He had one job as a sub - to hold on to the 1 pt. - and his failed clearance created the game losing goal. Not much else to say and I'm sure as h&ll not going to go back and watch it again - already deleted from the DVR.
The kid made a mistake, which can happen when you enter the game cold and get caught out by the dodgy surface. There's no need to go full Liza Minelli over it. If we're going to react this dramatically to Araujo on that play, then by proportion, we should have catapulted Feltscher and Skjelvik into the sun a year ago. I'd argue that if we'd been giving Araujo substantial minutes in place of the wandering man-bun, he'd have been better equipped to handle this situation, or better still, had been starting this game, having built a rapport with the defense. But he slipped on the Seattle Turf and wasn't able to get back and redeem himself and that led to a result which upset you, so lets just nail one of our most promising youth products to the wall and potentially wreck his confidence, when the guys who regularly start have defended so badly that we're on the brink of again missing the playoffs.
I agree if he'd been getting more sport starts he'd be able to contribute better. And I wasn't throwing him under the bus, just because his mistake cost us 1 pt. Gonzales and teammates cost us the other 2 pts. - so compared to those guys, Arraujo is looking pretty good. Reminds me of what I told my son that he should have told his soccer coach while he was chewing out the team last week: Why don't you raise your hand and say "Coach, if look at the minutes I was in the game it was really a 1-0 victory not a 3-1 loss so I'm not sure this rant really applies"
Even if you argue that Araujo failed, then we have to ask the question of whether or not GBS put him, and the rest of the team, in positions to succeed. Araujo literally comes in at the last minute of the match, so maybe that wasn't the best time to sub on a young defender who's never played on turf, when the whole team has been struggling with it. I think GBS has frankly been naive about this league, particularly the effects of travel and turf etc. I have the benefit of hindsight, I guess, but I'd have started Steres over Pipo and Corona / Kitchen over F. Alvarez. I mean, working on the assumption that GBS is still the coach and, therefore, will not have the backs play defense.
I can read his eyes and his eyes are saying "why is my left back closer to the right side of the field than I am....?"
I saw that real time and thought "oh boy - locker room cannot be good". It's a sure sign it's time for Skjelvik to move on at end of the year (if his teammates are blaming him for costing them games). Of course, Polenta also had the look of a guy who maybe could have cleared that ball but assumed incorrectly that the far post was covered and so instantly blamed his LB.
No. Don't give up on him, and don't coddle him. How about being realistic and honest? But he is in the big leagues now, so he doesn't need a bunch of apologists covering for him. He made the key mistake that cost us a point and handed two to Seattle. Part was inexperience, part was laziness, and part was bad luck. Hopefully he learns from it (which I expect he will), or he won't last as a pro. I'm not judging Araujo's play based on Feltscher or Skjelvic. I would make the same comments about those two had they made the same mistakes, and so would have you. And PLEASE, coming in cold is no excuse! That is exactly the time there is no margin for error. If he's not ready, he shouldn't be coming in at all! If you agree he's not ready, and GBS made a mistake subbing him in at that juncture of the game, then that just supports my point. He wasn't ready in the moment.
Any self respecting defender worth his salt would slide to block that average cross. This is such a no-brainer! That could have easily been blocked 9 times out of 10 with a simple decision to make the effort. Araujo decided to cut corners. Figured he had his team backing him up, I guess, him being a rookie and all, no one is really expecting him to make game-saving play.
Agreed. Though I do have some qualms about the possible expense - as I feel as though a catapult to the sun could be quite expensive. I feel confident that our current GM might recommend boiling oil or walking the plank. Now our former GM, although unable to tell the difference between talent and jetsam, based on the money wasted on Gio would be all in.
Yes, just as much as not needing to be overly dramatic about his play. I would say that he wasn't dogging it so much as just being unaware. Dogging it and being unawares are pretty different offenses. One is likely inexcuable while the other is forgivable. He's a young player, and like most young players, mistakes will be made. The replay shows that he hustles once he realizes what's going on. Could he have slid to try and block the cross? Sure, he could have, but that's less dogging it and more just knowing better for next time.
I think most of us are confused about why you are so harsh on Araujo when Rolf and million dollar Jorgen regularly allow 20 uncontested crosses a game due to lack of effort, discipline, awareness and very poor agility. Also the lazy player even on this particular play was Skjjjg who ball watched and picked up exactly zero players the entire time from free kick to goal. But you have your mind set - this loss was all on Araujo, not all the silly mistakes his teammates made that allowed SEA to score three consecutive soft goals to tie the game in the first place. No allowance for the fact that Araujo’s turnover was caused by a shitty turf that gave way on him and several teammates. No blame for the other 8 field players who carelessly allowed Roldan to walk in and left him wide open in the box. Nope - Araujo lost this game singlehandedly. We get it.
I think we are probably all in agreement, just a lot of bickering because the truth hurts. The Galaxy with Pavon added now have enough talent to be one of the better teams in the league and make some noise in the playoffs - but through some bad luck, bad strategy, bad execution, and more of the same bad mistakes we haven't seized the moment. Our players, our coach seem to do just enough to get us excited at what could be, but can't quite capitalize. Arraujo - has shown amazing promise for a young defender. He's even given us a great boost in his spot midfield starts. but with youth his lack of focus on defense has hurt - it makes GBS reluctant to give him minutes - and maybe GBS hasn't given him enough time at RB to work out some of the pro level focus or discipline Our CBS are solid - but we have Steres dumb mistake and now on the bench and Gioncarlo being physical but inconsistent and Polenta - who has been amazing recently - out next game with card accumulation Feltscher and Skjelvick - both outside backs have been guilty of numerous positional lapses in their Galaxy tenure and frankly, GBS has been too slow to give minutes to Arraujo and Romney in their spots. Personally I think maybe more of a rotation (i.e. bench time earlier) might have forced them to take a more disciplined approach to their defense. However, I can't deny that both have shown signs of contributing, and as much as we love to hate on them - against LAFC I saw Feltcher checking his shoulder instead of ball watching (amazing) and against Seattle it was Sjkelvik's goal that put us in position for 1 pt. They are really contributing but those positional discipline deficiencies still exist. Bingham - has come up with some good games, but just can't seem to come up with that one big unexpected save to win a game. And I have to agree on the statistics - there is a large body of data suggesting Bingham is just not and never will be a top keeper. Our midfield and the attack. With the addition of Pavon we have gotten so much more dynamic. Alvarez now has another player to combine with and we are seeing actual team play in the other half of the field and we have so much more depth now than a year ago it's amazing but we can't just seem to put together 90 minutes of box to box effort where we just mark up in our own half - Lletget has seemed to regress to a solid but limited holding player, GBS isn't seeming to get the most out of Lletget, Alvares, Corona, Efrain, Antuna. There should be a way to platoon or rotate those guys so they have fresher legs and sharper touches than when everyone has to go 90 every game.
You sound a bit sarcastic there, but yes, on that play, Araujo was mostly to blame. He had 3 minutes to make a positive contribution to the game, and he botched it. You know if Skjelvic had done it, you would be blaming him. That is called bias.
But I'm not being overly dramatic. About a half dozen of his supporters seem to be though, from my perspective. I just pointed out a simple (to me obvious) observation about the defining moment of the game. The lack of awareness caused his late start in chasing the player, and sorry, but laziness is the only excuse to not slide to block that cross. And for a player who is a fresh sub, and had just lost the ball, he should have had a killer mindset to do anything he could to stop the attack. He failed. To me, it's not a positive sign on where his attitude is at.
You are, in fact. Going out of your way to make personal accusations about the player (calling him lazy, making assumptions about his attitude based on one play etc.). It seems really important TO YOU to believe Araujo's not just a kid who made a mistake, but some kind of bad egg. Is that what this is about? Skjelvic and Feltscher are being criticized because they have been defensive liabilities all season. They are experienced players, starters, who make a lot more than Araujo, so of course they're going to earn more criticism than a kid just breaking through who's going to make mistakes. They collectively gave up 3 goals before Araujo stepped on the field. You might have a point that people overlooked Araujo's error, but you undermine your argument by, in the same breath, hand-waving or downplaying the other equally obvious and egregious errors committed by other players.
Oh, PLEASE, stop! As if that isn't done by a dozen posters about Skjelvik, Rolf, Bingham, etc, after every loss!!! That really is rich. So now calling someone lazy on a single play is overly dramatic? Again, I wasn't posting about all season. I made a simple observation about the play that cost us the game against Seattle. These are the little things I look for during crunch times, because they matter, IMO, in separating the champions/stars from the also-rans. If you want to read about how bad Skjelvic and Feltscher are throughout the season, there are plenty of other posts to refer to.
You were being over the top. Here's the initial post... He made a mistake. It happens. I was all for giving Skjelvik and Feltscher time when they first arrived. The fact that people are now tired of them and don't want them starting, is the product of an extended period of consistent issues. You've got several people in agreement that your declaration that Araujo's error was so egregious ("inexcusable") that he should sit for it, is overly harsh. To my mind, so long as the kid acknowledges his error, all punishing him for it is likely to do, is hit his confidence and potentially stunt his instincts for upcoming games. The last thing you want to do to a developing player is make him overthink his actions out of fear that he'll be dropped for the slightest error.
No, it was not over-the-top. If you want to believe it was, then that's up to you. It was inexcusable, because it was not just a mistake. It was a mistake compounded by lack of awareness, and effort. Araujo HAS to cut that failing out of his game if he is going to fulfill his potential. I think Araujo should sit some more, to watch, as a lesson, and then go in when there is less on the line. This is actually for his own good and development. But obviously that is GBS' decision, not yours or mine, isn't it?
I get mad at Sjlkj not because he makes mistakes. All players do. Donovan did. Well not often, but he did. Keane did all the time and caught a lot of flack on these boards. But not much from me. And in this game Gonzalez made a couple of costly errors. So why aren't I yelling at them? Because those guys at least were doing their best to help the team win. They were proactive - they were trying to make a play and it just didn't work out. But Jorgen makes the opposite kind of mistake. The "not-my-job" kind. The kind that the average fan doesn't notice unless they are really paying attention. Like Kitchen he spends half the game slowly jogging around watching his teammates work. He gets outmuscled and outrun to 50-50 balls constantly. No problem, just keep jogging around and hope the ball falls into your lap. So what if you cost us a critical goal by keeping Morris onside - who could possibly be expected to keep in line with your center back? So what if we lost the game because you weren't where you were supposed to be and allowed a crappy finisher a wide open shot on goal? Who can keep track of all that? His lack of effort is compounded by the fact that he makes the exact same mistakes over and over and does nothing to correct them. Like Bingham never adjusting his approach to close outs. He just keep rushing out at full speed and opponents keep taking advantage and easily score around him. He doesn't even know that is why he is fails at stopping breakaways repeatedly so there is no hope he will correct it. Similarly Skjoi remains blissfully unaware he is getting paid to protect the left side of our defense. He thinks his job is to watch the ball and run toward it from time to time. Then he just looks around in bewilderment when someone scores from the position he was supposed to protect. How did that happen? How will we ever know? Dunivant and AJ used to get beaten from time to time. A big reason was because Dunivant was slow and AJ small. But when they let someone get loose on their side of the field it cost the team they were clearly upset after the play. You could tell they took responsibility and fought even harder the next time to make sure it didn't happen often. I would love to see that kind of passion and effort from Skjlk. Because the only thing worse than being clueless is being clueless that you are clueless. Jorgen falls into that category. And Rolf and Bingham too, to a lesser extent. To be fair I do see a bit more effort from both ob's recently. And kudos to Jorgen for his recent goal and assist. But I'm 100% convinced that vs SEA if Jorgen hadn't wandered across the field and left a hole on our left side we would have at least one more vital point. And if he hadn't lagged the play Morris doesn't get the breakaway goal and we probably are sitting in 2nd. But hey at least he wasn't around the play when they scored, right? Nope, let's just blame the players who were. (I know, I know. Arguing with GalaxyOne is 100% futile. But at least it keeps my typing skills fresh. )
I'm not really interested in beating the Skjelvik dead horse. You alone do it enough for all of us every week. Or the mistakes made by Donovan or Keane, which have exactly zero do with Araujo's play. But to blame Skjelvic for keeping the Morris play onside? That's harsh on such a quick play. BTW, that play was actually was offside by the conventional reading of the rules, but for some reason they used my offside rule, which is unless you see clear daylight between the players, don't call it. It is rarely called that way, though I wish it would be more. Also, nobody has to "win" an argument on here. That's generally not how forums work.
That's kind of harsh saying laziness is the only excuse to not slide block that cross. Maybe he thought the risk of sliding and potentially getting a PK was too great of a chance to take at that juncture versus doing what he did, which was to recover as best he could, have a small chance at deflecting or blocking the pass, or if the pass does get through, his teammates will pick him up. Also, since you feel that it's harsh to blame Skejlvik for Morris' goal, I would say the Araujo play was a bang bang play as well. He intercepts the ball, starts to proceed upfield thinking of a semi counter, then all of a sudden he slips, the ball is turned back over, he gets up to turn around and assess the play, and that one moment he does that, the Seattle player sneaks up behind him, he tries his best to recover, but it's too late and the rest is history.