Latest / Tectonic Takes / Episode 169: Bracing For Impact Without Timo and Niko

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Episode 169: Bracing For Impact Without Timo and Niko · Tectonic Takes

• Tectonic Takes: What's up, Quicks fans? We are back yet again. We are always here week after week with another 4-2 win ⁓ in the Open Cup against Minnesota United and a 1-1 draw against Toronto. ⁓ That's our first draw of the season, which is something we're obviously going to talk about. Devin, ⁓ it's been an eventful week, not just with all the games being played, but injuries. people breaking records, notably Jack Skean. What do you make of it? And then a little bit on what it's going to mean for the Quake going forward coming into a very congested schedule in the next week after that. Well, for someone with ADB, it's very overwhelming emotionally. It's crazy. yeah, it's just so much going on. And as you said, we drew to make our tally 9-1-1. Which is kind of funny because I just went to an IMSA race at Laguna Seca and I've been supporting this team FYI but my team is a Porsche 911 so I feel like that's somewhat fitting as a transition here but yeah. What's your favorite version of that car? I don't know the name specifically and probably our fans will have no idea but it's like ⁓ a retro version with like the whale tail and that's my favorite version. Yeah I'm trying to think what the name of it is. mean, my mom would tell you because she is the biggest fan of a Porsche whale tail you will ever know. But yeah, 911, my favorite is a GT3 RS and that's all I can think of at the moment. yeah, it was an exciting weekend. As you mentioned, lots of things happened, injuries, know, Nico's down, Timo Werner is down, you know, in back to back games. It's looking bleak in terms of, you know, what may come. in future games. But I think overall, I'm still looking forward to the games that we have coming up and I'm still looking forward to what players we still have available because I think even in our deepest depth, we still seem to create good chances and come out with a one-to-one draw at full time. I have full faith in the boys. And it's also one of those things too where I wanted to bring up with you Abram and ask you, know, despite all this questionable depth that we have, our players still seem to, you know, roll out these draws and points at home and away. Are we underestimating the players that we currently have? I don't think we are, if we're talking about how you and I feel about this team. Collectively, yeah, as a whole group. with the San Jose earthquakes, not just tectonic takes. Yeah. Or maybe excluding tectonic takes. I feel like we've done a fair job with mediating, you know, emotions. you know, back to you. don't know. think that like people won. think that the general consensus is the people who are coming into the fan base right now because we're doing well, they're welcome. I'm not one of those guys who like, no, you can't be here. We want more players. We want more people to watch the quakes. And this is how that happens. Welcome. ⁓ You don't, you know, get into arguments with me like you know more about the Quicks than I do and then we'll be fine. ⁓ That's my only stipulation. But those people, I don't think realize the depth problem. I think that they're like, well, Bolaroo is just going to score a banger every day and then that's going to be fine. ⁓ And that's not necessarily what it is. I think that if, you know, people that are more connected like you and I, or like people that are in the discord that are like very, you know, ⁓ paying close attention to what's going on know that it's starting to look a little bit shaky ⁓ because ⁓ one, Timo is out, two, Nico is out. And if you ask me, know, I think our top four players right now are BOLU RU, ⁓ Preston Judd, ⁓ Nico Shakaris, and ⁓ Timo Werner. And two of those guys are out. Daniel would probably round up the top pipe for me, but I just wanted to put his name in there just so you guys know I am thinking about him. There are things to worry about. This team is very good as individual players. Everyone who is left still has a lot to offer and I think that they have a very good cohesion with each other. But we do have to as analysts look at the reality and see how much of that cohesion comes from someone like Nico Chakaris who can piece the team together flawlessly, right? ⁓ Someone like Timo Werner who, you know, probably gives the team a lot of confidence going forward when they look at like they're building out from the back and they are able to pass it to Werner or we're on the counter attack and we have him available. That fills the team with confidence. And Jack Skehan, we got to talk about, had a really good game against Minnesota coming on. It was a very hard job to to come in and then you know turn this game around like he did But he was able to do it. What were your thoughts on? Jack's games performance and filling in for Werner who you know, obviously a really big ⁓ Has really big shoes to fill Yeah, I think I had mentioned it before but Jack's game has has his moments. He's not a consistent first minute to 90th minute player that we'd see put on performances like Timo Werner, nor are we going to expect it. You know, he comes off the bench in support of either of these top players, and I think that's just how it's going to be for a little while until Skean kind of puts out more numbers per 90 than he's giving us right now. We did finish 1-1. I think he had a couple of opportunities to support the team and put the ball in the back of the net. ⁓ Unfortunately, it didn't happen. But I'm still somewhat supportive, or not somewhat, I'm fully supportive of Jack Skean and his contributions to the team. I just think if he wants a starting role, he has to do a little bit more. I think giving up the ball or maybe finding the right player to pass to inside the 18, those kinds of things will lead him to a more solidified starting role. Because I think at the moment, we're about to head into the summer transfer window and it's It seems like, you know, if Teemo's gonna be out for a while or if anyone's gonna be out at all, we may sign a... And there's no sources to this. I'm just thinking out loud here that, you know, there's a good chance that we may have another top level player coming in to provide better numbers than what, you know, Skeian is producing for us. And that's not to say Skeian's bad, but I think what we saw versus Toronto is a good average for him. ⁓ I think we could see better from him, but I'm not going to like I said expect it You know, what are your thoughts Abram? Yeah, like if game isn't the guy that you are like, hey the games on you now you go Win us the game Jack like figure it out ⁓ He is a very good piece in the puzzle that makes this team. He is very necessary to how we played He brings a lot of energy off the bench. You can't ask for more from him because he's brought a lot for, for, you know, what, what you might've expected from him, like three years ago, four years ago, probably. He, he, he is always surprising people. And I think that's kind of, that's, that's the, that's telling of like, ⁓ I didn't, I didn't know he could do that. ⁓ he, did that. I didn't know he could do that. And he's always doing that. And obviously that's a positive, but it just it goes to show that like his average game is going to be like he is he's running around, he's doing his job, but he's not making crazy things happen until he is in games where he just switches it on or or or the game fits ⁓ his ⁓ skills. He has a very particular skill set. I'm not trying to quote ⁓ taken there, but he has a very particular skill set that He does these things very well. He provides verticality very well. He's very fast. When he brought that ball down from the Niko long ball against Minnesota United, like just like a freaking birthday balloon, like out of the sky. And then pass it to Bo to get the assist for the it was a third goal of that match. You know, talking about Devon where Bo just like, OK, and ripped ripped a hole through the net for the second time that game with the left foot. Those kind of things are great. He can see those things. He can make that thing happen. But, ⁓ you know, we do have to temper our expectations with someone like Jack ⁓ and know what he can do and what he can't do. He can't just, you know, carry the entire team for a whole 90 minutes. He can be set up in a good spot and do his job. And that's why we like him here, because he's able to do that consistently or semi consistently. On the contrary, Abram. You know, I would like to praise Jack Skate because over the week when we played Minnesota United, he ended up breaking a Chris Wandolowski record in US Open Cup. Would you like to tell us a little bit about that? Well, ⁓ I believe he might have broken it when he got the second assist. what I understand is he had the most global contributions in the Open Cup beating ⁓ Wandolowski and Ronald Cerritos, which is obviously, you know, Those are two very big names in Quakes history, ⁓ and both strikers, which Jack Skean is not. So obviously a very big ⁓ honor, I think, that we can remember Jack as the guy who has this accomplishment. since we got him, he's been consistently playing in the Open Cup. ⁓ And it wasn't until a few years ago. Where he started making appearances in the first team and actually making things happen consistently ⁓ So it's really cool. I don't know if you'd ask him if he's like gonna You know print it out and put it on his wall. I think I think is very cool ⁓ but You know, I think that this puts him in in quicks history for ⁓ You know the open cup, which is obviously a very historic tournament Yeah, something that we haven't won yet, but if there's gonna be a player that maybe could take us pretty far down the way in US Open Cup, we could rely on Jack Skade because it seems like those types of tournaments is where he performs. And unlike MLS, know, there's, I'm looking at the stats here, he has two goals and one assist in 304 matches. So that's about over three games played, if my numbers are correct. 304 matches? or three hundred and sorry did i say matches i meant minutes so like three hundred that's that's a lot of matches this season ⁓ in three hundred and four minutes which is just over three games played he has two goals and one assist ⁓ which is pretty good numbers for a substitute i you know ⁓ preston judd last season came off as a substitute and scored seven goals so he's he's working his way up i know we're we're barely just passing the the one third marker of the season. So there's a lot of season left to go for him to increase these numbers. ⁓ But it is I think up to par for what you would expect to see out of a substitute. if I were to give Jack Skean for this week an out of 10 rating, I would probably give him a 6.5. I ⁓ was hoping to see more out of Toronto. This week in the Toronto game, I was like... Thought you were saying like overall in the games that were covering like combined Minnesota and Toronto I'm like six point five is way too low for the guy who got you a goal on an assist in the game in a game that was for two I think that's not good enough. So I think including including Minnesota. I'd probably give him a seven seven point five. I'll give him a Like he won us that game David like i know what i was thinking of the really kind of time in the ms again like the reason but but like if since the if you take out the the goal of the system scan have we got a penalties and we know what happened in the middle of the that don't talk to me about the big difference in that game stuff i give them a much bigger bigger score uh... but that being said it does try again does bring him down quite a bit because he it wasn't bad i don't remember him being Poor at all. It's just nothing really, you know happened. We only had ⁓ one expected goal You know, so yeah, I think that's why the seven point five kind of feels right. It's pretty high but Also kind of contributes to what we had seen in Toronto ⁓ You know ⁓ a player that we we do need actually, you know what? No two players that we need to mention obviously are Let's just get this out of the way Nico Tsoukaris Timo Werner both injured this week We're unsure of an expect expected return for both players. We're still trying to get word on that but These two guys over the course of the season has scored 18 points combined now I'm looking at the club stats for goals and assists the earthquakes are in second of with goals tied with Vancouver with 26 the earthquakes also lead the league in assists over Miami Miami has 28, the earthquakes have 32 assists. This is also including secondary assists for everyone wondering why this is such a huge number because we have secondary assists. That being said, know, Timo and Nico cover 18 of those total points, which if you're looking for wins, you have to score goals. And a lot of those goals and assists come from them, losing them for the foreseeable future. ⁓ until an unknown return date is concerning for me. ⁓ Especially because we have second place in the Supporters Shield standings right on our toes and we're going to play them this weekend versus Vancouver. I think they were a big loss to the Toronto game as well because they didn't come out with an excellent starting 11, Toronto did. I thought we could have put more goals in the back of the net, could have been more clinical. ⁓ Unfortunate that we weren't. And I think a lot of that is attributed to the absence of Nico in Teemo. You know, ⁓ did you think the same Abram or are you thinking different? I mean, Nico Shakira got the assist that got us the equalizer in that match and he was substituted in the 54th minute. you know, regardless of the assist that he was able to provide, like I said earlier, he is a huge part of the cohesion. that goes into this team and makes everyone be able to connect. is the web between everything with how he drops deep to move the ball forward to win, win the final third. He's able to connect passes ⁓ and also his long ball ability to to find somebody making a run. It's really hard to replicate, right? I think that we're lucky that ⁓ Nick Fernandez looks pretty good. ⁓ You know, I've liked what I've seen from him so far in the first team. but it's just not really... Nico has been one of the brightest players in MLS this year. Not just young players, but just fully... ⁓ Not just the Quakes either. Yeah. In the league, he has been one of the best attacking midfielders. And we're judging Nick Fernandez on a completely different scale. We're almost like a rookie. He's not quite a rookie because he played last season, but that's basically what we're looking at him through. ⁓ that scope. ⁓ It's really hard to replace what Niko does for this team. ⁓ And I think that losing him affects us more than losing Timo Werner. And Timo is very good, but we've been good without Timo, you know, thus far, where, you know, I don't think we are really prepared for what it's going to be like to play without Niko, or at least not as prepared. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think we are unequipped to face a team like Vancouver if Nico is not in the midfield because I think he provides a lot defensively. He tracks his man, he tracks back deep and he makes sure his team is well supported in the defensive third. ⁓ And he provides the buildup. From that moment, we recover possession. ⁓ you know, with his small passes, his one-twos, his ability to create triangles with his teammates and wingers and, you know, ⁓ getting out of small, ⁓ small condensed spaces ⁓ from the opposition defense. think Nico provides great coverage for that. And it's something that I don't necessarily want to compare with Jack's game because he plays at right winger, but he has played at Cam in the past. And so I just want to say, you know, like, Looking at the two players and other potential cam figures on the team, Nico is by far the best player that's able to dribble close to his body and find his way out of tight spaces under pressure. ⁓ Something that I think contributes to a lot of those goals and assists he's created along with Timo Werner. Both of them do an incredible job at keeping the ball close, finding way out. or finding a way out and being agile, know, just to take a quick turn, know, step to the left and then create, you know, three, maybe three feet of space. Things like that is what he excels at. And I think what the quakes are great at centrally. Losing him, I'm, you know, I'm unsure how much Nick Fernandez can cover. I, you know, looking at his stats, he only has 157 minutes Nick Fernandez, ⁓ zero goals so far, but he does have one assist and that came from what his, his first, one of his first games. St. Louis. ⁓ yes, came from St. Louis. ⁓ so, you know, I, I see a lot of potential in Nick and I'm glad that Bruce does too, thus, you know, giving them some, minutes at cam because I think we could see Jack's gain at cam and then push another player out wide. I would like to see what Nick can bring. I just don't really want to see it versus Vancouver versus the second top team in the league. wish we could see Nico, but unfortunate that I believe it was. out to our Discord for updating us on this and Mike for Noticing but Nico had walked back to the bus or out of the locker room in crutches. So it wasn't it wasn't a pretty sign Unfortunately for for signs to come with a tight schedule yet again, right? ⁓ no, would be for sure the ideal player to play at cam ⁓ you know, I think even there's a hot take Tectonic take for the day even if ⁓ adnan lopez was here I would take Niko right now in his current form over whatever form Anon was ever in for the Quakes. So what I know from what I've been able to get from the team is we don't have an update on Niko. They don't know yet. It is, I think, most likely a groin injury. I think I've heard that. They don't know how bad it is or how long he might be out. And that's, you know, obviously not great to hear. ⁓ But I wouldn't expect to see him back until after the World Cup break. ⁓ But in terms of replacements for Nico, I think that, you know, Nick Fernandez isn't the worst, but it's obviously not a good time for experiments against, ⁓ you know, the Vancouver Whitecaps. Bo LaRue played in the ⁓ 10 position. ⁓ He moved up and then ⁓ Ian Harks came in to ⁓ replace him ⁓ as a pivot. And so that's something that could be interesting to have LaRue play higher up and then Harks and Vieira be the ⁓ two defensive midfielders. I wouldn't hate that, ⁓ but LaRue does provide a lot coming from deep. Just being someone who is a deeper on the pitch and able to break up plays because he does have really good defensive ability and then be able to progress the ball that way. I do think you lose a little bit when you move Leroux higher up, but it might be worth it in these extraneous circumstances to move Leroux into the 10 because of his ability to not just shoot from ⁓ outside the box, but also ⁓ he is a very creative player as well. He can dribble pretty well. Probably not as ⁓ good at that as Nico is, but he is ⁓ a decent dribbler and a great passer. So I think if I'm trying to put my best team out there, I would put Ian Harks in at CDM and then move Leroux up to the 10. ⁓ But I just, I... Looking at what Bruce has done in the past, I kind of think that he's just gonna put Nick Fernandez there and keep everything else the same. ⁓ What would your preferred midfield be? This might be my tectonic takes hot take, but I would personally want to see Bo LaRue at the cam, Ian Harks in the middle, and Viera at the six. Now that we have a full week coming up of rest, I would love to push forward with that idea against Vancouver because those are three players that I am very much reliant on in the midfield at least specifically. It would be great to see Nick Fernandez come on with his high level energy that we saw versus Toronto as a substitute and you know attempt as much damage as he can in the second half. think Nick's got it in him. He's got that dog in him. No doubt about it but I don't know if he has that dog in him in the first half when everybody's got fresh legs, if that makes sense. Personally, Bolaru can do it all. And not as well as Nico, but he can do it all. Great dribbler, keeps the ball close. Unfortunately, I don't think as fast as Nico and agile as Nico, but he can do it. ⁓ He's a great replacement for Nico and... and I'll vouch for Bo's name at the cam until we can see ⁓ more impressive performances from Nick Fernandez. And that's not to say Nick's been unimpressive. I just think this team has risen to a level that's so high. We're now at the supporter shield leading, you know, we're now leading the supporter shield. So we have to expect a lot better results and performances from our players. And I... I'm not trying to shut Nick Fernandez out, but I think he just has a way to go in order to be that starting player at the 10 for a team that's leading the supporter shield, if that makes sense. Yeah. Am I wrong for that? No, I don't disagree with you. I mean, we said the same thing. You said it's a hot take, but it's the exact same thing I just said. ⁓ But I think that Nick Fernandez would disagree about not being good early on when he got his assist in like the first few minutes against St. Louis. I played fine in the first half. the rest of the game I didn't do anything else. It was only in the first few minutes. ⁓ But no, mean, regardless of that, his inexperience is... You can't do anything about it. I think that he would agree that ⁓ he's not going to be the first name on the call sheet. ⁓ And I think if LaRue can find success there, then... then it would be great to bring Fernandez in off the bench because he will still have things to prove. He does have lot of ability. He can also play. He's been utilized in ⁓ the left wing and the right wing. ⁓ Interested to see how that works. I don't mind it, but I do think that ⁓ I like how the team plays when we have quicker players in those positions. But obviously, if you need to change things around. ⁓ Nick's versatility there is really good to have. ⁓ But ⁓ yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see how Booth decides to go with the midfield because that's going to be crucial for the next few matches. ⁓ But in this, ⁓ I guess we've talked about the game in Minnesota. ⁓ know, LaRue got a brace game, got a goal and Chakaris got a goal as well. Another example of monster mode, Devon, where it looked like we were going to lose that game. And then all of a sudden we start going crazy. ⁓ Three goals within eight minutes, I believe. ⁓ Just out of nowhere. Yeah, I think Monster Mode is going to be a consistent theme here for the boys because we see it game in, game out. This is actually the first time, well, I guess we're talking against Minnesota. I'm getting one step ahead of myself. I was going to mention how we broke the three plus goal streak in Toronto, but for Minnesota specifically, yeah, know, three goals and yet again, a short span of time. think the Quakes really know how to knock opposition teams off their feet. Take advantage of it, you know, they they strive with the ball for they get the first goal in you know The other other team is kind of like staggered They're they're still frozen still and shocked as to what happened and then they go and bag another two more ⁓ I quite like it. I don't know It's been a while since we've been on the on the winning side of things like this and it's nice to see that our team and specifically if Seni Buddha is Kind of the front runner of this this monster mode ⁓ I was impressed with his selflessness with Niko Sikaris on his birthday nonetheless, ⁓ passing up the ball right in front of Drake Callender, a former Earthquakes Academy player, ⁓ and then giving Niko the goal and Buddha himself an assist. So ⁓ yeah, really exciting stuff to see and I know in games to come not... Maybe not for Vancouver. I can see Vancouver being a low-scoring game and we'll talk about that in a minute But games after that, I think we we may yet again see more monster mode Yeah, I think that I've told a lot of people about Monster Mode and like how because it's not like, oh, this sounds cool. It's like it's a quantifiable thing that's been happening where we score two, three goals in a span, you know, inside of 10 minutes. We did it against LAFC. We did it again here at Minnesota. Unfortunately, I think probably because of Niko Chigure's injury, not because of it, it wasn't on him. But we couldn't, we didn't really have the ability to make it happen when he wasn't on the field. And obviously losing him was a really big shock, a big blow to Evelyn's confidence because of the philosophy that he inspires in his team. But who are you looking to step up? ⁓ in terms of ⁓ being a leader on the pitch and making this team continue to keep fighting? In terms of stepping up and being a leader on the pitch, I kind of want to toss that hat to Oseni Buda. I know he's provided a lot numerically for us. I maybe wish to see more of him as an overall leader. Kind of like in a captain's role. I'd like to see him kind of step up and take on the leadership role from a captain for Asenibuta. But I'm, you know, looking at this list right now of our current players, there's a lot of players that are absent on the left-hand side. ⁓ I think, you know, maybe Benji. ⁓ He provides leadership-level numbers, but I don't... necessarily know how much he gives off as, you know, a vocal leader on the field. It would be nice to see Buddha and Benji kind of step up in that front. I know Viera is a really good leader and the team has voted him to be a captain. ⁓ And I think same thing with Ian Harks. I know Ian Harks and Viera, both midfielders, both voted as captains. What's going on? I don't focus in the focusing on me, so I'm upset. was like, are you? Did I say something wrong? Are you trying to like hit me on the screen? Stop, Devin! No Ian Harks! I'm kidding. ahead. And maybe a substitute leadership role would be from Paul Murray. I think we can extract more from him. I know we saw a lot of him last week and we had, you know, we'd given him his praises and talked about him a lot. ⁓ Maybe we can see a lot more from him as a leader on as a substitute role. Is there anyone you're looking for? Either on the bench or as a starter for maybe finding a leadership. I mean, I think Buddha, because he seems like a really shy dude. ⁓ That's my impression anyways. I think Buddha is a really good child to really help push us forward. ⁓ I wasn't super impressed against Toronto. He didn't have a bad. game per se but ⁓ for the goal that shall we scored buddha's the one directly in front of him and just my dad pointed it out that he could have probably done more ⁓ to stop or get in the way whatever it is ⁓ and he's probably right but you know i'm not saying that we didn't win this game because there's any buddha that that doesn't feel right to say But Ian Harks if we if we get what we want Devin and get Boleroo at the cam and Ian Hark comes in to replace him at the eight or six eight hybrid ⁓ I think that would be really nice because of the energy that Ian always brings He is somebody who's able to drive the team forward with how how he is on the pitch as a person ⁓ I would love to see that ⁓ work and be effective ⁓ I'd also like to see Muni because that's the thing that I I've heard is growing in his game I've heard I can't remember where maybe it was Preston who said it but Muni is becoming more vocal ⁓ Robert did also become more vocal but Muni is somebody who is a leader in our back line and You know if he could feel that way if he could feel like this is my back line. I have to lead these guys ⁓ it could be really important for how this team does ⁓ down the stretch. We're coming into a very hard judge of games, and ⁓ the defense is what's going to really paint ⁓ how we look at that. ⁓ In hindsight, once we're at the other end of it, we're going to look at how the defense held up and how many goals we conceded. ⁓ Whereas we can... Be more forgiving of the attack for not scoring that many goals when Timo Werner isn't available when Nikos Keris is available You know what? I mean, it's a different kind of story in terms of who is fit even though Dewan Jones is absent right now Moving on if you didn't have anything to say on that. No, I have one I have one more thing to say for so for any Toronto fans that may find this podcast in the future and they're looking to this game for analysis and maybe how we determine their team and their performances. Can I just say like, why is Daniel Shaloway always out to get us? It seems like this game versus Toronto, he had a mindset to like murder us, to put us in the ground six feet under. I don't know about you, Abram, but anytime we play Daniel Shaloway, he just hates the earthquakes. And I think there was one quote after the game where he was like, yeah, the earthquakes never. deserve ⁓ to win or get a point ever again or something like that. And it's like he had a chip on his shoulder to just eliminate us from the start. Yeah, it's been a few years since that quote came out where he said, Greg, not deserve points ever. Like, bro, this isn't high school. What are we doing? ⁓ And obviously, I guess that we played like a very defensive game ⁓ and that pissed him off. but be better, I guess, I don't know. ⁓ It has been really frustrating to continue to play Shalloway and then his grudge eclipses even the team that he's playing for. It goes past the team, it follows with him to Toronto. He almost scored a brace if it weren't for Reid Roberts' slide bicycle clearance off the line, which I'm amazed we haven't talked about, but it's kind of like... It's been covered. It's like we've seen it a hundred times. It was amazing. ⁓ He spoke about it by all media outlets. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, it was great. I wish that we were in a position for him to have to do that for us to stay in games. It is kind of like how I see it. I'm like, I think it's great that he got us a point. Read Robbers won us a point that day. But. And I think Osorio too was pretty dangerous against us. And that was something that we had talked about pregame. Both Osorio, Xiaolui, and I believe Edwards were pretty dangerous against the earthquakes. And I was impressed with all those, but ⁓ something before we move on to the game versus Vancouver is a little shout out to the rest of the league and what matchups may have come out or the results of important matchups for the earthquakes. The Whitecaps had played the actually we'll save the Whitecaps for last. ⁓ LAFC played San Diego both finished in a 2-2 draw. Both teams despite San Diego being pretty far down the ladder in the Western Conference dropped points as well as LAFC dropping points. ⁓ We also had Sporting Kansas City draw with Seattle. Seattle's a pretty hot team, so I'm pretty I was very thankful that Sporting Kansas City came through. clutch for us. And then last but not least, or maybe least, LA Galaxy and Vancouver finished to a 1-1 draw. And quickly Nashville drew to Philly 0-0, which is insane because it's Philly and Nashville is Nashville. But in terms of the supporters group, or the supporters shield standings, it's important for the Earthquakes fans to know that. But yeah. Revisiting Vancouver versus Galaxy Abram. We had just watched the highlights before starting this podcast. What did you see out of that? ⁓ I think that probably a lot of teams are struggling right now ⁓ Because we you know, obviously are disappointed in our result against Toronto who are not You know super high on the table, but that's a similar thing that ⁓ Vancouver must be feeling ⁓ to drop points against l a galaxy who is i believe nine in the the western conference something like that ⁓ tent actually ⁓ you know they they polish it one again on paper that the game that they win ⁓ but ⁓ j t martinkowski got a few keys saves ⁓ so yeah obviously shout out to him for continuing to make saves for us that help us out ⁓ obviously i'd and never want to see Galaxy do well and I guess a draw is the best of both worlds in that sense but obviously it would have been nice to to have more of a buffer between us and Vancouver especially because they have a game in hand so if they were able to you know win that game in hand ⁓ obviously if we were to take out the context of the fact that we are playing them next if they were to win the game in hand we both had 11 points then they would you know, be tied with us at the top of the table and it looks like they would be beating us on goal difference. ⁓ So that's just, that's the state of things right now. But we do look good and I think that we shouldn't take the result of this Toronto game too seriously because a lot of teams struggled. A lot of teams are having issues right now with their fielding a fully fit squad. and playing the kind of football that they probably would like to play. Yeah, there's a lot of roster management at play for all teams across the league and it seems like it's catching up with with a few others at the top of the table. And I think LAFC is taking the brunt of that given that they have CONCACAF Champions Cup for the next like or double game weeks for the next four weeks. So they're they're kind of in a bit of bit of peril. And even their their managers has come out in a couple of press conference and conferences and questioned the status of these match fixtures. Wow, I can't speak English today. And it's something that I'm kind of thankful for, for the earthquakes, that we don't really have that congestion and that, you know, we're not involved in Champions Cup with this level of depth that we have and that we're able to maintain somewhat of a ⁓ consistent starting 11. Yes, we lost Teemo Verner. Yes, we lost Nico Tsukeras, but... I'm thankful we didn't lose much more than that apart from Dewan Jones, you know, we're going to see Victor Kostov back shortly, hopefully. And we don't really have many other injuries besides that. So yeah, if we're going against Vancouver this coming weekend, I think it's also notable to point out Vancouver is playing their next, what, seven games away. So there's a very good plausibility that they're dropping more Points in this month than we will and I'm not saying we won't drop that many points as Vancouver But I think they just they have more of an opportunity to drop points than we do and I Think you know that that alone Makes me feel comfortable at the top of the table that some of these other teams May have it harder than we do Do you think that same Abram? I think we have it pretty hard ⁓ I'll be honest I don't disagree that other teams have a hard to which does bring solace of like okay, so yeah, if Vancouver drops points that helps in our favor I am so worried about Nashville and how they're doing LA OC having so many games, you know if they decide to Put on a run in MLS and prioritize that that might you know hurt us, but I doubt that they do that but what scares me right now ⁓ Is in the next one two three four five games We only get a maximum break of four days between those games. So starting May 9th May 9th to May 23rd, ⁓ we have ⁓ Vancouver on the 9th then four days later on the 13th. We have Seattle then three days later. We have Dallas Then four days later. We have Colorado Then three days later, we have Portland. And that's really back to back to back to back. And some of these teams are really rough. Going away to Colorado, that's going to be really hard to do. The altitude's always hard. Going away to Seattle, I don't know how much we win at Seattle historically, but they are the team that beat us. Apparently a lot to put them in the top 10 of our total points. Oh, I guess so, right. ⁓ Devin is referencing the ⁓ Earthquakes Tenable that we just put out, Tectonic Tenable. Go watch that if you haven't. It's a little trivia show. Devin spent about a month ⁓ editing it. ⁓ We appreciate him for that. I wasn't going to do that. That was a really big job. But yeah, after the Vancouver game, we have Seattle, who is a team that beat us. And it's away. Very hard. And it's a midweek game. So that's a tough... ⁓ Other tough game we had Dallas. there a top two games that you're least looking forward to and is there a top two games that you're most looking forward to with this upcoming schedule? Over the entirety of the rest of the season? Just pre-World Cup. Devin, I can't answer that. Least is... ⁓ I'm not, I need a break already. I think we need to start the break now, cause I'm not looking forward to any of these games, to be honest. ⁓ The Wednesday game against Seattle is the one I'm least looking forward to. ⁓ Next up to that is Portland on the 23rd, because it's away. We've never won in Portland. Then I'd guess Dallas and like as my most, like looking forward to, even though I'm not looking forward to it. I want to say Colorado because I'm not looking forward to that either, but maybe Vancouver just because of what that could mean if we win it, I guess. How about you? Do you have an answer for that? I think my least favorite game is going into this because I think Seattle. I'm not too worried about Seattle. Last time we visited Seattle, we lost three to two. So it's not that bad of a game given last season was pretty ⁓ pretty terrifically horrible. I think we will have a better chance away at Seattle than we will most other games. So my top two least favorite games in this short condensed fixtures, ⁓ I think would be number one, Portland Away, given that we just never won at Portland Away in MLS. And number two, Weirdly enough, Vancouver at home. I don't like the loss of Timo Werner and Nico Siqueiras in arguably the best and strongest team. You know, we're not going to have either of guys for any of the other games either, right? I certainly hope we can for just one or two other, but yeah, we're not. I think, you know, based on the fact that we haven't heard back about Nico, I have an inkling. that maybe they're trying to decipher whether or not he gets surgery. I don't know. But ⁓ my two favorite games I'm looking forward to, I wouldn't say favorite, is number one, Colorado away. They just don't look like a cohesive team at the moment. They look strong, but they don't look cohesive. And then number two is Dallas. I always love our matchups against Dallas for some reason. And the fact that they have a golden boot candidate. right now says a lot about their team, but also we collectively have not a golden boot leading squad, but it's just a strong overall squad that you can see goals come from anywhere. So that's, that's my top two for each. Yeah. I'm looking at Colorado now. Uh, I didn't realize when I was looking at it, I should have realized that I just wasn't paying attention, uh, that that will be the open cup match. Um, so I am looking forward to the next round of the Open Cup. ⁓ Colorado is in bad form right now. They lost. ⁓ They haven't won in the last five. I guess it counts as a win against ⁓ in the Open Cup for them against ⁓ with the switchbacks. Yeah, that counts as a win because of the penalties. But ⁓ in regular time, they haven't won in the last five. So that looks good. But again, Colorado is a hard place to play. ⁓ It's gonna be really tough, know, regardless of how we feel about these fixtures. I'm sure that ⁓ the team is looking at these with dread because it's some hard game coming up. ⁓ But I know that, you know, knowing this Quicks team, they're going to have a strong mentality going into it and play to the best of their ability. ⁓ There will be a lot of depth that needs to be called upon. I'm wondering if there's anyone from the Quicks 2 team that they might be wanting to call up to get more minutes. ⁓ Personally, I am curious about how Cajun Spivey might do ⁓ as a, you know, maybe a winger for like 15 minutes just to give some people a few minutes off. I don't think he's quite ready to be in the first team, but if we get more injuries, it could be really bleak. ⁓ Is there anyone from the second team that you might be looking at? Absolutely 100 % no doubt Edwin Mendoza. I would love to see an Edwin Mendoza performance or just an appearance for the earthquakes. I've watched them for a little bit and he seems to be like the number one guy on Quakes 2. The guy that most teams or most of the players rely on for good performances and leadership advice and just overall you know, skills coming directly from him. I think he deserves a couple of first team minutes here and there. Maybe not during important games like Vancouver or Seattle, but put him in first as Colorado and see what he can do for the first half and then sub him out at halftime, something like that. ⁓ Personally, this might also be a hot take. I can see Mendoza playing much better than Gonzales, than Jonah and having a bigger impact per 90. ⁓ I don't know. Abram, do you think that's the right opinion? I mean, I've been raving on Mendoza since forever. It's been a few years since he's won a song at Clicks 2 for his debut. ⁓ And I really like how he plays. I think that he could do a job more than a Cajun Spivey, who I called upon. ⁓ He's had injuries somewhat recently and I guess I'm looking at this set of pictures and I'm like, he could get hurt, but anyone could get hurt, right? We have such a narrow squad in that aspect. He could impress a lot of people. People were surprised with his performance in the preseason when everyone thought he was Bolaroo in the third match because he was winning the number 34 just I because I don't know why he had to wear that number. guess his number was threw off the commentators as well. So yeah. The commentators fully thought he was Bolero. Just left-footed Bolero. Which he is not. ⁓ Yeah, that would be really good. think that's probably the first team, the first player that I would call up that hasn't already been called up. know, Tomo Allen is probably a little bit too new. I think that you would probably go Adimabua first. ⁓ And then, you know. maybe Tomo later on. ⁓ But yeah, it's not, I'm really hoping everyone could stay fresh, stay healthy. I'm going to inquire with the Earthquakes about ⁓ Nico and ⁓ Timo Werner to try and get a status update on them because obviously that's going to be crucial for our season. ⁓ Devin, I'm doing closing thoughts. Do you have anything? ⁓ Yes, very small update because last week we had mentioned that we were going to do an interview with Niko Sikaris. However, that injury has changed the trajectory of that interview and we'll be looking for another Earthquakes player as well as Tomo Allen later this week. So keep your eyes peeled. If you want that first sneak peek, that sneak preview into the interview with Tomo or any other player that we have. We have our Patreon down below, sign up. You get a sneak preview before we make it public. ⁓ And you know, you also have the influence to ask specific questions to those players and interviews and press conferences. So join the Patreon for exclusive content. yeah, that's all from me, Abram. Thank you, very well said. ⁓ Like Devin said, people on the Patreon get the interview like within the hour after it is finished recording, we record it and then I release the unedited version for the Patreon members to watch and then the non-patreon members get a more edited version then the full version will be released about 24 hours after that. Yeah unfortunately as you said Devin we aren't gonna be able to talk to Niko because of his injury we are working on a replacement for that. We'll know tomorrow. Today, Monday, we'll know on Tuesday ⁓ who we might be talking to. Obviously, really unfortunate we couldn't talk to Nico because he's one of my favorite players on the team and I know that's the case for Devin as well. We hope he has a speedy recovery, not just for the sake of the center of the earthquakes, but for Nico, I know that this is something that Especially being a groin injury, it's been a recurring thing for him. just having a recurring injury like that is one of the worst things for an athlete to have to go through. So we hope all the best for Niko. Anything to add? Yeah, mean, he is my favorite Earthquakes player since Wandalowski retired from the very beginning. So the fact that we signed him at 15 years old, and the way he's, you know, top of the team right now, holding that number 10, says a lot about who he is as a character and as a player and his growth. It's only a matter of time until Nico moves on from the earthquakes and heads to greener pastures somewhere in potentially Europe, whether it be Eredivisie or, you know, maybe Ligue 1 in France. I don't necessarily see him going to a Premier League or Championship club. ⁓ I just think that the French League, Bundesliga and the Dutch League kind of make more sense in terms of his playstyle. that being said, yeah, disappointed we're not getting Nico and maybe in the future we can change the trajectory of that interview. But ⁓ yeah, for now, ⁓ well... We'll figure something out. Yeah only for the audio listeners. No, not video the visualist. I you get no interviews We're make sure we're actually just upload a black screen so you guys can't see we're only uploading on Spotify Forget the video forget YouTube speaking of Spotify ⁓ Those have ⁓ we've been getting really good amount of views here on the YouTube very happy about that But it seems like people forgot again that we have a Spotify. So shout out to our Spotify ⁓ and if you want to listen You know, without having to watch the show, we design it so that both are possible. Make sure to do that if that's something that works better for you. ⁓ We'll be back to preview or give a recap of the Vancouver game and a preview of the Dallas game because we won't be able to do it for Seattle who play the day before we upload. ⁓ But until then, go Quakes. Go Quakes.