the game plan is. And that's kind of what happened, right? ⁓ we saw he got the ball on the, the, the right. And then Buddha was just running in. He was just like almost head down. Just, I don't care what happened. I'm just going to go to the goal, hope he finds me. And, ⁓ he ended up finding him. And so that's the kind of thing where it's like. They drew that up beforehand almost, right? speaker-1: Yeah, that was like a half time teen talk. speaker-0: Yeah, and he was saying like, ⁓ he said to he said that he said to buddha like It's as I said, Buddha's like, yeah, ⁓ but ⁓ there was also That's the only impression ⁓ your your golden boy, ⁓ devin nico there was another moment similar to that one, but a lot different where teemo got the ball on the left approaching the box and speaker-1: So. speaker-0: nico was making an underlapping run under him straight towards the straight toward the goal is like one of timo's first touches and timo tried to flick it back to him right yeah he tried to hit it back to nico and if that came off that's likely a nico goal right there but to me you know watching timo very intently i'm like i don't know if he sees that because he had to run with his you know back turn to nico he had to sprint and get to the ball on the first first of all and then But he has the awareness of an elite player to know where his teammates are even during that hustle, during that sprint to get to the ball. And then try and make that pass. It didn't come off, obviously, because the defender read it well. But that's the kind of thing that can make this attack really connect. If we can get all those things together, then I'm super excited for what ⁓ this edition could bring in the future. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, it's a testament to all these players that we have right now. It's like, everyone knows where they are on the field at all times. It's something within the training regimen that we haven't seen yet, because obviously we don't watch the training. But the players are in well understanding of where to be at all times. And that's something that we didn't see last year. Something that actually I wanted to bring up ⁓ that was mentioned in our Discord. was that there is a more cohesive defensive structure. And we keep talking about defense, but it's so important because the defensive numbers that we're putting up right now against both sporting Kansas City and Atlanta United, especially after Kansas City just went and tied to Columbus Crew, believe, 2-2, ⁓ you know, all these impressive numbers we're putting up right now is for a good reason. And that's because our structure is built from the top. You know, our wingers, our strikers are the point of defense. They're usually the point of attack, but they're also the point of defense. You know, your attacking line is your first line of defense and Preston Jedd, Oseni Buda and Jamar Ricketts are all doing a really good job with initial pressing and forcing those opposition players to either play or run a certain direction. And that's when the press, the high press by the rest of the team is triggered. And I think it's really creative and whatever Bruce is doing obviously is effective. But you know, Timo Werner specifically is going to add a lot to that because he's obviously a fast paced player and he already has instilled a high pressing structure. So with more games to come and Bruce has already. and the press conference stated that it may take months to get Teemo into the starting 11, which I think it might just be like one, one and a half months to be honest, ⁓ even though he also said weeks, so we're really not specifically sure when Teemo will become a starter for the team, but he is not 90 minutes match fit. I think it would be interesting to see when Teemo actually starts for the team. ⁓ because he will provide a lot more speed and structure to the defense than we already see. speaker-0: Right, it's not just a... is not just the verticality that he offers but also off the ball when we don't have possession he is somebody who grew up he literally grew up with the the average jink soccer like that's he's one of the the people who helped coin that term in my opinion ⁓ you know just you think of Leipzig over the last 10 years you think of Timo Werner is one of the the most productive players in that you know era ⁓ whether whatever you think about you know the Red Bull and how they conduct their business that's nearly here or there we're talking about football here ⁓ and so yeah I'm very excited to see what that you know could manifest in Bruce I think I don't know if it Bruce who specifically mentioned April but I think that's kind of the the area of where we should expect to see Werner become more of a regular in this team. Until then, I think we'll see like, you know, 30 minutes for a while, then maybe 45 minutes, and then eventually we'll get to a full 90, hopefully. But, you know, soccer is not like any other sport. It's a very difficult sport to keep fit in. Even if you're training, it's really hard. Because training isn't anything like playing games where the people are paid millions of dollars to run faster than you, take the ball from you, destroy you, whereas your teammates aren't necessarily trying to do that in every training session, thankfully. speaker-1: Yeah, Timo in the press, sorry for interrupting, but Timo in the press conference did state that when he was training by himself at Leipzig, it was kind of hard to motivate himself to train like you're in a regular team training session because self motivation and team motivation is obviously very different, you know, ways of training. However, Timo kind of stated that, you know, when he arrived in San Jose and he began began part of the team training again. It gave him a new fresh motivation to get himself ⁓ at his peak yet again. And obviously one of those things included the conditioning training. He didn't condition training over in Leipzig, but when he came to San Jose, I think he realized that the condition here is required. speaker-0: Yeah, especially with a system like this one. ⁓ Everyone in the press box was really impressed with how much we were pressing. And that, you have to be really fit. And we always lauded Preston Judd for being able to come off the bench for someone like Chichurango or Joseph Martinez and start pressing. Because those guys, Chichur, give him credit. He did press, like he would run at the ball. ⁓ was not doing that and neither of them were doing it at the speed and intensity that that Judd provides just by being who he is ⁓ so ⁓ it's obviously very different and I'm curious to see By the time that Timo Werner is ready to play for 90 minutes, where Judd will be, ⁓ because he's somebody who right now, two goals, two games, and also is a really key part of our pressing structure, it's hard to say. If you're trying to win games and take them out, it's hard to justify. speaker-1: Yeah, I think Preston Judd will have a case here ⁓ against Bruce Arena and be like, hey, I'm a top player in form right now. I don't care if we bring in Lionel Messi. I don't care if we bring in Lewandowski. I don't care what player you bring in in our case, ⁓ which actually there's ⁓ some news by Matt Doyle. ⁓ That being said, it doesn't matter what player comes in for Preston Judd. ⁓ especially Timo Werner, he's got two goals in two games, he's producing the numbers that you want in a striker, you gotta keep giving him the time, right? speaker-0: I mean, I would hope so. Let's talk about the news from Matt Doyle. ⁓ I'm just recovering from the super-soda. Can you tell us what Matt Doyle said? speaker-1: Yeah, Matt Doyle had mentioned that the earthquakes or he inferred that the earthquakes were bringing in a starting nine. ⁓ You didn't specify any. So the DP nine. Yeah. So we're planning to bring in a DP nine. Doyle did say he's on the way, but I feel like if that's the case, we would have had some information leaked publicly. speaker-0: PP9 speaker-1: But then again, the earthquakes are really good at holding information back publicly. So not really sure. speaker-0: I can say I've heard whispers about that as well, but I have heard whispers about that nine separately from Doyle and so that that's a very interesting prospect and I am hoping that like obviously I hope for somebody good to come in but I I like Judd right now. I'm really happy with how Judd's playing so I'm very conflicted about you know the the prospect of bringing in a DP forward but You know, maybe they're not going to be fit, know, whatever the case may be there. ⁓ but speaking of, ⁓ DP forwards, so there was a lot of talk to this week, ⁓ because the, the roster sheets came out and, ⁓ Hernan Lopez is listed as a DP on the roster, ⁓ sheet there. And so there's a lot of confusion there of like, you know, if he's on loan, do we have that DP slot? Can we use it? The answer to that question is yes. ⁓ Because he is on loan we do have two DPS thoughts with Timo Werner being one of the DPS ⁓ And then there was the question if Chicho is on loan and also a DP Why is he not listed there alongside Hernán López with the asterisk next to his name as well and the What I think is the reason for that ⁓ is Excuse me cut my call What I think is the reason for that is likely that after he signed that extension, we are like, we're excited for the extension, right? Then Espinoza goes and then Chicho's like, well, I don't want to hang out here anymore. This is just my theory, by the way. I think that there was a restructuring of Chicho's deal to make him no longer a DP. and to send him out on loan because he wants to go for personal reasons and so that way everybody's happy while he's on loan we can look for students for him to pick him up once he comes back but we can also use that dp slot on somebody else while he is gone and so what what we know for sure is that they there are still two dp slots available to the of earthquakes until hernan lopez comes back from speaker-1: And I I want to add slightly to that, you know, I kind of theorized that we lowered Chichos salary as well to make him not a DP so that the Loan Club could also pay for the loan itself as well. So, you know, I think the deal the restructured deal benefits, like you said, all parties. And now we're able to bring in a second and third DP. you know, based off the fact that her Nana's gone, Chicho is now gone and you know, the, the other club can, can pay for the loans. speaker-0: Yeah, like you said, it benefits all parties. And you know, if Chito comes back and he's like, my personal issues, gone. And no más. ⁓ And you know, for some reason we've figured everything out. Then maybe we restructure again and then he's the DP for us and that's great. But you know, ⁓ the team that he went to in Columbia is his childhood club. His family is super happy there. ⁓ You know, ⁓ I think it's great. ⁓ If he wasn't going to be happy here, I don't want him playing here because you're not going to play your best when you don't want to be here. ⁓ So, you know, I hope, ⁓ you know, everything goes great for Chichu in his career. ⁓ But I don't think that it's likely that we see him lining up for the center of the earthquakes again. But the prospect of bringing in additional DPs is exciting and ⁓ I wonder where the other areas are that we're looking at because our midfield looks kind of solid right now. Our defense is very happy with the defense he says and our forward line has a DP already in Timo Werner and a red hot striker in Judd. What do we add? speaker-1: I have a question for you then, Abram. Looking at the lineup right now, with all starters, no injuries, if you were to bring in a DP, say we get the DP9, and we have obviously Tumo Werner now, where would you put the third DP? What position would you sign him for? speaker-0: It's hard to say. ⁓ know, a DP center back never really seems worth it in this league. ⁓ And that's just like what we've seen throughout history. ⁓ So that's a great idea of bringing in somebody huge like, don't know, like Bastoni. Like Alessandro Bastoni from Inter Milan. Sure, we'll bring that guy in, but that's not usually who we're getting. It's usually someone like Martin Casarez who's like 38 or something ⁓ and that's you don't really want to do that galaxy ⁓ So it's hard to say because I don't want to display the new coach Karis. I don't want to displace boulder rule ⁓ It seems like a waste to have the era and harks Still here if we're gonna bring in a DP to be above both of them ⁓ You know, you know I'm saying So maybe a winger, like, cause we're bringing on Jax Gain and Buddha is starting a lot of these games and like I think those players are great players but a DP is a DP and so I think that we get like a really big boost if we're bringing on somebody who can like really make a difference in the final third. Not that we're struggling to score goals but I think ⁓ a right or left winger. Preferably a right winger. I think because to me Timo Werner is best a wing position is the left one where can cut in ⁓ So a right winger to be like Christian Espinoza 2.0 You know something like that something ⁓ Very consistent ⁓ hopefully with a lot of speed and is willing to press That's probably where I use that third DP slot ⁓ assuming the the striker is the the next DP speaker-1: I'm gonna have a hot take here and I know many fans out there I sincerely apologize ⁓ gosh no we can't replace Daniel like that speaker-0: You guys like GoKeeper? I'll react after speaker-1: My hot take is, and you can react immediately after, my hot take is we bring a DP, center mid, that replaces BowLuru and puts Bow on the bench. I think the realistic scenario is we can't bring in another six, because obviously we have Hargs, and we just bought Vieira last season. So buying a player, a new player, that you just bought for that position a season prior. very unrealistic and the only position that I feel like would be viable for an improvement right now would be at Bolu's position which is really hard to improve in mind you but a lot of other positions seem very solid right now ⁓ and the best way to add a DP is directly in the middle speaker-0: Yeah, and you know right now both technically listed as a CDM alongside Harks But just the way it shakes out if you watch soccer, you know what a staggered 3 in a 4 to 3 is so he's more of an 8 not really a 6 but he's in a 6 position because We'll talk about that later. I don't hate that that's not the hottest take it's just that it's bolo root, right? ⁓ if it's not like the the most beloved player in the franchise other than Nikosha Karis and Some might say he always has a higher stock Just cuz he's I don't know. I don't know how people think some people might say that right? so It is hard to make that decision but If you're looking at the depth chart, it's Boleru then Jona Gonzalez. ⁓ Assuming Harkes is right behind Vieira. ⁓ Jona Gonzalez. Sorry, I keep calling him Johnny when the shirt says Jona. Anyways, ⁓ so that's a bit of a... Not that I don't like Jona Gonzalez. I actually really like how he plays. But if we're looking at Pedigree... He doesn't have the most of it, right? So it's a little bit of a drop off in in on paper So I wouldn't hate that. I don't know who it would be like I was trying to like rack my brain for like an eight or eight slash six that I would like be like, okay We gotta bring him in and it's worth it to displace boulder at this point of his career and Honestly, it's a bad time because I thought that Bolero was one of the players who Lost the ball a little bit more than I would like him to in that last game Not that he had a bad game, but it's just like there was some really tight situations where I was like he could have done better there We'll work on it. It'll probably be better next game. So That's if I wasn't saying the right wing Devon for my pick I think I would agree with you and that would be my second pick speaker-1: You know, you make a good point, especially with the Atlanta game, something I didn't bring up yet and that we've discussed prior is that, you know, Atlanta did a really good job with breaking down our midfield, our center mids. ⁓ Many, many times when we retained, ⁓ or I like saying retained, when we won possession of the ball in the midfield, like one of our first things was to play either back to Danielle or one of our center backs and then distribute it wide and then play wide. ⁓ played direct through the wits. ⁓ There was hardly any central midfield connection. You saw many times that Nico Tsikaris, when he wanted possession of the ball, he had to drop back as a six, almost all the way back to the back line to help bring possession forward through the wits. And, you know, same thing kind of went with Boulogne-Roux. A lot of the times, you know, they had won possession and immediately Atlanta was on their tail. ⁓ pressing hard through the middle. you know, credit to Atlanta that way for breaking down our attack and shutting down Boleru, Viera, or not Viera, Harks and Nico. ⁓ I think, you know, Atlanta did a really good job forcing us to play wide, but I think that also backfired in a way because that's where most of our chances came from, the game previously versus sporting Kansas City. speaker-0: Yeah, if you're gonna force this wide, you should have an answer for Jamar Ricketts, which they did not. Their right back could just not do anything about Ricketts. Ricketts is just free to do what he wanted. And he almost had to assist if he wasn't just a hair off sides. A little bit more than a hair, but we love you Jamar. But no, I completely agree. In my notes, the few notes that I took is that I checked the time, 24 minutes. I barely saw Nico touch the ball at all. He came really wide to take a throw under something and I was like, okay, finally on the ball. But no, he had to leave his, you know, the pocket that a 10 is naturally supposed to be in to come get the ball more. And I didn't hate that. I thought that he did get on the ball more after that adjustment was made. But no, we had a really hard time playing through the midfield. I think that was they were very solid in the center midfield. ⁓ Another thing that I'd like to talk about that I saw, don't know if you saw this Devin, but when ⁓ Atlanta was playing long balls, which is really the only way to escape our really high press to just launch a long ball, hope Latte Laws can get onto it. Latte Laws had nothing to do this game. He had a really hard time because every single time he, his team, played the ball over the top. Reid Roberts was on him. And I'm not saying that like he beat him to the ball. ⁓ Reid Roberts pushed into Latte Laws every single time. We're gonna call him double L, because I can't say that every single time. So he would get into the path of double L and block him from running onto the ball. Daniel Mooney would then, after Reid Roberts stopped their striker, would run onto the long ball and pick it up from there. And so, you know, that was a really genius just tactic there to if the only thing they can do is play a long ball, we're to take that away too. Just was really ⁓ quick thinking and it's not dirty, but like, you know, if a ref is like, well, you're not, you know, making an effort to play the ball, you can't make contact with him. That's the thing that some rest will say, but ⁓ redrawers so they will do it in a way where it wasn't super noticeable But laughter loss was completely taken out of the game. Did you notice that at all devin? speaker-1: Yeah, I did notice that. you know, credit to Reed Robert because none of us would expect Reed Robert to, you know, come into the 2026 season and impress with such a display of strength. and speed, a couple of fans in our discord were astonished at how how quick he was in comparison to the rest of our team who already are speedsters. You know we have Daniel Muni one of the one of if not the fastest center back in the league. We have Benji Kekanovic who is also up there in speed. We also have Timo Werner now. We have Oseni Buda. We have Preston Judd. A lot of these guys already have high quality speed and here we are talking about Reid Roberts as one of those contenders. That's two centerbacks. who are speedy and big guys. ⁓ And like you said, he shut down ⁓ Latte, LL. And through that, we conceded in both games versus Sporting Kansas City and Atlanta United, ⁓ one shot on target each game. ⁓ Funny enough, looking at these stats right now, we blocked seven shots. versus Sporting Kansas City. And the very next game against Atlanta, we had zero block shots. So we did our damage higher up the field than versus Sporting Kansas City, which I think is a really cool stat. speaker-0: I 100 % agree. I think the entire way that we react when we no longer have the ball, just the way we move, it's not like any individual person is like making like an incredible effort. It's just as a unit, nobody can deal with us the way that we work together. ⁓ And I'm super ecstatic to see that because it's not like, that's hard to achieve. ⁓ And Daniel didn't have a lot to do, but again, there was one chance I remember where he had to come out for a 1v1 and he was able to block it with his foot. So it's like we have a great defense right now and if they get past that then they got to deal with Daniel who is like notoriously hard to get past. yeah it's looking really good right now ⁓ but ⁓ we're trying not to get our hopes up too high because the next game we're coming up against Philadelphia who speaker-1: Big's best. speaker-0: to be fair is coming off of a 2-0 loss at the hands of New York City FC but Devon and were both watching the game and or the highlights at least we're not gonna sit here and watch the whole game ⁓ not when we have jobs to do ⁓ but we didn't think that Philadelphia was like super terrible we just thought that I'm gonna speak for me now I'm gonna stop speaking for you ⁓ New York City just had their number just like with the the flair that they played with Philadelphia had a really hard time, you know keeping their balance and and holding the ground against New York City They just really couldn't deal with the way that they played. What were your thoughts on that game? speaker-1: Yeah, I just want to correct really quickly. ⁓ The game did finish 2-1. Philadelphia had a penalty kick in final couple minutes of the game. ⁓ But other than that, Philadelphia, they looked to be very strong both offensively and defensively. It's just New York City's players, the shorter players, seem to get the best of Philadelphia's ⁓ tall defense. speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: And they just seemed more agile than anyone. They as in NYCFC's players were more agile than anyone on Philadelphia's defense system. ⁓ So I think that's where they won the advantage. And that's also where I think, know, Timo and other quick players of that sort, especially Jamar Ricketts, can, you know, win us the games if, or at least the next game versus Philadelphia, ⁓ if given the opportunity. I think, you know. We can put away two goals in the first half and we have to score. I think we'll have to score at least two goals to have a chance to win in the first half because Philadelphia is a team that produces a lot of late chances. They are an endurance team and they'll wear you down slowly but surely. ⁓ And if they do that for the earthquakes, then we're going to need to make early subs and press high ⁓ because Yeah, I think Philadelphia will end up getting, and this might be like a prediction as some would say, but I think Philadelphia would get at least like two late goals against us, despite us not conceding any goals so far this season. Philadelphia is a really good team that you don't want to underestimate. ⁓ So get the goals when you can, get them early and hope that the subs can do some extra bit of damage. speaker-0: you Yeah, I mean, lot of pundits are saying that we had the easiest two games, ⁓ the first two games of the season. And, ⁓ you know, it's hard to argue against that, but we can only play who's in front of us. ⁓ So this Philadelphia game is going to be the real test. ⁓ We thought that, you know, New York City FC won that game with their flair. I think flair was a really big part of how they were able to break down Philadelphia and their utilitarian, like, just like, you know, industrial way of playing that they have and it's very effective. ⁓ But you know, Nick City, like I said, just had their their counter and we happen to have Nick Kachkaris. We happen to have a lot of players who, you know, have a good amount of flair that I think will really serve us in this game against Philadelphia. And we happen to have a lot of really good utilitarian players as well. ⁓ You know, Bolaro can kind of be both. He's a very versatile kind of player who is, you know, able to win the ball back, but also produce a lot on the ball. ⁓ We'll have ⁓ Harks probably ⁓ until Vieira is healthy again, who had an injury. We were supposed to ask about that, but we forgot to ask. We have Benjik Kacanovic, have Mune, whoever you want. Very strong physical players who I think can last with this Philadelphia team. I don't think that they are ⁓ gonna, you know, Outmatch us in that regard. ⁓ So I think it's gonna be a really interesting matchup But I don't think that it's like one that we're expected to win this time speaker-1: Yeah, agreed. you know, considering that this game, believe, is away, correct me if I'm wrong, but, know, we're heading to Philadelphia, colder conditions, colder weather, you know, we're traveling to the East Coast from the West Coast. It's a long flight. ⁓ People underestimate how big America is, you know, from Europe to South America. It's a big country and it takes about six hours to get to Philadelphia by plane. So You know, don't underestimate both weather condition and jet lag to play somewhat of a factor ⁓ in away games and especially in the East Coast. ⁓ I know they just had like some winter storm a couple of days ago and they're still trying to get through that. ⁓ Obviously, I think Timo Werner is well equipped to play in winter weather as he just came back from Germany and it snowed quite often there. It doesn't snow in San Jose that often. So a lot of Earthquakes players To get that experience in snow must play in way, locations, that's snow. speaker-0: Yeah, ⁓ he may be equipped to play in snowy weather. Unfortunately, he's not equipped to play very long in any kind of weather. ⁓ but you know, he is the kind of player who is able to make an impact with the little time he's given, especially if he comes on late, right? He still has that speed. He's still able to utilize that, ⁓ to great effect as we saw. ⁓ so yeah, this is a very interesting game. I'm It can go either way, but a draw would be really nice. You know, this is a really good team that we're playing against and we're going away. This isn't a game that we've ever looked at and thought we could get any kind of result there, right? So having hope going into this is, you know, we could be in a lot worse of a situation. But do you have any closing thoughts, Devin? speaker-1: I do have one closing thought and I'm just looking at the MLS standings here. I think it was really funny that Google's MLS standings said that LAFC is higher than us, but then you go to the actual MLS website and it says San Jose is higher than LAFC. We currently sit tied for second behind San Diego ⁓ and tied with LAFC. There's only four teams in MLS right now that have won two games and haven't conceded a goal. We're one of those teams. all four of the teams are in the Western Conference. This kind of goes to show you that the Western Conference is going to be a powerhouse for this season. I know we're only two games in and you had talked about how it takes seven games to really understand the numbers and stats behind, you know, what we're expected to see throughout the season. But, you know, with four MLS teams, only four MLS teams, not having conceded a goal and winning both their games, I think this is going to set up a tight race mid-season and following the World Cup into the postseason in the Western Conference. And if we are to compete, I really do hope that we get that DP9 so we can keep scoring goals. And Daniel Muni and Reid Roberts and our entire back line and Danielle ⁓ will help continue getting shutouts for our attacking players even when they're out of form. ⁓ So that being said, you know, Looking forward to Philadelphia, I do think we can walk away with a draw. ⁓ Asking for a win, I think, is a bit much. But obviously, as fans that we are, we're of course hoping to walk away with three points away. ⁓ But asking for a win away is a big ask in MLS. Home field advantage is a very likely case. speaker-0: Yeah, don't expect the win like don't don't get down on the players because we didn't win away at Philadelphia But it is possible right anything possible and I'm sure it's been done before it I can't say that about like every team because Portland that that impossible for us apparently but ⁓ No, you you were saying about stat Devon. I do think the the consensus that takes seven games, but These two games are a big chunk of that seven Right? So this is going to count toward that to see how we're doing at the early stages of this season. We talk a lot about ⁓ stats, including XG and stuff like that in the discord. So make sure to come hang out with us in the discord and we have an announcement to make. Can I get a drum roll, Devon? We're going back to audio only as an option. We're not just going audio only. I realized that was not great as I saying that. ⁓ So if you're somebody who likes to listen to podcasts on your morning drive, your noon drive, your afternoon drive, your evening drive, just any kind of drive you want, or just like to put on a podcast in the background, you will be able to find us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you listen to your podcasts. We figured out the setting to do that and ⁓ so we're super excited to start doing that. ⁓ This is probably the first episode that we're going to put out live, but you'll be able to find up to episode 150 and on, I believe is what we're gonna do. ⁓ speaker-1: From 1.50 on we will all post the audio and then if we can find other episodes to sneak into those audio files we will happily do so. speaker-0: Yeah, and especially like maybe some player interviews that Fabian Ivan had done, you know, in years past. I know that the ⁓ interview with Quincy Ameriqua is several hours long, ⁓ which is insane. That guy loves to speak. We have Andres Imperiale, ⁓ Jungwerth, a lot of players from the past. ⁓ And we're hoping to get more interviews this season. ⁓ We have one cooking up. I can't tell you anything about that yet, but our Patreon members have voted on who they'd like to have next. So we are working on that, but ⁓ that's for the future. We're very busy in the Quicks press box, so we're going to give that some time. But yeah, back to having audio as an option. Super excited for that. ⁓ But however you listen, we will still be here. We'll be back next week after the Philadelphia game. But until then, go Quicks.