Hell, AJ does that too! I don't understand how someone of Leonardo's size manages to look so small when he's trying to shield someone from the ball. It's something he should excel at. He's never going to be the quickest against speed, okay. But shielding? C'mon Leo!
I'm not. I'm evaluating Omar on his actions on that play, nothing more. He should have ran back to cover the empty goal when he saw what was happening. He didn't.
Its a lot to ask of the rest of the defense to not only figure out what the opposition is doing but also what Leo is going to do or fail to do. Uncertainty like that makes for constant scrambling and finally picking the ball out of the back of the net. A big part of what made Omar and AJ such a good combination in the middle was that neither one surprised the other.
Not sure what this is referring to in particular, but I think you and others are giving too much of a pass to the rest of the defenders, and will probably continue to do so, just because Leo is playing next to them.
But that's the thing: why haven't they been fixed yet? He's been making the same type of mistake ever since he's been on the team. WHEN WILL IT BE FIXED?
No one has been giving Omar Gonzalez a pass. His mistakes are written about on here continually. Juninho has also been picked out for laziness quite a bit. This year it seems like Sarvas has started out kinda slow. But comparatively, Leonardo has been an absolute dumpster fire - and on a continual basis. It's not like what we're discovering is new. I feel bad for him since he seems like a genuinely nice person. But he cost us CCL, and he's now started the season miserably. It's Cudicini all over again. I hope Bruce fixes it.
Watch the replay again, he did, was just late in covering the near side post. Of course he probably didn't expect to need to cover near side.
Leonardo has cost this team points since 2010. I am tempted to make a highlight reel of every single one of his brain farts that has cost this team a goal. It would probably only make me hate the guy's play even more. We should seriously consider trading him because the expansion draft is just to long of a time to wait to get rid of him.
Exaggerating. Leo hardly played between 2010 and 2012, so you won't find many highlights there. Knock yourself out though. I'm going to evaluate 2014, because that is where we are now.
And yet, when he played between 2010 and 2012 he cost us games. I can't believe you have such a short memory - or such a selective memory. We are not just picking on Leo based on this year's play. it's been an ongoing theme with him since his arrival.
I think that is where you are wrong, quite frankly... judging a player's current worth based on his performance 2 and 3 years ago.
But it's not wrong if he's making the same exact mistakes that he made 2 and 3 years ago. Mistakes that have STILL not been corrected - not by him, not by the coaching staff. His current worth is being judged based on his current play, which continues to include the same old dumb mistakes.
What are all these mistakes in the 5 games this year that you are referring to? I only count the one last night. From what I've seen, there have been at least equal or more mistakes from both Omar and AJ at CB, although not all have caused goals, thanks to great saves by Penedo, or good luck.
some thoughts after i've had a day to digest. not happy we dropped 2 points. like Berks said, VAN was dead in the water before the Leo goal. Leo tough to excuse a play like this. he didnt clear and he didnt shield. he facilitated the goal by getting in the way. he also didnt realize Penedo isnt fantastic coming off his line. been paying with him long enough to know these things. if Opare is ready, he should start the next game. Leo will get his chances again when Omar leaves for the WC. Omar i can't assign blame to Omar on the Leo goal. he should be criticized for not making the safety-first extra effort, but the blame on the goal goes to Leo and Penedo. BTW, this is Omar's MO. he assumes that his teammate will make the correct play and tends to not think worst-case. almost identical to the USMNT Honduras goal feb-2013. my guess is that he's just gotten used to playing with AJ beside him. Penedo was expecting Leo to clear. he came out with the intention of shot-blocking. you can see him get big in the replay. he's gotta communicate better in general. his strength is as a shot-stopper. communication is what he should be focusing on. Landon he looked like a guy with bad knees running on concrete turf. needs to go have the Kobe Orthokine surgery. he's trying to contribute by being the relief valve, but what we all want him to do is unlock any pressure and then get back into the play. right now, once he makes his pass, he's done for the play. incidentally, his outstanding ability to play triangles and relieve pressure ought to be very important in the WC, where we will probably under a bit of siege. think he and MB are the two guys who can play us out of pressure AND into something dangerous at the same time Sarvas on the 2nd goal, Sarvas left the goal scorer wide-open... nearly all his fault. in his defense, i'm nearly certain the game plan was to help on Mattocks and not leave anyone 1v1. where he failed was not realizing that Gargan was already behind LD Juni played a great game - was everywhere. he was a bit unlucky Sarvas took off and left Manneh. Juni was never going to get there in time when that happened. he looks so much more comfortable as a lone DM. all this time we've been asking for the "old" Juni to come back. maybe we just needed to put him back there by himself. it's where he thrived when we were playing the 4-man triangle and Beckham midfield and where i think he's thriving again in the diamond
AMEN and Ex-FREAKING-actly!! When he wasn't costing us points in games he was costing us money and roster space by being injured all the damn time. Back when guys like Mike Magee was here he had a few years of low productivity that got him ridicule, but he was NEVER almost single-handedly costing the team points when he was in the games he played when healthy. The same thing can be currently said for Robbie Rogers. And had Magee not turned it around I, as well many others here, would have maintained the outcry of we need to move forward without him. This however is NOT the case for Leonardo and has NEVER been the case. It boggles my mind that anybody could lump the mistakes that AJ and Omar have made in the same category as those of Leonardo. No player is without blemish, but Leonardo is not even in the same damn category as AJ and Omar when it comes to decision making. Not even a little bit. And I will not discount a players past performances as a means of evaluating their potential future performances. Especially when said player is not improving or worse regressing. Cudicini had a rep and a resume and based solely on that, he got a contract with this team. But then we actually saw him play and watched as he single handedly and consistently cost the team points. Spend years as a sub on the bench in Europe and suddenly you don't have enough footage of your recent form. But again Cudicini had a rep. So we rode with him hoping that he would live up to it or he would get better. He did neither. Leo's rep is one of a potential good player that is just a few mental mistakes away. I have not seen enough footage of him at Sao Paolo to make me think any different but I have seen more than enough of him in L.A. to say he is not improving and is not likely to at this level and at his age. It's time to move forward.
I was referring to the whole match not to the goal. Overall Omar hasn't been nearly up to his standard. Still Omar could've covered the net instead of slowing down to watch what happens. The work ethic between him and Landon and Keane is drastically different. Still I blame Leo on that goal, the man is one gaffe after another and Bruce is an idiot to still play him. In the end I blame Bruce most of all. Opare did fine last season and he hasn't even given him a minute. SAME EXACT thing happened to Meyer, he did fantastic in playoffs and then next season Bruce, in his mighty wisdom, plays Leo every single match till it's painfully obvious to anyone that he wasn't cutting it. Meyer hasn't been playing since and I hope Bruce doesn't ruin Opare too.
I am being a bit drastic but if it was up to me I would bench Gonzo AND Leo. Gonzo isn't working as hard as he once did and I think he needs a kick in the pants to wake up. Problem yet again with MLS is we can't do this since we don't have depth. BUT we actually do in LA. Meyer + Opare should get the nod in my book. I think they are up for it. By the way, even with all this rightful complaining, at least the bright side is Gargan. He is looking like a quality attacking fullback that we desperately have needed.
Too many points were given away last year due to mistakes. It happened again in this game. Hopefully it was just a fluke.
And here's something; Leo goes out early in 2011 with knee injury (7 games played) and we win the cup. He doesn't play at all in 2012, we win the cup. No wonder Sao Paulo sold him to us!
I have to say, I completely don't get the defense of Leonardo's performance. Basically, it consists of mental errors, followed by injury during which time we forget about the mental errors. That's been his entire time with us---can't eliminate the mistakes, then gets hurt. On the plus side, BigSoccer has been trying to sell me his jersey for $140 for the last few weeks. I presume they do some sort of tracking of names you type to tailor the advertising. I've got that and Xolos shirts on the ad bar.
Interesting theory, but I chalk up our elimination to RSL last year strictly on the Magee/Rogers trade....
I'm going to assume you're watching our games with your eyes closed. And wiped the CCL match from your memory. And aren't reading the multiple articles referring to his mistakes. Are you ignoring CCL on purpose? He had a hand in all 4 goals. I posted in this thread about a brain fart from him early in the game - I could match up the timestamp with the MLS Live feed, but I'm too lazy to do it. And of all people to pick on - AJ? The guy who hasn't played CB much at all for awhile now? I apologize for being snarky, but I just can't believe you don't see his errors when all the rest of us do.