Here’s My Brain After the 2nd Galaxy-FCD Viewing

By: Laurie | April 16th, 2007

Yes, I did actually watch the game again. And yes, it did take me three days, because as I’ve said, I have NO attention span. (Sitting in front of the TV for 90 minutes for a live game is a stretch.) But here are my post-post-game thoughts.

– Did it really take 36 minutes for FCD to score that first goal? After watching the game live I truly would have guessed half that. This is why I should start taking notes. Except that when you take notes you miss action… So screw it. My occasionally faulty memories are what you’ll get.

– How much of the second-half action took place in the upper left quadrant of the field? It felt like a whole bunch. After getting up 2-0, Dallas switched to a mostly defensive game, and LA somehow conspired with them to keep most of the play on the left half of the field. This left Dallas able to put two and even three defenders on anybody who touched the ball without even breaking a sweat, which allowed them to force turnovers. Even when the Galaxy were in possession of the ball, we weren’t necessarily in control. Chris Albright in particular seemed to keep getting sucked away from the right side and into the middle. (Chris! Sweetie! I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend, The Touchline.)

It looked to me like one of the main reasons LA played so much better in the last fifteen minutes was that they switched back to playing on both sides of the field, which created a whole bunch more space to create opportunities. If they’d played like this the entire game, they would have won.

– I’m still really liking Ante Jazic. Of course, with so much play on the left, he got a lot of opportunities to show his stuff. But I’m thinking we could see good things from him this year.

– Ditto Kyle Martino. He played solidly the entire game.

– I underestimated Nate Jaqua on first viewing. He played solidly, especially at midfield, but didn’t get as many chances as he should have because so much play was on the other side of the field.

– I think Robbie Findley’s going to be the acquisition of the year.

– Joe Cannon is replacing Arsenal’s Jens Lehmann in my mind as The Hollywood Goalkeeper. Plus he reminds me just a bit of my favorite French keeper, Lyon’s Grégory Coupet. (That’s a high compliment, Joe. Just smile and say thank you.) I think I’m going to enjoy watching him this year.

– Not much more to say about Landon Donovan. Who was it who said that maybe he should get married again to give him that extra oomph he had for Ecuador? Well, ditto that.

– Eric Wynalda bugs me. And I don’t want to hear any more about Beckham till he’s actually here. AND do you REALLY need to cut away from play to do sideline interviews DURING the game?!? Yeesh.

Next up: A US Open Cup game vs. Columbus Crew on 4/24.

We really should win that one. Right?

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Jeff Bull

Nice wrap, Laurie. And you're clearly more devoted to your craft than me, seeing as I refuse to watch a game more than once (even with the archived feeds at my finger-tips).

That said, I've got only one quibble: I think Herculez Gomez might be the acquisition of the year - especially if/when he learns to cross with his left foot. I'll support a campaign for Robbie Findley as Rookie of the Year; he's an Oregon lad after all...
Laurie

Doug, no offense taken. I was actually thinking about catching the middle half hour one more time.

I will be the first to admit that at this point I still have no baseline for judging the team and the players. I'm still figuring out who they are and what they bring to the team. So obviously I may be reading some of them incorrectly right now. Or there's the possibility that you and I are looking at different aspects of play. So I'll go back and watch again. (Because seriously, I love watching soccer, even replays. My France NT plays only about ten times a year, and I always watch those games at least twice apiece.)

So in a day or two, I may come back and say, "You're right," or I may say, "I disagree and here's why." Or somewhere in the middle. Check back.
Ian

"Next up: A US Open Cup game vs. Columbus Crew on 4/24.
We really should win that one. Right?"

I sincerely hope so - for the good of the league, please, Crew, not another 0-0 draw.
Doug

Kyle Martino had a solid game? I mean this with the utmost respect when I say 'please watch the game a third time'. He was the fundamental reason why we couldn't go from defense to offense at more than a snail's pace. I counted three time that his first touch put the ball about ten feet away from him and he consequently lost it. And why, every time the opposition tries to press him, does he turn around and play the ball back? I understand that sometimes that happens when you have no other option but he did it every time. We do have wingers and a central midfielder needs to be able to do more than distribute the ball backwards.

Martino is why Lalas is trying to get Zissou. We can't afford someone like that in midfield when the whole world will be watching as soon as you know who gets to LA.