OMG! Video and game of the season preview!

Totally copied promo pic from LA Galaxy official website

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FUTBOL!?!?!

Sorry. Couldn’t resist. The overwhelming hype generated by the promotional engines of MLS, Red Bull, and AEG for today’s match-up between the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York Red Bulls swept me away. (It can sweep you away on Twitter too. You can follow the #ThisIsLa and #LAvNY hashtags. And me too: @nathanhjb) But can you really blame them? This is the kind of match-up Major League Soccer has been envisioning since its inception back in 1996. Two major market teams with legitimate shots at MLS Cup stacked with (the MLS version) of stars meeting in a late-season game that has post-season implications. They feature the best American field player ever, the most famous athlete in the world, a Mexican National Team stalwart, and one of the most prolific MLS goal scorers ever. If that French handball artist was healthy you could put his skillz in the mix as well. So I guess its pretty easy to excuse the marketing departments of all those fine institutions as they rush to put butts in seats and gin up from viewership for what is, without any hype at all, a marquee match-up for MLS. Which, it turns out, is something that LA fans know for sure because the game is so much of a sellout that the Galaxy have opened up the berm that overlooks the north end of the field for the first time since July 4th.

And what can these 27,000+ fans (plus the umpteen millions who are sure to tune in on ESPN2) expect? They can expect a game that both sides will take deadly seriously and should have the intensity of a playoff match-up. One where every pass, every run, every 50-50 challenge, every defensive stop counts; where the concentration and focus has to be been there for the full 90 minutes.

Let’s look at New York first. They feature arguably the best midfield in the league, especially with the brilliant addition of Mehdi Ballouchy, melded into what is arguably the best spread of talent on one team. With a unit that features speedster Dane Richards, wily Joel Lindpere, creator Ballouchy, and defensive stopper/offense starter Rafa Marquez, New York has the most complimentary set of players in the middle I’ve seen since the glory days of DC United. Missing Thierry Henry to a knee injury won’t really slow them down because of how much offensive creativity comes from this grouping. To say nothing of the fact that Juan Pablo Angel, who basically scores a goal every other game, is sure to start, most likely with Salou Ibrahim running alongside him.

The weakest link here is Dane Richards who has blazing speed, yes, but also a history of weak decision-making and less than solid technical ability. He’s strengthened that last bit somewhat over the last year, which has helped him solidify a spot on the starting 11, but if you can harass him, he’ll make more than his share of mistakes. Unfortunately, there is added depth to the Red Bull roster with midfielders like Tony Tchani and Danleigh Borman and Jeremy Hall waiting their turn.

The midfield and strikers sit in front of one of the better set of defenders in the league, even if none of them are singularly sensational. Starting center backs Tim Ream (a strong Rookie of the Year candidate) and Pablo Mendes are backed up by guys like Mike Petke and Carey Talley. Wing backs Roy Miller and Chris Albright both deliver offensive punch to go with stout defense. Critically the defense isn’t speedy, outside of Miller, which should give Los Angeles a weakness to exploit.

I would expect to see the Red Bulls prefer to play through their midfield, running the game through Marquez and Ballouchy, who will spray the ball around looking for Richards to explode behind Todd Dunivant or Juan Pablo Angel to make cagey runs while Lindpere floats around the left becoming dangerous at the least opportune moments.

The Galaxy’s strengths are similar to New York’s, which makes this such an intriguing match-up. With two of the league’s most potent offensive weapons up front in Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle, the Galaxy, too, looks to play through a midfield designed for ball control and spreading a team out so their forward can exploit the space with incisive runs. The Galaxy’s midfield is less complete than New York’s, but has the advantage of playing together as a unit longer. While defensive pressure can come from Demo Kovalenko or Chris Birchall, both of whom handle the center of the park well – though Kovalenko’s known to instill a bit more fear than Birchall, the offensive spark comes from Juninho, playing the Ballouchy role, and from a strengthening David Beckham. The weakness here has been the left side with Michael Stephens‘ sizzling start cooling off and Alex Cazumba continuing to show his youth and inexperience at this level. With Becks coming closer and closer to being able to go 60-90 minutes, you now have the luxury of bringing in Birchall on the left and pushing Donovan up top to find the game running below Buddle.

All of this is made possible by LA’s still tough but decidedly more recently mortal defense led by goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. Todd Dunivant has been a rock on the left all season, every season really, and Sean Franklin is improving every game over on the right. But the center has been unsettled for large chunks of the season. Center stalwarts Omar Gonzalez and Gregg Berhalter are both unavailable for the match, Gonzalez due to yellow card accumulation, Berhalter through sickness and injury. This leaves either AJ DeLaGarza, himself coming back from injury, Leonardo, or Yohance Marshall, who played his first game all season after having been loaned to the D-2 Austin Aztecs. I would expect to see Leonardo and Marshall in the middle, though I’d much prefer AJ to Leonardo.

The key to both teams is control of the midfield. Neither does particularly well when they bypass their playmakers, though both have enough quality in the front to make interesting things happen on long balls. LA needs to neutralize Richards and deny Ballouchy time to see the game and distribute. The unfamiliar center back tandem will have their hands full dealing with Angel and might lose Lindpere in the shuffle. But if they can stay organized and keep their shape they should be able to frustrate New York.

New York needs to clamp down on both Buddle and Donovan, which is harder to do now that both Juninho and Becks are on the field at the same time. But if they can keep Junihno off-balance they’ll cut out a lot of the ball movement that helps LA find the seams in the defense. Like LA, they need to establish midfield possession and get Richard and Angel lots of touches.

This has the makings of an exciting end to end game with lots of quick passes and dangerous runs. Both teams can be deadly on the counter so every play will count since any one of them could result in a quick outlet pass to a Donovan or an Angel. If the game between New York and FC Dallas is anything to go by, this game really will live up to its hype.

Key Matchups:
Angel vs. Marshall, Buddle vs. Ream, Dunivant vs. Richards, Juninho vs. Marquez, Ballouchy vs. Kovalenko.

Projected Line-ups:
LA
Buddle – Donovan
Birchall – Kovalenko – Juninho – Beckham
Dunivant – Marshall – Leonardo – Franklin
Ricketts

NYRB
Angel – Ibrahim
Lindpere – Marquez – Ballouchy – Richards
Miller – Mendes – Ream – Albright
Condoul

Projected score: LA 2 – NYRB 1

What about you all? What are you looking forward to? What does LA have to do to win? New York? What will the score be?

To keep the anticipation building, I’m including more video! That’s how much I love you.

LA Galaxy Raw Week 25

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Category: 2010 Season, Galaxy Game Previews