Who Will Play Against Real Salt Lake On Saturday?

By: NathanHJ | September 4th, 2008

The Galaxy looked sharper than they had in weeks last Saturday against the Revolution, which bodes well for the run they will have to make in order to get into the playoffs. However, this Saturday MLS has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to schedule league matches concurrently with a FIFA World Cup qualifier date. Therefore when the Galaxy take the field at the HDC against Real Salt Lake, four Galaxy players, all of them integral to the success of the team, will be gone on international duty: Landon Donovan (USA), David Beckham (ENG), Eddie Lewis (USA), and Ante Jazic (CAN).

So what formation does Bruce Arena put out? I claim no insight into his coaching mind and I don’t spend any time at all watching team practices so I can’t say that my own suggestions are based in anything other than past performance. Having said that, here’s what I think might happen on Saturday.

Buddle – Gordon
Allen – Vanney – Vagenas – Klein
Randolph – Roberts – Dominguez – Franklin
Wicks

Personally I hate that line up. It is not particularly well-suited to The Bruce’s desire for lots of possession in the midfield through short passes and quick cuts. While Vagenas did get an assist last week, I’m not expecting more offense from him. And that prettly much leaves it all on Klein’s shoulders to get Buddle decent service. Alan Gordon is a hit or miss product with a lot more miss than hit, but after an entire season of me dogging him pretty badly, he provided some heroics recently that made me happily eat my words. But I’m still not sold on his overall value to the club.

So you guys should come up with something better. Remember that in addition to the four guys above, the Galaxy is also missing Steve Cronin, Joe Franchino, Alvaro Pires, and Michael Gavin to injury. But Arena just recalled Scott Bolkin (D), Vardan Adzemian (D) and Bryan Jordan (F) from loans to the Portland Timbers. Jordan played in five games, but neither Bolkin nor Adzemian got any minutes for the Timbers. Also Brandon McDonald appears healthy.

So who do you guys want to see on the pitch on Saturday? Give your formations, players, and reasons below. Please make it better than what I put on the board.

Some Related Galaxy Posts:

Category: 2008 Season, Player News

« Comments on Galaxy Vs. Revs | Home | Gameday: Galaxy Vs. Real Salt Lake »

David

So I believe he went with

Buddle - Gordon
Tudela - Dominguez - Vanney - Jordan
Randolph - Franklin - Roberts - Klein
Wicks

Subbed McDonald for Dominguez, Munoz for Tudela, and Sesay for Gordon

Jordan was the surprise in the lineup, but was a spitfire and scored the first goal. I had never heard of Munoz before. Sesay played only two minutes, but it was good to see him out there.
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charlesj27

Yeah, the official player updates in the "News" section of the LA Galaxy page @ MLSnet.com does not get updated as accurately and responsibly as it should. Sometimes it can take a good 5 - 6 business days for an update... But, by that time, the game may have already been played. Honestly, there was period of two or three games where Alan did pretty well (this was under Ruud)... but, may be he's back to his average/mediocre ways. I don't know (to me) Alan just seems like a "high-maintenance/hand-holding type of player". Personally, I really don't want to have to see these kind of players in MLS. If MLS is to be taken seriously in the rest of the world - the strength, the pace, the quality, and expectation all have to step up and improve little by little. We desperately need a strong win... if nothing else to give all of us hope again. I can only assume that Bruce, Dave, and Cobi are educating and training like "mad" to get the starting 11 + 7 subs sorted out and prepped. It just royally sucks to be missing 4 strong, quality players this late in the season - when MLS games matter so much. Any-hoo, here's the starting 11 (in 4-4-1-1 formation) I'm going with to play against RSL:
Buddle
Sesay
Randolph - Vanney - Vagenas - Klein
Franklin - Dominguez - Roberts - Adzemian

Then, in the 60th - 75th minute range, shift it to a 4-1-3-2 formation using the following:
Buddle - Gordon
Randolph - McDonald - Klein
Vanney
Franklin - Dominguez - Bolkan - Roberts

Here's to hoping the LA Galaxy will somehow get lucky and secure the 3 points! :)
Nathanhj

As of the September 3rd update, Gordon is not listed as having an injury. He is listed on the "news" section of the site, but that contains outdated information.

But I've always felt the injury report was never terribly reliable either, with lots of gamesmanship taking place there.
f4denz

Isn't gordon hurt? He is listed as out on the Galaxy website. I hate to say it, but the Galaxy are likely to get thumpped royally on Saturday.
Werner

i agree with tudela in for allen.

also when gordon starts sucking it up, i wanna see a substitue for jordan. i think jordan has the potential of being a super sub!
Colin

I'm not a big fan of Gordon-Buddle because neither of them really has the speed. They are both big target forwards, and when you have 2 of them, it could cause a problem. I would actually give Sesay a shot, even if only for a half, and see if the speed of Sesay with the size of Buddle could cause some match-up problems for RSL defense.

Ely Allen is useless as well. Put Tudela in and save us all from the embarassment of Allen tripping over the ball.
Laurie

P.S. I am very pleased to announce that when you do a google image search for "Josh Tudela," the picture of the Monchichi that linked back to this blog is no longer on the front page.

That is all.
Laurie

Go, Monchichi!
Justin

B Mac is back, so put him back in Mid.
Lee

I agree with Jared about Tudela instead of Ely Allen.
Allen may yet be a good player but he's not ready
for prime time this season. Maybe will also see
Julian Valentin get some playing time in the back.
I'd also give Bryan Jordan a shot up front. He's
got pace and has been getting a lot of playing time
in Portland.

That would be an awful lot of youth on the field
but I think I'd rather see us take the risk because
I think we loose with the "more experienced" lineup.
Jared

I say play Josh Tudela in the mid because he has been playing pretty well all year and now is his chance to show what he can do for the team.