I thought Loon's Ibsen was a nice little player. And most people only know him as a playwright. * *I know about the spelling.
Me too. The only thing I can think of (since his failures are so obvious) is that Curt thinks GZ can play himself back into form. (Or, based on practices Curt views his options as even worse.)
I would agree that Gyasi didn't do much today. But outside of his shot on goal, would you please explain what Pedro did that was so solid, while what Gyasi did was worthy of a benching. I thought both were ineffective and did not have any meaningful positive impact for the Galaxy. Frankly, I thought Garcia was solid.
Minor complaint. We should have worn our dark blue unis. Grey / White not sufficient contrast - at least on wide shots on my tv.
Gyasi is a hometown hero. A local boy who came up through our system. He sells jerseys and kids love him so he sells tickets. He's a testament to our academy, or at least the FO would like him to be. He's also a really nice guy to boot which makes the decision even harder but, necessary nonetheless.
Pedro connected in the midfield, won balls and played solid defense- about what one should expect from a d-mid, no? in 50/50 balls in the air, he usually wins and gets it to a teammate. he shows and connects with his teammates. i'm not trying to make him into more than what he is, but I thought he was solid. Maybe I'm missing something, after all, I won't make a claim to be the most knowledgeable guy on this sport, but those first games, he was caught on the ball a LOT, he coughed it up with lots of errant passes and in general seemed too slow to the game. I don't see many of those same errors anymore. I'll grant that I wasn't watching the game with a particular critical eye on what Pedro was doing, but I don't really remember him putting a foot wrong either. Help me out- what is it you see about Pedro that is irking you so much? Gyasi simply isn't producing. I like Gyasi- he works hard and even gets back on defense and wish he would get a goal and things would start to open up for him, but I think maybe it's time to give someone else a shot, rather than giving the same guy game after game to get it in gear. I agree with you on Garcia.
Gonna miss a few games now that I've been sent to a ship. Thoughts on Gyasi. I've been a fan of his, but I honestly dont know why they didn't warm him up with G2 play. I thought that was one of the reasons behind having the G2 in the first place (I remember Robbie Rogers being played on the G2 squad to get him o match fitness.)
Things could go from bad to worse at CM: Hamstring issues can linger if you don't rest them. We could be seeing Garcia and Mendiola at CM pretty soon, or possibly Garcia and Jaime Villareal behind Dos Santos.
We should put Gordon in up top as a late game sub for Gyasi.....oh we traded him too. I think we need a target forward for Gio to do his thing (open space etc), I'm guessing that was going to be Ibra. Gyasi is struggling. I already miss Husidic. I will take the win on the road, so strange after the Bruce Years to actually be winning away from home. Go G's!
Artificial turf, football lines, small crowd, etc.. I don't get some of these expansion franchises at all
Norah Swift @norah_swift @GalaxyPodcast Baggio Husidic broke his fibula and is excepted to be out a few months, according to his wife's insta #MINvLA
Hi Peeps! Life has been busy of late, and I've been traveling for work, but I still watch our games of course. 1. That's the Gio we all want to see. What a goal! But beyond that, he was involved. He and Romain look to have developed a nice rapport. 2. Romain Allesandrini has been stellar. I was SO WRONG back at the beginning of the season. Forgive me! 3. Hoping Pedro's injury isn't bad. He's been so much better without Albatross Jones playing with him. Probably more mentally stable without Jones yelling in his ear too. 4. Gyasi is painful right now, can't disagree. However, his movement up top is pretty damn critical (his movement helped create Gio's wondergoal). I'm hoping he plays himself into fitness. He gets 1 more game from me, but after that, we can't afford him. That said, I don't like the replacements. At all. It's why LA is looking for someone in mid season at forward. 5. Jelle Van Damme roaming up the pitch after minute 75 ish = no bueno. Stay home Jelle!!! 6. Nice goal line clearances from Boateng and Cole. 7. Still don't know why Curt subs Boateng first. It drives me nuts. 8. Nice saves from Rowe. The midfield situation scares me.
It's one of Gyasi's strong suits. His soccer IQ is quite high. The problem is his feet just don't really do what his mind is clearly yelling them to. His inconsistent touch is really only highlighted by the fact he gets into so many dangerous positions with very intelligent runs. If only his feet weren't a d20 dice roll. Move Jelle to Dmid that solves his roaming issues slightly. And Trickhog, it's not as if I wanted to see him there, just saying it's what he played in Belgium (to my recollection), and it seems it's his more natural position. Positional discipline isn't as strong for dmids as it is for center defenders. And his is alright,just not good enough for a CB.
Amazing how dramatically things change when your $5.5MM star shows up and actually produces. The team wins, the fans are happy, and the coach looks like a genius. Well, maybe not the last point.
Baggio out 4-6 months, which probably means the season or close to it. So, even if Lletget and Jones return and are in top form, we likely won't have veteran depth. Moreover, in addition to Pedro, Van Damme may have taken a knock. He came out a bit lame at one point, although continued on.
All road wins are impressive so full credit for that. I'm proud of this team. But since I've made it my mission to tamper (possibly unrealistic) expectations I have to point out that neither of our road opponents had winning records and both had significantly negative goal differentials. And I'm only pointing this out so we all realize the path is going to get tougher when we start playing winning teams on the road. Plus the injury bug - that's going to make it an even bigger challenge.
This...was a good match. Kneejerks: Alessandrini: I crapped on him a lot, admittedly, in his first few games (the dude had 3 handballs in one match!) but he's obviously been very good. Not just on offense, which we've all seen, but he's become a much more honest defender, also. He's doing a ton for the team, right now. Gio: Gets his run-of-play goal. Also had the pass of the match, IMO, which should've lead to a goal from Boateng if his finishing was a little better. To get the best out of Gio, he's got to be the man and we saw him step up today. Definitely something to build on. Zardes: Hasn't played particularly well the last couple games and his form might actually be getting worse, unfortunately. His target forward game has never been great, but I noticed he didn't he even really try to go up for some headers or try trapping some balls in this match (he just let some bounce through and tried to get on them). Looks like his confidence is shot right now. I know some folks here never rated him, but last year this time he was bringing down long passes routinely and created more chances in the Copa than any American but Clint Dempsey, so I think it's worth sticking with him. Plus, I like Gyasi. I think Curt is leaving him in to play himself back into form, which I think is the right move. As long as he's still working hard and we keep getting results, I keep rolling with him until he can find his form (worth noting, Zardes' drew the foul leading to the 2nd goal). Curt has to take the temp of the team on this (I don't think Jack Mac is much of an upgrade, anyhow). I do think moving him to the wing (maybe with Romain up top) is a good idea. Gets Zardes more touches to feet and more time on the ball to build some confidence. Husidic / Rafa: Bedroom Eyes is one of our most quietly dependable players, so that's a huge loss. We're really testing our depth at this point. Saying that, Rafa did okay filling in in a pinch. Against better teams, tho, the difference in quality is going to be more pronounced. Rowe: Didn't see a lot of talking about it, but Rowe had to make a couple of really good saves to keep us in this one. Got caught in no man's land a couple times (including Boateng's clearance and the goal I believe) but came up big with the reaction saves. Onalfo: Taking things from the second half of the Chicago game on, there's actually little evidence that Onalfo is a sub-par MLS-level coach. I said after the last match i thought not subbing Diallo was a bit of a gaffe, but he ended up not paying for that very much so I figure he managed that risk very well and Diallo is a little smarter now. OTOH, there are some solid positives to take away from the last few matches on the coaching side: 1) The team is very organized and committed to team defense; even players like Alessandrini and Gio are pressing and trying to win the ball back. 2) Players are fighting / covering for eachother -- when JVD gets forward, someone covers his position etc. 3) A few players have been asked to fill in on the fly (Romney, Rafa) and...they've done pretty well. 4) Our kids off the bench! Mendiola, Villareal in this match, McBean in the last match. 5) We score on set pieces! 6) We win away from home! Some of those are "easy" ones we should take for granted, but it hadn't been there for some time, even under Bruce. So at this point, I will at least judge everything Onalfo does at face value.
Bummed for Baggio. He's been such a reliable player for us, and never got a major injury. We're so thin at CM now we must get a DP at this position this summer (JDS?). Zardes situation is worrying but we score goals even if he's terrible. It's not the top priority. McInerney should get a start soon, hopefully it will raise Gyasi's level.
By the way, this game made me actually look forward to instant replay. I've been totally against it. The near side linesman in the second half was awful. Not on their goal (that was onside) but on several other plays he was just way way off in keeping his flag down when they were offside. Go back and look at the play when Cole saved off the line. That pass in was AT LEAST 3 feet offside. The broadcasters missed that one but they were right about that free header. I think instant replay, if can be done quickly, will be really helpful when the linesman are having trouble seeing anything correctly.