So Omar and Juni are gone. Donovan is now a fulltime breastfeeding Dad. We've got two elevenths of an England Golden Generation the underwhelmed even when they were still young enough to be professional athletes. Recent acquisitions and targets threaten to push our average age up so high that we're considering renaming the Stubby to "Brighton Gardens at Carson". Obviously we've painted eternal official expectations into the "win now" mantra but realistically, what would you consider a good 2016 season?
With this team? Honestly, this is totally win now. They have the experience, they've got the talent, hopefully they've got the right mix. It's a year we should start strong and win the SS, and the Cup. If we survive Santos Laguna, then we should expect to make the CCL semifinals at a minimum. We have the depth that I'd expect us to make the last 4 in the Open Cup. It's a big year. Expectations should be really high.
With this crew, the expectation has to be MLS Cup. CCL is coming way too soon to realistically think we'll do well. And Supporter Shield requires that we stay healthy -- which again will be tough with this crew. And Arena doesn't care about the USOC... So in my opinion the 2016 season will be a success with MLS Cup...
In a league that’s “win now” on the poster child for “win now” this is about as “win now” a team as I’ve seen. I don’t know they can or will, but it’s clearly the strategy.
It's a win-now team with four DPs and that's the standard we should use. Given the turnover I don't think we have a good shot at the supporters' shield so I won't count that. Making it to the conference final is the minimum and I will probably be disappointed if we don't make the cup. I hope we do better with the shield though since position affects the play-in game and where the cup is hosted.
Our front 6 says win now I suppose but until I see how the back line (+ Kennedy) I can't really call it. That on it's own doesn't scream win now. Van Damme looks decent but most of us haven't seem him play minute of professional football and he's the major signing on the back line. Leo is Leo and while decent last year you never know with him. AJDG while good and valuable I don't consider him to be a #1 CB who could lead us to a cup. The Rogers and Cole experiments on the flanks are pretty important, MLS clubs can exploit weaknesses in those areas. Will Romney and Steres be able to step up when called upon? So many questions and while to some in the public it might seem like the team is built to win now I'm not sure anyone can really be confident until we see a few matches, like 15 or so. I mean Toronto's front 6 says win now by that standard. As I said though I like our front 6, we have better depth and if we trust them the young players can make an impact. Sorto looked interesting on the weekend. I would like to see him used at RB when Rogers can't go instead of sliding over AJDG or playing Gargan.
I think the teams goal should be to win the supporters shield and home field in the playoffs, thus easing the path to the cup. While I agree with those expressing injury concerns with older players, I am hopeful that the Galaxy's depth will compensate.
IMO there is only one expectation for a Galaxy supporter to have before ANY season... that they take the Supporters Shield and Open Cup and Garber hands Keane the championship trophy at StubHub after the final. A good showing in CCL is a good bonus.
Expectations and what's considered a good year are two different things. To my mind a good year for the Galaxy has to include an MLS Cup. But my expectations for this team? Well as SoCal said there are too many unknowns to make a very confident prediction. I have no idea how good Cole or Van Damme will be - they could be anywhere from a disaster to great. But if I had to bet on our finish based on my limited knowledge I would bet that LAG ends up with the 2nd to 5th best record in MLS and makes it to the Conference finals. The total basis of that (low-confidence) prediction is that we have good personnel on paper and a good coach so that should get us into the top 5 and we won't win it all because, well shxx happens. To be honest one of the biggest determinants of our success this season might not be the new signings or the departures but instead Keane's 2016 form. If he continues to score 20 +/- 3 goals we have a great chance of staying at the top of the league. But if father time finally catches up to him through injuries or the natural loss of speed/quickness/stamina/strength and he drops down to the 10 +/- 3 goals range we will probably end up mid-table. Of course there is the possibility that Zardes, Gio, Lletget, Gerrard, Cole, Larentowicz, and/or DeJong combine to generate a bunch of goals and really help Keano out. That would be ideal since it means we would no longer so dependent on the form of a single 35 yo player. But it would really have to be a bunch since last season we got 36 non-Keane goals and -- due to a porous defense -- still didn't get it done. That non-Keane output is going to be hard to duplicate, much less exceed. Of course it would help considerably if we quit giving up 1.4 goals/gm like we did in 2015.
Expectation should be to qualify for CCL, which pretty much means one of: 1. Win Open Cup 2. Win Western Conf 3. Win MLS Cup All of these are possible, but would be hard to say any are "likely" given the strong competition. All comes down to consistency, timely good form, and luck...
OK, honestly, let's look at this: this team should be seriously better than last year's. First, starting the season together. That's big. Second, the replacement players should work better; Kennedy isn't the best, but he's going to be better than Ricketts. De Jong should be better that Juninho. Love Juninho, but honestly: 5 years ago he was starting in a World Cup Final. He's only 31. He's going to be an upgrade. Van Damme: I expect a small drop off from Omar, but I don't think it'll be as big as people think, particularly with Omar's up and down play the last couple of years. Ashley Cole: I think he's a total tool, but I don't think he's going to be worse than Gargan. I expect him to be somewhat better, although not a ton. Bench: we added Laurentiwicz (damn it, now I have to learn how to spell that at some point) and Magee instead of Buddle and...huh. Garcia? Who did we get rid of and who did we keep? Then we have: Villareal HOPEFULLY healthy, and the other kids like Sorto, Mendiola, BJVI, and Maganto with another year under their belts. I just look at this and say....this should be a lot better team. QUITE a bit better. The wild card is injuries. That could kill us. But this team really should be able to win a LOT of games in MLS. This team could win the SS.
It's going to be funny when Bruce Cudicinis Stevie G. this summer. Mr. November AKA Tits Magee leads us to Playoff Glory! But, alas, Kennedy doesn't see the 2nd shooter and we all die in the Final...
Seriously, I expect this team to win everything, CCL, USOC, SS, and MLS Cup. They have the mix of veterans (maybe too veteran) and youngsters where the former can guide the latter and where the latter can carry the former through the various competitions this year. So maybe I'm being too optimistic and setting myself up for disappointment, but I think this team can do it.
If any one move was "addition by subtraction" it would be Ricketts' departure. In his earlier days, he was phenomenal. But last year was a brutal lesson as to the humiliations that beset a man who won't accept that his time has ended.
Our expectations should be to win - MLS Cup. Whether reality intercedes I don't know, but based on the roster, win now. And I expect the Galaxy to qualify for the CCL every year. That's what chamipons (!) do.
The qualification mechanisms don't really allow this. It's not just a mater of being "top 4"--which we strive for every year and might have a decent chance. You have to win a cup (Open or MLS) or win your conference. Winning a cup every year is just not realistic--one mistake, one untimely injury, one unlucky deflection, red card, or missed PK can ruin it. And winning the conference--especially Western conf--every year is also pretty impossible in MLS (financial and competitive) environment. Galaxy don't go all out for open cup, which might be the easiest path to CCL. This makes our chances much lower.
My expectation is to win MLS Cup and the Supporters Shield. That is what this team is built for. I think it can happen but probably won't due to injuries, terrible road form (not helped by adding older Euros unacustomed to travel and humidity), and the unpredictability of playoffs in general. My expectation is to lose in the quarterfinals of CCL. How can anyone expect anything else? Santos Laguna is playing meaningful games right now and our team hasn't even met each other yet (when will Cole, De Jong and Van Damn start training?). Advancing in the CCL would be a huge accomplishment. It would be nice to win the US Open Cup again. I think we'll take it pretty seriously and have a good shot because we have pretty reasonable depth across the squad.
This is exacerbated by a particularly difficult schedule. I think I saw that LAG has the second toughest schedule in the league, measured by strength of opponents on the road or at home. In other words, where we have three games with a team, our two away games are against teams that had good records last year. And this is a league (and a team for that matter) that has a bad time in road games anyway - even against teams we are supposed to beat.
Well there is no inherent reason why we should be worse on the road than other teams. New Euorpean players not used to the travel is a tiny bit of an excuse but even our long term regulars under-performed last season on the road. I think part of it is Bruce's refusal to adjust to on road conditions. We should be playing a compact, counter attack style when away from home. But instead we often pushed too many forward and left ourselves exposed to counter-attacks, which killed us.