Maybe. Maybe he just wanted to combine with the guy he’s likely to be spending 90 minutes with week-in, week-out more than the guy who’ll be lucky to total 90 minutes with Keane. Was actually a pretty good litmus test, Keane uncharacteristically “gave up” on the play assuming Gerrard was going to bury it. Next time I expect Robbie will play until the ball is in the back of the net.
When I said he is having a remarkable year, I'm talking in terms of progress to his game. Last year when he played in the midfield he was a liability. This year he is a great asset. Last year, as a forward, he scored a ton of great goals because Keane and Donovan were setting him up. This year he was THE guy for most of the first half of the season. He was drawing multiple defenders. What I think is remarkable is that he adapted his game to that reality (with some success). And (let's be realistic here) he is never going to be Donovan or Keane. He's never going to be a guy who can carry a team. However, his ability to figure uot how to hel the team get results even when the goals aren't coming is a big deal. I don't have time right now to go back and search through game footage to find all of the times he's made those diagonal runs... but you can't blame him when they didn't result in goals when he had no other legitimate attacking option on the field with him. I also think you under-value the "simple things" that he does. Most MLS players DON'T do those things well... especially guys with Gyasi's skillset. Zardes is playing for the USMNT specifically because his decision-making and maturity of play is excellent. Lot's of fans love players like Darren Mattocks because they are exciting to watch. Zardes is not going to personally score as many goals as a guy like Mattocks, but a team with Zardes on the field is going to score more goals and give up fewer. Finally, I do agree that Lletget is a more dangerous attacking player at this point than Zardes, but I don't agree that you can replace him with anyone off the bench and not see it hurt our team's produtivity. I think most fans fail to appreciate how unussual it is to have a player with Zardes' athleticism also have his poise and patience. He is doing all of the right things, and eventually the goals will start coming again. However, I think his contribution to this team going forward is going to be less about his goals and more about his ability to help the team control the flow of the game. That is going to be extremely important, and probably a weakness of the team as it tries to figure out how to get all of this attacking talent on the field at once.
I'm watching for Gyasi to show that he's enjoying himself out there. The goal in the all-star game against Spurs was typical. He started the play with a nice ball across the top of the box, that deflected off Dempsey, to Beltran? to Villa for the goal. As the team starts to celebrate, Gyasi turns away with no expression. When he first came into the league, we saw his smile a lot more. It was a meaningless goal, so hopefully we'll see some joy in his game at meaningful times this year.
I am just going to say it was a split section decision, and it wasn't pretty but it worked. I am not sure you can read as much as we are trying to read into this in one play. Sure, his overall trust level impacts split seciond decisions, but to say it was deliberate is probably going too far.
Imo it was definitely deliberate. Buddle was open very early in the play and Keane clearly saw him. And Keane's reaction was to slow down his dribble waiting, waiting, and waiting some more for his pal Stevie to arrive. Keane must have looked over his left shoulder 3 times at least checking to see if his mate was in place yet. Normally not making the obvious pass to the open overlapping player is a pet peeve of mine that makes me irate. It's usually a mistake tactically to not use the player since he has the best chance to get behind the defense, it doesn't reward the overlapping player for making the run, it can hurt team morale, and often triggers even more selfish play going forward (if he isn't going to pass the ball to me then by god I'm not passing it to him either). But this was one of the few times it didn't bother me in the least. First reason is I'm 90% sure Buddle would have blown the shot. He is totally out of form and seems to have no confidence, even to the point he is 50/50 to trip on the ball when he gets a shooting chance under pressure. But even his lack of form wouldn't let Keane off the hook with me if it weren't for the second reason. Which is that Buddle hasn't earned it. I'm not angry at Buddle for not being as good as he used to be - players go through spells of bad form. But there is absolutely no excuse for his half-assed efforts on the field. The fact that he isn't playing well but Bruce still gives him chances should spur him to work even harder when he is on the field. But instead he strolls around most of the time looking like he is just going through the motions. Not acceptable. Fans worry that older European stars will come to MLS and treat it like a paid vacation. We certainly aren't seeing that from players like Keane, Kaka, David, or SG. But if we do we should start calling it "Buddling." Short version: Not a Buddle (2015 version) fan.
@skydog, you gave Keane and Gerrard credit for getting back on that play - and I saw Buddle bust his britches to get back too. I assume you're not talking about that play?
I'm confused - do you mean getting forward on the play or are we talking about a different play? In any case I was talking about Keane's scoring play. I can see how I wasn't clear because yes on that play Buddle did hustle to get in place, in fact he made the perfect run. My irritation at him were for all the other plays he didn't do since he's come back to the Galaxy. For example running hard to press players, fighting for balls and goals and not giving up. To me he just looks depressed and gives up too easily. And maybe I'm being too hard on him. But he has been a shell of his former self this go round.
Finally taking a short break from work: Yay, we won on the road!! I'll run back through the thread to see how we played. I missed the game.
Well, finally back home ready to post. You all are welcome....took me going to an away game for us to get a road victory I had ordered my tickets the 1st day they went on sale in Colorado and got great seats 2nd row in the "Supporters Section" Never once thought any of ACB, Riot Squad or Galaxians would be there. (smart) So, a few minutes after getting to our seats, here comes ACB with drum flags and about 30 revelers. We were completely over run and had to search for different seats. We hung around near, but changing seats several times. About half way through the 1st half the 3 people in the front row 1 section over from ACB left. I guess they couldn't take the singing. LOL For the 2nd half we nabbed those seats and were good. By the time we were scoring our 3rd goal, I was singing and waving a blue white and gold flag (given to me by a small kid) with glee!! It sure is much more fun when your team wins.