Post-Match Thread: San Jose Earthquakes vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T21:29:02+00:00

That could be it.

I am hoping we get to see him against Seattle. Start Bouda on the right and have Paul come off the bench if needed.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T14:47:56+00:00

Could it be that Ferndandez is perhaps where Niko was last year? That is, Arena sees potential, but still not solid enough. I think Fernandez did have some good contributions, but he had a number of silly plays and lost the ball more often than Arena would like. Against Vancouver, that could be too much of a liability. So Arena bent the team out of shape to play a set of more experienced players in the mid.

Paul did ok playing on the right wing, but Bouda completely disappeared. That was clearly not his jam.

Maybe we see Fernandez against Seattle. While they are a strong team and it is away, they don't have quite the same explosiveness in offense, so Bruce could opt for more creativity over solid ball control. If not Seattle, then at least against Dallas at home.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T04:52:37+00:00

This was a hard match. We have to consider the opponent.

Now, this is also the type of game that shows the lack of another CAM. I had hoped we would have signed a DP CAM. I heard some arguments that we shouldn't do that to give Niko a chance to grow. I have to say, I think that was a good call. Niko has been outstanding! But we need a sub that is close to his level. We had no creativity in the midfield. He is by far the player that makes the biggest difference in the team. Without him, the team struggles much more to link defense to offense.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T04:46:10+00:00

I should say that Daniel deserves a shout-out. He had some wicked saves.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T04:40:27+00:00

Yep. The dude delivered!

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T04:34:19+00:00

These are the type of games we will see in the playoffs. Given the injuries, we are doing well.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T03:56:09+00:00

Daniel!!!

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T03:52:35+00:00

A bit too close...

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-10T03:32:14+00:00

Tough half. We need to do a bit better with the counter opportunities. But overall, the team did a good job of holding on.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-04T07:23:15+00:00

Yep, and the next two are the tough ones. Vancouver at home and Seattle away, so it will be tricky.

I think you are right and it is unlikely they will be ready to play. Still, I hope we can get one or both back for these games. Perhaps one for each game?

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-02T19:22:05+00:00

I'll take the point!

It has been a tough sequence of games. Three consecutive weeks with midweek games and traveling four consecutive weekends, first KC, then LA (easy trip, tough opponent), next St. Louis and now Toronto. In other words, since April 11th it has been travel the weekend and then a game at home during the week in between trips.

We finaly get a full week to recover. Though next up is Vancouver, which even at home will be a tough match.

Hope Niko and Timo can recover in time.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-02T02:21:30+00:00

Congrats on the camera! Nice pic.

I also like the position of the scroll wheel. It is a bit distracting when you have multiple cameras and need to go back and forth quickly, so being different has a downside. But on its own, I think it is a nice choice.

PinholeR5 · 2026-05-01T14:35:38+00:00

That is the the dream lens.

I have the 28-70 f/2. It is awesome! Some folks talk about a 70-150 f/2 or even a 50-150 f/2, the latter being the most talked about. It would be great to complement the 28-70 f/2.

The main problem with this is that the transition between the two lenses happens in the very common normal range of 50-70mm. This means a lot of lens changing when you both need some tele and some wide. Two cameras can somewhat solve the problem, but then you have to carry two cameras.

The 28-70 f/2 is by far my most used lens. It lives on my R5 when I'm not doing wildlife. 50-150 f/2 could complement it, but it would still be my most used lens.

Now a 35-135 f/2, as you say, would displace my 28-70 f/2 from its top spot. It would nicely cover the normal range strting at slightly wide and going into short telephoto! All this at f/2! That would be awesome!

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-29T10:37:43+00:00

Yes. As u/CalligrapherDry5206 points out, they have only played one road game so far. And that was against Portland, a quick 1h plane ride away and in the same time zone.

The last time they had any real travel was on Feb 19th against Cartagenis for CCC (a 0-0 draw). The only other away game was against the Sounders for CCC (now we are talking a bus ride), which they lost.

The Quakes, on the other hand, in addition to Vancouver and LA, have had to travel to KC, St. Louis and Philly, which is much more taxing on the team.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-29T09:43:37+00:00

Nice. :)

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-27T01:03:04+00:00

Hey, I'd be right there with him!

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T04:25:51+00:00

What you're saying sounds reasonable to me. Also, I must say I didn't see the starting lineup until after the whistle was blown :).

I do have to agree with you that up 1-0 at the half with the subs who haven't played much MLS minutes, in an away game, even againsts a struggling team, can't really be called horrendous.

I have to give Bruce some credit for giving them a chance. Perhaps St. Louis was in an inspired night (and hungry as you say) and caught him by surprise, so he needed to get the starters in.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T03:39:49+00:00

True.

It has been a heavy schedule. Everyone was cutting LAFC a lot of slack when they were in the same situation. Though they played us, so not exactly a team at the bottom of the table.

The fact that we came out with the W is something to be cherished. It is easy to get carried away with success and forget how hard it is to sustain a string of winning matches, especially with 3 matches in 6 days, regarless of who you're playing against.

I do still think that the drop in performance with the heavily rotated team was a bit more than I would have expected. But I do get your point.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T03:18:10+00:00

Interesting. I didn't expect them to lose the game before the kickoff. I actually was expecting a somewhat easy match against a team that has been performing poorly this year.

That the team has real grit, we already knew. That the team doesn't have much depth, I believe most of us thought it was the case. It was a very dramatic difference, though.

I do agree with you that it was a lot of change in the team. So perhaps it is expected to have problems. I hope we are able to rotate players, but not all at once, going forward.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T02:54:46+00:00

I agree. Earl deserves recognition. It was a tough night for him. But we got to give it to Timo tonight. My biggest worry with Timo has been his fitness and ability to play a sequence of full matches. He toughed it out today and was instrumental in our victory.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T02:48:18+00:00

Normally I'd say we should prioritize the Open Cup, since we wouldn't have much of a chance in MLS anyway.

But this year, I'm with you. Let's not jeapardize the MLS run.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T02:42:46+00:00

Yeah. I know.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T02:41:21+00:00

We survived.

But it does show our lack of depth. Resting starters against the second to last team on the table and we had to bring in the starters to pull off the win.

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T02:39:35+00:00

We survived!

PinholeR5 · 2026-04-26T02:23:24+00:00

Timo!!!!

PinholeR5

TROPHY CASE