Post-Game Analysis: Galaxy vs. Chivas

By: NathanHJ | April 12th, 2009

There is no better way to start off this post than letting SoCal’s dean of futbol reporters say a few words about the refereeing. Here’s Grahame Jones from Sunday’s Los Angeles Times.

But it was referee Tim Weyland’s performance that drew all the attention. Referees are meant to be invisible. That’s the sign of a well-officiated game. Weyland, in contrast, loomed large.

He appeared unable to control the match without having to reach into his pocket, and by the time he blew the whistle for the last time, he had issued 11 cards and ejected three players.

Weyland’s seeming inability to distinguish between innocuous fouls and seriously unfair or dangerous plays ruined what could have been an interesting evening in Carson. Sometimes a word of warning far outweighs an ostentatiously brandished yellow card.

The game was in no way as ill-tempered or bad-natured as the spate of cards and the 31 fouls called by Weyland would suggest.

I think that’s pretty much spot on. The game, as a game, was heavily influenced by Mr. Weyland and ended up a choppy affair. That’s not to say it wasn’t entertaining. It was. Despite the 7 yellow cards and three reds (two of which came as second yellows), the game was played with pace and intensity.

For the first 20 minutes Chivas’ superior midfield put the Galaxy back on its heels, unable to establish possession or create a series of passes that could spring the forwards for good runs. Part of this was because the Galaxy lined up with an unexpected set of players in many of the positions. Klein, for example, lined up at left mid with Sean Franklin at right. AJ DeLaGarza played right back and Gregg Berhalter made his MLS debut. And, of course, Donovan Ricketts made his MLS debut as well and not a moment to soon.

After the first 20, the Galaxy settled down and started to play Chivas evenly in the middle and at about the 30 minute mark they even started to take the game to the Goats. When Nagamura got his second yellow in the dying minutes of the half, it looked like the Galaxy would be able to take advantage.

Obviously this didn’t happen. The Galaxy midfield just couldn’t break down Chivas, although Gordon’s disallowed goal was about a perfect a set-up as you can get in MLS. The Chivas midfield was simply better, but that’s not to say that the Galaxy weren’t improved from recent games. Sean Franklin’s time at midfield is sure to be short, but he looked good attacking from right, given the makeshift nature of that assignment. And Josh Tudela continues to turn in solid if workmanlike performances. Give that kid two more years of improvement like he’s had that last three and he could end up being the kind of Brian Carroll-like player the Galaxy hasn’t had in ages. Or not. Too early to tell, but the improvement is visible and marked.

What is worrisome is the ability of the midfield to start attacks, freeing up Donovan for slashing runs or finding targets like Gordon or Buddle in the box. Last night’s game shows how difficult this can be against a first tier MLS defense – one that’s not even at full strength yet. This should be alleviated by gettingLewisat left mid with a healthy Dunivant at left back and both Donovan and Buddle in the line-up.

The best thing that happened all game was the debut of Donovan Ricketts. The knock on Ricketts has been that he’s weak on crosses, but that wasn’t so much of an issue last night. Instead, he controlled the box and helped organize the defense while coming up with a couple of big time saves. More than once I thought to myself, “Its nice to have a keeper in goal again.”

That said, though it is only three games in for the Galaxy, time is running out. Over the past several years the team has been mediocre on the road, if not downright abysmal, and they’ve already had three home games at The Home Depot Center from which they have only taken two points. I expect that to make the playoffs this year a team will need a minimum of 42 points. Leaving 40 points to come from the remaining 27 games. That means averaging just under 1.5 points per game the rest of the year and realistically a minimum of 11 wins. There are 12 home games remaining.

Next game we get Kovalenko back, but lose Berhalter and Gordon. That’s not a good trade. Berhalter played very well until his crucial mistake – giving the ball away to Eskandarian in the 78th minute with a wide-open path to the Galaxy goal forcing him to commit a professional foul as the last defender back. He is better than Sanneh who has struggled to shake off the rust of not having played at this level for a year. And as much as I have ragged on Gordon for the past three years, he brings a great workrate, gameness, and good vision and positioning with him. He’s got more confidence than Bryan Jordan and a better sense of how to play at MLS speed too. All of which is to say that the defense will be weaker and the offense will be less potent because of those two absences. Maybe Buddle will be ready to give 45 good minutes next week, which could produce some dangerous attacks.

In the end, the Galaxy didn’t frustrate me or embarrass themselves and I felt that getting away with a draw was a good, even fair, result. But as I noted above, they need to step it up if they are going to be serious about making the playoffs this year. Stockpiling points at the beginning of the season with these front-loaded home games is a key way to do this. Miss out on that opportunity and you have to win games on the road in the middle of July and August, not something that’s especially easy to accomplish for this Galaxy team.

Man of the Match: Donovan Ricketts

Favorite Moment: Hanging out with LA Galaxy Offsides commentor David during halftime and the first 10 minutes of the second half.

What did you guys see? Who stood out? Who was your MOTM? Who disappointed? What did I get wrong? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.