SAN JOSE, Calif. — For all the buzz surrounding Matias Almeyda’s San Jose Earthquakes, Saturday’s season opener brought more of the same negative outcomes that the Bay Area side generated in 2018.
The Black-and-Blue drew first blood in the 11th minute, fought hard and held their lead for 18 minutes, but eventually fell 2-1 to Remi Garde’s Montreal Impact. Their performance, however, has El Pelado set on the notion that his team showcased the grit, determination and on-field effectiveness of a soon-to-be winner.
“I take away a lot of positive things (from the game),” Almeyda said regarding the positives he draws from his team’s performance on what was his MLS coaching debut. “The attitude, the collective gameplay. We had 73 percent possession of the ball the second half, 50-something the first. That talks a lot about a team that wants to be the protagonist, a team that doesn’t wait, a team that isn’t going to stay back and wait for an individual play.”
“This is a team that plays like a team,” the Argentine added. “There are always things to improve and confirm. For this game, I confirm a lot of positive things and the errors will get worked on.”
In similar fashion to their preseason bouts, the Quakes, elected a man-to-man defensive scheme, asking for their players to aggressively mark Montreal’s wherever they roamed, even if it meant for Harold Cummings to press on Maxi Urruti as high up as the centerline. With the ball, the plan was vigorously pragmatic: conserve possession, double think the next move and look for the effective cross into the box from either flank.
It wasn’t enough. Chris Wondolowski, who remains two goals away from MLS immortality, signaled that there is a completely new “agenda” to adopt, which will take time, patience and meticulous concentration from every player on the field for the span of all 90 minutes.
“I think that it’s going to be an evolving process throughout the year,” the captain said on Saturday. “To be frank, we don’t want to be peaking in three weeks; we want to be peaking in 30 weeks and hit our stride. Granted, we don’t want to dig ourselves up in a hole.”
“We want to make sure we start playing well and eliminate these mistakes,” he added. “Because when we do that, we feel we have a great team. We feel that we have a team that can be dangerous and will be dangerous. But again, it shows you the sleek, it shows you that if any turns off for a second, you’ll get punished and rightfully so.”
At the moment, the words “learning” and “process” are almost synonymous with the Quakes locker room. It’s becoming quite clear to the players that Almeyda’s obsession with the sport is far beyond what they ever imagined. The Argentine and his vast coaching staff are working overtime to make sure his philosophy resonates in every corner of Avaya Stadium and, most importantly, with his players.
For instance, on Saturday, the Quakes conceded their first goal via an orchestrated Montreal corner kick set piece. But just 24 hours prior, ironically, for roughly and hour and fifteen minutes, the Quakes were out on the training field adjacent to Avaya going over corner kicks and set pieces.
That hard work isn’t only being put in the rigorous physical practices on the training field or in the weight room. The video room, a destination that sounds to have not been so familiar to players like second-year defender Guram Kashia, is now being emphasized as a major pillar in the team’s methodological reconstruction.
“We are learning,” said center back Guram Kashia, who claimed that the team failed collectively against its Canadian opposition. “We are in the process of watching hours of videos every week. We sit here (room inside Avaya) after training for one to one-and-a-half hours [watching film].”
“Last week, he showed us around 40 videos from the friendly game,” he added. “Imagine how many hours he puts in himself to cut video? We are trying to learn, but it’s so much information.”
“We are soccer players; we are not the most intelligent athletes in the sports world,” the Georgian joked. “We are trying to take all the information and bring it to the field, but it’s not that easy. In the 40 videos, I believe seven or eight were mind [related]. He demands a lot of focus and attention.”
Such was the promise: over everything, the current Concacaf Coach of the Year assured that his team, winning or not, would have an identity on the field. This is a concept that, arguably, rested vacant since the days Dominic Kinnear was at the helm. Displacing of the old and substituting a distinguishable and self-sustainable product on the field, in addition to filling a two-year void will not come easy, though.
Truth of that is the intense and sophisticated week of work the Georgian expects will commence early Monday morning as the team prepares for one of the two sides they were able to beat in 2018, Minnesota United. In efforts to internally continue in an upwards trajectory, Kashia believes the preparation will include upwards of 50 video clips and “rough” physical work.
After all, he’s not wrong.
“I love this sport,” Almeyda said. “I don’t like to lose, obviously. Tonight, I won’t be able to sleep. I’m going to watch the game three or four times. But I see that there is a light that is coming, and we’ll have to turn over and work, that’s the only way to get out of this situation.”