Post-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Los Angeles Galaxy (Saturday, 5/27) postgame thread [R]

You take Sally, I'll take Sue

 

What happens at Avaya, stays at Avaya

 

What about the person who keeps hoping for losses so the coach will get canned, yet it never results; what would you call that person?

 

Would make sense to give him an occasional rest but he's started in barely 2/3 of the games so far. He's already missed 4 starts. Fatai was in the same shoes his first year and they worked him hard. He missed 7 starts all season.

 

Yeah I'd like to know that too. Was he trying to stir up the quakes or was Wondo just being a jerk? i don't recall seeing him do anything so childish

 

agree to disagree. Lima is somewhat superior defensively to sarkodie and far superior offensively. Lima hasn't given up any pk's this season either.

when has sarkodie put in a good performance? he may have had 1 decent defensive performance this entire season but he has never been able to pass the ball.

the problem is with such a poorly constructed roster, and the utter failure of the front office to find a mls-level veteran left back in the offseason, we went into this season with 2 crap left backs, which puts lots of pressure to start lima every match b/c he is objectively better than sarkodie/francis right now, and has upside to be much better in the future as he develops, whereas sarkodie/francis are known quantities who seem to be in decline.

 

I don't think the PK issue is one worth worrying too much about. When Lima's been beat, he hasn't even been in positions to foul in the first place, so not committing one but still being responsible for a goal against is not significant. Were Sarkodie committing PKs at an unusually high rate or something, sure. That hasn't been the case.

I think Lima might become a fine defender, but this is his first professional year, so managing his minutes is a smart thing to do, whether it produces the best possible team in a given week or not. Again, the issue with the defense was that the midfield did not dictate ball movement, and thus they were put under more pressure than they should have been. That has always been a problem with this team outside of 2012. There was an enormous amount of overlap, which did cause confusion in LA's defenders, but an equal amount was created for San Jose's defenders, who would never really know who would be where for a pass.

Hoesen, Hyka, Thompson, and Wondolowski, all four of those guys were moving through the middle, but never staying there. Wondolowski was actually the most reliable passing outlet centrally, but that takes him acres away from the goal, so by the time a cross is put in, he's too far behind it to make it count. There was a really awful example of that against LA, and it was painfully obvious that his habit of dropping deep is causing the team structural problems.

The teams that have tried to play over the top or up the middle against San Jose have not been successful. The defensive positioning of Jungwirth and Bernardez, with some cover from Godoy/Ceren, has been enough basically make that an impossible route. To beat them, the easiest was has just been to move the ball wide and hammer it down the sideline because the midfield shape gets completely destroyed. Then it's just a simple matter of going to the end line and finding an open player, of which there are usually a couple due to the midfielders dropping their marker in poor attempts to win back the ball.

 

Please, Lima > Sarkodie, and it isn't really close. Lima's a lot faster, plays tighter d, and is a much, much better attacker.

Playing the ball through the middle wasn't really a problem. The Quakes had 19 shots, and 7 corners. LA had only 6 shots, and 1 corner. In the 2nd half the problem was more about coming up with ideas in the final 3rd against a bunkered D. LA played defend and counter in the 2nd half because they could - they were fortunate enough to be ahead. And when you are pressing for a goal and the other team is defend and counter, you are going to have to deal with some counters. That had nothing really to do with the midfield supposedly "failing to dictate ball movement".

I mean, how many times did Tommy bring the ball into the final 3rd, right up the gut, in the 2nd half alone? Several times. They were moving it through midfield just fine. The problem was, what to do with it once you're there. Kick it out wide, a cross into the box where you are out-manned - clearance (LA had 31 clearances, the Quakes had only 7). Rinse and repeat. Try a longer range shot from the middle. Off target. And so it went..

 

Childish? Hardly, he was putting a foot on him that one of his teammates should have done 25 minutes earlier. Nothing wrong with that, it's a legitimate tactic when your team is being over run.

 

Yeah 'cos Lima so changed the game when he came on.

I agree he called his full back wrong, but let's not pretend we would have won with a different body on the left of the D.

 

I don't know, two LA goals came from the left side of the Quakes defense, one a PK, the other a guy left pretty wide open in the box on the left side. Tighter / better marking on those plays and maybe they don't score. Of course, it wouldn't be the exact same game, and we magically insert Lima on those plays. That is not to mention though that we'd have a more potent attack on the left side with Lima in there in the 1st half.

 

And you like it like that?

 

completely disagree. second and third galaxy goals were on sarkodie and wouldn't have happened with lima in there.

 

Yep, all this is fair comment. I just don't think we were beaten because Lima didn't start... christ, I think we could have had Marcelo back there and we still would have been let down by too many of the starting 11 not showing up on the night.

Of course we'd be better off with a superior manager (duh like), but in the aftermath of Saturday night, I'm not going to go trot out worn tirades against the manager when clearly the players let everyone down. That's all.

 

Kenwyne Jones is already in MLS, not a DP, and available given that he barely plays for Atlanta... he meets the center forward with a large body requirement, although not the speed part.

 

He was so wrong he removed him at halftime. How often does a defender get pulled at the break?
And you're right, we can't say we would have won for sure if Lima had started, but, the game could have taken a totally different trajectory, and we may have won.

 

Actually we do have a LB better than our current options ready to jump in. Unfortunately they sent him to Reno.

 

What, that dude who's going to start in the Confederations Cup? Kinnear will tell you he has a half dozen better left backs.

 

Well it was an exciting game, with the Quakes the better team. But LA had a luck on the OG and that was the difference. 2-2 we're still in it. It was a freakish OG really.

Also I though Gio was very impressive. Maybe we made him look good by abandoning the middle but he pretty much owned TT, who I also thought had a good game.

I'm with those who hope to see more of this formation but also with those who think this will be seen as evidence of the need for two DMs. That's the sad outcome of what was otherwise a good game.

Of course I never like to lose to LA, but for once besides the 3-0 win recently, I left Avaya thinking "that was exciting".

 

How did Gio "own" TT? TT was playing, more or less, CAM, or at the very least, a #8 role. If Gio was anyone's responsibility it was Cerén and the back line. I also don't buy the narrative that LA somehow "owned" the midfield, or that the Quakes "abandoned" the midfield. Possession was roughly equal, and the Quakes had over 3x the shots and 7 to 1 corners. For the most part the Quakes controlled the game, and LA countered. In the 2nd half in particular, when you are pressing for a goal and the other team is playing defend and counter, you are going to absorb some counters. That is just the way it plays.

 

The couple of times they met in the midfield, Gio either dispossessed TT or TT was unable to dispose Gio. That's not a bad thing. TT will learn from it.

Also, this, kind of related to this game:

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...manufacture-a-football-rivalry-mls-has-tried-

 

Even though we lost, I really enjoyed the game and thought the first half was one of the best halves that I had watch in a long time. Additionally, I thought that it was one of Ricardo's better games and had no problem with the penalty kick (both in real time and seeing the replay). Sadly, the own goal took the wind out of the Quakes along with LA playing "keep away" from the Quakes. LA showed defend a lead by keeping the ball away from the Quakes. The Quakes got frustrated and gave up in the last 10-15 minutes.

While it was hard to fault Bingham on the goals, he also didn't do anything to help the team. One big save could have made a huge difference.

Attack
Good first half and not much in the second half. Wondo slotted home the first goal, but had some silly plays and embarrassed himself by kicking Gio (too little, too late). Urena needs to be more effective than making good runs.

Midfield
Both TT and Ceren had good first 45 minutes, but faded as they had to chase too much. Hoeson was MOTM with both a beautiful assist and his first goal. Hyka didn't have much impact on the game.

Defense
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. The first three goals were just poorly defended. On the first goal, I was yelling at the team to pressure and step up. So was Flo. Unfortunately, Cato did so too late. Sardokie should have had a yellow card early in the game for pulling down #7 (who terrorized the Quakes most of the game), clumsily stuck his leg out for the PK, and allowed the cross which Bernandez through his body/head which created the own goal. Off at half time. Couldn't have been much worse. Cato poorly gives up the ball which led to a counterattack and beautiful cross to a streaking Gio for the fourth goal (who Lima hesitated on marking for one brief moment). Still, all credit to LA on the fourth goal. Game over.

 

While I agree with you about Gio owning TT, I disagree with you on the Quakes controlling the game. Rather, Gio and LA midfield owned the Quakes in the second half with possession and good ball movement. The Quakes had no answer and would quickly give up the ball back to LA.

Gio had a very good game and was more active than I have seen him before in LA. To me, it looked that he was saying this is "my team" now and was driving the team. We will see how the rest of the season pans out, but if they keep playing like this, LA will be looking at a MLS Cup run (although their defense needs some help).

 

We didn't account for Gio very well when they countered. They only have a few guys you need to be keenly aware of and quickly pick up in transition...and sometimes take a routine foul to stop the play before it unravels. That is an on field communication issue. We couldn't sort it out on the fly and Gio found pockets everywhere. I little bit of blame to go all the way around. Hoesen and Hyka aren't exactly two way mids, Ceren is barely a Dmid, plus he's playing with Tommy in the middle for the first time. That's all we had...high probability for that group to not collectively have the defensive awareness and communication level to deal with Gio and Alessandrini. We were pretty soft...6 fouls for 90 min...give me a break. They probably felt it was a practice scrimmage.

I wouldn't mind seeing what that midfield would look like with Godoy behind Tommy.

 

Yeah, that kid who's starting for the New Zealand national team is obviously not good enough to start over Sarkodie or Francis. Must have experience like those two... he's more suited to the USL level. I mean, it's not like Reno is doing well either....