Wednesday, July 9, 2008

More Joe

Joe Cannon seemed rather blue after the match in which the Earthquakes lost late to Chivas USA. What was interesting is that back during his LA tenure, a couple of reporters were honestly a bit worried about how hard Joe would take losses. I just figured he was a passionate competitor, plus everyone says goalkeepers are crazy, no?
This time, Joe didn't seem terribly upset, just kinda gloomy.

On when Lima joins the team:
I think next week, but obviously, a defensive mid is not going to solve all of our problems right now. We have nine goals in 15 games.
For us, it’s important to establish a style of play where maybe we can create a bit more.

What ails SJ?
We didn’t score again tonight. It’s funny. You look at teams like LA, who can constantly score, but then they’re constantly leaking goals, but then you look at the flipside. We’re not giving up many goals, but we’re also not scoring many goals. It’s tough. For us, you’d like to think that the offense is going to come around, but that hasn’t happened yet.

How that affects him:
You’ve got to do your job and just do what you’re paid to do. I know those guys are trying hard. But we’re not scoring enough. We have the foundation for guys who are going to be in this league and on this team for a while. We do a good job limiting chances. On the flip side, we need to search for new answers going forward. We’ve had injuries and national team callups, but I don’t think that should justify scoring, what, .66 points a game? I’m not picking on anyone on this team specifically, but we all need to do a better job of creating chances and obviously finishing them.

Positives of being back in SJ?
I’m an uncle now. My twin brother and sister in law just had a baby and family and friends are obviously the most important thing. It’s hard, really, though. It’s hard, when you’re a footballer, to enjoy life when you’re at 3-9-3, coming to work every day and looking at the standings. It’s the same pep talk, “If we can put two games together.” Pretty soon it’s going to be, “If we can put three games together.” It’s different. Last year, we had a ton of injuries and I thought we had a ton of reasons for not doing well. This year, we can’t score. It’s frustrating. I don’t think you can ask the defense to come into places like New England, DC, Chicago and Chivas and try to get 0-0 results every game. Goals are going to happen. They’re part of the game. Hats off to the guys in the back. They’re doing their jobs. We’ve been playing all right collectively. I feel like I’m getting into a groove. That’s why it’s disappointing for us not to get a result tonight.


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