P/I/P Game 27: L.A. Galaxy @ LAFC, SUNDAY 8/25/19, 7:30pm PT

Well if they wear their camo at least it'll be easier for you to ignore them...

 

amen

 

This exactly. I do think our team for the most part could possess really well and our midfield could actually a great possession midfield. We have two problems, though. #1 is mentality - they aren't thinking to possess and slow the game down - we only seem to possess for the purpose of attach and also they don't actually believe that they are even capable of holding a lead with possession so they force the ball forward to keep the ball out of the "danger areas". And #2. Don't go to Bingham unless you want him to boot a 50/50 ball to Ibra.

 

You can't just "decide" to maintain possession. The better team (i.e. LAFC in the second half) would simply not allow it. When the Galaxy try to maintain possession in that circumstance, the ball quickly winds up being passed back to Bingham because LAFC is forcing it, and then he boots the ball upfield, where most of the time it is recovered by LAFC. Or JDS tries to dribble and turns the ball over in a bad spot. LAFC then maintains possession for a long stretch (or until a scoring chance occurs) because the Galaxy can't win the ball back from them.

 

I agree and would add a third, Steres biggest weakness as a defender his inability to handle high pressure. Yet you would think that they should be able to pass back and move the ball around better than they do.

 

Best thing we can do in this rivalry is to win another title before they win their first. That would be the ultimate. Right now their window is much more open then ours. However, if they don’t get it done this year they may regret it for a loooong time.

 

I definitely would have agreed with you 100% before this season started, but he has surprisingly improved quite a bit in this area, although it's still not his forte - he's no Polenta in this regard, but I don't see him as being worse than Gonzales or Skjelvik.

 

True you can't just "decide to maintain possession" - but you CAN decide to play in a style that promotes possession. We didn't do that- hence my post. You said "JDS tries to dribble and turns the ball over in a bad spot" like that's an argument against my point which was that with a 2 goal lead, on the road, facing fatigue from early flurry of activity, our players need to quit dribbling so much, especially in danger areas. Just pass the ball in the direction you are facing to an open player. There is almost always such a player, especially when you include the gk. You say "Bingham ... then he boots the ball upfield, where most of the time it is recovered by LAFC." Again, yes he does which makes my point. No one is making him do that. He could pass the ball out to our back line.

Your general point seems to be we were doing the best we could and that we aren't good enough to maintain possession if our opponent will "not allow it." But that view doesn't fit the data. I promise you if you go back and rewatch the game you will see maybe 50+ times a Galaxy player had a choice between A) a safe ball circulation pass play and B) a low probability attacking dribble or pass. We chose option B 90+% of the time.

One of the most common mistakes we make over and over is playing "train-track" soccer. Our midfielder gets the ball and immediately heads upfield. He meets the first defender - maybe he beats the guy. But sometimes still the ball gets too far out in front of him and a so a 50-50 battle ensues with the next defender(s) and he either loses the ball or fouls. But sometimes he gets through cleanly. What now? Too often he keeps going straight toward the goal trying to beat the next defenders. And the next one. The fact that he has left the rest of his team behind and so has no support seems to not register.

How about doing this instead - take off with the ball full speed at your feet and at the very last moment when the defender is about to reach you and attempt a tackle you fool him by doing an insta-stop on a dime? This will usually give you the space and time and weigh your options - slowly cut to the middle or even turn back and dribble back into open space. Or maybe just pass back to an open trailing teammate? I bring this up because it happened to be Donovan's signature move. He was faster than anyone on our team yet even with that speed he refused to fall into the trap of "dribbling full speed ahead until you lose the ball" soccer. His dribble with blinding speed followed by a sudden deceleration move was a big part of the reason why he was so good at maintaining possession. This pause-reset move also relieved pressure for the entire team. But Favio, Pavon, Ibra, Antuna, Efrain seem to have one plan. Go for goal! Full speed ahead. Five defenders in front of you? Hell take them all on! JDS doesn't do that but as you mentioned he attempts to turn with the ball in dangerous parts of the field.

What's the saying? Discretion is the better part of valor?

Making all this worse it that this "train-track, dribble the world" tendency tends to get worse in 2nd half of games after fatigue sets in. It seem we lose our ability to read the game and know where our teammates are. Most teams (not Barcelona, but most of the others) fall a bit into the "fatigue driven overdribble/boot the ball" mode. We just do it more than most.

And I haven't even discussed all the times we attempt long passes on the ground to forwards that are tightly covered. You know, the ones that get intercepted 99.8% of the time?

Our decision making was the problem in the 2nd half. We CAN maintain possession. Even Bingham can learn to do it.

 

I was with you 100% again ... until this last line.

 

I was overjoyed in the FC Dallas match when Feltscher, finding himself in a good position to cross but absolutely no one open in the box to cross to, passed the ball back to midfield to circulate possession. Every other time this season, we whip that ball in and hope Zlatan wins it against 14 defenders. We so RARELY circulate the ball or work a different angle, instead just crossing.

I know GBS likes to attack, so that's a clear plan he's giving to the team. The fact that he, like, never takes his foot off the gas means he's either an irrational fool or he doesn't have much confidence in our defense's ability to withstand pressure, so he thinks attacking is the best option to keep pressure of us. Don't know, but I've given up on GBS playing team defense. We probably could've tied so many games we've lost this season just playing honest defense.

 

Completely unrelated to anything in the this thread or the Gs but at his peak, Antonio Valencia was the master at this. His capacity to immediately change gears up or down in an instant, combined with his dead-eye crossing, made him lethally difficult to read for fullbacks.

Sorry, this just reminded me of his playing style so much that I had to say that. I'll shut up now.

 

You must be watching different games than me. Our most common (and frustrating to me) tactic seems to be passing the ball around the middle of the offensive midfield, side to side, fruitlessly waiting for our stagnant forwards to make a run, until finally getting it wide for a cross, or passing back to the defense and then Bingham. What we don't do is the incisive attacking pass through the middle, nearly often enough. Like LAFC was doing to us all night long, creating many dangerous opportunities.

 

Fine to try to play possession when you are leading against a better team. But my point is, it doesn't necessarily work. Like Mike Tyson said, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face. The reason JDS tries to dribble out of trouble is because he as no teammate open to pass to that wouldn't be under immediate pressure. That's what good teams do to weaker teams... force them into turning the ball over. I will try to watch more closely to see your point about the Galaxy having choices to maintain possession. That's not what I was seeing against LAFC. And we probably have seen the last of them this season. In my view, the Galaxy is generally too slow and deliberate with their play, making too many possession-based passes and not enough attacking passes. They let the other team get back into defensive position, whereas other (good) teams, often quickly create a scoring chance against us by playing direct after we turn the ball over. We don't do that nearly enough. Seems to be getting better with Alvarez and Pavon, though.

Good point about the Donovan move. But too bad we don't have Donovan in his prime anymore. Or someone like him that can do that as effectively. Hopefully Pavon can be that type of player. There is a reason Donovan was the best player in US history. Others, like Lletget or Antuna, can try to replicate his style, but they won't be as successful.

 

Here are our unsuccessful passes (squares) and dribble attempts (triangles). Doesn't prove anything by itself but you will see the turnovers were mostly a) longer forward passes, b) Feltscher crosses (#25) and c) goal kicks. Those are normally the more difficult to complete but also note that finding a single turnover due to a circulation pass (square or back) is as difficult as finding Waldo:

 

Not sure where we differ; I agree: up until the arrival of Pavon, we pretty much moved the ball very laterally, got it out to the wingbacks and crossed.

 

Not sure if this is the place or not, but since the stadium atmosphere, both what they were trying to show on tv and manufacture at the venue itself, has been a topic discussed here… I’ll post some further comments.


This is just me and perhaps many would disagree, but: I’m not sold on so many of the antics of the crowd. There is a lot of hype over the “amazing” atmospheres at certain venues, and perhaps that appeals to a majority of fans even, I don’t know.

But when I am watching the game from the stands, or on tv for that matter, I’m into ‘the game’. I don’t want to stand and do chants for 90 minutes, I don’t care much about the antics (though I will confess, I do like the “LA” – “Galaxy” call and response thing that goes on), and I HATE, and refuse to participate in, the ridiculous ‘wave’ when it inevitably gets going.


What I want to do is watch the play. I want to see the game as it’s played by professionals- the tactics, the movement, the skill level. THAT’s what I love- the game of soccer.

This is why it irks me so much when the tv cuts away from the game to show crowd antics. I don’t care what the crowd is doing, I DO care about the soccer game.


For this reason, I’m perfectly happy with the Galaxy crowds. I don’t envy any other teams for what their crowds are doing during the game. That said, even though I don’t really want to be part of a supporters group personally, I do like the fact that the RS and ACB (and the few Galaxians) bring what they bring. I admire the fact that they’re all in.

But I’m glad we have what we have, and I’m personally not envious in the slightest of what LAFC or Atlanta or Seattle or whoever has as far as crowd atmosphere.

 

I don't understand. LAFC, Atlanta and Seattle fans pretty much do what we do, except their supporter sections are much bigger and noisier. It's not like the entire stadium is standing and chanting the entire game. That doesn't happen anywhere in the world does it? (certainly not in MLS). I like to watch the game too and don't want to stand and cheer for 90 minutes, but I do appreciate the boisterous atmosphere the supporters groups bring. The bigger the better IMO.

 

I just thought your point was that we never circulate the ball... always just cross it right away. But we do circulate it (fruitlessly) a lot, then finally back out to the wings for a cross.

 

Coincidentally, I just wrote a blog bit on this subject!
https://barroldinhosoccer.wordpress.com/2019/08/30/the-la-galaxy-stadium-atmosphere-debate/

 

I grant this. I've not been at the other venues so maybe the majority of the fans are exactly like they are at DHSP. But as was mentioned earlier, the posting of the chants seems like it is meant to get EVERYone involved in it, and I personally don't want to. You are certainly correct that it's not coercive in any way: if I don't want to chant, no one will make me. That's likely true in those other venues known for better atmosphere anyway.

I guess my only point was to say regardless of what others might think of our atmosphere, or lack thereof, because galaxy fans just aren't into it as much as the others, I am satisfied with it.... for the aforementioned reasons.

 

I am pretty much the same way, albeit I yell a lot.

 

Can't wait for this match tomorrow! Just win...

 

You get a lot more participation around the ground in England. EVERYONE at Old Trafford chants "United!" at the start of a Man United game, every Liverpool fan sings Jerry and the Pacemakers, every West Ham fan sings the "Bubbles" song.

There are sections that are more known for being loud (Stretford End, the Kop) but chants are picked up by fans throughout the stadium. Though outside the more famous stands, there are indeed people who mostly just watch.

 

“LAFC, Atlanta, and Seattle.”

There’s a pattern there. I believe what it comes down to is league propaganda. I’m sure since Seattle has come into the league there have been countless of articles on the MLS site about Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, LAFC, etc., and their fans and the atmosphere they all have. I feel it’s a marketing ploy to get their new naive local fans to show up and be apart of something “special” and “never seen before in American sports.”

Those fan bases can’t help but to fall all over themselves and pat themselves on the back, until another market opens up and the league needs to pass the baton to them.