Who Will be Playing for the Galaxy?

By: Laurie | April 6th, 2007

Two different articles, two different opinions on how the starting lineup for the Galaxy will shake out.

The first article actually comes from the Galaxy website. And while there’s the standard “This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs” disclaimer at the bottom, you have to think that if it’s posted on their website it has some credibility. Or maybe the Galaxy website folks are just lazy. Whatever. Here’s Greg Daurio’s predicted starting lineup (4-3-3):

Goalkeeper: Joe Cannon
Defenders: Ante Jazic, Tyrone Marshall, Shavar Thomas, Chris Albright.
Midfield: Cobi Jones, Beckham/Donovan, Santino Quaranta
Forwards: Kyle Martino, Alan Gordon, Nate Jaqua

He also says that Kyle Martino has played well in preseason but will be the odd man out after Beckham gets here. What do you think? Also, Alan Gordon just had surgery on a stress fracture in his foot and will be out 2-3 months. Who’s your guess to replace him?

And this back line interests me. Marshall and Thomas have played together for Jamaica, which means they’ve probably already developed a bit of synergy. But does anybody know what Jamaica’s NT schedule is for the summer? Add in the fact that Jazic has played for Canada and Albright for the US… Is it a bit dangerous to rely too heavily on players who could get called up at the same time?

One more thing that fascinates me, written about Quaranta: “Don’t expect him to stay on the right though. He and Jones have a tendency to flip-flop sides during the run of play. Galaxy fans got a preview last year and can expect more of the same.” Interesting. Remember here that I’m a brand new Galaxy fan, so maybe some of you old-time fans can tell me how this worked. Are they talking about assigned flip-flopping, with, say, Cobi starting out on the left one half and the right the other? Or ad lib flip-flopping where they just go where they feel they’re needed in the course of play? Sounds…dynamic. And requires a bit of brain connection between the two doing the “flip-flopping.” But I’m looking forward to seeing it happen.

Moving along, we also have a good article from Luis Bueno of LASoccerNews.com. His predictions:

Goalkeeper: Joe Cannon
Defenders: Ante Jazic, Tyrone Marshall, Troy Roberts, Chris Albright, but he also says Nathan Sturgis will be found a spot somewhere. No mention of Shavar Thomas.
Midfield: He seems settled on Cobi Jones and Pete Vagenas, and also likes Kyle Martino (a possible “playmaker”) and Quavas Kirk.
Forwards: He likes Landon Donovan up front with Nate Jaqua and possibly Santino Quaranta.

What do you think? What are your predictions?

Some Related Galaxy Posts:

Category: Player News, Team News

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Laurie

Greg, thanks for stopping by. Don't worry, I'll never blast you. Pepper you with more questions, perhaps, since I'm in the process of getting over my Eurosnobbery (if that's not a word, we're making it one) and learning to love MLS by blogging on it. I don't even pretend to know what I'm writing about here, but I'm more than willing to learn.

You mention chuckling when your stuff pops up on the web, and this I understand. Google has suddenly decided that my other blog, on the France NT for WorldCupBlog, qualifies as actual news, so my own stuff is popping up when I do news searches. I find this beyond terrifying.

Looking forward to reading more of your stuff.
Greg Daurio

So I have never, ever posted to a blog in my life, but it always makes me chuckle a bit when I see an article I wrote pop up aomewhere on the web. Even if someone is blasting me it's nice to know that people are reading. So here are a couple answers to Lauries questions. Jamaica hasn't qualified for the Gold Cup so they will have a rather light summer schedule. As far as the flip flopping of Jones and Quaranta, they would start on the right and left respectively and then durring the run of play you'd look down and they'd be playing on opposite flanks all of a sudden. Anyway, a few injuries has made my predicted starting eleven look all wrong. We'll see how things play out as the season moves along.
Cheers,
Greg
ben

Thanks for the summary of the "predicted" line ups.

about the flip-flopping I guess it means "switching sides aka wings" from time to time.

No idea about the line ups since I'm more or less all new to the MLS, however I've seen some playing footage from Sturgis and Quaranta - seem quality players. not sure about that Donovan though (no offense) but since I've seen how overhyped/overrated Freddy Adu; Jonathan Spector were and how underrated others were (Friedel, Howard and the other Goalie playing in Germany I think) I'm cautious.