That's what bothered me a bit about the first goal. His positioning is fine and already being so close to the goal line, he just had to shuffle back a step before he jumped but, he got caught flat-footed and tried to get to it by jumping from his spot. The second goal I don't think he could've done much about but, to be fair, I haven't seen even seen a replay of it since as soon as it went in, I was headed for the exit. I stood and watched by the exit before the whistle blew though, I admit.
Absolutely. @GalaxyKoa is right in that his positioning looks perfectly fine but he doesn't move or shuffle back at all. We were at a crucial point in that game. I don't want to pin this on Rowe because our problems go so much deeper, but I think we're a vulnerable team. One mistake and we are sunk. It felt like that goal sunk us yesterday and it sucks because I felt we were doing find before that. We have too many players on this team who have too many wtf moments. We can't afford that.
That was my departure point too, although I didn't hang around to watch the rest of the futility. Believe it or not, at age 72, I had NEVER left ANY sporting event before it finished prior to this year. This was just too much. Agree we need an upgrade at GK, but to my eyes it looked like we need a striker even more. The first half was among the best soccer this team has produced this year, and chances were created. I haven't seen the stats, but how many corner kicks did we have - some indication of dominance. After that first goal you could almost see the air going out of the balloon. Hets off to Villa on the second goal - I doubt any keeper would have gotten that one. But Rowe's error on the first one was the turning point in the game - at least as I saw it. Jona DS was impressive. He works so much harder than his brother that it's not even funny. And both Ema and Romain were eating the NYCFC outside backs alive in the first half. But nothing ever got converted. After the goal against, no one looked good. Sigi has a major rebuild to orchestrate.
Just watched Sigi's interview, and he is pretty much seeing what the posters on this board saw. As a side note, it was refreshing to see the contrast between the way Sigi responded to questions compared to the way our last coach did. And by "last coach" I mean Bruce Arena, not the place-holder in between him an Sigi.
I was pissed when I heard that last night. I wish the PA announcer had immediately responded with a resounding "Knock off!"
One other note that surprised me when I looked at the chalkboard: JDS had 4 key passes. That's LD levels and not shabby at all. So agree with the other posters that said he had a decent game. Ema also had a ton of missed crosses from the left, so he wasn't an issue either. Just off target. For those folks that think Gyasi should be shipped out, I'm going to leave this right here one more time: Pulisic only player near Donovan in creating goals for others. Arguably only 2 true playmakers for USMNT history. His assist rate = Messi's. pic.twitter.com/FCxjqY5udn— Tutul Rahman (@tutulismyname) July 27, 2017 Sigi's got to figure out a way to get his confidence back. I tend to agree with @skydog here, it's been a crappy year for Gyasi. He's got to hit the eject button, forgot the commentary from the public, get his head down and work. Easier said than done, but apparently Bruce Arena can motivate him. Honestly, maybe Sigi should call Bruce and take some notes.
Sigi is a good manager. I feel confident we have the right man in charge. We already look better, but Sigi can't turn someone into a center forward who isn't one. This offseason Sigi knows that will be priority #1, and suring up the defense as well.
With the time it takes to recover and the fact that we will not be making the playoff's barring a miracle, we are not going to see Sabastian Llegett make a return this season so we won't get to see this teams best lineup go out on the pitch this season sadly. With our current roster we will need to surely get rid of either (preferably both) Jermaine Jones and/or J. Pedro in the offseason. We still have Husidic and Garcia who are cheaper. We will need to have our lowest paid DP converted to a highest paid TAM player in order to get another DP level forward on this squad. We don't need to lose Zardes or Boateng like so many seem to think in order to pull this off either. With the movement of the following players and using the money we got for Paul Arreiola we should be able to pull that off without issue. People we need to/are most likely to Lose in Off-season Jelle Van Damme Joao Pedro Jermaine Jones Robbie Rogers Clement Diop Ashley Cole Young people we need to consider moving in Off-season Jack McBean Raul Mendiola Jaime Villareal Jose Villareal Jack McInerney
Yeah, that first goal was just something special from beginning to end. That run and finish was really on par with the Villas and Giovincos of the league and I don't think anyone expected it from young Lewis; he just caught everyone off-guard. I also think Jones had the pass of the match, over the top to Boateng (?) I think. His passing from the anchor of the "Y" is excellent. OTOH, he seemed to be a liability closing down. It seems like he goes to ground on every routine play, God bless him. That sorta sums up our team this season: we seem to have a lot of ill-fitting parts. As usual, I think Boateng had a good match. I think the formation was set-up to spring him, Romain and Zardes for the counter and he worked well in it. We just didn't have enough bodies in the final third when he did get free.
I think they're all write-offs at this point. Maybe they were never good enough, maybe Curt ruined them I don't really know, but they've had chance after chance and come up woefully short most of the time. The last decent spell Jose had was 3 years ago. Mendiola & McBean never made the transition from USL to MLS. McInerney’s salary is absurd & at some point we’ll be on the hook for all of it.
Totally agree. There is a video up on the LA Galaxy website with Sigi addressing the supporters groups. Very nice idea and execution. And his post-game comments read like someone who knows his job and takes it seriously. I applaud Sigi's start and hope some better results will be coming up.
Hmmm. Giovani dos Santos is supposed to be a replacement for Robbie Keane, the LA Galaxy's main goal scorer providing 15+ goals a season. When did that burden fall onto Zardes?
Posted without comment Code: | GP | M | G | A ========================== 17 - dos Santos | 16 | 1391 | 6 | 1 16 - Gerrard | 21 | 1491 | 3 | 11 16 - Keane | 16 | 1426 | 10 | 2
All hope is not lost. Apparently we only have to average 2.2 points per game for the rest of the season to squeak into the playoffs...... Okay. All hope is lost.
On Jose : this is false. Two years ago when he was given the chance : 2 goals and 4 assists in 698 minutes of MLS play, but a few injuries. Last year he inexplicably didn't not play, and this year : 3 assists in 347 minutes (he is just second on the team!!!) and maybe our goal of the year in the USOC, but once again injuries. Not great numbers, and I agree his tendancy to be injured when he's having a good run is really annoying, bu Jose Villarreal makes things happen from nothing. McInerney at the minimum salary for one year (because he won't get an extension) is not a bad move. Didn't work unfortunately. In the end, this year showed us that the youth players who were supposed to be good players are not MLS level. And you know what? As long as we don't expect them to shine and start on a daily basis, I'm OK with this. Yes, I'm OK with McBean/Lassiter being the 4th/5th forward in the depth chart, I'm OK with having Mendiola as a third CAM/RW option. They can be OK depth players but we have to give up our expectations. It will take time I believe.
I got the timeframe wrong, but I’m not sure “his good run of form was two years ago, not three” moves the needle that much. I’ll gladly recant if he gets healthy in the next few months and provides something to the team, but I have no problem seeing him go either. A player who is only consistent metric is lengthy injury layoffs isn’t a player to be depend upon. Having GII/Academy players as 4th or 5th in the depth chart doesn’t warrant the expense & effort of the program. If all we’re looking for is depth at the 4th and 5th position that could easily be accomplished via the SuperDraft and signings from other USL teams. If the Galaxy are going to invest in players to the point of creating a high school residency program and separate USL team then it needs to be producing contributing first team players on a regular basis.
To me he has been the better player of our promising youngsters. I'm disappointed that sometimes people class him in the next category as McBean, Mendiola or BJ4 (the later had his moments and is still young TBH). When he played, he delivered most of the time. Very solid point, and what I see from G2 this year is worrying (absolutely zero midfielder or forward stood out). I don't know much about the Academy but I'm not sure the USL is a good way to develop our offensive players, the gap between the two leagues is too big. Having that said, Los Dos gave us Romney and Steres. They have been far from great, but have still contribute more in two years with the team than McBean, Mendiola, or even Villarreal TBH (who have been longer). Maybe for defenders and GK, the USL is a good thing (keep an eye on Arellano, Payeras, Lopez and even Smith).
Jose is a very limited player. He has an awesome left foot but that's about it. Because of that left peg he is good at set pieces (gets some assists there). He can score with it occasionally but - for the most part- he is unable to create his own shot. His other limitations are many - he's unathletic (slow, small) and because of that he can't shield the ball against pressure, he has limited 1 on 1 skills, not much of a defender and will lose out to most midfielders on 50-50 balls, and has problems just seeing the right side of the field. When he gets the ball he is 95% predictable - he's going to send the ball wherever a gently curving left footed pass would go. MLS is getting more athletic across the board. The days of trotting out some small unathletic guy because he has some pretty skills and can swerve a ball with his left foot and expecting him to be successful are gone. We are now in the era where you need the whole package to win in this league - your players need to have skill first but also some combination of speed and/or size to allow them to compete. In particular, small guys have to have quickness to make up for their lack of height and strength. No luxury cones-of-skill allowed.
Follow-up on JV: JV is what I would call a "moments" player - he will have moments on the field where you will go "oh, wow, nice!" But those moments are surrounded by long stretches of nada. So I guess he's my Gio-light-light.
The talk about Zardes is interesting. People admit he has not been good enough to be our starting forward and the question of what's his best spot on the field is still up in air (it's worrying after five years as a pro). If it's not striker, what is his best position? LW or RW? Alessandrini is of course better than him, and Boateng must be too. Ema has made a lot of progress and has more upside IMO. Second forward? With his first touch and his just OK passing? If you buy a striker next year, should Gyasi start at one of his spot? If not, you don't want to keep a TAM player (600 k per year) on the bench. He will have good trade value, and I have a feeling Sigi won't hesitate to trade him if the price is right. IMHO his best spot remains striker, where he has the less touches to make. But he needs service like in 2014. Gio was decent as a second striker last year but bad this year, our CMs have not brung too much to the attack, and Boateng despite all he's doing on the field is still mediocre in the final third. Gyasi is too much dependent of the players around him to make the team better (TBH it was not true during one year of his career : last year, when he created a few goals all by himself), not sure we can give him a starting role in a rebuilding team. OK, after being serious, let me be a little bit provocative : I wonder how much backlash Gyasi would take if he wasn't a USNT player or a guy who has been presented as a nice hometown hero since he has been with the team...
Just think about the fact that Atlanta United has Kenwyne Jones as depth off the bench at forward--recent EPL "star", starter and one of the best players on T&T nat team. And they're an expansion team. We have McInerny/McBean/Lassiter