I try not to be superstitious in a lot of things, but hear me out. When she and LD were separated, the dude was doing good. He was on a tear and on a mission. Then that "Hi Bianca" remark in the post-game interview after he scored the game-winner against Algeria. The rumors of him staying up to talk to her after that game. And then the Ghana game... Shows up to the ESPYs with Bianca. Oh, cool, they're back together. He gets excused from the NE game and LA loses. Okay, that was a matter of needing LD in the lineup. But then the 2-2 draw vs. SJ at home, where LA had to come from behind to do that. And then the CCL PRI game... Coincidence?
dunno about that, but he hasn't been the same player since the world cup. it's like after he had the swine flu. he never quite recovered his form.
Seems I remember him catching a plane back after his 2-day whirlwind tour in NYC after his World Cup heroics to play in the July 4th game and helped lead the Galaxy to a 3-1 win vs. Sounders. And played very well and the stadium was rocking. I must have been mistaken. Or perhaps that game doesn't count in this analysis.
He'll never prove himself to the world unless he dumps that American and goes to Europe where the real broads are.
On a more reasonable note than the torches and pitchforks stance, one has to admit that the team has gone a little bit wobbly since the World Cup break. Here is a fine opportunity for Captain Landon to prove his quality as a leader. I seem to remember him bitching about Captain Davo's lack of response to the team's coming unglued in 2008, complaining that Goldenballs didnt call a team meeting or hold people accountable, etc. Do we think Landon has matured enough to step it up, be a leader and light a fire under the guys' collective backsides at this point? The team I saw last night was absolutely gutless. They had no poise, no control and were soundly beat by what would otherwise be an inferior team. They need someone to pick them up, throw them on his back and carry them back to where they need to be, and fast. Lets see what he does..............
LD has played in 3 games since coming back: record of 1-1-1. He played very well in the Seattle game, we completely dominated and won. He played very well in the San Jose game. We made a couple of stupid mistakes that let in 2 goals; we completely 100 % dominated the entire second half, battled and battled and battled and came back from being down not once but twice (lots of heart there) and LD scored the game-tying goal in extra time. We completely funked up the PR game last night. LD played OK, had some good moments that we should have capitalized on, but underperformed for what we know he is capable of. The entire team played a step behind and had no energy. So the way I'm looking at things - losing 1 bad game and having 1 overall poor team performance since the WC (that LD has played in) really isn't cause to start to panic and point fingers. Some folks tend to operate in extremes; I don't. [And things started going wobbly a little before the World Cup break. Yeah, we won some games after LD and Edson went off to the World Cup, but I seem to also recall the last couple of games before the break we lost one and didn't we tie one or two without scoring? I can't remember.] Personally, I trust this team, I love this team, I've seen them play their hearts out - and play very, very well - for 2 years running now. Therefore I believe they will get their act together and once again rise to the occasion. They've earned the benefit of the doubt from me.
Oh, and I realize this thread is kind of tongue in cheek...at least I think it is, although there is an element of truth behind it. Because even me and my daughters have been saying, Bianca, you better not mess with LD! He's been playing great all this time without you. But from what I've been reading and hearing him in interviews = they're just friends and he has no intention of reuniting. So maybe we won't have to issue him an ultimatum after all.
I have complete faith that Landon has already called a team meeting, sent the necessary text messages, taken the guys out to dinner and picked up the check. Everything will be sorted by the next game. Mark my words.
Easy there, I'm not talking about Landon's play personally (you get soooooo fired up whenever anybody goes there), although if we can't agree that his performance last night was piss poor, Ima give up now. I am however talking about the team as a whole. There have been three games we've lost pretty badly in my opinion, all recently, in three different competitions. We've not experienced anything close to that so for this year. There was also a game vs. San Jose that, although you say we domintated, we barely got out of a loss in, due to some late game heroics by Landon. The silly mistakes that you say interupted our "domination" are exactly what I am talking about. There are some issues starting to present themselves consistently here, i.e. poor defensive marking, inconsistent/inpatient attacking and poor distrubtion among our midfield, among other things, to put a general blanket statement out there to describe what I mean. The team seems to have lost a step recently from its best player all the way down to the reserves. Like you said, its not time to panic, but it is appropriate for people to point it out and discuss it. I believe we have the personel in place to correct this slide and a huge loss like last night's might be just what the doctor ordered to motivate the veterans on this team, ie Landon, to get at some of the other guys guys, redirect them and get them back on track. What I would like to point out is that Landon has arguably never really be in this role before on a senior side where it has been "his" team. I guess we can agree that we both expect him to play a major role in hopefully stopping our little skid here, right?
Good players do spur themselves on with surrounding players... and I'm afraid you have to look hard to find someone of Landon's quality on this team... I really believe thats what gets him so angry at Tristen and Sean etc... Im telling you guys, we really need another player or two.. then you will see Landon shine (and maybe even smile)! LOL
When the time comes, I'll let you know. I intentionally left that game out to manipulate the data favoring my hypothesis. It is tongue in cheek...a little. But see, even your statement supports my hypothesis.
Funny, I guess that's one way of doing it, but I was serious. I am the only one that expects Bruce, Landon and our other veteran players to get a little fired up about that piss poor performance and turn it up a notch this weekend?
No. But we CAN take comfort knowing that Beckham will be leading the charge very soon. (Some jokes are too hard to pass up.)
Lol. Ultimatums are cute. There's a strong case to be made for negative correlation between LD's performance and the health of his relationship with Bianca. If we find out that this correlation is causal, perhaps we can kidnap her. Or perhaps we can do that anyway. Anyone who makes a show so bad that I'm wistful for a Jenna Elfman vehicle needs to go.
I am in complete agreement with the OP. Bianca must report to me immediately for... uhhhh.... random activities that will keep her away from Landon.
Oh, yeah, forgot about DC United....which we won and LD scored. Which just helps prove my point further.
Ha ha..no kidding. You'd think LD would rejoice in the fact he doesn't have to watch it anymore. By the way...she's apparently gotten a part in a new movie they're filming now. Something about "30 seconds" something. Anyway, for those of you who are so inclined, she plays a stripper.
Everybody is blaming the team and maybe some of that is deserved. But when Bruce changes defenders, gk's, midfielders, and forwards every week it is hard for the team to develop chemistry. In fact you can't say the team that won all those games earlier in the season has underperformed because that team hasn't been on the field for many games now. This (with the exception of Bowen) is the team that was tearing up the league: [LINEUP-4-4-2]buddle, bowen, donovan, juninho, birchall, stephens, duni, beerholder, gonzo, franklin, ricketts[/LINEUP-4-4-2] Instead since the WC we've seen stephens start on the bench twice, gordon start twice, birchall benched once, ricketts benched once, duni benched once, gonzo benched once, beerholder benched once. And I'm not talking about one player being different each game, its actually 2 or 3 position change-ups per game. If Bruce would just put our best team on the field -- the one that gave up 5 goals in 11 games-- we might get our mojo back.
Bruce was attempting to institute a rotation policy to prevent burn out (which really isn't in itself a bad idea), but it really hasn't worked well.