Susannah Colins, Calen Carr, Bobby Warshaw
Susannah Colins: We love a little Cali Clasico. Don’t we, Calen Carr?
Calen Carr: Yeah, [Guillermo] Barros Schelotto came out and said, “This was a revenge game.” Well it started off so well for the home team. Rolf Feltscher, but then it was one-way traffic. 14 saves from David Bingham, but Danny Hoesen gets the last one from a Vako pass. Nice goal there.
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SC: Time now for The Headline, and that is San Jose making a big statement in the Cali Clasico. They take down the Galaxy for the second-straight time. They sweep the season series for the first time in 18 years. They’re on fire right now.
Bobby Warshaw: The Galaxy were the better team in the first half though. Yes, there was a 3-1 score line, but the Galaxy, who had just played San Jose, lost to San Jose a couple of weeks ago, kind of figured out the formula. They found a way to get Jonathan Dos Santos the ball, they pulled San Jose apart, but somewhere around that 15 to 20-minute mark, it turned into all one-way traffic for San Jose. Danny Hoesen got the winner, and then … I may or may have heard Taylor Twellman, on today’s ESPN Broadcast, say that Vako should be in the MVP, in the non-[Carlos] Vela MVP race. Lets just put it that way.
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CC: Well the Galaxy didn’t do themselves any favors … Rolf Feltscher just seems to [be] standing, watching. I mean they were just so downtrodden, I think because of the waves of pressure that san Jose was putting on them. But this looked a little bit like the Galaxy defense last year. I would be concerned if I were them.
SC: Okay, so here. Check this out. The stats for San Jose since April 1st. They’re tied for second in wins, second in goals against per game, third in points per game, and sixth in goals per game. Bobby, is this level of success they have had since the beginning of April, is it sustainable for the San Jose team?
BW: That’s a good question because you look back to last year, remember Orlando [City SC] won a few games last year in a row at one point before turning out to not be very good. This year, Columbus Crew [SC] get off to a really hot start. LA Galaxy won a bucket of games at one point. And they get exposed a little bit. This is a cool thing that happens in soccer. It’s one of my favorite part about the sport. It’s that you can find points, you can find wins, you can move up the leader board without playing well, but on the flipside, you often do get exposed in the end. Your quality, the general ability of your performance ends up rising to top. And I would say that the San Jose Earthquakes are one team that both play well, and their performances match their results. They’re not just getting wins while playing poorly. They do everything well. Their transitions attacking, their transitions defensively, their possession. The man-marking we’ve talked enough about. Calen, when I watch this team, they do everything every single phase of soccer well. I’ve seen no reason for that to stop.
CC: Well they have some real belief in them to it. There’s some confidence going through. I think the system took not long to do it. It sounded like it was going to be a longer-term project, and it’s come fruition a lot better. But [Chris] Wondo[Lowski] played a big role in getting the confidence back within the group with his goals. And then from there, it really has been a group effort … Vako looks like a whole new player. Danny Hoesen coming in, getting goals. I do have questions though, If you were to ask any of this team right now, is looking at the timeline of the year that this streak has come in, and it has been a busy stretch where a lot of teams besides the Earthquakes have lost a lot of players due to international absences. So, I think this has always been a good time for them, especially with the style that they play, this relentless pressure system, where they’re able to really overpower teams, that will suit them. I do think you will have to see; can they sustain this? That’s the big question for me. When you get to August, when you get to September. Can they keep that same energy, that same spirit in the group? Even if the result might not always be at the same level.
SC: Well Bobby Warshaw tweeted out our poll question for the week. We wanted to know who you thought is the Coach of the Year so far? And last week, it was Bobby Bradley just running away with it; but look at this; Matias Almeyda, sneaking his way up there, giving him some competition.
BW: You obviously have to account for the season that LAFC have had. On pace to set pretty much every single record, but you also have to take into account expectation. You look at that roster, you look at Carlos Vela, you look at Diego Rossi, Mark-Anthony Kaye. Weren’t there a lot of coaches who would’ve made this LAFC team very good? I mean, how many coaches could do what Jim Curtin has done with [the] Philadelphia [Union], could do what Matias Almeyda has done. With coach of the year, you have to factor in average against expectation.
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SC: Alright, Bobby. It’s about that time of the evening. Your defensive skills of the week.
BW: That’s right! The theme this week, Susannah, is last second tackles. And not necessarily because you, yourself, messed up. We don’t like those. But when you help your teammate, here we see Tommy Thompson, he misreads the pass, but here comes Guram Kashia. The last second tackle on [Uriel] Antuna to save the day. He stays mentally focused, he tracks back. He times it perfectly. Saves a goal, keeps it at [a] one goal difference and we know what happened from there.
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SC: Alright guys, time to open up the voting for Player of the Week. Who do you think it should be? Vako, Gerso Fenandes, Vito Mannon, Jefferson Savarino …
CC: I would lean Vako on this one. I just thought his performance against the Galaxy was outstanding and has been one of the key figures for San Jose’s emergence in the west.
You can view the whole segment here.
