I’ve got three words: LA Galaxy vs New England Revolution post-game analysis

And those words are: What an embarrassment.

And I don’t mean any disrespect to New England when I say that. I also considered my opening words to be: “My Shalrie Joseph can beat up your midfield.” Mark Rogondino, writing for the LA Galaxy website, said he had reservations going into the game because New England was coming off a 5-0 smack down at the hands of Real Salt Lake and would be ready to redeem their pride in front of their home fans.

OK fine. Why not?

Why not? Because, even in a league that is structured for parity, the Revs just aren’t as good as the Galaxy. Injuries and end-of-last-season personnel losses have left the team with a reliance on role players and rookies. And they are still the holders of one of the worst records in MLS. But the Galaxy did face a bit of schedule congestion and cross-country travel. So it’s possible that they just weren’t sharp enough for the Revs.

OK fine. Why not?

Why not? Because, the Revs just got back from Utah themselves and the Galaxy line-up featured only one starter from the US Open Cup loss to Seattle (Alex Cazumba). And most of the team has played in MLS for a few previous seasons. They know what this is about. Travel’s no excuse. And on that same note, the Galaxy were also missing Landon Donovan due to rest and Omar Gonzalez due to yellow care accumulation. So it could have been that missing key personnel did the Galaxy in.

OK fine. Why not?

Why not? Because look at who isn’t in a Revs uniform right now: Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Khano Smith, Cory Gibbs, and Edgaras Jankauskas all due to injury and Jay Heaps due to retirement. That’s half a starting line-up (if you are being generous with Khano Smith) that Steve Nicol couldn’t call on. And frankly, the reserves on the Galaxy bench, even those that played on Wednesday, could have held their own with that line-up with the possible exception of an in-form Twellman.

This brings me back both to Shalrie Joseph and that embarrassment. First, Joseph was not available for the RSL game and if he had been on the field that game would not have been a 5-0 spanking, though I don’t think the Revs would have gotten any points. But he was on the field for the Galaxy game and drove the midfield to one of its best efforts of the season. At the same time, the Galaxy midfield did not rise to the occasion. In a flash interview with the FSW team just after the first half, Chris Birchall noted that Bruce Arena told the team that they weren’t getting the ball wide enough and were trying too hard to play through the middle of the park or bypassing the midfield altogether. And except for a brief period after the first goal and the first 10 minutes or so, the team just failed to do that.

Now, part of that was missing Landon Donovan (though the team continued to win without him) and part of not locking down the New England attack was due to missing Gonzalez, but part of it was not coping with Joseph’s skill that really doomed the team.

But it was the way they didn’t cope that keeps me harping on this being an embarrassment. Earlier in the day Uruguay lost the 3rd place game in the World Cup to Germany in a glorious box-to-box score fest. Both teams gave their all, both teams played wide open futbol, and both teams found joy in the other team’s half. But Germany’s quality overcame Uruguay’s overachieving.

But the Galaxy looked listless after semi-domination of the first 10 minutes and ended up giving away attacking chance after attacking chance to the home team due to Nyassi’s victimization of Todd Dunivant up and down the left side of the field. Without Gonzalez to dominate the center of the park, the Galaxy could not stifle the opposing attack to the extent we’ve come to expect.

On top of that, the team decided that it would be better to bypass a midfield that has three of the most industrious players in the league in it in Michael Stephens, Chris Birchall, and Juninho and go straight over the top to Edson Buddle and Tristan Bowen. Buddle’s hold up play is pretty good, but he was double-teamed every time he went up for one of the booming kicks out of the back and Tristan Bowen just hasn’t figured out how to run off of him. Combine that with another miserable performance from Alex Cazumba, who’s futbol brain is simply not yet up to MLS speed – he dribbles into danger, he never makes the dangerous pass, and he just never knows what to do once he has the ball – and you end up with an offense that forced 4 saves but only one of them the really challenged him.

Even Donovan Ricketts had an average game, letting in two goals, both honest attempts, but both could have been stopped if Ricketts had been able to summon some of his past athletic wowzers.

And I have to say that Bruce Arena’s substitution patterns baffled me as well. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s got a lifetime of coaching experience at the highest levels in the United States and I’ve got… nothing. But instead of taking off midfield liability Alex Cazumba after 60 minutes, he didn’t take him off until closer to 80, preferring to bring off the young legs of Bowen for the head of Alan Gordon, essentially ratifying the bad Galaxy choices to bypass the midfield. And then, instead of starting AJ DeLaGarza as a center back, he went with Leonardo, who hasn’t yet established good communications with his defensive unit.

I don’t expect the team to win every game remaining. I don’t expect that we’ll take points from all 14 games that are left in the regular season. But I do expect an effort that makes it difficult for the other team to knock us off, one that shows the Galaxy playing to their strengths and getting beaten or tied despite that, not because we didn’t do it in the first place. On that count the team did not deliver and did not deliver against one of the teams that is struggling the most to rescue a season from the verge of total collapse.

It was an embarrassment.

Man of the Match: Was there one in this mess? Maybe Michael Stephens, but that’s only because he made the fewest mistakes and never gave up.

What others are saying (UPDATED):

LA Galaxy blog with post-game notes
LA Galaxy blog with post-game quotes
Nick Green’s 100 Percent Soccer, with a nice note that echoes my own sentiment
Comcast Sports Net – New England
Jo-Ryan Salazar at The Bleacher Report
L. E. Eisenminger at the Boston Examiner
Nate Taylor at the Boston Globe
LA Soccer News.com
Steve Stoehr at Goal.com
Josh Guesman at The Section 108 blog
Luis Bueno at MLSSoccer.com

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