It looked similar to when Mexico play big South American sides in years past we have a lot of little nippy players but the Brazilian's have size, technique and are tactically disciplined. Our passing just seems a little wayward and lacking ideas, our defense looked unorganized and slow. A few bright moments and half chances, but overall I don't think it was a good performance. You can see a bit of ability in some of the players but watching that match and Dallas getting completely outclassed by Fulham it's clear the USSDA has a long way to go. LA Galaxy and FC Dallas people would say have two of the better academies in MLS and the product on the field seems off the standard.
Looks like the game tomorrow will be on TWS deportes against Chivas. U16s also won today against TOR and play again on thurs.
And that's a wrap. Your @LAGalaxyAcademy 18s beat @Chivas 4-1. Jaime Villareal with the hat-trick. Bradford Jamieson IV with the other.— LA Galaxy Academy (@LAGalaxyAcademy) April 17, 2014 I had a feeling we would beat Chivas. As I said earlier, the types of players we seem to have is very similar to what you would see from a Mexican clubs academy, not really South American. I had a feeling would match up better against them. I don't really think it has to do with the number of Hispanic players on the team, it could just be the types of players that are being selected and developed.
All in all not bad I guess. We should have beaten Anderlecht by most accounts, McBean even missed a pen. The Flu match was a mismatch and Chivas was a winnable match and we won.
I know the game is over but there wasn't going to be one. Some highlights should be posted on the TWS Deportes website most likely by tomorrow. Agree with SCY. We just matched up better with Chivas. Watching the game right now and it just confirms that Jameison looks like a player. Has a lot better touch than I thought he would have and had good movements and makes pretty good decisions. Definitely one to watch. One thing I hate is that our defense still plays mostly safety first defense. They need to get more comfortable dribbling and passing under pressure. Hopefully that is something that is being instituted lower in the pyramid so that once the players get to this level they have better technique.
I watched the delayed show on TWC. One thing I noticed is that the Sr. team for good and bad plays much more simply, while the U18 team, was much more into fancy moves and passes while on the attack. Jameison's almost Zindane like roulette move would have been a 10 had he been able to get past both defenders. There were also a lot more back passes then I have ever seen in a Sr. team match. By contrast, they had problems completing the simple passes. On the negative side, McBean has showed a 2013 Zardes like inability to finish when 1 on 1 with the keeper. He also is very prone to losing position when a defender simply steps in front of him and takes the ball away. In one case he threw the defender to the side in frustration.
Yup, that GA deal looks worse by the year. We should have signed him to the same deal Jose and Oscar got. But, having options in Europe gave him some leverage that most other players don't have. McBean should have shown like Jameison against his age group but he didn't. That is worrying. He did have a couple almost assists, though.
McBean never was on a GA deal. He occupied an off budget roster slot, yes, but it's not the same thing as a GA deal. We could have easily moved him onto the on budget roster if we wanted a guy like Arriola to occupy the off budget roster spot. Secondly, he took a massive pay cut this year.
My intention wasn't to be pedantic (though I excel at doing so). It's a non-trivial difference. My point was simply that McBean never prevented us from signing any other HG players. One could certainly make an argument that he shouldn't have gotten the $90k a year contract he got but his salary never counted against the cap and never prevented us from signing another HG player. I also worry that he'll not progress to a point of being a solid MLS level player, but such is the situation regarding youth prospects (Memo Gonzalez says hello). His record in the CCL alone (5 goals in 8 appearances totaling 415 minutes, which works out to be 1.08 goals per 90 minutes) has been worth his salary thus far.
But the question is, did his salary prevent us from signing another HG player at a salary above minimum but off the cap? My understanding is that the number of those players is limited.
You can have two off budget HG players at any given time. If we wanted to sign, say, Arriola to a $150k salary, we could have just moved McBean out of the off budget salary slot (thereby having his salary count against the cap) and Arriola would have been in the off budget slot.
But wouldn't that have taken up a roster spot? So then we now are counting on him even more because he is on the cap and taking a roster spot. I don't want you to think that you don't have good points because you do. I just think that the original deal was a mistake. I just didn't explain that too well in my drive-by post.
Finally watched the Chivas game. It was actually pretty enjoyable, more of a possession style by both teams and it made it much more entertaining. The contrast between that and the USL is stark. They were kids though and lots of bad passes, and for playing what looked like a 4-2-3-1, the defense really sucked. Sorto was playing on the inside (?) which was an interesting choice. I'm with the group that thnks McBean isn't going far. He's actually kind of skillfull with his feet but he lacks range for the midfield and speed and killer instinct as a forward. He does OK as a holdup forward, but I'm hoping that's not our future. I'm not sure about his quickness, but it might not be too late to make him a centerback, but I can't imagine him agreeing to it.
Apparently our U-16 team lost to RSL 6-1. Galaxy Academy twitter is pretending the game didn't happen, which seems like a U-16 kind of thing to do.
It's funny when they post updates on all the other GA games but this one is conspicuously missing. Don't forget, we are the best academy in the land and we will continue to prove it.
A nice recognition of the acadamy http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the91stminute/2014/05/best-of-the-academy-top-5-mls-u18-sides/
One of the top for u16 also: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the91stminute/2014/05/best-of-the-academy-top-5-mls-u16-sides/
Wow, the U-18's just won a game 14-1! http://www.lagalaxy.com/news/2014/06/la-galaxy-academy-u-18s-claim-southwest-division-championship