vs Venue: The Hub Time: Tuesday 7:00pm PDT TV: Not announced yet From the little I've read, they're a pretty storied Guatemalan club. 30 League title since '49. Not sure about their current form but, we shouldn't take them lightly. Having played Saturday night, what lineup do you think Bruce will go with?
And given that there is a substantial Guatemalan population in SoCal, we need to show up in order for this to resemble a home field advantage. I know that the FO expect a much bigger crowd than the first CCL game.
First game had pretty good attendance for a midweek early-round CCL match because of Gio's debut. I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow's numbers are lower...but, I'll be there!
Does that mean they are going to actually open up some parking lot gates and let people actually in before the game starts (or at least warn people ahead of time which gates will be open)?
Comunicaciones just won their first league game the past weekend, they had lost the previous three. There are not in a good form so I wouldn't be surprised to see Bruce play the scrubs again. It sounds Villarreal will be available, don't know about Husidic. Dunivant and Mendiola likely out. If Baggio is available : Villarreal Gordon Husidic Vayrynen Walker Maganto Garcia/Sorto Romney Meyer Gargan Rowe And if he's not : Villarreal Gordon Garcia Vayrynen Walker Maganto Sorto Romney Meyer Gargan Rowe or Buddle Gordon Villarreal Vayrynen Walker Maganto Garcia/Sorto Romney Meyer Gargan Rowe
I would love to see the "scrubs" but honestly 3 points here sets us up VERY well for the remainder of the group stage. Cremas and Central FC play each other next two rounds home/away and if we have 6 points we could possibly be qualified before our final 2 games away (If they tie twice). We also have 5 days rest after this for NYC. I'd hate to need a result in any of the last two games so I hope Bruce puts out a decent line up.
I agree but Bruce has not mistaken a lot in the past when he decided to play the scrubs. I will never forget when our B team has retaliated against the Puerto Rico Islanders by beating them 4-0 three years ago. Central was described as a better team than Comunicaciones by some people here (don't know if they were right) and we beat them 5-1 (it could have been more). So I totally trust Bruce on this.
I think you're wrong, here are our CCL campaigns under Bruce (I'm counting only group stages since we always play the first team from the quarterfinals) : 2010-2011 : eliminated in the preliminary round by PRI. A mix of scrubs and first team players (I remember Donovan, Buddle, Franklin all played) with a little bit of inexperience and bad luck in this early elimination. 2011-2012 : a great performance to finish first in a group with Morelia, Alajuelense and Motagua. A lot of first team players with a few bench players (Hejduk, Berhalter). One bad memory : the injustice during the game at Morelia (Keane goal disallowed for a wrong offside call and a mexican goal in stoppage time with a mistake from Saunders) and then the exultation during the game at the HDC with the stoppage time goal from Juninho. We played almost every time the first team this year IIRC. 2012-2013 : we destroyed Metapan 5-2 in the first match with Keane and Beckham (who scored the 1000th CCL goal on a corner kick), then we played the scrubs in the last three matches : 4-0 win at the HDC over PRI, 0-0 at Puerto Rico and a hard fought win in Salvador 3-2 (brace from McBean, GWG by Stephens, I remember Boyens and a rookie Meyer starting in central defense...). 2013-2014 : first game we played the first team (2-0 win over Cartagines with two goals from Keane), then we played the scrubs the last three games : 1-0 win at home with an early goal from Courtois against Metapan and a great 3-0 win at Cartagines with three goals scored in the first 30 minutes (and the only goal from Chandler Hoffman with the first team). In the last game we lost 4-0 against Metapan but we were already qualified. 2015-2016 : 5-1 win against Central FC with the second team. So a few thoughts : - Bruce has played the scrubs a lot of times during the last CCLs and there haven't been a lot of mistakes apart of the 4-0 loss to Metapan. - I don't understand people saying we don't take CCL seriously. Yes, we often play our second team in group stage, but it always worked. Yes, we always struggle in the elimination rounds but IMHO it has more to do with our earlier season form and playing against in-form mexican teams (with other factors : Omar's injury in 2012, Bruce starting Leo last year against Xolos...). - just if someone wants to take the example of the USOC, YES I AGREE, we don't take this tournament that seriously. I'm not saying we're wrong though.
My admittedly poor memory is that we usually do very well in the group stages---get points early and kind of cruise. It's the home and home or elimination ties that we come out flat on. And not always because of the team---we've had a pretty full team that played terribly a couple of times.
I agree with LEM-LAG's assessment. I said it in the last CCL gameday thread, but the PRI incident is a bit of an outlier. With one small exception: You could argue that Bruce should've tried harder to win (or at least not get blown out 4-0, which effed up our GD) the final group stage match 2013-2014 , which would've resulted in a the Galaxy being seeded against a non-Mexican team for the knockouts.
You know, at the time, I remember someone (was it you @Berks?) railing about how much we needed to get that seeding position. In retrospect: yup. Although that loss to that terrible Toronto team is the one that still sticks in my craw.
We should also keep in mind that our "B Team" is miles better than it has been in previous years. We're only thin at CB and left back. If everyone was healthy I'd have liked to see something along the lines of: Rowe Sorto Meyer Romney Garcia Husidic Walker Maganto Villareal Mendiola BJIV That line up highlights our need for some defensive cover, but I'd love to see what Mendiola, Maganto, and Villareal could all do on the field together.
I was **pissed** about that game. Completely screwed our seeding. Heh. I wrote that post before I even saw yours @jmaestro . Yup, that was me! And it bit us in the ass. All we needed to do in that game was not lose 4-0. Which we promptly did. I didn't mind the scrub playing, but the way the game was managed still upsets me to this day. I don't mind scrubs tomorrow. Should be a mix with some good back up on the bench. Just win. EDIT: I'm doing an analysis on Bruce's sub patterns right now for my next article and it's enlightening how many more options we have now in terms of scrubs. Let me put it to you this way. In 2011 when Bruce needed offense he went with..... Paolo Cardozo! In 2012 when Bruce needed offense he went with.... Chad Barrett!
Someone please tell me that the voiceover on the preview for this match I just watched is a parody. It is right? http://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2015/0...ed-comunicaciones-fc-champions-league-contest
http://www.mlssoccer.com/ccl/2015/n...iones-concacaf-champions-league-match-preview Preview that's not a parody. Villarreal and Baggio are returning from injury.
They can't be too bad given they have 11 internationals, 10 of them from the Guatemalan national team.
Adam Serrano @LAGalaxyInsider 17h17 hours ago Bruce Arena expects @OficialGio to play as the #LAGalaxy trot out a "near first choice" XI v. @CremasOficial http://bit.ly/1NeIeTX #SCCL Sort of surprising, especially after they just played in such heat on Saturday. "Near first choice" does leave a lot of wiggle room, though.