P/I/P Game 22: L.A. Galaxy @ Portland, SUNDAY 8/6/17, 11 am PT

The game is sunday, not saturday fyi

 

Triple digit heat in Portland this week. That plastic pitch is going to be an absolute nightmare, even if there’s a delayed kick-off time.

 

Blegh!!!

 

A totally plausible 6-3-4 would get us to that 50% mark...

(edit: W-L-D, not W-D-L)

 

Portland is not built for that kind of heat. None of my friends up there even have air conditioning.

 

I take this to mean he would like to play Jones in the 6 role. He definitely was playing behind Pedro most of the time against Seattle and was more selective in the times he went forward (and Pedro was better about covering when he did).

I assume it depends upon whether Romney is ready to go (since both Van Damme and Diallo are out due to cards during the last game). If he isn't, then putting Jones on the backline has got to be preferable to starting Arellano there in Portland.

 

Oh damn, forgot about Diallo being out as well. That's a problem.

 

Yep. It's why the discussion of putting Jones at CB is very immediate and not just a long-term discussion in case Van Damme leaves during the transfer window or we want to find a way to get all of our midfielders on the field at the same time.

 

And that my sons and daughters, is how you fix a team.

First, you figure out what the problem has been. What hasn't been working? In our case our biggest problem was our defensive mids too often abandoning their defensive responsibilities which called for them to stay connected with, and provide protection for, our back four. Too frequently all of our midfielders (and possibly Cole and/or Diallo) were all pushed up high, leaving acres of open space in front of our back line. At times these big gaps made us very vulnerable to allowing soft goals when faced with a quick counterattack. And even when our opponent had prolonged possession in our defensive third the defensive mids still often failed to clog and pressure opposing players when they entered that critical area just in front of our central backs.

Second, you tell your players how to fix it. Something as simple as the coach personally telling Jones to sit directly in front of the backline worked miracles for our defense.

Makes you wonder what Curt was doing, eh? I don't think he ever even accomplished step 1 - recognizing the easily fixable positioning problems that were the main reason why we were leaking goals. At least publically he certainly never said anything to suggest such an understanding. Instead he railed on about a need for us to generically "play better" and attributed poor prior results to "unlucky breaks." If by some small chance he did figure out the problem he clearly didn't communicate it well to his players on the field.

Sigi may not be the long term answer but he's clearly "a step in the right direction."

 

Corner Of The Galaxy‏ @GalaxyPodcast 20m20 minutes ago

Looking more and more likely that Jonathan dos Santos’ debut will be against NYCFC and NOT Portland. Visa Paperwork #LAGalaxy #MLS

 

Sounds like he's describing someone's hamstring and not visa paperwork

 

Adam Serrano‏Verified account @LAGalaxyInsider 3m3 minutes ago

Sigi says Gio returned from #MLSAllStar after going 30 minutes vs. Real Madrid. Says he'll be 100 percent ready for #PORvLA

 

Missing Jonathan (if it happens) sucks - so far everything is going against us to win this game. It is such an important game, pretty much make or break for the playoffs since a) we desperately need wins now and b) Portland at 1.35 pt/gm is the team most vulnerable to being passed by us.

We are currently at 1.1pt/gm. Seattle is 2nd most vulnerable at 1.4. Everyone else above the red line is averaging at least 1.5pt/gm and are extremely unlikely to be caught.

Its unlucky that the two teams we had the best chance to pass were the the first two on Sigi's dance card and JDS will miss both.

 

What I noticed in particular about Jones playing the 6 (to the extent I could tell from the TV broadcast), was that Jones seemed to be marking Dempsey trying to prevent him from getting on the ball, especially in the first half. If true, I wonder if he would be put on Valerie.

 

Missing Jona might be a blessing in disguise. He's a good player no doubt, but probably not gameday fit and probably doesn't even know all his teammates first names yet. Playing in triple digit heat on plastic would be a ROUGH intro to MLS for any player. Pedro's in decent form and partnered well together with Jones in the last match -- it probably won't kill to build on that even though we are eventually going to have to shake things up AGAIN to integrate Jona.

 

Tom Marshall‏Verified account @mexicoworldcup 6s6 seconds ago

Tom Marshall Retweeted FEMEXFUT

Jonathan dos Santos training in Mexico City at the FMF complex while he waits for his US visa #eltrieng

 

Wonder what the hold up is. Robbie got his P1 visa in something like 5 days. I remember because he was announced on Monday and played that Saturday against the Earthquakes. San Jose signed some “big name” the same day and they got all bent out of shape when Robbie was starting and their new player couldn’t play because he didn’t have his visa.

 

My guess with Robbie we cut some deals with Irish Embassy and that's I believe when they started selling Guinness, Harp, and a bunch of other Irish related memorablia. In exchange they rushed through the all the paperwork.

I have no idea if it's true, but it does make sense.