LA Galaxy

By: DAS | View Comments

There cannot be a true Galaxy fan alive today who does not love them some Brazilian. A Brazilian apparently named Vitor, specifically. Twice now I’ve seen game rosters with that name and tried to figure out if the Galaxy signed some new player. But when you see our magical little Brazilian elf on the field, there is no doubt it is Juninho. And work his magic he did last night, scoring the game winning goal in the 93rd minute to keep our CCL hopes alive.

I’ve picked up a new hashtag I’m using on twitter, #thingsilearnedatthegalaxygame. Feel free to use it. So here are some of the things I’ve picked up on:

* Barret can only score from inside the box and even then only when it isn’t very challenging.

* Cristman is a big man who can’t head the ball. Get him out of the starting lineup.

* Cardozo has been an okay midfielder, but he is far more threatening as a striker. Sure, he hasn’t scored. But he had five shots on goal his first game in that role and assisted two goals. He has an incredible touch and plays creatively. Yes, he is short. But pair him with Keane and the Galaxy feel electric.

* Dunivant is a great defender. Not so much a finisher.

* Omar Gonzalez is a stud and I can’t figure out why Klinsmann has yet to bring him into camp.

* AJ DLG isn’t perfect, but man does that kid hustle and play hard.

* Frankie makes me nervous sometimes, but with 98% pass completion last night, there is no doubt he’s still got it. Might prefer him as a bench player, but still glad to have him.

* Magee. I’m a Mageek. Shouldn’t he retire after this year because it can’t get any better?

You’ll note I’m not talking about Keane, Donovan, or Beckham. As New York is demonstrating, you have to expect your DPs to play well. But if only they play well, you don’t win. And even if they don’t play well, a strong team can still pull through without them. So what gets me excited right now is the skill I’m seeing from our non-DP players.

I’ve noticed something about the MLS Cup. It seems that what really matters is not how teams have performed through the season, but their trajectory as they enter the playoffs. Last year the Galaxy won the supporters shield. But heading into the playoffs they were losing steam. Colorado was a mediocre team, but they were surging. What matters most in the playoffs is not how you’ve been doing but how you are doing right now, because once you’re in the season long record no longer matters.

Right now I’m hopeful. The Galaxy are not dominating games, but they are winning. We no longer have entire parts of the field where we are impotent. We have quality role players in every quadrant and they seem to be getting better, not slowing down.

I’m not looking at this team thinking we’ll need a lot of luck. I’m looking at this team thinking we can go the whole way if we keep playing well. Let’s hope they feel likewise.

@dschnider

By: DAS | View Comments

Remember Chinatown? It is a great movie about water rights, land development, and conspiracy, starring a young Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. There is an iconic, incest revealing scene in which Nicholson is trying to determine Dunaway’s relationship to this girl. He keeps slapping her and with each slap she switches from “my sister” to “my daughter.” I probably saw it 20 years ago and it still sticks with me today. These days, it makes me think of Landon Donovan. Well, not the incest part. Just the duality of the role.

A year ago, when I was merely a reader and commenter on this blog, I argued strongly against the Galaxy playing Donovan as a midfielder. I felt his absence up front diminished the team, leaving them less potent in the attack. I accepted Donovan’s own claim that he is not a true striker. But he remained enough of a scoring threat that he could either put it in the net or draw a couple of defenders away to allow someone else to finish. I mean, we are talking about the top scoring American player in national team history, right?

But I’ve noticed something this season. While Donovan is still a potent attacker, he really isn’t a true striker. When he plays up front he remains a threat, but not really of the Keane or even Angel variety. Yet when he plays in the midfield he brings something even more rare to an MLS pitch: control. Donovan is one of the few players in the league who has the ability to slow things down or hit the afterburners seemingly on a dime. He can hold when they need to build and burn when they need to pressure. It seems to me that when Donovan plays in the middle, the team overall is more composed and more lethal. When he plays up front, they have a good attacking option but don’t quite seem as skilled in building up to take advantage of that option.

So was I wrong last year? Honestly, I’m still not sure. And the situation is complicated by the other options available. Cristman is like Alan Gordon without the charm. Barrett mostly seems to earn the nickname Nathan gave him: barnmisser. Lopez has some amazing skills, but doesn’t seem to be able to follow through with the final touch yet. So what does that leave? Magee? Don’t get me wrong. I still consider myself a Mageek. But I came to that state as a result of his impressive midfield play. Coming from the wing, he adds a nice attacking flare and really helps to pressure the opposing D. But, of course, that’s the position I just got through saying seemed to suit Donovan.

With the introduction of Keane, the Galaxy finally have potent players at every position and I finally feel we are a team that could challenge for MLS cup. But the mix of quality we have continues to be a puzzle that doesn’t quite fit together. On last week’s Corner of the Galaxy podcast (http://nasn.tv/category/corner-of-the-galaxy/), Dave Denholme argued for pairing Donovan with Keane. While that’s a tempting option to me, I still think we are better off with Donovan in the mid. So what to do?

Here’s an option that’ll never happen: play a 4-2-3-1. Make Keane the lone striker with Donovan as an attacking mid. Put Beckham and Magee on the wings. Put Juninho back as a playmaking midfielder and Birchall back to “Kovalenko” anyone who tries to get through the line. Okay, Arena will never do it. But it just might be the solution…. Seems to work okay for Man City.

So what do you think? When you peer into Landon Donovan’s soul, what kind of player do you see? Striker? Midfielder? Striker? Midfielder? Where would you play him? And what formation would you use to solve the midfield puzzle?

By: DAS | View Comments

Fox news is reporting that Robbie Keane is leaving Tottenham to join the LA Galaxy!! The $8M move will require the Galaxy to transfer one of their 3 current DPs. I have it from a reliable source that our supposed angel who never fulfilled our wish will be shuffling off the Galaxy coil for our HDC neighbors. I am also told the local goats passed up Adu to get him. Bad choice if you ask me.

If true, this is great news for the Galaxy. Keane could be just the bit of offensive punch we’ve been missing. I know he’s a little old (31), but still a great player. Couple him with Landycakes and Becks and we are in good shape in the attack. Can’t wait for this to be confirmed! I’m on pins and needles.

By: DAS | View Comments

I couldn’t watch the San Jose game until the last few minutes, so imagine my surprise when I turned it on to see this. Mike Magee can’t pick up the ball! That’s a handball!! Well, not that night.

Who would have thought that for a number of weeks keeper would be the most exciting position on the field for the Galaxy? Not one of our plethora of DPs. Not our fancy Brazilian. Not our towering young up and coming defender. But keeper.

I’m still reeling at the chain of events that resulted in the picture above. Donovan Ricketts, in his first game back from Gold Cup duty, suffered a broken arm early in the first half. It kills me that we will be without his settling presence in the pipes for 4 to 6 weeks. But not to worry, our able backup Josh Saunders stepped up. And earned himself a bizarre red card a few minutes later. Nobody puts three keepers on the bench, so it was up to one of our field players to assume the gloved duties. Mike Magee not only stepped up, but performed incredibly well for a short midfielder who is generally more comfortable on the opposite end of the field.

Now, I want to take a minute to digress here and reiterate my praises for Magee. As a starting forward, I was quick to criticize his play and question why Arena kept giving him preference. He was at best adequate in the role and mostly as frustrating as Alan Gordon. But a few games in a magical thing happened. I can’t recall if it was in place of Donovan or Beckham, but Arena moved Magee to the left wing. Sensational. Well, perhaps that’s a bit strong. But suddenly he became a very capable threat. Having played as a striker his instinct was to go forward and make incisive runs into the middle. Sure he couldn’t finish (that’s why I didn’t like him up top in the first place), but he could certainly stretch defenders and set up plays. Suddenly I found myself becoming a Mageek.

Until the San Jose game I was largely a lone fan. It was lonely in the Mageek squad. But that all changed in San Jose. Magee showed his courage and passion that night. Hopefully the haters will now start to respect him and recognize what he is capable of adding to the midfield. Of course, his performance in the recent Seattle game did nothing to further that ambition….

Now, getting back on track, that red card Saunders picked up led to an interesting situation on the 4th of July. Third stringer Brian Perk, who I don’t think had ever played an MLS game, had to get the start. Was I the only fan who was nervous? I’m sure not. But our little third stringer was a revelation, even stopping a hard hit penalty kick from Montero (quite rightly selected as MLS save of the week). The game wasn’t exactly a stellar example of attacking soccer, but Perk did a very solid job maintaining the shut out. One game isn’t enough to judge a player, but it certainly was an auspicious beginning.

As I previously alluded to, the best thing about the 4th of July game was the fireworks show afterwards. For the majority of the game, Seattle controlled the pace and created the chances. I wasn’t particularly impressed by anyone other than Perk. Beckham came on late in the second half and that did seem to change things a bit, but not enough to make a difference. I do want to single out Chad Barrett for re-earning Nathan’s nickname Barnmisser. Any chance we can unload him this summer and bring in a new option? Yeah, probably not.

The Seattle game did have two major drawbacks for the Galaxy. First, AJDLG took a boot to the head (”boot to the head, na na!” — few will get the reference, but those who do are laughing heartily right now I assure you) and is now on the injured list. Omar Gonzalez got a hip pointer (whatever the hell that is — sounds like some bizarre European dog breed) and is also on the injured list. Dropping our two starting central defenders and our starting keeper just as they were all really gelling is like a kick in the gut. I can only hope those guys heal up soon.

In the meantime, it makes me wonder what we’ll see tomorrow night. Berhalter will have to start in center and probably play the full 90. Can’t imagine he’s quite ready for that, but at least he is solid. Partnered with who though? Against Seattle Arena pulled Franklin into the middle and put Jordan on the right, but that’s far from ideal. Hejduk, Leonardo, and Alvarado are all injured as well. Even with a deep pool of defenders, having 5 of them out injured puts quite a crimp in your plans. Could Kyle Davies or Ryan Thomas be making their debut? (Okay, I had to look up the team roster to even figure out those guys were on the team, but you never know). It should be interesting. But at least we’re playing Chicago, who has even more trouble putting the ball in the net than we do. MLS already has a record setting 20 ties this season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see yet another.

So not that this post needs to be any longer, but I have one last bone to pick. Is anybody else utterly disappointed in the stupid MLS Match Day app? It sucks in almost every way imaginable! I have seen it give a pregame report that had conflicting data on the same page. Every time you open a game for an update on game day you have to watch that stupid animation where the screen pops out, even if it is just to tell you that the game isn’t available!! And good luck if you tune in late. Nowhere does that page tell you what the starting lineups were – only who was on the roster and who subbed in or out. The updates show up late, the news is poorly organized, the interface is clunky. And how is it that I can get detailed pre-game information for free on the Galaxy website, but none of that is available in the app I paid for? I have seen two games on my iPad that I couldn’t watch on tv, but could they not have built something better to go around that feature? Maddening.

Twitter: @dschnider

By: NathanHJ | View Comments

It’s hard to think of this game as deserving of having such a thing as “highlights” but here are the best moments of the the match from Friday.

By: NathanHJ | View Comments

All effort and no ball sums up the entire Galaxy-United match.

We always miss players when they are away, but we could have won the game at the end of the day. I don’t think we didn’t play well because of missing Landon. – David Beckham

The only one good thing about tonight is that we lost these games at home last year. – Bruce Arena

Those are both good points. During and just after the game I felt like blaming the team’s poor showing on the absence of Landon Donovan, who is away with the US National Team for the Gold Cup. But upon reflection, I remembered how the team had played on its recent Eastern Conference road swing also without Donovan. And the fact is Friday’s performance was much much worse than any one of those games, even the snoozer against Toronto FC. It is a tribute to the team’s basic soundness that they still had a few chances to win the game despite facing a DC United group that was playing 11 men behind the ball out of a 4-5-1 formation. And it is a tribute to lucky breaks, many of which went against the team earlier in the season, that they got off the pitch with a 0-0 tie rather than getting hurt by Charlie Davies for the second time this year. I like to think his miss on an open gol after having juked two defender and Josh Saunders was karmic payback for his epic penalty box dive when the Galaxy played United at home this Spring.

Overall, what was striking about the game was both how far the team’s performance can drop when certain players don’t play their best games and how much more depth there is on this team than in recent years. For example, Mike Magee, Miguel Lopez, and Chris Birchall all had fairly pedestrian efforts to go with Chad Barrett’s continued hard work, but reversion to classic Barnmisser form in squandering two gorgeous looks at gol, including a beautiful free header that he pushed wide right. The result was exactly one shot on gol the entire night and only seven total shots for the game.

On the other hand, Arena could call on reinforcements like Paolo Cardozo, Jovan Kirovski and Adam Cristman. Now, if you know me, you know that I’m not the world’s biggest Kirovski fan; he certainly brings futbol intelligence and work rate with him, but couples it with such epic slowness and lack of creativity that making him the replacement for an injured Juninho is a bit of a head scratcher. Cristman impressed me with his dozen or so minutes by getting into dangerous positions; by the time he gets fully fit he could be a legitimate option off the bench. Cardozo, who I love for speed and creativity, still seems a bit lost on the field in terms of understanding how to play a winger in a system that tries to emphasize possession and short passes. All three players came off a bench that didn’t even have LD or Juan Pablo Angel available, which to me is the biggest positive.

Having said all that, though, in watching Real Salt Lake dispatch (an admittedly struggling) Vancouver and New York outplay Columbus for all but the last 30 seconds of stoppage time, I’m reminded of what other teams in the league can do when also without their best players. And by any measure the Galaxy was not on par with those efforts on Friday. Some of that had to do with DC United’s tactical approach, as I noted above, but also with their determination and will to play hard. Both of those were better than the Galaxy’s and it showed all night long.

Still, the team could have won – generating a couple legitimate scoring chances that were both blown by Barnmisser. And the defense proved itself capable of remaining resilient without Donovan Ricketts; Todd Dunivant continues to be among the steadiest left backs in the league and I’m sure there are many Galaxy fans wondering if he might be a better option for the USMNT after Saturday’s performance against Spain. Luckily the team has eight days to shake this off before meeting a completely at sea TFC side next Saturday. But players like Magee, Lopez, and Barrett need to pick it up a notch and Angel (calf strain) and Juninho (sprained ankle) need to return from injury. Otherwise the following week’s away game to Colorado Rapids will be long and frustrating.

Here are some other positives:

*Unbeaten streak at 7 (4-3-0)
*Shutout streak at 411 minutes, third longest in the league this year
*Eighth clean sheet of the year, most in MLS
*Points per game average of 1.875, second only to RSL’s 2.00

Man of the Match: Ugh. I’m going with David Beckham for having the least horrible performance from the midfield.

Update: The Galaxy defense’s mad gol-line scramble that saved two shots off the line against New England won last week’s Save of the Week! I’d like to see that kind of determination and heart against the Reds on Saturday.

What about you all? What did you see on Friday? Who was your MOTM and why? What do you want to improve? Who needs to do better? Who did well enough? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

By: NathanHJ | View Comments

If you saw the New England game, you saw a heart-stopping moment of defensive scrambling that resulted in not one, but two gol-line clearances in rapid succession. First AJ Delagarza, the Landon Donovan made determined, desperate plays that helped preserve the victory – and clean sheet – for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Their hard work has been recognized by the League and they are up for Save of the Week. You can vote here.

And you can see their good work in the highlights below. But be sure to go and vote here. You’ve got until 11:59 PM Thursday PT.

By: NathanHJ | View Comments

Juninho battles Shalrie Joseph in the Galaxy's 1-0 win at New England on May 28th.

Three games in eight days has become almost routine for the Los Angeles Galaxy this season, and for a few other teams as well, as the schedule makes room for not on the US Open Cup, and the CONCACAF Champions League, but also the CONCACAF Championship, the Gold Cup with the winner getting a slot in the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013 in Brazil. I bring this up because not only was this the most recent stretch of schedule packing the team has endured, but Landon Donovan and Donovan Ricketts both leave the team for the Gold Cup which starts in about a week and will last for the month of June. It’s a good time to size up the team after its most recent week of action as well as the almost-first-half of the season, since they have now played 15 league matches (out of 34).

Let’s take this last week as a jumping off point for the whole discussion. The Galaxy managed to extract the maximum 9 points from games against a slowly improving Chivas USA side, an uninspired and dull Houston outfit trying desperately to overcome a series of unfortunate injuries, and a revamped but decidedly average New England team that still plays with the determination and smarts of a Steve Nicol-coached group. Without taking anything away from those victories, these are all games the Galaxy could reasonably have been expected to win, even if two were on the road (though on the road to Chivas often plays out like a home game with a larger traveling fan section).

That said, the parity in MLS means any team can win any game (just ask Real Salt Lake about Saturday’s game against the Seattle Sounders) to say nothing of ties, so nine points from three games is an accomplishment and more so when you take them from coaches like Dom Kinnear and Nicol. The engine of all three victories was the Galaxy midfield, stiffened by a defense that has come into its own after an unsettled start to the season. In some ways this little stretch was emblematic of the entirety of Bruce Arena’s tenure with the blue and gold: the success was built on being extremely difficult to beat. Note that this is not the same thing as being extremely difficult to defend. In fact, the supposed core of any team’s offense, its strike partnership, has been an unending source of frustration and tinkering for the Galaxy coaching staff (and fans) since the beginning of the year. There’s no way to sugar-coat how much the team misses Edson Buddle nor how unsettled Juan Pablo Angel continues to look. Still, the gols do come, largely through Landon Donovan, who has scored in something like six of the last eight games and leads the league with eight gols overall, and David Beckham who has seven assists mostly from dead ball situations.

The other thing that this week put on display was the team’s depth. A game without Becks, a game without Angel, multiple changes to the starting lineups, and the results were the same: three straight 1-0 victories. (The team has four 1-0 victories, but has 10 games in which it has only scored once giving it a 4-4-2 record in those games – WTL. This, I would submit, goes back to the fact of the team being difficult to beat.) With the expansion of the rosters this year to 30 (from 24), Arena made 12 changes to last year’s roster (aided by the retirement of big name players like Eddie Lewis and Chris Klein) and he managed to find some folks who can contribute. Players like Miguel Lopez, who got his first gol against New England, and Paolo Cardozo, have joined league veterans like Chad Barrett and Angel, along with Galaxy vets like Mike Magee and Michael Stephens to add significant depth to a roster long-dominated by a handful of big-time players and a wealth of people who excelled in specific roles. Half-way through the 2011 season, that’s simply no longer the case.

Starting with the remaking of the defense (both in terms of players, but also in terms of expectations at every position), Arena has also build a midfield that plays, as a unit, perhaps better than any other team except RSL (before the injury to Javier Morales). Together, this makes for a spine that is difficult to break down even as it is deadly on the counter (as any team that features Becks and Donovan should be). Until this year Arena also had Buddle at his disposal, so there was a second player to share the scoring load with Donovan. This year that was supposed to be Angel, with insurance from Barrett. But as 10 one-gol games can attest, it hasn’t turned out that way. Angel’s integration into the team is taking longer than expected and hoped for and while Barrett’s workrate and even positioning has impressed, he’s still prone to missing sitters. Magee, who is having a bit of a renaissance in terms of intangible contributions, simply can’t be relied upon to score gols when needed. Lopez has slowly improved, but he can be a bit, shall we say, unfocused in his off-the-ball play and a bit of a ball hog when he has it. The same can be said for Cardozo. Stephens, who continues to show a Josh Gros-like ability to run, combined with Donovan-like speed, is still not quite up to snuff in term of ball-handling or decision-making, though he has also visibly improved.

Given this, in some ways the wealth of single-gol games is to be expected and the number one reason that Arena continues to insist that the team still has great strides to make before it can be said to be playing at its full potential. With the Donovans gone for up to a month, it’s not going to reach it before July either. But at the same time this will give the team’s depth a chance to shine. Cardozo, Stephens, and Magee are sure to get substantially more playing time and Angel, Barrett and Lopez will continue to platoon at the top of Arena’s preferred 4-4-2 formation. There’s even a chance Adam Cristman, who is recovering from a knee injury and another striker, could get some first-team minutes. Not only will this opportunity be helpful for the stretch run of the MLS season, it comes in advance of a busy summer that will include at least one US Open Cup match (or up to four through July if the team wins the games), two exhibition matches (Real Madrid and Manchester City), and the start of the CONCACAF Champions League (August). Doing well here means the possibility of more playing time as fixture congestion makes itself felt while giving the team a realistic shot at doing better than the recent two-and-dones with the Cup and the CCL play-in meltdowns. Arena has always professed that the team seeks to win every competition it enters, but this year the depth he’s supplied might actually make that a realistic ambition rather than an expected platitude.

So, to take stock at almost mid-season, the Galaxy sit atop the MLS standings with 29 points from 15 matches, almost averaging an extremely respectable 2 points per game. 19 gols from 15 matches is a concern, but the last month has seen some of the most complete futbol the team has put together this season with its barnburner of a home match against New York Red Bulls and its dismantling of Sporting Kansas City. The newer players are contributing to uneven degrees, but the number of those who have is encouraging as is the continued high-level play of the team even when missing key players like Becks and Donovan. The defense, which is the key to the overall success has played very well since Omar Gonzalez has returned from his pre-season injury with AJ Delagarza showing his worth in every match, exemplified by his gritty gol-mouth clearance of an empty-net shot attempt (Ricketts making one of his patented mistakes on crosses and I say that with love for the big man). Todd Dunivant, perhaps the most underrated defender in the entire league, has played every minute of every game this season and is quietly having a career year supplying more offense from the left flank than he ever has while also continuing to play the kind of defense that Arena demands. He’s made Alexi Lalas’ characterization of him as “a bit soft” one more example of Lalas’ flawed player evaluation skills.

The midfield with Becks and second-year man Juninho playing in the middle and flank play from Landon Donovan and whomever else gets the start (Magee, Chris Birchall, Lopez, Stephens, and Cardozo have all started in the midfield this season) has been a bit of a revelation. While I think that Becks is content to rely on his 40-yard pass a little too often each game, there’s no doubt that placing him in a context that allows him to increase his touches and do it from a place here he can make that deadly pass regularly has given the team the ability to counter that few teams in the league possess. Juninho’s tireless work and defensive cover allows for this and he’s still getting better at his own distribution. Contributions from the younger players, especially those who are obviously creative with the ball – Cardozo and Lopez – in the middle give the team a dimension it has lacked for years. Though still not mature enough to play entire games, these players could the future of a team that will play possession ball, but include flair and drama that hasn’t been seen since Mauricio Cienfuegos pulled the strings. (Someone needs to get a name as cool as “100 Fires” pronto.)

The biggest trouble spot remains the strikers – as I’ve noted throughout this piece. The talent is there, but the entire team except for Donovan has struggled in the final third this season. Given the talent in the midfield one would think this could be overcome, but somehow it hasn’t happened yet. Clearly Angel needs to stop playing so desperately. He’s at his best when he plays smart futbol – and he’s one of the smartest players in MLS. Play good futbol and the gols will come, either from his foot or from an assist. Similarly Barrett needs to play with more calmness. This would be easier if he had a slightly better first touch, but more calmness would lead to fewer ridiculously overhit shots. Lopez looks good, bringing more creativity to the pitch than Galaxy strikers normally do, but his off the ball runs can be a bit frustrating and get in the way of his strike partner.

Overall I think the team has done well through 15 games clearly staking its claim to being the best in MLS. But it still hasn’t played consistently up to its potential, which it will have to do with 19 more league games to go as well as six CCL games, at least one USOC game and two exhibitions. Time for the new players to make their marks.

By: NathanHJ | View Comments

This evening the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA meet at the Home Depot Center for the first 2011 installment of the so-called “SuperClasico”. For most of its history the clash has been less than Super with the Galaxy dominating the outcomes. The only time parity has even been a conversation piece was during the Alexi Lalas as GM years when the team imploded, especially 2007 and 2008. But tonight that might be a part of the overall story. Chivas is riding a rise in form that includes an away win at New York against the same team that the Galaxy tied at home just a week previously. They are a much tougher team from last year’s second worst team in Major League Soccer, with Robin Fraser bringing some of the winning Real Salt Lake approach with him as the team’s first year coach. They’ve also found much more offense this year, making them a much more dangerous team than last year’s anemic version.

New team members like Heath Pearce, Simon Elliot, Alejandro Moreno, Marco Mondaini (despite his disastrous tackle on Javier Morales) and Zarek Valentin have helped the Goats raise the level of their game, while Chivas USA veterans like Ben Zemanski, Jorge Flores, Nick LaBrocca, and Justin Braun have begun to find their rhythm within Fraser’s system. All this has raised the confidence of the team, which has hit a new peak with their 3-2 win over the Red Bulls and comes at just the right time for a clash with the Galaxy. So it really isn’t a stretch to think that this game will be a much tighter affair than most of those in the past.

But that isn’t to say that the Goats are yet the equal of the Los Angeles Galaxy. While they may have beaten Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez at home, the quality of that game was far below the classic played at the Home Depot Center just days before. While Justin Braun may have scored his first MLS hat trick, he’s not yet the kind of threat that will keep Omar Gonzalez up at night. While Dan Kennedy might be having the best year of his career, the Chivas defense is still not a top tier unit.

In contrast, the Galaxy is riding its most complete games of the season, including the game with the Red Bulls and the systematic dismantling of Sporting KC. These games have shown the enormous potential the team has, exemplified with its repeated shredding of MLS’s premier defense at home and then it’s domination of the league’s most unfortunate team (playing the first third of its season on the road). The SKC game especially showed how many weapons the Galaxy can call on and what can happen when they start to click. Despite their strides, the Goats are still not the equal of the Galaxy either as a team or as individual players.
This installment, though, the game, which has always been a fight, Chivas comes in with confidence and a sold out stadium. So while the Galaxy is the better team, the gap between the two has narrowed considerably and, when combined with the home field belonging to Chivas, gives this game the possibility of a much more evenly matched contest than it has been for most of the rivalry between the co-tenants of the HDC.

Despite that and despite Braun’s improbable hat-trick, I think the Galaxy will win this game. The team has had a week’s rest, a rarity in their front-loaded MLS schedule, while Chivas played 3000 miles away just three days ago. Mondaini is still suspended, leaving the attack to youngsters like Flores and Braun and wily veteran Alejandro Moreno. That’s not an attack that has shown the ability to play like it did in New York consistently and the Galaxy defense is getting more and more comfortable with itself. And the Chivas defense, which Heath Pearce has helped stiffen, is going to have its hands full with an in-from Landon Donovan, a newly confident Juan Pablo Angel, and a battling Chad Barrett playing in front of the very effective pairing of David Beckham and Juninho.

I’m looking forward to a tough and exciting game, but I think the Galaxy can shut Chivas down and emerge with an “away” victory on a 2-1 scoreline.

They’ll need it because they play again on Wednesday against Houston and then on Saturday against the Revolution after which they’ll lose Landon Donovan who’s been the key to their attack through the first part of the season.

What about you? What do you think the score will be? Who needs to step up? What are the key match-ups? How do you feel about this version of the SuperClasico? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

By: NathanHJ | View Comments

Angel gets his second gol of the season in the Galaxy's dismantling of Sporting KC

Apologies for not getting comments on the recent games sooner. I’m traveling on the East Coast and its playing havoc with my blogging schedule. But it has been interesting to note how much my take on Philadelphia is tempered by watching the Kansas City game. For example, I was pretty frustrated with leaving points on the table in Philly, especially through such a careless error from a normally reliable player like Sean Franklin. He did cop to the error in the post-game interviews and noted how he thought it was an error not just in weighting the back pass to Donovan Ricketts, but in making the pass that late in the game with a 1-0 lead. But I wasn’t really frustrated with the play of the team in Philadelphia. The Union may talk a lot about how well they are doing through eight weeks of the season, but they clearly came out, on their home pitch, I might add, looking to only play to stop the Galaxy attack, not to actually put any offense on the field. The Galaxy were the better team from start to finish and they played like it. Similar to the Union’s victory over the New York Red Bulls, the Galaxy dominated and were punished for one mistake while the Union bunkered, fouled, and waited for counters.

Okay, it’s not quite accurate to say that I wasn’t frustrated with the play of the Galaxy. I was frustrated yet again by their inability to score multiple gols when they really should have. Juan Pablo Angel had probably his most visibly ineffective night, playing out of sync with the rest of the team, looking tentative and lacking confidence. It seemed like yet another night when the on-going failure of the Galaxy to figure out how to work with JPA and vice versa was making it seem like investing in his continuing quality was just so much magical thinking. It was unquestionably a bad game for Angel and it was part of the sour taste I had after giving away two points in the dying minutes. (The other part was listening to Taylor Twellman say inane things all night long – seriously how long before American broadcasting realizes you don’t really need a color man if your play by play guy is decent. Does no one listen to Arlo White call the Sounders games?)

But then game Saturday and the kind of game from the Galaxy that they needed to replace the sour taste of Philadelphia Union with the sweet nectar of Sporting Kansas City beat-down. To be clear, this was a game that the Galaxy should have won and should have won easily. Kansas City is in the middle of an epic road swing waiting for their new stadium to open and of the seven games they’ve played they’ve won exactly one of them – over Chivas USA. They also have the worst defense in MLS. The Galaxy were, on the other hand, coming into their third game in seven days which included a nice mid-week coast-to-coast jaunt and though SKC has problems stopping shots, they have one of the best offenses in the league. So, though the Galaxy had the clear upper hand, they were facing their own obstacles.

In the end, though, Kansas City was the object upon which Los Angeles took out all its past frustrations of the season – all the bad officiating, all the difficult play in inclement weather, all the called-back gols, all the lack of chemistry in the attack, the fact they’ve played more games than any team in the league – everything came pouring out as the team put everything together and played the kind of game that they expect of themselves every time they go out on the pitch. That resulted in:

**Four gols – the most all season – and unanswered
**Gols from all three Designated Players
**Two assists from Chad Barrett (along with one patented Barnmisser)
**The best 30 minutes of the season from Juan Pablo Angel
**The best example of the Juninho-David Beckham pairing in the middle all season
**A brace from Landon Donovan despite slightly off the best of what he’s capable of.
**Nearly 60% of the possession, including on stretch in the second half where they completed over 20 passes in a row before turning the ball over to Sporting KC (on a shot if I recall correctly).
**Winning after giving up the first gol for the first time all season

It wasn’t a complete game because of the Omar Gonzalez own gol in the first half – I tweeted (@nathanhjb) after it happened that it seemed like the Galaxy were getting a season’s worth of bad breaks in the first 12 games – but the attitude they displayed in getting a come-from-behind win for the first time all season was a semblance of what I’ve come to expect from this team since 2009. The fact that it has come against the team with the worst record does lessen the impact a little – but if you look at the quality of play that the team has put together over the last three games – New York, Philadelphia, and Kansas City – one can’t help but see steady improvement and growth towards being the kind of team that the Galaxy should be with the personnel they have and the kind of team they need to be if they way to win an MLS cup and compete in the US Open Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League.

The Galaxy now have a full week between games, their “away” match to Chivas USA is Saturday, but that’s the start of another three-games-in seven-days stretch. This will be another test of their depth due to fixture congestion as well as the last chances they’ll get to play with a red-hot Landon Donovan who is now 4th on the all-time MLS scoring list and leading the league in gols scored before he leaves after Memorial Day weekend for the Gold Cup squad.

This is why I’m a happy the team didn’t take their foot off the gas after they had broken Sporting’s spirit – they need Becks and JPA to step up when Landon’s gone so that someone else can put the ball in the back of the net – and Chad Barrett racking up assists is meaningful too. It’s indicative of how well he’s meshing with attack as a whole. With Chivas and Houston at home and the Revolution away, the team really should get points from each match, and I’d predict wins at home, which they will need because RSL is only four points away with five games in hand and FC Dallas is only three points down with two games in hand. We need those points now so we can have them on hand, not so much so the team can stay in first place, but for the really tough games ahead. If the team plays like it did on Saturday, this seems extremely likely.

Man of the Match: Juninho. Yep, my man of the match is someone I barely mentioned but his work in the midfield was brilliant, his passing was much better this game and he was invovled in many of the offensive build-ups. When he’s one, the Galaxy click and they clicked on Saturday.

What about you? What did you see? How did you feel about the game? Who was your man of the match? Who did well? Who needed to step up? What do you think about where the team is headed into the SuperClasico? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.