OK, so I was walking, not running, but still. And the tree was way bigger. Karma for saying we won’t make the playoffs? Maybe. But enough administrative make-fun-of-the-blogger stuff…

Before my near-fatal accident (kidding), I remember something about us playing a game tonight. Luckily, the DVR is armed and ready.

Supposed to be a high of 85 degrees today, so it should be a perfect night for soccer. The one thing I ask for this match, from players, coaches, fans, etc. is this: NO EXCUSES. Like Ian said, this is finally it. We still control our own destiny. I do sincerely believe that we can do enough to get into the playoffs, but we just need to execute both on offense and defense. Nicolas, Jason, tighten up. Darren, more of the same. (though don’t get confused, you are not the MVP of this league. More on that later). Nedley – just do something. Set up a goal. Give Rocha an elbow like Moreno. I don’t care, just something.

I tend to make sure I stay pretty emotionally stoic in the pre-game of matches, but I’m awaiting this match at a fever pitch.

FINAL: Quakes 3, Dallas 2

Yes, I predicted a Quakes win. Now don’t prove me wrong. I am having enough headaches as it is.

I wasn’t quite as confident as Melissa to start out the season, but I did think we had an outside chance of making the playoffs. I didn’t think we’d be quite as offensively impotent as we were.  But hey, kudos to the boys for sticking together and keeping us in a position where we can make this late season miracle run, many times we were unlucky not to get a win or did enough to deserve a draw instead of a win. 

Melissa did a pretty good preview so I’m just going to add a few cents (or at least loose change) to it:

* The Return of Kamara: When he left, I said: “watch, now he’s going to find his scoring touch and come back to put a couple in the net against us when we play Houston again”.  I was right on the first part and hopefully I’ll be wrong on the second.  My girlfriend always didn’t like when I got down on Kamara for his lack of scoring, touch, etc..  Last Saturday, she was distraught as I laid into Grabavoy in a similar manner.  Yes, indeed, the “new Kamara” is born.

* The Ghost is Laid to Rest?: Have we finally gotten over the stealing of our team?  Now that we have our new bona fide heroes in Huckerby, O’Brien, Hernandez, etc., does it take some of the edge off?  I think it definitely does, but in another way it just makes it weirder when you see Huckerby squaring off against Mullan, like backing your new love against your old flame. 

* The Heart Attack Award Goes To…: Our annoying tendency in the past few games to stand back once we’ve gained a lead and let the opposition have their way with us.  We’ve been lucky so far, but it will burn us at some point.

And finally, here’s the Quakes wishlist for the other games this week:

* Chivas – New England: Snap out of it Revs!  Let’s hope for a REVS win

* Columbus – Toronto: Toronto’s our competition, so let ‘em have it CREW.

* Los Angeles – Kansas City: Really, the best result is a draw, but no way I’m hoping for that…  Kill them, WIZARDS!

* Dallas – D.C.: A draw is the best result, but we can settle for a D.C. win.

* Salt Lake – Red Bulls: A draw is the best result.

* Chicago – Colorado: Do the business, FIRE.

So What Did I Miss? Good lord, it’s a completely different team out there on the field. Different attitude and different faces. You know, this actually brings up something that’s been bugging me lately. With so much change and excitement happening around here, it seems a bit weird that Mr DuNord dude hardly ever mentions it on his News blog. He has a little section for each MLS team but the Quakes hardly ever appear. Just something on my mind. Oh and Houston are in first place and San Jose are fourth. San Jose whooped Houston’s ass earlier in the season but now the Dreamsicles have a new and improved offense, so any predictions from this peanut gallery are a bit of a crapshoot.

Speaking of Offense… Check out the big brain on Kei Kamara! Houston’s new goal scoring machine is all sorts of paired up with Houston’s old goal scoring machine and… uh… another striker who somehow seemed to fail under Yallop’s tutelage. While I doubt Kamara and Jaqua are coming back for revenge, at the moment, these two are like the freakin floodgates and the Quakes defense will most certainly have their work cut out for them.

Speaking of Defense… Jay Hernandez is proving to be by far the best pickup from the Expansion Draft. That skinny little guy will take on and beat players three times his size. And after watching the defensive woes Chivas have been experiencing all season, I seriously wonder why Preki let him go. This situation actually brings me to assume our Jay’s trade is perhaps the best thing to happen to him since Bob Bradley. It seems Hernandez and the Yallop system fit together perfectly and as long as he keeps playing for Frank, he’s probably only going to get better.

Who is Out? Ramiro Corrales & Gavin Glinton. A few months ago, those injuries would have meant insta-loss. But hey, now the Quakes have something new and somewhat strange but mostly wonderful: depth. We’ve got Ned and Kelly waiting to start while that Lima fellow is more than capable of holding down the middle with our Ronnie and whatshisfaceIalreadyforgot English dude on the wings. Oooh, I love me some midfield for sure.

Who is Gonna Be the Man of the Match? Frank Yallop. The guy is seriously pulling off a miracle here and I completely agree with Louis Bueno. If the Quakes make the playoffs, Frank could be a shoe-in for Coach of the Year. Would that make it nod number three? And since this season’s trend seems to be “our team sucks balls so let’s fire the coach,” I’ve got nothing but mad love for Doyle and the Quakes ownership group for not freaking out when the chips were down. Also, props to Frank and the Gang (you know, The Scooby Gang) for knowing all the crazy messed up MLS rules, understanding all the crazy messed up MLS rules, and maneuvering through all the crazy messed up MLS rules. Which brings me to another bit worth mentioning. A few weeks ago, when that mass firing mess happened down in LA Galaxy-land, I was discussing it with some friends who brought up a very good point. The actual number of qualified and experienced candidates for a MLS head coaching job is so small, Bruce Arena only had to sit back and relax for a few months before a club came knocking. And here we are in the Yay, witnessing a pretty miraculous turn around from a team who spent much of the season dwelling in last place. So if this keeps up, Ian Russell and Ronnie Ekelund will likely never have to worry about employment ever again. Damn. If only I was so lucky.

YES! For the Last Time, WE ARE WITH YOU As an Oakland resident, I’ve noticed The Town seriously does not fuck around when it comes to The Raiders. I hope that, while the numbers are likely a bit smaller, the same kind of passion and support exists in San Jose, for their MLS team. And I honestly don’t know if that’s true because all of my recent trips to San Jose consisted of me getting stuck in traffic then losing my mind inside a data center on Zanker Road. Speaking of, what the hell IS that stretch of no man’s land on the 880—err Nimitz between Milpitas and Fremont? I think I just found the Bermuda Triangle. (and yes, we totally called it milpenis when we were kids which is exactly what I think about every time I pass through)

Crapshoot Prediction? We win, I have a fun & relaxing time at the game, then my friends and I go somewhere else and get wasted. Also, that English dude (what’s his name again?) will score at least once.

Ok, so I think that’s it. Back in the day of only a few months ago, I used to post random other not-necessarily-soccer-related crap to do in the Bay Area but Summer to Fall is the time when a sizeable portion of the population around here spends a week in the Nevada desert then brings pounds upon pounds of radioactive dust back with them. So we are currently living in the post playa month which thankfully has it’s own term: decompression. And many people I know are off doing whatever it is they do when they want to decompress right now.

(Sean & Ian, COME BACK! Everyone misses you! The place just isn’t the same without you! For reals. You guys should totally write game previews that kick this preview’s ass. Just sayin’. I’m out.)

Warning: Tommy from Quinzee uses bad language in video. And in the link I just gave.

A few weeks back, I might have agreed with Tommy. But does anyone find the irony in the near empty stadium behind that “MLS = Joke” sign?

Enough with rubbing salt in wounds. Lets move forward.

The Ultras, along with scattered members of Casbah, ClubQuake, and anyone else trying to make the trip down, will be rolling 50-something deep down into The House That Phil Build. I had thought about putting this up for YouTube Thursday, but as funny and awesome as it is, I refuse to allow that much puke green and taco shell yellow onto this site. So instead, I give you this:

Props for the music. That was the tipping point.

Oh yeah, prediction: We win.

And to conclude, for my travelling Terremotistas, here is a song for you. Give ‘em hell.

The Coasters – Down In Mexico

Today, I prepare (NSFW) for a MLS tripleheader. First, KC/DC, then Houston/Colombo, and then Chivas/Chicago for the nightcap. Quick note: Guerrero and Vide are both starting for DC.

But I digress. Let’s get focused.

Kinda makes you feel like punching a puppy, huh.

Again my laziness on getting around to posting this has shot me in the foot, as Jay Hipps took the words right out of my fingers. I’ll go ahead and call this a must-win, as any chance, however small, of making the playoffs depends on tomorrow’s game. I wish I had more to say, but the fact is, we have begun finally building a cohesive unit, and we can’t expect it to be running on all cylinders right away.

1-1. Goal from Sealy. Please prove me wrong boys, we need all three.

I know I’m usually relatively conservative on my predictions here, but tomorrow’s match is easy to call. It’s a Quakes win. You may be thinking to yourself ‘Well Sean, how can you say that? We haven’t won a league match since June 7!’ and you may very well have a point, but there only one stat I care about right now:

1.

That’s the number of league matches we won in April, May, June, and July. And we have yet to win one in August. So the time is now. Quakes win. You heard it hear first.

A guess I should say a few words about Kamara, though Ian did swell on covering that yesterday. I think we got away with robbery getting allocation scrill and a first round draft pick. Regardless of the cash money, I would bet that we can/will trade the draft pick for an established vet, hopefully one that can produce a bit more than Kei.

When I think about the Kei Kamara Era in San Jose, the one thing that sticks out is his goal celebration dance. Perhaps it sticks out because I didn’t get to see it very often, so I paid close attention when I did catch a glimpse. So this week’s Song of the Week is dedicated to Kei, his goal celebration, and his entire continent.

I would consider myself a pretty close follower of African soccer. A couple stories that I’m sure have not gotten the attention they deserve:

1) Aresenal defender Kolo Toure has contracted malaria after a trip home. This is serious stuff. Potentially fatal.
2) Newcastle striker Obefemi Martin’s mother was killed in an oil tanker accident. Sad stuff there as well.

So, with my thoughts going out to Toure, Martins, and in bidding farewell to Kamara, our song of the week is none other than a cover of Toto’s “Africa”, done by Detroit-based hip-hop artist Zo! and Phonte of North Carolina-based Little Brother. They have put out an album chalk-full of RnB, synthesizer-filled covers of great songs from the 80s. Been on my rotation all week.

Zo! and Tigallo – Africa (Toto cover)

We’ll lose.

OK, technically not two words, but still. People will be expecting us to come flying out of the gates with The Three Jokers, but building a team takes time. These guys need to get used to playing with one another. Besides that, Toronto is awesome at home, and we can’t play on turf. So there.

2-1. Blame Canada.

EDIT: Looks like you can watch the CBC feed of the game streaming on CBC Sports. But you have to use a proxy because they only want Canucks to watch. Boo.

UPDATE: I think I have finally got the match on Justin.tv. And its the HDNet feed. I think.

Preview: We will win.

Now that that’s over, let me rant a little bit (because what else are blogs for?) about Comcast. With the All-Star game 12 days away, you could make a case that we are just about at the halfway point of the season. More or less. So why, when I ordered DirectKick this morning, did they charge me the full $80 dollars, and not a pro-rated … rate? Am I missing something here? I really don’t think it would be too much work to do some sort of pro-rating system, even if its just cutting it in half for the second half of the season.

But I digress. $80 poorer, but with food and beer in my hand, I am ready to go. Next 10 of 15 at home, with 9 at Buck Shaw, the season starts now.

Go Quakes.

Prediction: DC 3 Quakes 1

Tino Nunez loves pandas.

SF on the dime.