Captain Mo’ and His Merry Quakes

By: Sean | June 8th, 2008

I’m not really sure where to start here, so let’s just see where this goes…

The Good:
* Johnson. Although, in my eyes, this is two games in a row where he has disappeared after the 60th or 70th minute. Food for thought.
* Cunliffe. Could he be the point man to hold up the ball that Kirovski was supposed to be?
* Gray. Outstanding match. Let’s hope we don’t have to move him to right back for the Gals match (more on that below). Would be man of the match, if not for…
* Ronnie O. Silly Columbo. If you give O’Brien enough time to stop the ball, step back, smell the cow pies, pick up some streamers, have a pint, and then serve the ball up, you will pay. Simple as that. Looked very good tracking back on D in the dying minutes as well.
* Hernandez. Very solid in the center of defense. I would like to see him push Cochrane for playing time in the middle, but that leaves out right side pretty barren (more on that below).

The Bad:
* Grabavoy. Sorry dwsharks, another disappearing act in my book. In a game in which we had long spells of possession, and quite a few chances, how many times did you hear Nedley’s name called?
* Riley. OK. I’ll take the blame for this one. Riley was pretty horrible. Deservedly sent off. His first yellow was pretty pedestrian, but he should have been carded for his bitch-fit afterwards regardless. I just hope Garcia is healthy by next week, because it would be a shame to have to move Gray after such a good outing.
* Hejduk. Shut up.
* Kirovski. Are we sure he actually made it on to the field? I’m thinking Frank did the sub, but forgot to tell Jovan to stop warming up and get on the field. I am thinking he’s still jogging up and down the sideline as you read this.
* The referee. Consistently inconsistent.

Now don’t get me wrong, this was a good performance on the road, and we deserved the three points. BUT. My question is this: If O’Brien is not on the field, do we draw 0-0? I say yes. Not to harp on this any longer, but we need to be able to establish a sustained attack through the middle of the field. He’s a great player, but if we rely too much on O’Brien, we will be in trouble.

Stuff to look forward to this week: A comparison of the first 10 matches of each Quakes season since 1996, a look at the 2000 team to see if the 2008 edition is really that similar, and much more. At that’s just from me! Who knows what Ian has up his sleeve.