P/I/P: #03 - LA Galaxy vs. Vancouver Whitecaps; 04/12/14; 7:30pm

I think its more a mater of experience than anything else. BA played him against Chivas (due to injury) and he played well.

 

I agree with the experience part, although Opare wasn't available against Chivas. The only thing we know from that game is the Sorto goes in before Meyer.

 

Sorto is currently with the U-18 team at the Dallas Cup. Otherwise, I think he would have been on the bench last night.

@ACBrigade: .@LAGalaxy U-18 Dallas Cup (http://t.co/DH8ZLRentJ) Roster & Schedule http://t.co/ea6YVEYml1

 

Agree on Penedo's distribution - it's terrible, but if he keeps the ball out of the net, that's priority #1.

 

Surprisingly (to me at least) after the Vancouver game we are now 5th in the league in points per game. And only 0.05 ppg out of 4th place. Doesn't mean much (anything, really) at this point of the season but I wouldn't have expected it given our slow start.

 

And two of those games were against RSL - a top team in the league. Really don't think we are giving the team enough credit. Think we're burned with the CCL games (which now make me more irritated because I already think we're a better team than those games indicated).

 

Except when you're facing a strong, fast counter attacking team and you lack team defensive speed.

My point was comparing Bruce's old propensity to drop his lines once he had a late lead to what he did last night.

 

And that is the lasting effect of the stupid CCL schedule where we effectively play those two leg knock-out games in our pre-season.

Oh well. Don't need to worry about that next year.

 

My only concern about our current setup is this: is Samuel not as good as hoped? Friend is a known quantity, I like having him as a bench option and a occasional situational starter, but our midfield still has issues with both Sarvas and Juninho in the center, and we don't have the depth to improve that unless Samuel is good enough to start and allow Donovan to drop back. If our only upgrade is really Ishizaki for Zardes, is that enough to offset the loss of Franklin? I'm not sure we are good enough in that configuration to win the cup.

 

Apologies to Sean, but not really feeling the big loss right now except for depth and Gargan's emergency defending. Still think it was a good decision to let him go.

Fair points on the rest, but I want time to see if Husidic can actually contribute to the offense.

 

I'm not second guessing putting him in the draft. It had to be done.

But just remember: every time you see Leo in the back and AJ playing outside back, that's part of the reason why......(not the entire reason, of course, as we know Bruce loves Leo and played him a lot last year...but dang the Dunivant-Omar-AJ-Franklin backline looks like a beautiful memory right now would be great to have).

 

I thought it was interesting that Husidic was not subbed out. In my eyes, he was by far the weakest link in the midfield. Not that he's not a good player, but he had the most turnovers, and failed to make expected runs on a few occasions. Not unexpected given that he was being played out of position and AJ's no threat to provide any width to the attack on the left.

 

General observations from live viewing:

I think I'm ready for Donovan back to LM. Without him in the diamond, we recycle possession endlessly without advancing the ball or creating chances. We didn't even have the double-digit corners in this game like we usually do when playing the "flat four". When LD drops back, with 1 or 2 simple passes and good movement, not only does he relieve pressure, he advances the ball and creates space. What I'd like to see is Landon roaming in a semi-regista role, which is what he looked like in pre-season.

Juninho had an insane game and seemed to be everywhere. A quick look at match center confirms that; he had twice as many passes as anyone else on the team. MOTM for me; I think we look a lot less dominant without his work.

Not much to add to what others have said about Ish. Great first touch and service in on the goal. He also doesn't get intimidated by the high press in midfield. Very savvy player and good pick up.

Looking forward to seeing this team with more reps under their belt.

 

I'm a little disappointed with the underwhelming response to a decent victory. Given that this is a relatively new system with a number of new parts, I don't see how we can make bold declarations about what has to happen with this player or that. We controlled much of the game which is a good start for bedding this in.

I'm also think we're letting our fear of Keanovan being our prime outlet of goals get the better of us. The way some react, you'd think that anything they do doesn't actually count towards the performance. "oooh yes, we had more possession, multiple chances, a clean sheet and a victory, but far too much is coming through our Designated Players... oh and Ishizaki... we can't simply rely on two guys whose combined salaries are something like four times the rest of the roster....".

Actually we can and we do. That's why they're here. And what I've seen of Ishizaki, we could be getting back to par with what we had with Mike Magee - except he's better at actual wing play.

Also, am I seriously reading about how much better off we'd be with Franklin at RB? Seriously? After large portions of this board whined and moaned that he wasn't very good, had regressed from his rookie season, was a liability, mediocre going back, pants going forward, etc.? Really?

I mean shouldn't we be somewhat encouraged that once again going against type, Bruce is trying out a new formation? (And on a side note there, I notice there were a great many facepalms around here when Bruce issued his "I don't really think about formations" quote. Is this the first time you've read an Arena quote? While he's no master tactician, I wouldn't put it past him to just knowlingly spout something that ludicrous for his own amusement.)

 

I for one am not concerned at all with Samuel. He has more than proven his worth in this short period of time. He is the only new striker that has actually scored for us on more than one occausion. (Actually he is the only forward other Keane too actually score for us in games that matter.) He has the strength to fight defenders and also the technique to genuinely dribble past them without needing break-neck speed. I really hope nobody beats that out of him. Flair is only bad when you suck at it if you ask me. The only attacker that I am a bit concerned about is Rob Friend at the moment. All the other newbies have either scored or assisted in some manner since the start of the year except him. I think our midfield will be fine as far a depth. Especially if Robbie Rogers gets his act together this season. (Plus I thought I saw Courtios with Galaxy 2 and we all know he too can deliever as a sub if we ever need to call him up.) Our biggest weakness is going to be the health of our backline this season. The fewer injuries we sustain in that department the better.

 

Very much agreed but on LD, I think it's time we acknowledged what a selfish **cker Robbie Keane is. There was a point where we had a clear breakaway, Keane had possession in Midfield, LD overlapped, had nothing but thin air ahead of him, but Keane decided to hold the ball a little longer and go it alone. When he finally attempted to get it out, VW had recovered and the chance was gone.

Similarly, there was a point in the first half when Keane received the ball on the left. Knowing what was coming next I said sarcastically to my buddy "cross Keane..." he dribbled the ball towards the box... "cross Keane...." manages to nudge it beyond the defender... "cross Keane..." Cuts by another defender, towards the byline "cross Keane..."... I can't remember if he was tackled, the ball was retrieved by the keeper or just lashed it into a defender, but the chance was gone.

He does that a lot. Then stands with his arms in the air when somebody doesn't make the pinpoint 40 yard pass onto his boot that he demands.

 

Last year he usually figured out when to pass to LD (the usual outlet) versus hold the ball as is noted by his assist rate. He did hold the ball unusually a lot this past weekend, but I suspect it was because we had the game pretty firmly in hand. I know the exact two plays that @barroldinho is talking about because I also yelled at my TV. Husidic was also bad at hitting LD on the break. We had several counters that broke down because someone held the ball too long or didn't hit the run over the top. I wonder if that's also due to the new formation.

No complaints here though until it becomes a problem. With his goal scoring/assist record, I trust Robbie's judgment. That said, we all know what @barroldinho is talking about. With Landon preferring to assist typically and Robbie preferring to score, it's not a problem...until Robbie doesn't pass.

 

I know we are talking about possession for possession's sake, but some of our passing these last two games has been lovely to watch (until we get tired/sloppy and it degenerates). That approach is different than 2011. I thought I heard the crowd Ole-ing at one point? I'm fine with playing keepaway and probing as long as the final pass/finishing is there. Too early to judge, but we sure are fun to watch right now.

Last year I watched our games on constant stroke alert. Felt like we could be scored upon at any time.

Saturday's game was relatively stress free for once (exception: I still get hives when Leo is alone in the back). Don't know if it's the start of the season or what, but even set pieces don't freak me out. The possession lulls me into a bit of a sense of security. Whether it's a false sense? Time will tell. But I adore watching our passing game right now. MLS_Analyst is right - we've got some interesting pieces to figure out on our team.

 

And, small sample size noted, Gargan appears to be a better crosser than Franklin, for those pining away for the good old days of balls crossed behind the box.

 

It's funny, on that play I lean over to my girlfriend and say "Get ready for #135" to which she replied skeptically "Keane's gonna !@#$ it up."