Post-Game Analysis: Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake

By: NathanHJ | May 6th, 2009

That game totally and completely qualifies as “pulling one out of your ass”.

As a Galaxy fan, this game was a tie that felt like a victory. Not only are we the first team to take points at Rio Tinto this season, but pulling it out in the 95th minute AFTER conceding a penalty kick showed the major difference between this year’s team and the previous two. I said after the Red Bulls game that the Galaxy are exhibiting “gameness” and that was on display today as well. Like the injury-decimated team of late 2007, these guys are playing for each other, acting like an honest-to-god team.

The game itself was slighty better than I predicted in the preview that Jen put up today.

I look for a repeat of what we did in Colorado: defense first, everyone gets back, hold the shape, be incredibly frustrating and look carefully for counterattacking opportunties. RSL’s absences should be helpful here.

The game was a bit more open than the Colorado game, partly due to RSL’s superior midfield and attack, partly due to the insertion of Dunivant and Buddle who are better attackers than what we were putting out earlier in the season. But that’s not to say the game was “open”. It wasn’t really, not compared to the 6-0 beat down RSL put on the Revolution in their last home game. That feat is due to the aforementioned absences on the RSL side and the increasingly stiff defense on the Galaxy side.

Last year, the Galaxy had a stellar attack and no defense. They also had no luck. This year they are starting to attract some luck as well. Hand ball in the box, for example. Crazy scrambles in the box for another. All things being equal I’d rather be lucky than good. Especially since I’m a firm believer in the ability to make your own luck. Espindola’s fall in the box was him making his own luck. Magee’s slicer from a ridiculous angle to tie the game in the dying seconds of stoppage time was the Galaxy making theirs.

Even though the Galaxy started to really lag in the second half, the defense never really broke, despite Dunivant getting beaten by Findlay on the first half header. Dunivant and Franklin are both getting visibly better in the attack. Duni’s crosses show a lot of rust and Franklin’s crossing game has never been his strong point, but they are getting better. When they get fully comfortable there will be an entirely new dimension to the Galaxy attack.

The attack is still a problem, though. Donovan has been involved in 8 of the 9 Galaxy goals and Buddle’s still not game fit. But he’s coming along and you can see the difference he makes on the field. He brings presence to the pitch which frees up Donovan to be much more dangerous. When he hits his stride, the Galaxy will have a three-dimentional offensive threat.

Almost. The midfield, which has gotten defensive bite from the addition of Kovalenko and Miglioranzi, is still missing a credible offensive threat. Yes, Klein adds value both in hard work and in smart passes, but he’s not as spry as he was before and he takes his defense seriously. He’s not going to make the cheeky pass or the brilliant move to find space and make the killer pass.

You would think that Eddie Lewis would be that guy, but, so far, he really hasn’t. He is making contributions to the team and he is by far the best option on the left flank, but he hasn’t been able to get in sync with the offense. He’s missing the final pass, just like everyone else, and his crosses aren’t up to his past standards. He needs to step it up.

Bryan Jordan brought his usual energy and fire to the game and was hard done by on the penalty call, but he also needs to find his next dimension. It is coming, but he needs to learn the one-touch game, using his speed to get in the right position, not to run around defenders. His footwork isn’t good enough for that and he gets run off the ball easily.

The funny thing about this game is that I felt we could have taken the full three points. RSL was clearly feeling the effects of their missing starters and managing a sluggish game. Better passing and finishing in the final third could have given us a couple of goals before stoppage time and the opportunity to kill a game while in the lead.

But I’ll take the road point. Here’s are two fun stats: the Galaxy is unbeaten in 5 games (yes, 4 of them are draws) and is unbeaten in its 3 road games. Those are two streaks that haven’t been a part of the Galaxy, umm, universe for quite some time.

Next Sunday we put them both on the line in Seattle. This time Freddy Montero will be absent. Like I said, I’d rather be lucky than good.

Man of the Match: The Entire Team (Commentors also liked Sean Franklin and Mike Magee.)

What others are saying:

John Coon at MLSNet with the game recap

What did you guys see? Who stood out? Who made mistakes? Who was man of the match? Leave your comments below.