I’ve got three words: Galaxy vs Earthquakes post-game analysis
By: NathanHJ |
6 Comments
Not champions yet.
On Thursday, July 22 the Los Angeles Galaxy faced a slowly improving San Jose Earthquake squad at home in the friendly confines of the Home Depot Center. On paper, this should have been three points for the home team and a set-back for the team from the Bay Area. In practice, a Galaxy defense once again missing Gregg Berhalter, gave the Quakes two deadly looks on goal that they took advantage of them, leaving the Galaxy to chase the game not once but twice. For the first time in 18 games, the Galaxy entered half time trailing and for only the second time all season, but also the second time in three league games, the Galaxy gave up two goals raising their season total to 10 goals allowed. But for all that the team dominated the game for long stretches with the second San Jose goal coming decidedly against the run of play.
Because the Galaxy fell behind so early, the second minute off a rocket of a Bobby Convey put-back from a rebounding save from Donovan Ricketts, the game put the team to an unexpected and unfamiliar test: playing from behind for most of the game. The standard Galaxy modus operandi has been to play killer d, work the ball patiently through its quality midfield and find the strikers on runs into the box (or on crosses to their heads), take a lead, and then put the opposing offense on lock-down. This game plan, with a few modifications – the ugly victory in Columbus, the ugly loss in New England – had yielded a best-in-league record of 12-2-3 and a points total of 39 that was on pace to set a league record.
But San Jose upset all that with the opening goal and attack-minded play combined with tenacious defense. It forced the Galaxy to attack the game in a way it hasn’t had to before and challenged the team to step-up and show its quality. But even though it took the game to San Jose throughout the first half, it had trouble finding its rhythm, staying patient on offense, integrating all its midfield weapons and getting dangerous looks for its strikers. Granted, part of the problem was play both Edson Buddle and Alan Gordon up top. They play similar games and so often get in each other’s way without giving each other anyone to play off of. Combine that with Gordon’s inferior ball handling skills and many attacking build-ups can go wanting. The solution here is to hold the ball more through the midfield, playing the ball in, and then spraying it wide into space for Sean Franklin, Michael Stephens, or Todd Dunivant to cross into the heads of the big guys, preferably Gordon who does his best work in the air.
But until about the 25th minute, the team was befuddled and both San Jose’s Joey Gjertsen and Bobby Convey created chaos in the middle of the park and rampaging seemingly at will into the final third on dangerous attacks. When Juninho and Landon Donovan finally started connecting in the first half, the Galaxy started to dominate possession and create danger, though most of it never ended with a shot on goal. This is how it should have been all half because despite the steady increase in quality from San Jose all season, the Galaxy still has more talent and plays together as a team better.
Which became apparent to all in the second half. From the opening moments, when Donovan was fouled (or not) in the box, to the close of stoppage time, the Galaxy put the Earthquakes so far back on their heels you’d swear it was a sequence from “Dancing with the Stars”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team so thoroughly dominate an entire half and not come home with a win. It seriously reminded me of the Brazilian display in the second half of the title game of the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009. Except, of course, they put in three that half and the Galaxy could only find two.
Part of it was clearly a kick in the ass from Bruce Arena at halftime. Part of it was a change in tactics. The kick in the ass resulted in Buddle’s 12th gol of the season in the 59th minute to tie the game. The change in tactics resulted in the Galaxy shifting to a 4-3-3 just afterwards with the insertion of Tristan Bowen for Dema Kovalenko and then going to a 3-4-3 for the final 20 or so minutes after San Jose scored their second against the entire run of play.
I have to say I was impressed. The Galaxy kept possession, they showed patience, they moved well off the ball, they made good passes, they got off dangers crosses and they took good shots. And they scored to bring the teams level in the 90th minute and remain undefeated at home. But as Donovan said in the post-game ESPN2 interview, “I’m not sure who we didn’t win that game, we had so many chances.”
Exactly. And that’s why they aren’t champions yet. Not because there are 12 more games to go in the regular season, but because this is the type of game they simply have to win if they want to raise the MLS Cup. You can’t dominate a team the way they did and not win. Not at home, not against a team that has yet to find its way into the top tier of MLS teams. Last year I would have been happy with this result because last year’s team didn’t score as much as this year’s and because last year was clearly supposed to be just another rebuilding year.
But this year is different. This year the Galaxy can do something special – set a points record, take the Supporter’s Shield, go deep into the CONCACAF Champions League, and win MLS Cup. But to do that, they have to take over games like this, games where the other team has the audacity to take an early lead on your own home pitch, and respond with fury. You have to send a message, “NO! Not in our house!”Then take the three points from the slack fingers of your demoralized opponent.
The Galaxy isn’t there yet.
But they start playing full games like they played that last 45 minutes and they could be. And that will be a sight.
Man of the Match: Landon Donovan
What did you think about the match? Who was your man of the match? What about that Bobby Convey handball on the goal line? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Category: Player NewsClint Mathis Likely To Retire
By: jen | 3 Comments
As reported by Steven Goff of the Soccer Insider:
“It will probably happen,” one source said. “Knees can’t take the beating anymore.”
Now, that is a quote applicable to most any 30+ MLS player, but I’m afraid the source may be right.
Mathis’ most recent injury was a torn meniscus in his left knee for which he underwent surgery in February. Although apparently injury-free now, he has not been getting minutes. Currently 19th in minutes out of 21 players, only Dema Kovalenko and Eddie Lewis have had less playing time this season.
I have scoured the internet and haven’t found any recent reports of recent injury. In addition, he has not been on the Galaxy’s Weekly Update injury list for several months.
My best guess is that he plans to retire after this season. As I commented on Nathan’s post, Mathis was one of the key players I envisioned leaving to make room for a rumored Ronaldinho trade.
He has been one of my favorite players since he joined the Galaxy in 1998 as a first round draft pick. I loved the temper verve of his younger days and it has been a joy to watch him mature into a smart play maker. My hope is that he will see some more playing time before he calls it quits, if he chooses to retire after this season.
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Who roots for whom where: MLS fan bases
By: NathanHJ | 8 Comments
Why this baseball map, showing the claimed territories of the various MLB teams on this futbol blog? Glad you asked. Jen and I got this intriguing email from a Portland Timbers fan, Rich – who is known to Portland Timbers fan message boards as MannyJello, about the team’s pending entry into MLS with the start of the 2011 season. He’s interested in replicating this in a mural on his wall, except with the MLS teams and their fan base territories.
This is great.
But. He’s new to MLS and he’s got some questions about where one might actually put the territories for the various teams in the league.
Specifically he asks the following:
If you had to take a stab at creating a map separating Galaxy support from Chivas support, how would you separate them? Do either team’s fan base spread far into Mexico, if at all? Also, how far into California and the surrounding states would you say the Galaxy support is spread?
Being a complete newbie to the MLS, if you have any other advice regarding the geographic boundary lines for supporters throughout the MLS, I’m all ears. A few questions I have are:
· Where does San Jose support start/stop in No Cal?
· Any idea how Real Salt Lake and Colorado support is demarcated?
· Dallas/Houston as well?
· Kansas City/Chicago/Columbus supporters?
· How far east does Columbus support exist, especially now that Philadelphia has a team?
· How far south does DC United fan support spread?
- How far east does Vancouver love spread?
- How far west does Toronto love spread, and does any of it leak into the US (Detroit or Buffalo areas)?
- With Montreal about to join the league, where does the Toronto/Montreal divide exist? Where does Ottawa stand?
So I thought we should crowdsource the answers to these questions, especially since I think a lot of this is up for debate. So let’s get debating. I’ll start.
*Galaxy vs Chivas USA – I’m pretty sure that there is no CUSA fan base in the United States, at least not judging by their attendance or the fact that not so long ago one of their bigger supporters clubs ditched a CUSA home game to catch grown-up Chivas in an international friendly. In Oakland.
But to take the question on face value I’d say most of CUSA’s fan base is concentrated in southern LA county and northern OC County with some intrigued fans as far south as San Diego looking at CUSA because they have the name “Chivas” attached.
The Galaxy, being an MLS original, have a fan base the stretches across SoCal and reaches as far west as Las Vegas, though I bet those folks are now splitting loyalty with Real Salt Lake.
*San Jose can claim the entire Bay Area and probably gets folks from as far south as Monterey and as far north as Sacramento.
*RSL gets all of Utah and probably up to Boise and is probably claiming parts of Nevada just for kicks.
*Colorado’s fan base is so paltry it doesn’t even reach from Denver to its actual stadium in Commerce City. Except on July 4th.
*Dallas gets about 15 miles north from downtown to North Dallas. Too bad their home pitch is 40 miles north.
*Houston gets the rest of the state and probably parts of Arkansas and Louisiana just for good measure.
*KC still gets all of MO plus the half of Kansas with people in it, despite what AC St. Louis says.
*Chicago gets everything from the Wisconsin border with Minnesota to Indianapolis.
*Columbus gets Ohio. Maybe some of Michigan. Maybe. No one in Western PA could with any self-respect root for a team from Ohio or from Eastern PA.
*DC gets from Baltimore to Atlanta.
*I’ve got nothing to say about Canadian teams because of Canadian treachery during the War of 1812. That and they are undercutting our glorious pharmaceutical industry with their reasonable drug prices and socialized medicine. They are dead to me.
Even though I’m sure that everything I said is the gospel truth, I’m opening up the floor to everyone else. In the comments, tell us where you think the territories are for the various teams MannyJello is asking about.
Galaxy 2, DC United 1: This Photo Says It All
By: jen | Add Comments
The look of complete joy on Edson Buddle’s face.
The look of utter dejection on Stephen King’s face.
The Galaxy’s next game is Thursday when they host the San Jose Earthquakes. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 7:30 — woohoo, that’s means HD for me!
As for last night’s victory, see the video highlights below. It’s nice to have Landon and Edson back in the full-time fold.
Anonymous oversees garment industry dude or what about a 3rd DP for the Galaxy anyway?
By: NathanHJ | 9 Comments
So, on the heels of the Rumor That Won’t Die – Ronaldinho to LA Galaxy – I got to pondering the actual economics of such a move. Not the economics of paying a guy like Ronaldinho – and his gut – the full amount of whatever it is the parties agree to, or even the relatively modest transfer fee AC Milan are said to want for him (10 million Euros). Let’s face it, AEG is effing loaded. No, the economics here are those of the MLS salary cap. So first, a quick recap of the salary cap and the DP rules.
(1) Salary cap for 2010 is $2.55 million per team. Total.
(2) Each DP counts $325,000 towards that cap.
(3) Each team gets two automatic DP slots.
(4) A third spot may be “bought” by a team paying $250,000 in allocation money to all teams who have chosen NOT to exercise their right to a 3rd spot.
(5) Allocation money, not cold hard cash. So you have to have accumulated that $250K from previous trades, sales of players, “you suck” money, etc.
(6) Allocation money can also be used to buy down player salaries against the cap, so that their “cap hit” is less than their actual cap-eligible salary.
(7) This includes DP’s.
(8) Players who join mid-year count for only half of their annual salary for that first year. This includes DP’s.
With me so far? I know, MLS rules are a study in arcana.
So in order for the Ronaldinho thing to work, not only do the Galaxy and MLS need to shell out serious bucks to the player, pay a transfer fee much larger than MLS is used to paying (Beckham’s transfer fee was a grand total of $0 as was Thierry Henry’s), they also have to figure out how to fit the new player into the salary cap.
So where is the salary cap right now for the Galaxy? Glad you asked. I did a little research and, thanks to the MLS Player’s Union, came up with the following facts:
Total 2010 LA Galaxy players compensation (in total, real, dollars): $11,100,724.61
Total 2010 LA Galaxy base salary (in total, real, dollars): $9,766,039.08
Total estimated 2010 LA Galaxy salary cap hit (in fake, MLS dollars): $2,886,039.00
Total 2010 MLS Salary Cap: $2,550,000.00
Total estimated 2010 LA Galaxy allocation money used: $336,039.00
I don’t know enough about how much each team has stockpiled in allocation money, mostly because (1) I’m lazy and (2) MLS doesn’t really publicize this stuff, but I have a feeling that $336,000 is actually quite a lot of it. (But one has to remember that Generation Addidas players are cap-exempt until they graduate from the program.) This is before we start dealing with the cap hit for a 3rd DP (around $162K for a mid-season player).
A mid-season addition is easier to absorb, but the first full season will cause serious decisions to be made. Complicating this picture are GA graduations, salary increases for cheap players who’ve done well (Michael Stephens is making $40,000 a year and AJ DeLaGarza is making $45,000.), and purchasing players currently on loan (Juninho being my favorite here – he’s only making $70,000). Anyway you slice it, there are budget machinations to go through.
And here’s a final complicating factor. The Galaxy have 26 people on their roster, though I’m sure there are some rules about people on IR not counting (David Beckham) and maybe something about Academy products as well (Tristan Bowen). But the league max is actually 24. So you also have to create some roster space by cutting someone. At least we know that due to the new CBA, players cut at this point in the season get paid for the rest of the year.
Having laid all this out, its still clear that the Galaxy have at least tried to buy Ronaldinho in the recent past, which means they think they can make it work.
But how? How would you make it work? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Galaxy vs DC United Preview
By: NathanHJ | Add Comments
The Galaxy head to RFK stadium to face DC United in the first game of a very congested stretch for the league-leaders. Starting today they play six games in 20 days including three league fixtures (United, San Jose, and Chicago), two CONCACAF Champions League matches (home and home to Puerto Rico Islanders), and an international friendly against some La Liga team.
So this is when roster depth comes into play. Today’s game will be played under hot and muggy conditions against a United team that is starting to find some equilibrium after a shaky start. Most of the rest of the games will be played in home venues (if you count the Galaxy’s old home The Rose Bowl to be a home venue when it will be packed to the rim with fans of Euro footie rooting for Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s old favorite), which is a boon to the team. Because, quite frankly, that vaunted depth failed to show anything exceptional in the last two games when, arguably, it should be making its quality known. The US Open Cup match against the Seattle Sounders was ugly and frustrating and showed a team with no offensive imagination whatsoever. And, well, I still think last week’s debacle against the Revolution was a complete embarrassment.
So the team needs to capitalize on the lessons it was taught last week: anyone can beat you when they want it more than you, the midfield needs to adjust to wide play if the middle channels are clogged, and the Galaxy plays best when it plays a short, crisp passing game through the midfield that connects the stingy defense to what can be an explosive attack.
United isn’t going to make this easy. While they don’t have Shalrie Joseph or Kyle Beckerman to break-up midfield play and launch offensive counter-strikes, they do have Clyde Simms, one of the league’s most underrated defensive midfileders, and quality talent in second-year man Chris Pontius and veteran Santino Quaranta. They also recently boosted their attack by signing Montenegran Branko Boskovic as a DP and bringing in Pablo Hernandez. This puts a lot of pressure on Juninho and Michael Stephens to deliver the goods in a way that they simply didn’t last week. I put Stephens’ picture above because he’s the wild card in the middle for today. He didn’t have a particularly bad game last week, not like the shocker that Alex Cazumba had or the disappointment that Juninho yeilded, but with Landon Donovan expected to be back and Juninho (hoipefully) properly movtivated to atone for last week, this gives Stephens the opportunity to be dangerous going forward (since we know he’ll always hustle back on defense), linking with the attack to create opportunities for Donovan, Edson Buddle, and Tristan Bowen.
The Galaxy defense, which was uncharacteristically soft last week as well – I think that Leonardo and Gregg Berhalter did a bad job communicating and Donovan Ricketts let in two balls he normally saves – needs to watch out for Jaime Moreno, the league’s goal-scoring leader and a veteran with guile and wiles to spare, and first-year sensation Andy Najar. The United Academy product has been burning up opposing defenses with his speed, intelligent runs, and creating passing. Getting Gonzalez back will help damp down the United crossing game and give Todd Dunivant, who was exposed repeatedly last week by Sanni Nyassi’s speed, cover when defending Najar.
Overall, though, United is just not as good as the Galaxy. If the Galaxy can adjust to the on-the-field conditions, learn their lessons from last game, and play their way, rather than getting sucked into the game United wants to play, then they should win 2-0. If they fail to do so, it will be another long and frustrating game for Galaxy fans and will likely result in a 1-0 defeat.
I’ll be making remarks throughout the game on my Twitter feed. You can find me here: @nathanhjb
You can watch the game on FSC at 4:30 PDT and if you are in LA, the official LA Galaxy watch party is at Locals sports bar at 5047 West Pico Boulevard.
The lineup I’d like to see:
Buddle – Bowen
Stephens – Juninho – Birchall – Donovan
Dunivant – Berhalter – Gonzalez – Franklin
Ricketts
What about you guys? Who’s going to win and why? What do the Galaxy need to do to ensure three points? Who do you want to see start? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
What others are saying:
Mark Rogondino’s View from the Booth
MLSSoccer’s preview
Jo-Ryan Salazar at The Bleacher Report
Max Zeger and Jonathan Vera at Goal.com
Tags: 2010 Season, Alex Cazumba, Andy Najar, Branko Boskovic, Chris Pontius, Clyde Simms, Donovan Ricketts, Edson Buddle, Francisco Franco, game previews, Gregg Berhalter, Jaime Moreno, Juninho, Kyle Beckerman, Landon Donovan, Leonardo, Michael Stephens, Pablo Hernandez, Sanni Nyassi, Santino Quaranta, Shalrie Joseph, Todd Dunivant, Trsitan BowenUPDATED: Ronaldinho to LA Galaxy. The rumor that won’t die.
By: NathanHJ | 11 Comments
UPDATE BELOW! TWICE!
A week or so ago, one of our readers hit us up with a private email on the rumor with nine lives, the one that claims that Ronaldinho is definitely on his way to the LA Galaxy and definitely during this transfer window – the one that officially opened today.
Specifically our confidante, who says he can’t come out right and say how he exactly knows for sure that the player in question will be in Galaxy uniform, lays it out like this:
“Ronaldinho will join the Galaxy in August. This is no longer a rumor.
The obvious question is how I could know this. I cannot “tell you”, but I believe that the two of you are smart enough to connect the dots.
I am partners in a garment factory in Thailand. Our two biggest customers are, of course NIKE and Adidas. We have been the preferred contractor for LA Galaxy gear for many years now.”
And he tells us that he is sharing his nuggets of goodness with us because,
“I guess the Americans run in the WC has peeked my interest in the Galaxy even more than usual.”
Which is awesome. The Galaxy’s own Landon Donovan’s stirring performance against Algeria pays off on the rumor front! (I should also say that in America we spell “peeked” as “piqued” but then I’m known for living La Vida Pedant.)
Frankly, I don’t know what to make of this rumor. For one thing, I don’t see how the Galaxy can deal with the salary cap issue. They’ve essentially got two DP’s in David Beckham (you remember him, right?) and Landon and will need to be offering enhanced salaries to guys like Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin, and AJ DeLaGarza even as they contemplate how to buy Juninho from Sao Paulo. The almost $800K hit that Donovan and Beckham put on the $2.4-ish million salary cap combined with those other factors leaves basically no room for another DP hit.
Unless you, I don’t know, decided to, say, sell Landon Donovan to someone. And he is never going to be worth more than he is right now. He’s 28, he’s now proved himself in the EPL and had a decent World Cup, plus was the MLS MVP in 2008. If he’s going to sell for his max value, then now’s the time.
But today, as reported by ESPN during halftime for the DC United – Seattle Sounders FC game, MLS Commissioner Don Garber went out of his way to state as categorically as he could that MLS was NOT entertaining any offers for Donovan’s services. Too valuable to MLS he says.
That strikes me as staking out a hard bargaining position, looking to clear out all the offers from clubs that are trying to see if they can pull one over on a young league just happy to have a few obviously talented players. But maybe Garber and the rest of the MLS brain trust really see Donovan as unsellable. Maybe. But I doubt it.
And just through some fire on the rumor mill more than our confidante already has, folks are using their Twitter feeds to stoke the Ronaldinho to LA idea. Craig Stouffer, who writes for the DC Examiner, and can be found on Twitter here, @criagstouffer, tweeted this on Wednesday July 15 at about 4:52 PDT:
“Am still hearing that Ronaldinho to #lagalaxy remains a possibility. One issue: #acmilan needs to land a replacement to satisfy its fans. about 3 hours ago via HootSuite”.
This was also retweeted by the folks who write @mlsdaily.
UPDATE: Frank, one our frequent commentors, notes that he saw a comment today on an RSL-oriented site, “On the Bill & Spence show this afternoon, Dave Checketts just hinted of a big Galaxy DP signing of a world renowned Brazilian! Ronaldhino??”
UPDATE TWO: Speaking of Dave Checketts and this fab rumor, the folks at ESPN’s Soccernet have written it up. You can read it here. And the fine folks at, umm, Peace FM Online (no I’ve never heard of it either) also have a story about Ronaldinho definitley leaving AC Milan, though they play up his relocation to Flamengo in Brazil.
By my count that makes it:
–Anonymous oversees garment industry dude
–Online newspaper sports writer
–MLS newbits website echoing online newspaper sports writer
–Anonymous RSL fan paraphrasing RSL owner Dave Checketts on a local sports show
–ESPN Soccernet
–Peace FM Online
It’s a preponderance of sources, but not so many with a lot of journalistic cred. Though, you’d like to think that Soccernet is more journalistic than, say, some random LA Galaxy fan blog. But then, you have to trust the Checketts is being straight with us. This is why rumors are so awesome. You can really dig into all kinds of dark places and come up with all kinds of scenarios. They are like little conspiracy theories.
So, now it’s up to you folks to figure out how real this rumor really is. Is that enough people with enough gravitas? Or is that just a lot of “heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend”?
Can the Galaxy come up with the cap space they need to sign what would be a third DP? (And, technically, they need to spend $250,000 in allocation money to get the third DP slot. Do they even have that for starters?) Are they going to drop Landon and/or Becks come 2011? What do you think? Leave your answers in the comments below.
4 Galaxy players named to first XI All-Star picks
By: NathanHJ | Add Comments
(MLSsoccer.com)
Just in case you missed the news, four Galaxy players were among the first eleven choices for the MLS All-Star team. That team will also be coached by Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena (as the coach of the team with the most points as of the beginning of July) and will take on Manchester United on July 28th at Reliant Stadium in Houston. (Yes, Houston in July. Awesome. At least it won’t be in the afternoon.)
The Galaxy players are (in case you can’t make them out in the kind of bizarre Photoshop job above) are:
**Landon Donovan
**Edson Buddle
**Omar Gonzalez
**Donovan Ricketts
Apparently, according to the folks at MLSSoccer.com, Kansas City’s Jimmy Neilsen ran away with the fan voting for Goalkeeper, but the media, players, and coaches votes led to a landslide for Donovan Ricketts. To which I say, when did the KC fan base take the lead in internet ballot stuffing? They must have run a much better campaign that anyone else to get their guys the votes. Because as much as I like his hair, Neilsen’s not having an All-Star season. Just sayin’.
The full roster of first XI selections (and that doesn’t mean they will actually be starting – which is good when you see that the top three defensive picks are all center backs, for example) (have I used enough parentheses in this post yet?) is:
GOALKEEPER (1): Donovan Ricketts (LA Galaxy)
DEFENDERS (3): Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Jamison Olave (Real Salt Lake)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto FC), Javier Morales (Real Salt Lake), Marco Pappa (Chicago Fire)
FORWARDS (2): Edson Buddle (LA Galaxy), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy)
What do you think of these selections? Who else would you pick (there are another 12 to pick – Arena gets 10 choices and The Don gets two)? Personally I’d like to see FC Dallas’ David Feirrera, New England Revolutions’ Shalrie Joseph, DC United’s Andy Najar, Houston’s Brad Davis, and NYRB’s Juan Pablo Angel.
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Category: Player News Tags: Andy Najar, Brad Davis, Bruce Arena, Chad Marshall, David Feirrera, Donovan Ricketts, Dwayne DeRosario, Edson Buddle, Guillermo Barros Schellotto, Jamison Olave, Javier Morales, Jimmy Neilsen, Juan Pablo Angel, Kyle Beckerman, Landon Donovan, Marco Pappa, MLS All-Star, MLS All-Star game, Omar Gonzalez, Player News, Shalrie JosephI’ve got three words: LA Galaxy vs New England Revolution post-game analysis
By: NathanHJ | 1 Comment
And those words are: What an embarrassment.
And I don’t mean any disrespect to New England when I say that. I also considered my opening words to be: “My Shalrie Joseph can beat up your midfield.” Mark Rogondino, writing for the LA Galaxy website, said he had reservations going into the game because New England was coming off a 5-0 smack down at the hands of Real Salt Lake and would be ready to redeem their pride in front of their home fans.
OK fine. Why not?
Why not? Because, even in a league that is structured for parity, the Revs just aren’t as good as the Galaxy. Injuries and end-of-last-season personnel losses have left the team with a reliance on role players and rookies. And they are still the holders of one of the worst records in MLS. But the Galaxy did face a bit of schedule congestion and cross-country travel. So it’s possible that they just weren’t sharp enough for the Revs.
OK fine. Why not?
Why not? Because, the Revs just got back from Utah themselves and the Galaxy line-up featured only one starter from the US Open Cup loss to Seattle (Alex Cazumba). And most of the team has played in MLS for a few previous seasons. They know what this is about. Travel’s no excuse. And on that same note, the Galaxy were also missing Landon Donovan due to rest and Omar Gonzalez due to yellow care accumulation. So it could have been that missing key personnel did the Galaxy in.
OK fine. Why not?
Why not? Because look at who isn’t in a Revs uniform right now: Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Khano Smith, Cory Gibbs, and Edgaras Jankauskas all due to injury and Jay Heaps due to retirement. That’s half a starting line-up (if you are being generous with Khano Smith) that Steve Nicol couldn’t call on. And frankly, the reserves on the Galaxy bench, even those that played on Wednesday, could have held their own with that line-up with the possible exception of an in-form Twellman.
This brings me back both to Shalrie Joseph and that embarrassment. First, Joseph was not available for the RSL game and if he had been on the field that game would not have been a 5-0 spanking, though I don’t think the Revs would have gotten any points. But he was on the field for the Galaxy game and drove the midfield to one of its best efforts of the season. At the same time, the Galaxy midfield did not rise to the occasion. In a flash interview with the FSW team just after the first half, Chris Birchall noted that Bruce Arena told the team that they weren’t getting the ball wide enough and were trying too hard to play through the middle of the park or bypassing the midfield altogether. And except for a brief period after the first goal and the first 10 minutes or so, the team just failed to do that.
Now, part of that was missing Landon Donovan (though the team continued to win without him) and part of not locking down the New England attack was due to missing Gonzalez, but part of it was not coping with Joseph’s skill that really doomed the team.
But it was the way they didn’t cope that keeps me harping on this being an embarrassment. Earlier in the day Uruguay lost the 3rd place game in the World Cup to Germany in a glorious box-to-box score fest. Both teams gave their all, both teams played wide open futbol, and both teams found joy in the other team’s half. But Germany’s quality overcame Uruguay’s overachieving.
But the Galaxy looked listless after semi-domination of the first 10 minutes and ended up giving away attacking chance after attacking chance to the home team due to Nyassi’s victimization of Todd Dunivant up and down the left side of the field. Without Gonzalez to dominate the center of the park, the Galaxy could not stifle the opposing attack to the extent we’ve come to expect.
On top of that, the team decided that it would be better to bypass a midfield that has three of the most industrious players in the league in it in Michael Stephens, Chris Birchall, and Juninho and go straight over the top to Edson Buddle and Tristan Bowen. Buddle’s hold up play is pretty good, but he was double-teamed every time he went up for one of the booming kicks out of the back and Tristan Bowen just hasn’t figured out how to run off of him. Combine that with another miserable performance from Alex Cazumba, who’s futbol brain is simply not yet up to MLS speed – he dribbles into danger, he never makes the dangerous pass, and he just never knows what to do once he has the ball – and you end up with an offense that forced 4 saves but only one of them the really challenged him.
Even Donovan Ricketts had an average game, letting in two goals, both honest attempts, but both could have been stopped if Ricketts had been able to summon some of his past athletic wowzers.
And I have to say that Bruce Arena’s substitution patterns baffled me as well. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s got a lifetime of coaching experience at the highest levels in the United States and I’ve got… nothing. But instead of taking off midfield liability Alex Cazumba after 60 minutes, he didn’t take him off until closer to 80, preferring to bring off the young legs of Bowen for the head of Alan Gordon, essentially ratifying the bad Galaxy choices to bypass the midfield. And then, instead of starting AJ DeLaGarza as a center back, he went with Leonardo, who hasn’t yet established good communications with his defensive unit.
I don’t expect the team to win every game remaining. I don’t expect that we’ll take points from all 14 games that are left in the regular season. But I do expect an effort that makes it difficult for the other team to knock us off, one that shows the Galaxy playing to their strengths and getting beaten or tied despite that, not because we didn’t do it in the first place. On that count the team did not deliver and did not deliver against one of the teams that is struggling the most to rescue a season from the verge of total collapse.
It was an embarrassment.
Man of the Match: Was there one in this mess? Maybe Michael Stephens, but that’s only because he made the fewest mistakes and never gave up.
What others are saying (UPDATED):
LA Galaxy blog with post-game notes
LA Galaxy blog with post-game quotes
Nick Green’s 100 Percent Soccer, with a nice note that echoes my own sentiment
Comcast Sports Net – New England
Jo-Ryan Salazar at The Bleacher Report
L. E. Eisenminger at the Boston Examiner
Nate Taylor at the Boston Globe
LA Soccer News.com
Steve Stoehr at Goal.com
Josh Guesman at The Section 108 blog
Luis Bueno at MLSSoccer.com
HIGHLIGHTS
Category: Player News Tags: AJ DeLaGarza, Alan Gordon, Alez Cazumba, Bruce Arena, Chirs Birchall, Cory Gibbs, Donovan Ricketts, Edgara Jankauskas, Edson Buddle, Jay Heaps, Juninho, Khano Smith, Landon Donovan, Leonardo, Mark Rogondino, Michael Stephens, Omar Gonzalez, Player News, Shalrie Joseph, Steve Nicol, Steve Ralston, Taylor Twellman, Todd Dunivant, Tristan BowenGalaxy vs New England preview and open thread
By: NathanHJ | Add Comments
It’s all about Edson Buddle. I don’t expect that Landon Donovan will be in the 18 today or if he is to get the start (in fact, I’d be kind of pissed if he plays since he really needs a break and this is a game where the Galaxy don’t need him). So it’s up to Edson to amp up the Galaxy attack. While the two stars have been gone the team has done well, but it is clear that they miss the creativity of Donovan and the up-front play of Buddle. This game, against a struggling New England team devastated by injuries and a lack of new talent to draw on, should provide Buddle ample opportunities and a chance to deepen his partnership with Tristan Bowen.
I expect that the Galaxy midfield will dominate a Revolution midfield missing just about every one of its creative players with the exception of Shalrie Joseph who means everything to this Revs team. Michael Stephens, Juninho, Chris Birchall and whomever replaces Donovan (I’d like to see Eddie Lewis, but it will probably be Alex Cazumba who has had, in my opinion, two mediocre showings in a row) should be able to handle the pressure and clogged midfield that New England will aim to provide.
The defense, missing Omar Gonzalez for the first time in 45 games due to yellow card accumulation, should handle the anemic attack from the home team and have its hands full with Buddle and Bowen. If the team can strike quickly they should be able to put the Revs back on their heels and force them to chase at the same time, which should open the game up wide enough for the Galaxy to put multiple balls in the back of the net.
Here’s who I’d like to see start:
Buddle – Bowen
Lewis – Juninho – Birchall – Stephens
Dunivant – Berhalter – DeLaGarza – Franklin
I’d also be happy with Leonardo in for AJ.
What do you guys expect? Who do you want to see start? Leave your comments below.
You can also follow me on Twitter for the game. I’m at @nathanhjb.
And, as always, feel free to comment during the game below.
The game is on Prime Ticket on cable at 4:30 or on the MLS Direct Kick package.
Here are a few other previews.
Mark Rogondino’s View from the Booth
CBSSports.com
Goal.com
MLSSoccer.com
Prost Amerika Soccer
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