Totally unimpressed by Juninho. I realize its his first meaningful action, but I would have rather seen Gonzalez, Cuello or Carrasco come in instead.
No need to promise anything. Napper is right in that this is the best space to get some Galaxy analysis, comments and rants regarding our team.
Yeah Juninho looks like he’s lost too much physically to handle ball winning or keep up with his defensive responsibilities. I was just enjoying those three toying with a man-in-the middle NYRB player.
How much should we be concerned that Gonzales has not been given more minutes. If he is not used against crew I will really be worried.
Just my guess, but I have been assuming GBS didn't want to insult Steres by benching him while he had been playing well. However, at the first sign of trouble, that would be enough excuse to put Steres on the bench. 3 goals given up in a kind of galling defensive performance would be the excuse. Just so happens that with the short turn-around, there is another excuse for the coach to give Gonzales a start. I would be kind of surprised if Steres starts on wed.
I think I remember reading that one of the knocks against GBS from his time coaching in Argentina was that he was slow to substitute players. I thought that was in-game, but perhaps it was squad rotation generally.
Gonzales is on the bench because Steres and Polenta have basically been untouchable until now. GBS has done everything right with the defense so far.
GBS benching Steres due to Rolf's poor marking and our midfielders not tracking back would be pretty unfair. But as you say GBS may use it as an excuse to bench Steres. OTOH a reason to rest Steres would be the 3 games in 8 days. Of course if Gonzalez gets on the field for any reason and looks awesome then....
I honestly think we need at least 2-3 pairs of fresh legs out there and I might be wrong but hasn't Steres logged more minutes than any other field player so far this season? So if there is a game where it might be good to let Gonzalez get a start, this is it. Especially since he played a season in Columbus, so he'll know the field/stadium better than any Galaxy player, actually...
I think it's pointless to focus on the individual defensive errors. Same defenders and GK as when we were no a winning streak, so what is different in this match? Crew is not significantly better than anyone we've faced so far. Probably not a coincidence we give up the most goals we have in a single game all season when Jonathan goes out. Possessing the ball is our greatest defensive asset, especially because we have individually poor defenders. If we're not holding the ball, we are very vulnerable. Very similar to post-2014 Barca, a team that is very mediocre and can even be shockingly poor defensively without Xavi helping maintain possession. It does help that our main strategy is crossing, which gives up possession.
Zardes had a fantastic performance. One of the best 90 minute performances I've seen from him, period. 1 goal, 1 assist and generally dangerous all match. Good hold up play, great run and finish on the first goal and sharp interplay for the second. I said this after the MIN match and I'll say it again now: it'd be better for us to have a younger, less skilled but higher workrate striker. Zlatan is likely to break a goals record this season and while his individual numbers might be insane, I don't think we get enough out of him for 90 minutes to be an elite team. You won't get the spectacular, but it's the routine stuff we're missing a lot time.
I point out individual errors mainly out of frustration. Feltscher and Skjkjoi have started 62 Galaxy games between them - I think it's long past time to realize they aren't working out. Watching them repeatedly allowing players to saunter past them unmarked, them repeatedly failing to quickly close down shooters in the box, and repeatedly getting beaten as they get spun like a top gets old quick. It's been happening game after game, week after week, month after month. In too many of these games the hard work of the rest of the team gets wiped out by 20 seconds of inattention from one or both of these two guys. And especially Skkjoil. What exactly does he bring the team? His speed? What good is speed if you play slow? Advancing the ball? Really? The guy has 0 goals and 3 assists after 38 starts. At least if Steres or Polenta make a defensive error it won't be because of lack of effort. And I talk about Bingham because I know how fricken' important the gk position is for a team's long term success, especially in tougher games - on the road and in the playoffs. As to your question about why the same players but different outcome - yes probably a big part was loss of Jona. But also b/c road games are hard. I mentioned in April that it was good we were piling up the points then because a lot of May was going to be spent on the road. It's true that maintaining possession is a good way to keep an opponent from scoring. Another way is not giving up soft goals when we lose possession.
Agree about Zardes having a great game. He did what the good Zardes version does - play smart, make hard runs and finish. Disagree that Zlatan is the reason we aren't elite. Add two good outside backs and a top goalkeeper like Zack Steffan and we are favorites for the Supporters Shield and the MLS Cup.