Wait ‘Til We Get to the Hills

Could someone possibly find a Quakes picture for this? or a good Photoshop?

It is sad to say that only a few weeks into the season, and I am already saying that the season has been a disappointment.  One win in 8 games, blown leads, horrible defending, inconsistent attacking.  This is just to name a few.  Now this group has been saying this for the past couple weeks, that we need to stay behind this team, ride it out, and make sure that we try to give the players as much confidence as possible (see our motto), but that is not to say that we, the entire fan base, are disappointed in the results and quality of play on the pitch.

Hopefully this bye week allows many players to realize the disappointment that we all have, to nurse any small or major knocks (I’m looking at Jay-Hur and Hucks) and come back next week against the Orange Scum at full strength.  With this bye week, there is not much to say, so I’ll go on to a few other points

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To all season ticket holders:

Look out for the 1906 Ultras section in this week’s, and all following week’s,  Quakes Insider.  We will be using this resource to put out all of our events (viewing parties, tifo meetings, road trips, etc.).  Keep an eye out on there, especially if you are not a regular on the boards, on any group news.

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Newest chant:

“Come on You Quakes” to the tune of the chorus of “Come On Eileen” by Save Ferris (the cover song, yes)

COME ON

EARTHQUAKES OF SAN JOSE

(x8)

OOOOOOH

COME ON YOU QUAKES

OH YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES

WE’RE THE ULTRAS

AND WE WANT VICTORY

(x2)

(repeat)

"Ca_iforni_ It's better without LA" (Couresy of The Project FC)

Man…nothing quite sums up this past game against the Goats more than just….man.  Here are a couple points that I thought were key in our horrible 1-nil loss:

• Zach Thorton

Need I say more?  The man has done a lot more than just lose weight during the offseason.  This beast of a man has to have Greek in his blood somewhere, because he seems to have the Midas touch (corny I know).  Goalkeeper of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year nominee for sure….hurts me to say it though.

• Refereeing

Now I am not going to blame this game and it’s outcome soley on the refereeing.  With the amount of chances we created, especially early in the first half, and with the scoreline only being 1-nil, refereeing cannot be put to blame.  However, there were many calls/non-call that occured that could have changed the game, easily.  There were three (3) obstruction calls not given for the Quakes’ favor, each (if I remember correctly…at least two) were well within striking distance of goal.  With our free kicking ability, it’s likely it would have never happened but you never know.  Ramiro Corrales’ offsides call in the 70th minute was just horrible.  It was pretty plain to see that he was in line with the last Chivas defender.  Now the refereeing was not biased against the Quakes, because there were two calls in particular that could have swung the game even more in Chivas’ favor:  Eric Denton’s handball in the box and his bulldozing tackle in the 76th minute.  Now the handball is debatable because his arm was away from his body at all times and he made no movement toward the ball, but there are plenty of referees that would have called it immediately (OKULAJA IS A THIEF @ 4:15).  The bulldozing….wow.  How its not called is beyond me.

• Alvarez’s right foot

Arturo’s lack of a functional right foot, except for walking/running, is apparent to all. Especially in the loss to Seattle (at least to me).  Now while Arturo made some great and dangerous runs around the goal and had some shots that were close, we could have easily tied and possibly won this game 2-1 if Artie knew how to use his right foot.  HIGHLIGHTS HERE…at 0:30, a great ball to Artie puts him onto goal.  With the defender chasing him from his left, he puts good enough power with his right foot, but RIGHT at Thorton.  If he knew how to use his right foot, in my opinion, he could have either slotted it across goal (harder with a defender chasing him down) or place it high into the near post (difficult shot, but really his only shot at getting a goal). at 0:57, a cross from the left side fell to Artie in the box, who used his right foot and lobbed a ball just over Zach Thorton, who with the Midas touch, tipped it over the bar.  In my opinion, if Artie knew how to use his right foot, he could have easily just touched the ball into the goal on the ground.  Instead, like most of us playing with our weak foot, it hits him too high up his leg.  Could have easily put us up 1-nil.

• Communication

I think we all know what I’m talking about…the horrendous goal.  I put the blame equally between Nick and Joe.  Again hard to say, because they are two of my favorite Quakes players, especially off the field.  The sequence start at 2:10, with the cross coming in from the left side.  Notice Garcia on the replay; he stays goal side of Braun despite the rest of his defense holding a higher line, keeping him onside on the ensuing cross.  Mistake #1.  Mistake #2 is on Joe.  I can not recall what Joe said he was commanding, but it was something along the lines of: telling Nick to get away from the ball but still hesitating, or telling Nick to clear the ball and when Nick moved Cannon hesitated.  I’m not quite sure which scenario is correct, but either way there needs to be better communication, especially between two veterans like Garcia and Cannon.

• Long Balls

Sweet and simple explanation…keep the passes short and on the ground with some long balls over the top mixed in.  We constantly just hoof balls up to our forwards, giving them a harder time to make a run onto it, rather than touching the ball around and opening up the game.

If there is any inaccuracies in any of my above comments, please let me know in the comments section below.

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200 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose, CA 95113

All Quakes fans are encourage to attend tomorrow afternoon’s city council meeting at 1:30pm.  The all important vote to reduce the price and acreage of the FMC site where the new stadium will rise is on agenda.  While most feel that this is a shoo-in, a show of support would go over very well.  I feel we took for granted the fact that we had a team prior to 2005, lets not make the same mistake again and put some influence on the city council to vote YES on this.

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I want to put out a quick word to any and all Quakes fans who have had a thought of doing the drug called Notgoingtogames…JUST SAY NO.  No matter how hard it is to cheer on this team…no matter how far you have to travel….no matter how much in debt you are….ok ok, so the last two points are valid for not going….we have to stay behind the team.  We may not agree with what the Front Office has done, the formations/starting line up that the coaching staff has put out, but we all agree that we need to get behind our players, every one of them.  Whoever is on the field needs to know that every Quakes fans in the stadium is behind them 200%.  A player with support is a good player.  That is what we, the 1906 Ultras, are here for…for the team.  To show support for the team that we love.  That is what the Casbah is for, and that is what all of you buy tickets for.  For the team.  So make sure we don’t skip a beat come May 30th against Real Salt Lake, no matter the outcome of our road trip, and come out in FULL FORCE!

WE ARE YOUR FAITHFUL

WE ARE YOUR CREW

WHEREVER YOU GO

WE’LL BE THERE FOR YOU

FOR SAN JOSE

WE WILL STAY TRUE

EARTHQUAKES FOREVER

WE BLEED BLACK AND BLUE

Chivas Tifo from Oct. 11, 2008

Quick blog to keep any interested parties up to date on this weekends game vs. the Goat Shaggers….i mean Chivas USA.

We will continue this year’s pregame ritual of meeting at the Hungry Hound at 4:30pm (CHEAP BEER, I repeat, CHEEP BEER).  Remember to bring cash  since they do not take credit or debit.  The food there is awesome, it is definately worth checking out.  We will start our trek to the stadium at around 6:30pm.  If you plan on standing in our section, we highly encourage you to go to the Hound to get acquainted with the group, ask/say any questions or concerns, suggestions, etc.

And on to the game.  We are expecting roughly 200 Goat Shaggers…i mean Chivas USA…fans at this game.  All Earthquakes fans should be out in full force, shutting them down.  This is our home field, and it should stay that way.

The Goat Shaggers…I mean Chivas USA… is possibly the hottest team in the league right now.  But saying that, if we know anything about the MLS, it’s that never really matters during league play.  Will this game be tough?  Absolutely.  Can we win?  Of course.  Let’s get behind our Boys in Blue, rally them on, and now that we are behind them no matter what.

Man, o man.  What is there to say about this team?  I have to start by saying that the 1906 Ultras will always stick behind our motto…”Win or Lose, We’ll Always Be Here For You.”  But something needs to be done.  Airblair from BigSoccer pointed out some things that hadn’t really occured to me:

We’ve played 6 games, 4 at home. Those six games have netted us:

• one win;
  
• zero goals on the road;
  
• zero goals in the second half from the run of play;
  
• three shut outs against, none by us;
  
• and we’ve allowed 2 or more goals in four out of the six games.

This is not a forum, so I will not be going off on the rest of his post, which I have disagreements with, but the above bullets provide some insight.  During the preseason, we saw and were promised a better product on the field.  Ryan Johnson and Cam Weaver were a scoring machine up top.  A full year of Huckerby looked really bright.  A returning top defense.  Bobby Convey’s addition was exciting.  5 of our first 7 games at home…EASY POINTS.  And what did we get…well you read it above.  RJ and Cam haven’t seemed to keep that chemistry, and I really hope RJ gets over this injury he’s been having all season.  I am a lot more optimistic then some others may be about Huckerby.  To say he’s losing it is crazy.  The guy has a nagging injury and picked up a quad.  We let him rest and he will be back to old form.  Look at his assist vs. Chicago…pure class on his touch from Leitch’s long pass upfield.  The defense…wow…just wow.  I guess Jason Hernandez really was our Defender of the Year.  He are really missing him back there.  This is no knock on Kelly Gray and Nick Garcia, who are awesome guys and good players.  But there is something about the swagger we have in the back when Jason plays that makes Nick and even Denton play better (you heard me right).  Leitch has been the only brightspot of the year int he back.

What can be done?  It beats me.  We have the team.  We have the talent.   We’ve even had the performances…but we have hardly anything to show for it.  I think we just need to win another game.  Frank Yallop said it best, I think, after the Chicago tie, that we just need to grind out a 1-nil win to gain some confidence in our ability to hold a lead.

I know it may be hard, but right now is when our Boys in Blue need us, the fans, the most.  Get behind this team.  Cheer them on.  Get in the opponent’s head.  Do anything to help our boys win (minus punching some Chivas players…well that might be welcomed).  And so I leave you with…

HERES TO OUR BOYS

OUR BOYS IN BLUE

WE ALL SUPPORT YOU

TILL THE END

OH YES WE DO

HERES TO OUR BOYS

OUR BOYS IN BLUE

WIN OR LOSE

WE ALL BE HERE FOR YOU

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Big props to Troy Dayak!  Way to acknowledge that we (not just the Ultras, but San Jose fans) had a presence at this past weekend’s Seattle game.  To paraphrase what he said, “these guys are real fans for traveling to see the team.”  I believe he went on to say that the boys would enjoy that…not quite sure.  But either way, I’m sure the boys appreciated seeing some friendly Black & Blue up in section 203.

Big Flag

I was looking forward to my first Galaxy game since the Quakes reintroduction into the MLS.
All 3 of last year’s Colisseum games were all on some of the worst possible days for me, making
me never able to see the “Califoria Clasico”. So my excitement tank was on full going into the
stadium. The Ultras/Casbah connection walking into the staidum was electrifying. The chants
clearly heard by anyone inside of Oakland’s tunnels. Fellow fans looking on and enjoying the
spectacle.

The game was pretty good, performance wise. Unfortunately, the Boys In Blue were unable to again
hold onto the lead. We have all read the match reports, so I won’t go into a detailed description,
but I was happy with the effort. Pablo Campos looks better and better every outing, but isnt quite
there conditionally. We really missed Hucks out there, and Shea. And we have been missing Jason
Hernandez for the season so far. Lets all hope he gets back into the line up soon.

The game was only a fraction of what occured that night however….

I cannot describe in a single word how I, along with most of the group, feel about the Colisseum’s
security. Disappointment? Frustrating? These can both be used. Excluding people out of our
standing section because they have tix in another section, depsite our sections behind open to
everyone…ridiculous. Push anyone, including small children, in their path in pursuit of a pretty
innocent person…ridiculous. To almost allow us to not receive our tickets, meaning close to 100
less people…ridiculous. Ripping our banners away from us, despite their locations being well
within the rules (look under “Accepted Items”)….ridiculous. Hey! I think I found the word to
describe security!

Now I understand that the 1906 Ultras are taboo in American sporting supporters scene, and that
many don’t understand what we do. Let me reiterate what I said during my first post. We use
visuals and our voice to show support for the Quakes. We don’t do it to offend nor hurt anyone.
To restrict that is restricting how we support our team. We have the sense to know what is right
and what is wrong. And how we were handled in Oakland on Saturday night was absolutely not the
way to keep a crowd calm.

San Jose Earthquakes, we plead you to find another stadium for “big games” or keep all the games
at Buck Shaw. If not, then get the Raiders security staff. I attended a game a couple years ago
in which tensions were felt the whole game, and small incidents occured, but the Raiders security
staff handled it all very calmly and made sure nothing escalated. Props to them.

So how was my first experience at the Oakland Colisseum? Ridiculous. And I will never go back
there again.

If this post has come out in a weird format, please inform me. Thank you.

Sorry, last attention-hogging post for a while, I swear.  I’ve started doing a nightly round-up of under-the-radar stories over at Soccer By Ives called “SBI Late Night”.  With Jon seemingly getting the swing of things, expect me to continue to post intermittently, but definitely come find me over there as well.

LA sucks.

Some things are just so interesting, that you have to take a stab at it.  No this doesnt refer to the kill spots on a pig/human as illustrated in the movie Gangs of New York, but rather about blogging.

I am a brand spanking new blogger, hoping to see what is so great about this trend among the internet.  First let me introduce myself:

My name is Jon and I have been a member of the 1906 Ultras, for what seems like the beginning, but has really been for less than a year.  I am born from Brazilian and Portuguese parents, so I naturally have a love for the beautiful game.  I wish I could say I have been an Earthquakes fan since 1976, or 1996 for that matter.  I was not pulled into the world of the Black & Blue (rather just Blue back then) until about 2002.  Having the Quakes back last year made me extremely excited, but to find this group was that much more.  The energy in section 101 is amazing, and that is way I am going to focus on most about on this blog…atmosphere.

Many don’t know or understand the Ultras movement.  Many only see the violence in Italy and other European countries and the occasional swear word.  They don’t see the passion and committment towards the team.

Ultras is a type of support that relies on the voices of its members and visuals (called ‘tifos’) to support their respective team.  To follow suit exactly like how Italian or Romanian Ultras groups do is practically impossible in the United States, with its younger soccer history and higher security.  However, the 1906 Ultras take the essence of the  Ultras movement, being the most hardcore fan in the stadium and chanting our lungs out for our team, and do the best that we can.

Thanks for taking the time to read my first ever blog post.  I’ll try and shorten it up and a bit more entertaining next time.  Ciao

…or chorizo and eggs, for those of you know need your daily amount of grease bright and early in the morning.

Tomorrow the Earthquakes of San Jose take on the Fires of Chicago.  1pm kickoff which means pregame goes as follows:

Who: 1906 Ultras
When: 10:30 AM
Where: Hungry Hound
With:  Beer (mimosas anyone?)

Hopefully Convey will take after Jesus and use this weekend as a resurrection of his career.  Hopefully not at left back. 

See you at the match.