Disruption and counters: Galaxy v Red Bulls Preview

There isn’t going to be very much that’s pretty about today’s clash between New York Red Bulls and the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Galaxy are not yet last year’s fluid ball-handling team and are still experiencing drop-offs in the defensive end and the offensive third. New York had the best midfield unit in the league when you combine talent with their ability to work with one another. But with Teemu Taino going down with injury, the glue that keeps that unit humming is no longer available. Taken together I expect that this means a gritty, defensive-minded effort from LA, mindful of their inability to create good chances in the attack and respectful of a still-potent offense from NY, and a disjointed midfield effort from NY who will start either the plodding Carl Robinson or the erratic Mehdi Ballouchy in place of Taino.

With Real Salt Lake still the class of the league, this is the showdown between the next best teams and as such a good stock-taking match for Los Angeles. As noted above the biggest issue is still the lack of consistent offensive production from the striker position. I expect Chad Barrett and Juan Pablo Angel to both start up front – Barrett because he’s shown positive consistency and Angel because he’ll be desperate to show well against Red Bull – but I’m not enthusiastic about this partnership. Barrett isn’t going to create for Angel, because that’s not his game, and Angel hasn’t been getting the kind of service he needs to thrive for several games now. I still miss Edson Buddle.

In addition, the defensive situation is not up to the standards of the last two years yet. Donovan Ricketts had a bit of a lackadaisical game against Dallas, getting caught out of position on the plays that led to gols, especially that looping cross/shot from Brek Shea. With Omar Gonzalez back, there’s more spine and the partnership with AJ Delagarza is solid, but the ball-handling and distribution has been only adequate across the back, which puts more pressure on the midfield.

New York for their part has one of the best back lines in the league and there are no better distributors from the back in MLS than Rafa Marquez and Tim Ream. Jan Gunnar Soli is better in the attack than Sean Franklin and Roy Miller is faster than Todd Dunivant. However, they aren’t so awesome in the air, where Angel can be deadly so I’m expecting that David Beckham will continue his penchant for long crosses from midfield searching for him. New York also has an attack that includes Thierry Henry, Dane Richards, and Dwayne DeRosario along with newcomer Luke Rodgers (plus Juan Agudelo coming off the bench). You’ve got speed, quickness, savvy, talent, and audacious all represented there and Rodgers’ insertion has unbalanced defenses seeking to key on Henry. However the below-par ball handling skills of Richards and Rodgers will be tested by the absence of Taino because the midfield service is sure to be less than stellar, leading to lots of turnovers.

What does this all add up to? I think it adds up to the Galaxy playing a disruptive game reminiscent of what they did against FC Dallas. They’ll concentrate on clogging the middle to destroy the New York passing game and then attack on the counter, probably on long balls from Becks. New York will try to play through their midfield and failing that will start distributing out of the back through Marquez and Ream to Richards, DeRo, or Rodgers. I will be pleasantly surprised if there is much flow to his game and expect it to be a choppy back-and-forth affair.

In order to win the Galaxy need to:

**Get quality from their defensive unit. Ricketts needs to raise his game to last year’s standard and the defenders need to play calmly, but with urgency.

**Deny the Red Bulls the passing game they want to play. Midfielders will tuck-in and I expect Bruce Arena to put Chris Birchall in on the right wing to increase the grit. Counterattack through Donovan or straight to Angel.

**The strikers need to score. If they can’t step up now, then Arena needs to start looking to shake up his approach or start looking for new players.

I can’t help thinking this thing will wind up as a draw. I’d say 2-2 because I think the NY offense is still super-potent despite having an unsettled midfield behind it, but then I’d be expecting two gols from LA and I’m really hard pressed to see where two are going to come from. So I’m going with 1-1 and I hope LA finds the offense to prove me wrong.

What about you? What do you think the score will be? Who needs to step up? What does LA need to do to win? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Category: 2011 Season, Pre-Game Preview