Observations From Saturday’s PanPacific “Championship” Title Match

By: NathanHJ | February 22nd, 2009

There is something about the PanPacific “Championship” that is the epitome of AEG’s management of the Galaxy since the death of Doug Hamilton. It’s a trumped-up tournament featuring clubs from mostly secondary Asian leagues, some of whom, at least, _are_ actual champions, and the LA Galaxy who is involved because… we own David Beckham. Who didn’t play because he’s on loan to AC Milan and trying hard to stay there past March 9.

So we get a lot of hype, complete with a tournament theme song, a trophy, and a television contract for what is essentially a couple of pre-season friendlies with teams few MLS fans know anything about. Hype without substance. That’s what my experience with the Galaxy has been since Lalas was installed by the “brain”trust at AEG. In a lot of ways I feel like AEG has been doing to the Galaxy what Bush did to the country. (Oh wait, I just violated a cardinal rule of sports blogging – don’t bring politics or religion into it. Right. My apologies to the conservatives reading this post – feel free to rag on your liberal politician of choice in the comments. Great weather we’ve been having! How ’bout those Mets?)

Last night I didn’t know whether it was great that 9,000 people came to a pre-season game or embarrassing that 9,000 people came to a championship final.

Either way I can say that for me personally it was fun to be at the game and take a look at where the team is a month before the season starts. Below I’ve listed some of the observations I had while I was watching the game.

– It’s a good thing Sean Franklin has another month to recover from hernia surgery. He was rusty rusty rusty last night and had he not been shown red for his second-half studs-up tackle he could have easily earned his second yellow and been gone regardless.

– Are we really going to start the season with Eddie Lewis at left back, if he recovers from his left hamstring pull in time? Commentors on this blog have noted that Todd Dunivant is injured, so that would explain part of it, but that seems like a waste of his talents given our lack of a true left wing.

– Gonzalez could be good. He didn’t stand out to my eyes last night, but for defenders that’s often a good thing. If I don’t notice you, you are probably doing your job.

– Kirovski might have experience, futbol IQ, and vision, but he can’t win balls, waits to long to make passes, and get bumped off the ball pretty easily. He’s got a month to toughen up.

– As of last night Mike Magee is about 1000x more ready to play at this level than Ely Allen. Maybe Eddie Lewis at left back and Magee at left wing wouldn’t be so bad. Where does that put Duni?

– The best part about having Dema Kovalenko on our side is the LA Riot Squad cheer of “Dema, Dema, Dema – Kill, Kill, Kill”.

– Stefani Migliorianzi. Well, he didn’t suck.

– Edson Buddle should stick to open-field shots on goal. He was an immediate improvement up front when he came on, but its unlikely he will supplant Landon as the regular penalty-taker anytime soon. I understand that NASA was worried for an instant about an unauthorized rocket launch in the seconds following his blast.

– The starting midfield last night was long on grit and heart and short on flair and smart passing.

– As much as I love Alan Gordon’s workrate and commitment, I just think his feet of stone and his not-quite-sharp-enough passing aren’t enough to make him anything but a big banging body who is decent on set plays in the box. If this were basketball I’d put him in a center to bang around, take some charges, and maybe slam down a couple of alley oops. But that’s a game with unlimited substitutions. In futbol we only get the three…

– Tony Sanneh had veteran presence, but also veteran speed.

– For a tiny guy AJ DeLaGarza can clog up the middle when he needs to. I worry about his pace, though.

What about you guys? What did you see? What seemed promising? Who needs works? Who impressed? Who embarrassed? How much do you agree with my observations? Where was I obviously watching a different game from the one you saw? Fire away in the comments.