I’ve Got Three Words: Galaxy vs Seattle, Fire, and United Post-Game Analysis

By: NathanHJ | August 24th, 2009

Aaaaaand we’re back with Los Angeles Galaxy analysis.

My apologies to everyone for disappearing just as the Galaxy does three games in a week. I was at a conference in Pittsburgh then in my hometown in North Carolina for some family-time as we saw my grandmother off into the next stage of her journey through the universe.

Lucky for you I’ve been able to catch games via the wonders of the interwebs and I have these three words to say: No more ties.

Last week the Galaxy got every result you can get in futbol, while playing like three different teams. On Saturday night at home against the Sounders they had a mini-meltdown, something they’ve done a couple of times this season (referee in that game did not cover himself with glory, I have to say). I’m not going to sit here and defend a studs-up tackle that looked a bit reckless to me, but I’m not necessarily sure that a straight red was warranted. The game would have been different if David Beckham had stayed on the pitch for the whole match, for sure, but you know: coulda, shoulda, woulda.

I actually don’t know what to say about that game except that the team struggles enough to score goals with 11 – taking away Becks just makes our healthy strike corps even less dynamic. Landon Donovan’s first-half absence gave the game a whiff of late 2007 when the team was just trying to stay on the field and not take yet another injury. Same sense of trying desperately to cope with adverse circumstances. In other words, gutty, but also ugly and slightly desperate.

And then, four days later, last Wednesday, the Galaxy waltz into Toyota Park and play probably their most complete game of the season. Landon Donovan plays a great game, the team looks fluid, dominates possession and for whatever reason the normally anti-dynamic duo of Mike Magee and Jovan Kirovski looks like the second coming of Ante Razov and Damani Ralph. Granted Chicago has been shaky at home and is dealing with injuries to key personnel, but that same team came back on a decent Colorado team this weekend by putting three past Matt Pickens. Also, this satisfying victory in Chicago takes place without either David Beckham or Eddie Lewis and features Dema Kovalenko as a winger.

In short, the team looked great. The debacle at the HDC was forgotten, the solid defense shut down every opportunity from the Fire, and the offense found it when it needed it, capped by the Magee to Landon Donovan beauty in the second half. Being in second place in the Western Conference didn’t seem fluky at all. It felt solid and earned.

Then this past Saturday the team went into RFK to take on a slumping DC United, a team that shared the league lead in ties with the Galaxy. That should probably been a hint. Of course, August in DC isn’t known for its pleasant weather either. It was wet, muggy, and hot. It was the 3rd game in 7 days. It was at RFK. Blah blah blah. This time Donovan didn’t seem to be everywhere taking command of the game, though he had a few decent chances. Beckham seemed largely neutralized by the 3-5-2 and the attack reverted to past form.

The best parts about this game for me was the resoluteness of the defense and the continuing steady play of Omar Gonzalez and AJ Delagarza. They both still betray their rookie status on occassion, either rushing passes or making poor decisions, but overall they are playing with the kind of composure and production one expects of veterans. There’s a reason that only Seattle, Chivas, and Houston have given up fewer goals than the Galaxy. On the other hand, only New York, Kansas City, Chivas, and San Jose have scored fewer goals than the Galaxy. So I’ll take this tie. 4 points from two road games isn’t anything to sneeze at.

But there are only 7 games left in the regular season. If the team is going to make a run in the playoffs, then they need to solve this scoring problem. No more ties. The defense is getting it done. Now the offense needs to step up. And as much as I am now having a new-found bromance with Alan Gordon, the only real way to make this happen is to get Edson Buddle and Alecko Eskandarian healthy. I don’t know how long it takes to heal a broken nose, but I see NBA guys playing in masks all the time and I’m wondering if the medical staff at the HDC has noticed this nifty innovation from the last 30 years. Foot problems, on the other hand, something that Buddle has a long history with, can take months to heal. And then there are sure to be fitness issues with them both.

So, haha on me. I sense a bunch of ties in the offing. I don’t see how a midfield with Lewis, Donovan, and Beckham can have such problems creating offense, but then you look up top and see… yeah. Actually I bet the Galaxy could tie themselves into the 8th playoff spot. They’d end up with 42 points, undefeated in 26 of 30 games. (And they’d lose the first playoff series in PK’s after tying both games.)

Seriously, the team needs goals and its pretty much only the players you see now who are going to get it done. There are no reinforcements on the horizon, so somehow the gang that can’t shoot (seriously – the team is 12th in shots taken and 11th in shots on goal – also not one player is in the top 10 in either shots taken or shots on goal) needs to start pulling the trigger.

Really, the main reason that I said the three words were No More Ties was because a game like the one at DC is the kind of game a team that is intent on winning a championship finds a way to win. On the road, in challenging weather, third game in a week – winning teams find a way to make it happen. The team needs to shift its mentality once again. They did it at the beginning of the year when they decided that they would be a tough team to play against and commit to defensive play that would keep them in games (and, look! the team is second in fouls committed, behind Houston). Now they need to do it again and decide to be a team that wins games rather than not losing them. 11 ties are enough. Let’s finish the season with 15 wins.