The statue dedication was neat. Pretty cool to see old faces. Great atmosphere and fun game to be at. We were lucky Chicago didn’t score 4 on us.
Feltscher was staying way tucked in and late come over to defend wide. I'm not sure if that was what he was instructed to do and the wide attacker or a midfielder was supposed to defend wide or if he was just slow to realize that was his man. And there seemed a bit of confusion at times. In fairness, though the right side seemed vulnerable all night none of Chicago's 3 or 4 truly dangerous chances were a result of those vulnerabilities.
Without having read through the thread, some random noted: Zlatan had an awful game and didn't display the worth ethic to find the game. One goal on the cleanup after all the work was done by Alvarez and Pontius doesn't change that. Rolf is predictably terrible on defense. He has decent off the ball movement going forward but otherwise very low soccer IQ on the ball. He's our weakest starter by far for me. With he and Skjelvik manning our starting fullback positions, we are in for a bad time if our opponents press down the wings. Polenta may need more time in nature to get his head together. Two massively boneheaded plays only one of whom was incredibly punished. The defense as a whole broke down several times and we were lucky to have only conceded once. Bingham looked good. Hopefully he can help organize the backline going forward because I'm worried Polenta (and it's only one game, so obviously small sample size) needs someone to reign him in. Antuna looked extremely raw and way off the pace. JDS played well enough but was mostly invisible. He and Carrasco aren't a great pairing. Ema is still Ema. Good for a few goals and assists off the bench per season. Can we talk about Alvarez and Pontius? Opposite ends of their careers but both immediately changed the game when they came on. I think it's early to crown either one a starter (though if Alessandrini is out, I'd start Pontius on the right) but I'm always excited to see them come off the bench. Cuello needs time with G2.
Or Lletget. Twice in his time with the Galaxy, he's wound up having spells in midfield almost by accident and on both occasions, he's looked at home there.
If I had to put money on it, Cuello was starting in Llegets spot. I'm sure GBS was watching the USMNT games to see Lleget play. Lleget played as and 8/10 hybrid and I think that's where he'll play under GBS. JDS will sit deeper, with some more freedom and one of Juni/Kitchen/Carrasco will play alongside JDS. Ideally if Juni can rediscover his previous Galaxy form he starts. I'm hoping that Alvarez's performance means he's going to be a regular off the bench option and he wasn't just there because we had no other options. Also big props to Chris Pontius. He's always been a USMNT quality player, but he's had some serious injury problems. I do worry about him starting too many games. He may be best suited as a perennial off the bench weapon, just to preserve his body.
It's true, Zlatan was pretty invisible until the goal. I was just thinking how good a job Schweinsteiger was doing of keeping him out of the match about 10 minutes before the goal came. Had it not been for the goal, I'd have said he had a bad game. Still, a goal is a goal and a roll is a roll. And if we don't score no goals, then we don't eat no rolls. I expect him to cover even less ground this year, so who we have around him is going to be key.
I don't know what's going on with Juninho - he's only 30 now but has played a only 19 min of professional soccer since Sept 10, 2017. He lost his starting spot at CHI midseason and then couldn't get off the bench. More worrying is that he took 2018 off. Anyone know why?
Agree that ideally we can afford to keep bringing both Pontius and Alvarez in as 2nd half energy/fresh idea subs. I think they will thrive in that role.
I was...pretty drunk at this game so I missed quite a bit. It seemed to me Skjolnir did OK at left back?
Great overview. Other than Polenta (I have a more favorable view) I agree completely with your assessments on every player, including Antuna. I also thought Zlatan looked physically slow and a bit fragile out there. He's not in as good shape as last season when he joined us after his intense personal rehabbing. I don't know if we are seeing the effects of aging, preseason over-training, too much time spent doing pr appearances, or nagging injuries. And I agree his effort was lacking at time as well.
Skelvijik looked ok, but maybe that was because Chicago's gameplan was to abuse Feltcher repeatedly. I will say this for Skelvjik / Ema left side - there is some speed there.
He was ok but he wasn't tested much. And his offensive game was anemic, consisting mainly of receive pass, look around, return pass. He's not one to take a player on and he lacks creativity in his off ball runs so he doesn't really help our midfield keep possession or advance the ball. Feltscher is much better at the ball advancement department, but obv can't defend. As GalaxyKoa said our wingbacks are going to our soft points until we get replacements. I think we should start Romney over Skjoiuoik - he is a better defender and better at working the ball upfield. Romney also is pretty strong in the air on set pieces.
Pretty sure he had surgery on a lingering knee injury. From my understanding it happened while he was in Chicago, but it either was undiagnosed or untreated and it effected his mobility which is why he lost his starting spot. Then after the season he had it operated on and his contract with Xolo's ran out. Worst case scenario he'll never be a starting quality player and he was only brought back to help restore the culture around the club. Look at what Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has done at Manchester United to see how important having a great culture around a club can be.
I don't see this legendary Skjkoiuk speed everyone keeps talking about. He came in with a reputation of being blistering fast but watching him for an entire season I've seen him outrun at both ends of the field. IMO he has slightly above average MLS speed at best. I wish we had one of those speed graphics over his head to test this since I'm clearly in the minority with this opinion.
Polenta reminds me of JVD, a great 1-on-1 defender but awful when it comes to hero ball. They were overloading our right side all night and after his dumb goof he pushed up only to be caught out and we were lucky frankowski fluffed his pass. If we have another JVD I'd be happy, even with the warts. But I'll like to see how he does next game.
I was *just* about to say the same thing!!! Reminded me very much of Jelle with his inclination to foray up the field. The reason I was reminded is that I kept saying his name - just like Jelle! I was thinking of @skydog and me yelling at him. LOL. Feltscher did get beat like a drum, and I was definitely concerned about the fullbacks' speed. I also didn't see Jorgen's speed - he looked like he was running in mud. Though it is game 1. Bummed about Romain's hammy. Was worried when JDS went down as well, he needs to rest up. Ema did have some success bursting up the left, he did have a few nice passes... Though some not so good too. Go Chris Pontius!!! And glad Zlatan finally got his goal. Off to quickly look at opta stats (how I've missed thee).
Polenta didn't misplace many passes (going to the comment about his through balls earlier, Steres wasn't too shabby either), he also had a ton of defensive actions Skjelvik wasn't so great on the ball in contrast, though he did have two key passes Rolf was very active on the right (much more so than Jorgen) - speaks to his offensive bent JDS grew into the game - I think he shook off his injury at halftime Carrasco = meh Cuello had so few touches for a #10 type - if I'm reading this right, 7 successful passes (yikes) in 60 minutes We could use more creativity from Antuna Zlatan with a rough night minus the goal, but I trust the lion to shake off his rust. I missed you Galaxy soccer!
Reading "24 obs about 24 teams" on mlssoccer.com and came across video highlighting the talent of CHI's HG player Djordje Mihailovic. And indeed it is an amazing display - he starts with a sublime through pass and ends with a blistering 30-yard outside-of-the-foot swerving half-volley. It was the biggest test of Bingham for the night and one he passed beautifully, making a remarkable save. Major kudos to Mihailovic and Bingham. But there was another great play in this sequence - watch Polenta as the play develops. The CHI forward makes a hard run inside of Steres hoping to get a chance to bury the ball and in fact the cross was right on target for that to happen. Except Diego read the situation and took off in a full on sprint to get to the ball first and with a little in-air body twist he got his head to it and flick-cleared it out of the box. Not an amazing play by any means - but the kind of alertness and effort that cb's like Polenta and JVD bring to that position and that we were so sorely lacking last season. What do you think the odds are that cb Skjliuluk would have gotten to that cross? It's more likely he would have jogged back and then did a u-turn to walk upfield as Bingham retrieved the ball from the net. Btw this play also illustrates why Antuna may not be physically ready to start at this level. The headed clearance was bouncing/floating right toward him but he is too passive about it, lets himself get easily out-muscled and ends up on the wrong side of the ball. This allows the set up ball for Mihailovic's screamer toward goal. Djordje Mihailovic is going to win a lot of #USMNT fans over playing like this. Watch the vision to turn and split the defense with the pass, then the technique on the volley to keep it down and send it towards the top corner. #cf97 pic.twitter.com/C2PRlEnm24— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) March 3, 2019
I never remember seeing Zlatan look energetic last year. That's the problem with having him on the team. I suspect he causes many of our defensive problems because he moves so little. But it's hard to keep him off the field because he can score at any moment.
Maybe the Chicago player he was up against was dog slow, but in Saturday's game, Skjelvik at least looked blazing fast. If you didn't see that, I'm not sure what game you were watching. It was one of the surprises of the match for me.
Yes, that was a good play by Polenta. It seems too many people judge defenders by how many (or few) mistakes they make rather than how many good plays they make. Which is not the best way to look at it, so I'm glad you posted this good play by Polenta.
Couldn’t have said it better. That perception blind spot is why players like Kitchen get overvalued - the don’t make that many egregious mistakes and may look fine when the ball happens to come to them. But their lack of proactive play means a) they don’t make many glaring obv errors, and b) they fail completely in their primary task of dominating their area of the field.
While I agree in general, he was still in place for 3 strong opportunities. 1 went over, 1 was a good save, the other went in. As long as he's doing that consistently, he'll remain productive.