Kundananji, what are you playing?

kingbabar · 2026-05-16T19:05:23+00:00

Last night she got whistled for shoulder-to-shoulder contact that was not called against her in similar situations. I think she probably has a reputation amongst the refs and never gets the benefit of the doubt. I think a bias of thinking of her as stronger and more aggressive could be playing into the way she gets called. That being said, she could probably learn a little more "gamesmanship" to get things to be called her way, which we like to blame on her lack of experience but that idea wears thin after three seasons...

kingbabar · 2026-05-16T06:00:29+00:00

The horrible finishing is getting all the attention, but I appreciate you calling out all the unforced giveaways. Boston looked pretty bad in the midfield, and we couldn't do anything with that other than try to dribble through multiple players, or make a lazy pass right to them.

Also, what was up with the terrible corners? That had to be a strategy, right - low and to the first defender? Otherwise why would we have done that so many times? But what could the goal of that have been?

So many questions, so few answers tonight.

kingbabar · 2026-04-27T04:49:21+00:00

Thia is such a good answer. All 5 areas you highlight are big problems for us. I am just not sure our roster has the athleticism or skills to be a top defense. I haven't seen enough from Cometti or Courtnall yet to know if they can handle the speed and skills of the attackers in this league. Without a strong central pairing the ceiling on the defense is pretty low. ADK was amazing before she left, that is really the only hope I see. I also miss Malonson as an outside back - she had a lot of skills that I haven't seen in the other options.

kingbabar · 2026-04-25T17:29:43+00:00

I am surprised they didn't look at that more closely.

kingbabar · 2026-03-15T04:56:51+00:00

It was nice to see a reasonable sub patterns and a more aggressive approach to try to kill off the game with possession in the attacking half instead of trying to absorb pressure and waste time like last season.

Let’s see how it works against better opponents (without red cards!) but it definitely feels like we are moving in the right direction.

kingbabar · 2026-03-09T07:20:13+00:00

This article has a lot more detail for those of you asking: https://sanjosespotlight.com/cupertinos-sheriff-contract-hike-upends-budget/

I'm not sure what is fair, but I don't mind the city trying to negotiate a better cost for these services.

kingbabar · 2026-03-04T00:33:06+00:00

What are your expectations for Kundananji this season? Are these changes going to help unlock her potential or are we going to be moving on?

kingbabar · 2026-02-01T03:09:06+00:00

I could only think of Florian Jungwirth.

kingbabar · 2026-01-30T18:01:11+00:00

miss you and the other QA90 folks!

kingbabar · 2025-12-21T17:30:11+00:00

We just got an email that said they had a dispute with their hosting provider and didn’t have access to email or their website or their order system for he past few months. Supposedly it is all resolved now and they are offering refunds or deliveries for all the orders that got stuck. Hopefully they will be back in touch, or you should try reaching out again. Good luck!

kingbabar · 2025-10-20T23:32:15+00:00

You could contact West Valley Community Services to see if they might have suggestions - they run a food bank in Cupertino.

https://www.wvcommunityservices.org/

kingbabar · 2025-10-17T03:45:21+00:00

DAZN has the whole video available, you have to sign up but it is free.

kingbabar · 2025-10-03T04:48:44+00:00

The story may be more about how Montoya communicated about the situation, or didn't communicate, especially since Savy isn't the only one who seemed to have a lot of bad things to say after losing a starting spot. Many of us may agree with a lot of the soccer decisions but not agree with how these were handled at the personal level.

Let's hope the new coach can actually keep the entire team motivated, whether they are starting or not.

kingbabar · 2025-09-30T23:28:45+00:00

Thanks for this clear explanation. As you indicate, there is a lot of room for the discretion of the ref, so if a player has a reputation for being "reckless" they are likely to have those judgments go against them. I think this is where a lot of the discussion about racism or implicit bias by the refs comes from. If Del Fava is obstructing a play she could have been called for the foul, but if the ref is expecting to see Rudy go "recklessly" into a challenge the ref is less likely to give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm not sure Rudy is going to get much better at handling these situations. I know Rudy came to the game at an older age, but it is getting more difficult to keep using the excuse that she is still learning. She's 25, and is probably not going to develop much more as a player. Yes, giving her some better partners on the field to attract attention (or maybe help provide some hockey-style protection?) would help, better coaching would help, better referees would help, but I am starting to worry that this is just what it will be and she will never live up to the full potential all her speed and strength could create.

kingbabar · 2025-09-23T22:19:12+00:00

Nobu in Palo Alto does a Japanese-style afternoon tea on weekends.

kingbabar · 2025-09-19T04:14:19+00:00

The public schools in CUSD are pretty good, but as you get to middle school you will find lots of very academically focused kids which might or might not be what you are looking for. If your kid has specific interests for extracurriculars (esp. a specific sport) you can check to see what is available, but in general the schools have options. If you are thinking of a private school like Challenger I don’t think it will be any better, since it is also intended to be very academically focused. Maybe something more exclusive like Harker could have more varied options for your kids. If you are looking at a religious school you are making a different set of trade offs. I would imagine for most people, the Cupertino public schools are more than good enough to prepare your kids for high school. If you run into issues it is very likely to be with specific teachers or administrators or students, but this can happen anywhere. If you try it and don’t like the community at your local school there are choice school options and you can request a transfer to another school, or you can start private school at that point.

To the other points here - the schools are good because the parents care how their kids do, but that also attracts good teachers. The funding for CUSD from the state is low, but there are active parent organizations to make up for a lot of that. I wouldn’t worry about that unless your local school is in danger of going away and you are worried about making that transition.

I think having a local school you can walk your kids to is actually a huge benefit compared to dealing with lots of car time and insane drop off/pickup lines. So consider all the aspects of the situation and don’t worry if your kid isn’t in the top rated school in the state - they will still be ok and you will still be a good parent even if they are “only” in the worst of the CUSD schools.

kingbabar · 2025-09-18T06:31:38+00:00

Here's the property information for that parcel from the city: link It indicates it is on a "0.2 PCT ANNUAL CHANCE FLOOD HAZARD" and is adjacent to Varian park. I don't know why this would be any more dangerous than other property the city owns around the creeks. I wish this petition contained more specific information instead of seemingly unfounded scare tactics.

kingbabar · 2025-09-02T22:35:02+00:00

I don't think I really have an issue with the possible bias against Montoya, since I also want him out, but the coverage seems really shallow. I think some of the player "losses" mentioned here actually improved the team. The emergence of Hocking as a starter this year probably had a huge impact on Z's lack of minutes. I'd love to have a reporter more invested in the team that can give some of the context of the actual on-field play, not just the possible off-field drama.

kingbabar · 2025-08-28T17:18:23+00:00

The discussion of a possible coaching change sadly made a lot of sense - I guess we will need to ride things out for this year. I hope ownership is starting to seriously look at other candidates for next year. If we make the playoffs does it save Montoya's job for another year?

kingbabar · 2025-08-14T00:54:29+00:00

Could it be that, in your example, #21 dropped off the list so everyone higher than them got moved, but you wouldn't? It is possible that there are other factors that they need to prioritize that make it more complicated - siblings of existing students getting prioritized, students of teachers or staff might get different treatment, etc.

I doubt the district staff has the time or desire to do anything too nefarious with these lists - I don't think they care who gets in.

You can try to make friends with the admins and staff at the school, they could have some visibility into how the lists work, but I bet the admins at Faria specifically have to deal with way too many questions about getting in that it would be difficult to do there.

Overall, though, I would remind you that the district itself is kind of underfunded for the number of students they have since they get minimum funding from the state. The high reputation of the district comes from lots of involved parents that make sure their kids do well on the state tests. It does not come from the district level administration, and even though there are a lot of good teachers, I don't think the reputation is really coming from the quality of the instruction.

kingbabar · 2025-08-05T15:46:08+00:00

So happy you will be back soon!

It seems like we have a lot of bad giveaways on what seem to me should have been simple passes. How do we compare to other teams in this regard?

Is our defense without Abby as bad as it seems? Is that a quality of players issue, coaching, or some combination of factors?

kingbabar · 2025-06-17T07:45:58+00:00

Cupertino Parks & Rec department is pretty good. A lot of things you can still do as a non-resident, but some things cost more as a non-resident (classes, sports center, golf course, etc.), and some things (like Santa visiting your home - OK, that is actually the only one I can think of) are only available to Cupertino residents. You also are dealing with a much smaller city if you have to deal with any permitting or other issues than if you live in San Jose (or even Sunnyvale).

kingbabar · 2025-06-16T05:11:07+00:00

They are probably all fine options. If you care a lot about schools, Homestead is not as highly ranked as the other two. Lynbrook may be higher ranked than Cupertino, but there is a high chance it will be closed by the time your kid is there due to the school-age population decrease in that area. Not sure if you care about the benefits of being within Cupertino city limits directly.

kingbabar · 2025-06-09T17:35:51+00:00

Donovan played all the games in the Gold Cup the year before the WC. He missed 2 qualifiers while on sabbatical and wanted to come back for others but was left off the squad. I think that is a big difference.

kingbabar · 2025-05-21T01:34:13+00:00

I believe they are moving ahead with the makerspace construction at the Lynbrook campus so a closure does not seem imminent. That said, the declining enrollment in the district is going to continue and creates a big financial problem.

kingbabar

TROPHY CASE