Chivas USA Skunk San Jose 2-0

There’s a great Japanese movie I watched several times in the dorms in college. It was simply called Ping Pong and it was about Ping Pong (surprise!). It was the first time I had ever heard the word skunk used as a verb, and it meant when your opponent completely dominates you in a shutout or lopsided victory. While the Quakes weren’t the victims of a lopsided scoreline, the game felt a lot like getting skunked in terms of game play.

Chivas had all around better stats than the Quakes in nearly every category. They had greater possession, out passed, out shot and out worked San Jose all night. San Jose played a good 10-15 minutes at the start of the second half but in a 90 minute game that work is meaningless unless you can score 2 or 3 goals. Luckily for a numbers guy like me the MLS website has started to keep track of statistical numbers on their MatchCenter page for all the games. So here’s some numbers from both teams that I think are telling of why we played so poorly tonight.

Passing
The Quakes (with the exception of Jon Busch) completed 216 passes out of 341. That’s a completion rate of 63%.
Chivas (with the exception of Dan Kennedy) completed 377 passes out of 497. That’s a completion rate of 76%.

The Quakes’ midfielders completed only 57 out 69 passes by midfielders, and the majority of those passes occurred around the halfway line on the right hand side of the field. Chivas’ midfielders, unsurprisingly completed 194 out of 211 passes. The percentages are closer, San Jose’s 83% against Chivas’ 92% successful passes, but the sheer amount of passing by Chivas’ midfielders shows that they held onto the ball almost 3 times longer than the Quakes midfielders.

Chivas’ defense also had more successful passes than San Jose’s defense. One of the main differences is that Chivas’ back line tended to stay back in their own half whereas the Quakes defenders would move up further when they were in possession of the ball before passing.

Shooting
The Quakes only managed 7 shots on target while Chivas doubled that with 14. 3 of San Jose’s shots came from within the 18 yard box and 3 of Chivas’ shots came from outside the 18. The Quakes are a team that relies on service from the wings into the box to create chances. Out of 15 crosses only 2 managed to find targets, and 1 of those was from a corner; so not only were the Quakes kept offensively neutered, but 1 out of 15 crosses that were successful came from the run of play.

Chris Wondolowski and Steven Lenhart had decent shots from distance but Wondo’s was right at Kennedy and Lenhart’s shot did not threaten Kennedy at all. In fact the only good shot the Quakes had on goal all night was by Brad Ring just after the second half started. There was some activity in the Chivas penalty area and Leitch got his foot to the ball but his shot went just wide of the far post. It was an awkward attempt because Ring was on his butt and it looked like he just flailed his foot at the ball. So when your team’s best attempt at goal is from a defensive midfielder who is on his butt in the penalty area, it doesn’t bode well for your team.

One Touches and Clearances
This is an area where the Quake struggle consistently and it bugs me because I see other teams doing these kinds of things with ease and regularity. When San Jose players have an opportunity to bring a ball under control, usually from the air, they generally try to head or kick the ball up field instead of trapping it and making ground passes. Usually these passes or clearances just go straight to an opposing player because, hey, it’s not like they can control it right? But when you watch most of the other teams in the league, they are able to take those aerial balls and successfully redirect them to open teammates pretty consistently. So why is it so hard for the Quakes to do that?

Ramiro Corrales and Simon Dawkins seem to be the only players on the team who can pass (or dribble if you’re Dawkins) their way out of trouble. When these guys are double teamed or stuck in a corner or against the sideline, they seem to look for an open teammate to pass off to first. The problem is that Quakes players aren’t moving dynamically when they don’t have the ball. They just stand around being covered instead of moving to open spaces. So when players are pinned down they have no choice but to boot the ball as far away as possible, and the ball usually winds up at the feet of an opposing player or out of bounds. It’s ridiculous seeing other teams successfully manipulate opposing players with triangle passing while the Quakes simply kick the ball as hard as they can towards their forwards.

Mentality
The Quakes are having the same problems my favorite team in Italy, Fiorentina, had last year; they play at the level of their opponents. When the Quakes are playing a strong team, the Quakes usually come out aggressive and look to make a statement against their opponent. But when they play a weaker team or a team that is struggling, their level of play drops and they are usually on the wrong side of the scoreline. We saw it earlier in the season against the same Chivas squad. At a time in the season where the Quakes would have done well to put together a good result against a poor form Chivas, they played sloppily and lost the game as well as their 1 goal lead.

After that result Frank Yallop instituted wholesale changes to the squad for their next game which started to pay off. Ironically we’re in the same position now. Earlier in the season it was a schedule against New York, Chivas, and Philadelphia. We’ve got the same 3 teams in the same order at this point of time in the schedule. The team is already better off than before because we lost all three games and we at least tied against New York last Saturday. But after tonight’s performance, you have to think that Yallop is not going to be pleased with his team’s performance and we might see some more changes and shuffling for Saturday’s game against Philadelphia.

I’m worried that we may have seen the last of in-form Ryan Johnson for the time being. His play was looking good before the Gold Cup and he played really well with Jamaica. But his 3 games since returning have not been of the same caliber as just before he left. Tonight he made some glaring mistakes and did not seem comfortable at all with or without the ball. Most telling was his breakaway in the second half where he was 2v2 with Wondo. Johnson held onto the ball too long and when he finally did pass to Wondo, he was already offside and didn’t even run to the ball. Johnson had a good 3 seconds to try to put a through ball between the defender and Wondo or try to chip the defender for Wondo to get to the pass, but he did neither.

Wondo himself looked shaky. He’s never been a dribbler or passer, but he was doing both tonight and none of it looked good. There was one particular sequence where Wondo received a pass and tried to lay it off to Simon Dawkins who was coming up behind Wondo. But there were two defenders right on top of Dawkins and Wondo couldn’t get the ball through them. He could have taken a shot, he was at the top of the 18 or passed to the right wing where Tim Ward was holding up. With the exception of his shot off the post against New York, Wondo has not looked like his pre-Gold Cup self either.

The Future
Our next game is this Saturday against Philadelphia, who are currently second in the East. Hopefully the good form of the Union will rub off on the Quakes and they can bring their real “A” game and pull out a victory. Unfortunately Lenhart will be unavailable for that game as his yellow card tonight was his fifth and he is suspended for one game. I would expect Dawkins or Johnson to partner with Wondo up top. The Quakes lost Steven Beitashour to injury tonight. It looked like he may have strained his calf muscle or hurt his knee towards the end of the first half. It was good to see that Tim Ward and Omar Jasseh are back in playing form; both have been out all season with nagging injuries that weren’t healing right. Bobby Convey will likely sit out as he is nursing a slight knee cap fracture.

Jamaican national Omar Daley was on tryout with the Quakes last week for a couple days but he was not offered a contract with the club. Yallop and General Manager John Doyle are still looking for a permanent and consistent right midfielder for the team. The transfer window for MLS opens on July 15th so hopefully the team can bring in some talent to help out.

GO QUAKES!

Category: Armchair Coach, Chivas USA, Management, Numbers, Philadelphia Union, Post-Game, San Jose Earthquakes, Transfer News, Wishful Thinking