I’ve got three words: Galaxy vs. Dynamo post-game analysis

And those words are: Western Conference Champions!

In another step in the worst-to-first journey that MLS Coach of the Year Bruce Arena has taken the team on, the Los Angeles Galaxy turned away a stiff challenge from the Houston Dynamo in 30 minutes of extra time with a 2-0 scoreline.

Jen put together a nice photo montage here. Go and look. Look and revel. Revel and comment (which you can also do below at the bottom of this post).

Over 25,000 people showed up to watch one of the longest MLS games ever. Not only did the teams battle to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation, “power dips” on the Southern California Edison industrial grid, of which the Home Depot Center is a part tripped the breakers on the stadium floodlights. Twice. Once in each half. Each time for 18 minutes. By the end of the game, the lights had gone out on Houston’s season as well.

The game was definitely a slug-fest and it wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t boring to watch either, despite pitting two of the stingier defenses in MLS against each other. The keys to both teams lie in their midfields, which are built to maintain possession and deliver creativity and both teams worked hard to establish their midfield games.

But they also got frustrated and impatient. The Dynamo tried time and again to counterattack quickly through to Dominic Oduro in an attempt to burn a Galaxy backline whose biggest weakness is a distinct lack of quickness centrally. But Gregg Berhalter and Omar Gonzalez owned anything coming in the air and were too smart to get trapped in compromising situations that Oduro could expolit. In fact, Oduro was caught offsides 5 times on the night.

The Galaxy were no better. They too played an impressive number of balls forward from the defensive third straight to the heads of the forwards. Like the Galaxy’s center tandem, Bobby Boswell and Geoff Cameron also owned the air above Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan. While I can’t speak to the Dynamo’s tactical decisions in the game, I was puzzled and frustrated by Arena’s decision to start Mike Magee on the left wing and Landon Donovan up top. While it is true that the Magee-Buddle partnership hasn’t gelled as well as it maybe could have, Donovan finds the game much better attacking from the wing. And, frankly, Eddie Lewis‘ wing play is a level above Magee’s, though Lewis isn’t going to give you the same kind of 90-minute production that Magee will.

Consequently, the Galaxy’s decisions to bypass the midfield for large chunks of time for air balls to Donovan were largely wasted efforts as they play to the biggest weakness in his game – his relatively mediocre play in the air. At the same time the team was deprived of the creativity and vision Donovan brings to his wing play. While I’m not expecting Eddie Lewis to start (so nice to bring that kind of veteran experience and skill off the bench), I was expecting that Magee would have left after about 60-65 minutes in favor of Lewis, especially since there was no tactical shift to put Magee back up top and move Landon to the left.

Luckily, the Dynamo were having similar creativity problems thanks to tough play from Dema Kovalenko, David Beckham, and Chris Klein. But, there were stretches when the Dynamo’s short passing game got unstuck and made the team exceedingly dangerous. The most stressful stretch of this for me was the second half of the second half when they really took to the game right to the Galaxy. From about the 65th minute to about the 85th minute, the Dynamo was able to find midfield spaces, move the ball quickly, and get the ball in dangerous positions. This led to Brian Ching’s heart-stopping header that Donovan Ricketts unbelievably parried into and then over the crossbar. And then Houston put the corner in the back of the net, but the goal was waved off for a foul suffered by AJ Delagarza in the box.

The Galaxy also had it’s moments of fluidity that resulted in danger and forced Pat Onstad into his share of big saves. Buddle had a decent night, making smart runs and showing his penchant for running a defenses, but at times his frustration seemed to get the better of him when he chose to take a difficult shot instead of making the smarter and more dangerous pass. At least once he tried a shot from distance even as Chris Klein crashed the goal with no defenders around him.

Either team could have won this game, but the Galaxy were able to get it done in the end, getting the crucial goal they needed from an unlikely, though thoroughly deserving source. Gregg Berhalter, who is the most important component of the Galaxy’s defensive resurgence — his veteran experience has provided crucials leadership to a set of young defenders and his organization of the defense has been first-rate all season long — played perhaps his best game of the season owning the air, frustrating Brian Ching, and even making a few runs out of the back to join the attacks. It was fitting that he was the one who corralled Omar Gonzalez’s deflected header off a corner, punching it into the right side of the goal as he fell to the turf. Donovan’s record-setting penalty kick (most playoff goals in MLS history) was the icing on the cake.

One thing that seemed apparent to me was that the team did a much better job in pasing and attacking once Eddie Lewis and Alan Gordon came on the field. I continue to be unimpressed with Jovan Kirovski, though I understand why he gets the call — he is dependable, plays his position well, plays good defense, and has good vision. Of course he also turns the ball over with regularity, passes poorly, and takes the expected shot, so I’m never excited to see him come into a game. On the other hand, once Lewis was in the game, space and passing lanes opened up and Alan Gordon showed more mobility and better use of his head than Buddle did. It seemed that Buddle was hungry to score while Gordon was hungry to make the best play. The team needed more of the latter against Houston and got it from Gordon, an admittedly unlikely source.

Both of the Galaxy superstars delivered strong games, though I was annoyed by putting Donovan up top and was frustrated by how often Beckham drifted back into the defensive third to get the ball and how many times his crosses were off or were blocked by the nearest defender. Despite these niggling criticisms, both players were instrumental in the team’s success on Friday night with Donovan forcing two saves from Onstad and Beckham provided good dead ball service and veteran leadership all night long.

And though he didn’t have the same game he did against Chivas a game earlier, Kovalenko’s disruptive game was valuable in the midfield, helping to contain Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark.

I’ve spent most of this posting looking at the Galaxy side of the equation, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that Geoff Cameron, who spent most of the game at centerback, had a typically tremendous game, denying everything in the air to the Galaxy forwards, running step for step with Donovan, and making the smart passes and clearances. Then he stepped into midfield in exra time. He deserves a long look from Bob Bradley in January, especially in light of the US MNT’s injury woes in the back.

All in all, the game was hard-fought, showcasing the defensive strengths of both teams. The Galaxy took the game they way they have all season long: gritty, team-oriented performances that got the best out of every player at every position, including AJ Delargarza, starting on short notice for the ill Todd Dunivant, who nailed down the left side of defense all night long, including a cracking tackle on Brian Ching in the second extra time period deep near the corner flag that shut down a dangerous build-up.

All in all a performance to be proud of in a season to be proud of. Next up: MLS Cup in Seattle vs. Real Salt Lake on Sunday Nov. 22 at 5:30 PST.

Man of the Match: Gregg Berhalter

What did you think of the game? What about those black-outs? Who did well? Who needs to do better? What do you think of the match-up with RSL? Who wins MLS Cup?

What others are saying:

Eric Altshule at MLS Talk
Reuters at the NY Times
Peter Howard at the Daily Football blog
Jim Hughes at Mirror Football
Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise
Angel Magana at LAist.com</a>
Grahame Jones at the LA Times
Scott French at LA Soccer News
SkySports News
Charlie Corr’s Chicago Fire blog at ESPN
Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports
Andrea Canales at Goal.comwith post-game perspective
Andrea Canales at Goal.com Game Summary
Zac Lee Rigg at Goal.com with player ratings
The Sun
The MailOnline
Jose De Jesus Ortiz at the Houston Chronicle
CNN International on the “controversy” from the summer
BBC Sports
Jorge Flores at The Examiner.com
The Telegraph
Phil Collin at the Daily Breeze
Nick Green at 100 Percent Soccer
LA Galaxy Blog with the game summary
LA Galaxy Blog with post-game quotes
Luis Bueno with the MLSNet game summary
Luis Bueno with the MLSNet Galaxy perspective
Ivan Orozco with the Dynamo perspective

Game Highlights

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Category: Team News