Thank you - you sum it up perfectly. Every weekend I see EPL defenders, the best in the world, under time and space pressure attempt to head the ball away and in the process head it straight to an opponent. Usually they get away with it b/c their defenders are still behind the ball and no goal results. But I haven't seen a series of mistakes of decision and execution like the series Lopes' made on this play since coaching U-16's. (OK, since the 2007-2008 LAG.) Anyway today you can watch many hours of MLS level soccer and you will be very hard pressed to find a defender under no pressure run forward toward a long flighted ball only to watch it sail over his head. And even less likely is to see that mistake made by a defender playing with a 2 goal lead and who is the last man marking the fastest and most dangerous player forward the other team has. Because defenders have been trained since they were kids that in this situation job #1A is to stay goal side of the attacker and to not let him and the ball get behind you and have a chance to make an unimpeded run toward goal. Lopes final poor decision of going to ground for a tackle he couldn't make was just a bonus. So it baffles me that any knowledgeable soccer fan (and I put JuniorLA quite firmly in that camp) doesn't see what a pile of poor decision making and execution that series of plays by Lopes was. But like others I'm not arguing that Lopes shouldn't be on the field. Because without a doubt he brings a lot of positives as well, and in areas where we are weak (size and physicality at cb). But he WAS the main reason we gave up our 2 goal lead and it doesn't make sense to minimize that fact b/c we want so badly for him to be the solution.
How can he be blamed? Because he made a mistake. It's not an argument, it's a fact. AJ headed the ball exactly where he shouldn't have. The opponent collected the ball, charged at goal and scored. Those are facts. An argument would be whether his mistake or the other mistake by Lopes was "more" responsible for the goal. I didn't say in any of my posts that Lopes didn't make a mistake. You and a few others seem completely willing to write off and play down AJ's mistake and contribution to the goal, for who knows what reason. I'm not. I hold AJ accountable for his mistake, which is just one of MANY mistakes the guy has been making in, what, every single league game this season, other than perhaps SKC? AJ's mistake happened closer to the goal and directly from that mistake Cummings scored. You can impose a value judgment and try to pin it on the prior mistake by Lopes, but at least have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge that you're playing favorites to make that judgment. Please see above, but, again, where did I say that Lopes didn't make a mistake? I didn't. I'm just not going to absolve AJ of his mistake and pin this goal wholly on Lopes as you want to do, especially when AJ has been in poor form and has been a poor leader on the back line. Both players made a mistake. I'm not bending over backwards to say that AJ's mistake didn't help cause the goal. AJ's was more proximate to the goal itself. I think a lot of people see (and/or want to see) AJ as the guy that was part of the team that won the championship last year and let him slide, instead of the guy that is part of, up until a couple games ago, possibly the worst back line in MLS (and held a lot of responsibility for such poor performance between his own lack of physicality and his poor leadership) and call him out on it. I'll call him out on it. No one is above reproach, in my opinion.
It isn't necessarily either/or. He is both. And in all fairness, Duni, Juni, Franklin and Magee aren't exactly exhibiting last season's form either. That said, I have every faith that he (and the rest of the guys) will continue to push to take themselves to the next level. The loss of Omar really proves the saying - "if one thing is different, everything is different." AJ has played next to him for 6 years. There was always going to be a major adjustment period no matter who they put in his place. Meyer and Boyens just made that adjustment particularly painful. For all of us. Lopes seems to be better. It also helps that the other guys all seem to be sharpening up a bit.
"Intellectual honesty"? Those are lofty words. I'm not downplaying AJ's mistake. But his "mistake" in this case was not being faster and taller. These are athletic limitations we know AJ has. And we know that, despite those, he was still a lynchpin in the best MLS defense last year. I'm willing to give AJ the benefit of the doubt not because of favoritism, but because I know he's a good player. His record speaks for itself. Having said that, I like Lopes. He's physical, has aerial dominance that's comparable to Omar's and has the sort of attitude that intimidates attackers. But he made some very silly mistakes in both games. Granted, all players have mental gaffes or poor discipline at times, but Lopes routinely makes baffling decisions, even if most end up being fairly innocuous. His scout report pretty much said the same things we're now seeing. It doesn't require favoritism to give AJ more of a pass than Lopes under those circumstances. It's not really a matter of who's more to blame for the goal but who made the more egregious or preventable error and is likely to do so again. Like skydog said, I've seen top defenders in the best leagues make poor clearances while under pressure. It happens. Lopes' mistakes (you didn't mention the mis-timed tackle that left Omar basically alone against Saunders) are just poor decisions that a player his age shouldn't make routinely. It's only a matter of time before he makes the sort of error that costs the team a game. All I'm saying (and have been saying) is let's keep things in perspective. After two losses, Sean, AJ, Todd and even Saunders were not only suddenly terrible defenders that needed to be benched, but they were NEVER good defenders according to some people. Omar just made them look better and now their "obvious weaknesses" are apparent for everyone to see. Now, After 2 wins with Lopes on the field, he is suddenly the answer to not just our defensive problems--he's the answer to all the problems with this team: he boosts the team's energy, he makes Landon Donovan move out left and combine with Keane, he improves Buddle's workrate and so on.
No. "That is not correct." (quoting X Abel) He's just a better answer than the Meyer/Boyens option. I cannot argue with any of your Lopes criticism. I am hoping that some of what you've mentioned is due to rust, (and lingering goat stench) and that he can continue to improve his form and up his mental game. Playing next to AJ, Todd & Sean can only help, right? He may very well make a crucial error that costs us a game sooner rather than later. But I'd start him over Meyer/Boyens every day of the week.
Good post. Agree. Is Lopes who we want as a long term starter? No. Is he better than a rookie and a retread? Early results would say "heck yes." If he can improve even a little under Il Bruce and with these teammates, that's a big step up and a positive. Good job Bruce. Took a gamble that seems to be working out.
Well, you are downplaying his mistake. His mistake was not his lack of physicality, it was where he headed the ball. He didn't have to head it where he did, no matter his size. Yes, his size is a limitation that Omar was able to cover for but which this year has become more of a problem, but that wasn't the problem here. And even if it was, it would point out that AJ isn't necessarily a great option at CB when there isn't a player of Omar's ability to cover for AJ. Omar was the lynchpin. AJ was a part of it, but it has become clear that Omar was the lynchpin. His record this year also speaks for itself, and it's been a very poor record. We haven't just lost a lot of games, we've gotten killed in multiple goals against losses. I'm not excusing Lopes from his mistakes. I'm just not absolving AJ from his. And frankly AJ has the longer record of poor performances this year, so it does require some favoritism to give him a pass. You could alternatively say that AJ's error was the more egregious because it was most proximate to the goal against. BUT, I agree with you, and as I stated much earlier in the thread, I don't like the mistakes that Lopes makes. I don't like his tendency to over-commit. That said, even with his mistakes, for the current time, we are playing better and winning with Lopes in the lineup. That could be for a variety of reasons and could be simply correlation and not causation. But it stands for the time being. Our record with AJ tells the opposite story except for the games when Lopes has played. I'm all for keeping it in perspective. I don't think that Lopes is amazing or up to the level of Omar or Leonardo (though Leo has been prone to his own brand of errors), just that we have performed better as a team during the time he's played for us (and before that, with AJ at the helm, no matter his partner, we were bad). I'm one of the people who said that Sean has been poor. He has. Very poor. Abysmal up until a game or two ago, at both ends. And I said that this has happened in just about every other year, too, that Sean shows up unready to play and he takes a large number of games to round into form. He benefited from Omar, as well, because Omar could clean up for his mistakes, for all the crosses that came into the penalty area because Sean couldn't stop the crosses. But I don't think that anyone is saying that Lopes is the answer to our woes at either end of the field. Or let me say that I'm not saying that and I don't think anyone else really thinks that. I think it's ok to believe simultaneously that: AJ might not be the stellar CB that he appeared to be last season, Lopes makes mistakes when he plays (some of them infuriating), and, yet, the team is playing better with Lopes in the lineup than before Lopes started playing with us.
Please clarify these claims for me. Are you claiming that CB pairing that involves Lopes is better than a Meyer/Boyens pairing? I might be inclined to agree with that, but I don't think anyone is arguing for a Meyer/Boyens pairing to begin with. If the claim is that Lopes is a better option in any CB pairing than either Meyer or Boyens, I'd like to know what that claim is based on. Tommy Meyer made fewer errors than Lopes did in his debut game. Meyer also was the starting CB in our best defensive performance this season--holding the best attack in the league to single goal on the road. Lopes brings things to the table that Meyer doesn't for sure--his athleticism, ability to win headers and strike with his head--but as a pure defender Meyer seems a lot more composed. And that's really the thing. I don't know what Lopes has done to catapult him so far ahead of Meyer and Boyens, when he's made as many mistakes as either (some leading to goals) in a much shorter time.
Lopes has been here a week and our defence has looked more competent in the last two games than much of the season. Meyer's looked okay, but somewhat green and he's been here throughout preseason. I don't know if it's coincidence, but both players that Lopes has been partnered with looked far more composed next to him than with each other. It may just be momentary, but it suddenly looks like our existing defenders are starting to play better and the competition for the CB slots seems to be more about what each brings to the table instead of which is going to suck the least.
Personally, I think the AJ/Lopes pairing is the best right now. But let's look at the numbers regarding Lopes being better than Meyer or Boyen. Meyers: 5 games, 10 goals given up in those games, average goals given up per game when he's playing: 2 Boyens: 2 games, 3 goals given up in those games, average goals given up per game when he's playing: 1.5 Lopez: 2 games, 2 goals given up in those games, average goals given up per game when he's playing: 1 It's an extremely small sample size, but it's all we have. And preliminary indications would be that Meyer is struggling, and Bruce does not trust Boyens out there. Of course, if you did this for AJ his stats would suck too, since he's been out there for pretty much all the bad stuff.
I meant I would personally prefer that Lopes play next to AJ over either of them for the next few games. We've only seen 2 matches from him. Yes, he made mistakes in both games. Big mistakes. Yes, he lacked composure. But in one game he had been with the team for 2 days. In the other he had been with the team for a week and half. He went 90 minutes, playing at altitude, after being on the Goat bench for however long. I guess I'm easily impressed. Meyer and Boyens had all of pre-season + 2 CCL games + 4 league games to gel with AJ, Sean and Todd. Maybe this is as good as Lopes will ever get, and there is no possibility that he will sharpen up or develop a better chemistry with the team. And if that's the case, then back to the bench he goes. But I'm willing to see a few more games from him and give him a chance. Even if I am nervous as hell about the upcoming Dallas game. Bad mistakes happen. Laughably bad mistakes. Remember Berhalter getting spun like a top (twice) in the Dallas disaster of 2009? Prior to that performance I clearly remember several posters bitching that he was slow as hell and a red card waiting to happen. Lopes is not, nor will he ever be, a defender of the caliber of Greg Berhalter, but lets see what he has to offer.
This. And once Meyer is good enough (if ever) in training to take Lopes's starting spot, he should get it. That's up to Bruce to decide.
AJ didn't intend to pass the ball to the attacker, clearly. He was caught scrambling and didn't get under the ball the right way--could happen to anyone. I'm not downplaying the mistake--it just doesn't seem as egregious as the ones Lopes routinely makes. So again--Omar is the backbone of Galaxy defense and the other members are just riding his coattails. All this panicking over the loss of Omar--which seemed to even get to the player's themselves--is getting old. We've shown we can defend well without him if everyone is disciplined--and we did it without Lopes. It was always ridiculous to believe that the Galaxy was doomed without Omar and it's equally ridiculous to believe that Lopes has somehow restored the team to it's former glories. It doesn't require favoritism, just logic. It's reasonable to expect that, during a time when nearly every player is struggling, AJ will eventually recover his form. We know what he's capable of. Conversely, Lopes came over as a player rumored to be prone to mental lapses and has demonstrated that multiple times in his few appearances. Why would I give him the same consideration as AJ? I have no idea why people keep saying that. For one--it's not even true. The team demolished DC, held RSL scoreless for 60 minutes and held the best attack in the league at 1 goal in their home stadium (a defensive performance more impressive than any Lopes has been involved in). Hardly things to get excited about compared to last seasons accomplishments, but this perception that we consistently looked like crap until the Portland game is false. Lopes is simply benefiting from starting in games we've won. Was he the reason we won, though? Considering he was involved in nearly every goal (including one that wasn't counted against Portland) I think it's more likely that the improved chemistry between our DPs and midfield is the reason for recent success--not the addition of Lopes.
Those are all pretty reasonable observations I more or less agree with. I even agree about the confidence Lopes brings to the backline, somehow in spite of some of the gaffes he's made.
Given that Boyd's goal should've rightly counted, Lopes is averaging 2 goals/game. Hardly a significant improvement.
He contributes. With our own eyes many people have noted with him in the lineup we have built better out of the back, we are less in "panic mode" when the ball goes into the back, and the backline looks more organized (than in select moments when someone has a brainfart - which happened before Lopes as well). We look more confident since he arrived. A lot of the players have given him credit - why can't you? We're not asking for a lot. An iota would be nice.
You keep going back to this and maintaining that Lopes was respinsible for the Boyd's 1st goal. Why? Lopes was not at fault on the blown call on Boyd's goal. He should have been called off but he wasn't. If there is blame to lay on that goal it was Dunivant not Lopes. Everyone else on the backline was playing the trap. Dunivant was slow to react and played him on(not really but that is what the linesman called). As far as the non goal goes, it's pretty ridiculous to blame him for a goal that didn't even count. The guy is not perfect but in two matches I have seen him clear a lot of balls coming into the box in the air, something AJ does not do well and something we have been sorely missing without Omar. He has also looked pretty dangerous on corners, something else we have lacked w/o Omar. I also like the fact that he can get forward and still has pace to recover and is not afraid to shoot. When was the last time we had a CB taking a shot from outside? I like AJ a lot but good lord we are finding out how limited his game is w/o Omar. Hopefully he will pick it up and snap out of his funk but he has been very inconsistent thus far. We need him to be better.
I give Lopes some credit, and have in all of my prior posts. My problem is that most fans let the game outcome over-color their perceptions of how the coach, the team, and the individual players performed. And conversely most fans give little weight to how strong our opponent was , whether we played at home or away, and all random factors that come into play in a particular game (balls hitting crossbars, referee decisions, etc). I think that is precisely what is happening in the evaluation of our various defensive lineups over this season. Lets just look at two games in detail. After the first one our defense was roundly blasted, after the second a lot of praise was given at least to one of our cb's. First game we play SKC at their place. A very, very tough assignment. KC is very athletic and active, superb at pressuring us all over the field, very strong defensively, and had a lot of dangerous offense weapons (Kamara, Sapong, Zusi, Convey, Espinoza). Their midfield completely dominated us with 60% of the possession, 77% passing accuracy vs our 62%, and winning 56% of the duels. Their team defense limited us to 2 corner kicks, 4 shots total with a grand total of 0 shots on goal. So KC total dominates us in the midfield. The outcome? Over the 90 minutes our defense limited KC to 4 shots on goal, 1 of which went in, a defensive marking mistake by Franklin. And that game was played with AJ and Meyer as our cb's. Second game. We play a much weaker Portland team at home. In this game our midfield has more possession at 52%, an outstanding 85% passing accuracy, wins 61% of duels, gets 9 corner kicks, 21 open field crosses, 17 shots total with 11 of them on goal, and 3 of them scoring. Defensively we gave up 8 shots, 3 shots of goal, 2 of which went in. AJ didn't play this game - our cb's were Lopes and Meyer. Now which game did the defense play better? The game where we gave up 4 shots on goal and 1 goal to a strong team on the road but lost? Or the game where we gave us 3 shots on goal and 2 goals to a weak team at home but still won? If you read the posts after the games you would think it would be game 2, when objectively I think the evidence shows just the opposite. After the Portland game we hearrd "the team is turning it around, Lopes gives us confidence, etc." A more objective headline would be "LA Midfield/Forward domination of visiting Portland overcomes gaffes by defense."
I think I've given him credit--please see my previous posts. I'm not saying he shouldn't get starts. But I think people are overstating both a) the improvements he's brought to the team and b) how hopelessly poor our defense was before he arrived. I'd rate him on par with Meyer right now. He has important advantages (powerful in the air, brings a presence to the backline) and important disadvantages (rookie defending mistakes, mental gaffes). Taking those things into a count, I say it's basically a wash.
I wasn't blaming Lopes for either goal. In the post I was responding to, the poster listed the number of goals given up per game per CB, without clarifying if the goals were the result of a fault of the CB or not. I'm only judging Lopes by the same criteria. Yes, I counted the goal incorrectly ruled offside, because it rightly should've counted. Unless we are trying to attribute to Lopes' skillset the ability to make linesmen regularly make poor calls, it should absolutely matter in our evaluation of the defensive performances in that game.
Very good breakdown. Something to consider: if the second goal counted (and it should have) we would've been down by 2 in the 26th minute of the first half. To Portland. At home.