Our last 4 games of the season are going to say a lot about where we end up: 9/27 FCD at home 10/4 @seattle 10/18 Portland at home 10/15 @SKC Brutal.
Oh, I bet he could tap-dance a number from Guys and Dolls five minutes after the final whistle. Ah, the old need-to-substitute-a-popular-player-so-I'll-say-he's-injured. Always a classic. Funny how his injury was never really seen on the pitch. Unlike the multiple times he gave the ball away
Agree with RafaDaGafa on Gerrard being MOTM this time. But, on Gio, I don't think the injury was an excuse for subbing a popular player. Gio didn't look right for a good part of the first half, and several attempted shots had no power behind them. He wasn't running comfortably toward the end of the half. It may be that you had to be there to see it as the TV may not have covered what was apparent at the grounds. Baggio had the best chance in the second half and pulled a Pando. About the only really bright spot of the game is the development Romney showed. I was more comfortable with this inexperienced rookie as a partner for Omar than I have ever been for Leo. Amazing that a kid out of the academy with only 3 0r 4 games with the first club could go toe to toe with Drogba and hold his own. In any event, the Supporter's Shield becomes less likely. And the over-the-top articles about how LAG is unstoppable with this lineup sure look pretty silly in light of the last couple of games.
Nope, he looked soft on TV too. Actually at one point I thought he looked a little Ronaldinho-esque. Not the amazing footballer, but the guy who spent the bye week at Hometown Buffet. I’m trying to temper my enthusiasm, there are plenty of Galaxy players who have amazing debuts and fade quickly. That said, he was strong on the ball, was very efficient on defense and conservative in distributing the ball. I didn’t see enough good or bad to judge him aerially, but I never once felt nervous when he was on the ball, even Omar makes me nervous with his dallying and galloping forward. Sadly it probably means Bruce will trade him in the off season for 2nd spot in the 2016 allocation order.
As for the Shield, it was always going to be a “nice to have” with our road form being so poor. Personally I’d much rather spend the next 6 games getting a nice rhythm going. As good as LA has been the last before the last two games I don’t think the team has completely gelled. First Lleget changed the dynamic, then half a dozen games later Gerrard comes in and things change again, half a dozen later and Gio/Penedo change things yet again. The only essential thing in my opinion is finishing outside of the play-in spot, if we have to play that game it will be the 4th game in 10 days! Admittedly one of those games is the final CCL game, which I’m sure Bruce will send the B team. We also have a two week(!) break between the Seattle away and Portland home game. If we do manage to avoid the play-in game we will have a four week(!) break before the playoffs start! MLS Cup itself might not take place until nearly two months after the season ends. Yes, Virginia it takes MLS more than twice as long to schedule their post-season comprised of 12 teams than it does FIFA to host a World Cup field of 32 teams. This year the teams that have played together longest with the fewest line-up changes are going to have an advantage in the playoffs.
Wow. I say we gather up a bigsoccer squad and head to the Hub before the playoffs so we can give the boys a competitive match to keep their form during that break. I mean, starters can scrimmage all they want but, its the skilled, 90' competition that will keep them on their toes.
It was Harden-esque! Hopefully he lasts longer than Ty did. Agree with Gerrard's positive impact on things, but man his lack of movement towards the end of games is very worrying. That's something better teams will take advantage of come playoff time.
True. He did start to look gassed. But to be fair it was only the last 5-10. And it was after making a few lungbusting runs where he wasn't found (Note his reaction just before Keane's offside goal). I don't think he's given nearly enough credit for his fitness level. Played the full 90 in almost every game. That can be hard for a twenty year old.
Good for Bruce. I thought Gio was tucked in way too much. He and Gyasi weren't combining on that right side as much as I think they should. And, as noted, his passing was weak. I agree that Romney looked good. Hopefully, it continues. Yes, Rickett's saves were nice, but his spills were worrisome. Gyasi & Gerrard were good, but MOTM was AJ.
IF you are saying Steven Gerrard was the MOTM last night your opinion and soccer IQ lacks serious creditability. He was average to subpar last night. I don't value his passing to wide open (Rogers or AJDG) out to the wings, or shoving a 3 yard pass to Dos Santos, Keane or Lleget as anything special. It's Pete Vaegnas 2.0. His lack of hustle and constant tiredness shows he still isn't in game shape, or if he ever will be. There were 3 times I watched him last night holding his hips on Montreal Free kicks from the Keeper, and once walking away from a play where ran about 10 yards after chasing a defender to which he turned the ball over. I guess we are somewhat expecting him to make great pin point beckham-like passes, or darting thru balls like Juni's to Keane last night, but he doesn't do that, he essentially makes the safe pass, the easy pass, and often last night of his direct forward passing that he did try ending up being incomplete or a direct turnover to MTL. But don't gloss Gerrard's game the last month and especially last night as Liverpool-esque and an Englishmen showing the American-rubes what pure "football" is, because it wasn't! it was tired, poor, and exquisitely uninspired. Last nights draw comes from Romney playing out his head against Drogba, AJDG playing hard, Omar being tight and clean, and rogers giving a workman-like effort. And for the offense, Zardes puts in work, whether the final product isn't entirely spot on, often the dude covers from box to box and does stuff above and beyond to help his "team" when other aspects aren't working out. And sometimes Effort will win you games your (Talent) as Mr. Gerrard can attest will not. In the end hard work and effort kept Montreal off the score sheet so the offense could Gio majorly included, but Lleget, and keane, and company shit the preverbial bed last night for now 2 games in a row. Last night had me wanting a Landon Donovan out there to be the real #10 that Gio is supposed to be, but ended up getting subbed off because he wasn't, and in a game where passing was over 85% efficient that is criminal.
My impressions: Game - snore fest. Only excitement was worrying they were going to score - we certainly didn't look like we were more than twice the whole game. Ricketts - nice extension on the saves but his hands seem like they are now made of stone. His spills are frequent and often right back into the path of the attacker. IIRC I saw him get scored on when playing with Orlando that way - saving the initial shot but gifting the forward a 2nd point blank shot that he didn't miss a second time. Rogers - Played ok. He and Seb tried to get something going on the left side going forward but they never got in sync. Neither he nor Seb could beat Reo-Coker. Romney - Had a very good game. Always aware of Drogba and did a nice job on him. Better than I expected. Omar - Not as big a fan of this game as some of you are. He was decent defensively but he is sooooo slow and unsure at deciding what to do with the ball when he has it under no pressure. He needs to react faster to get the attack going quicker. Made one awesome pass but also several bad passes to either no one or to Montreal. AJ - Very good defensively and deserves a medal for busting his ass to come back and support Omar when he was stuck 1 v 1 on Drogba. But offered nothing going forward until the last 30 minutes or so when Montreal tired. I think Gargan is better at advancing the ball and getting forward than AJ and we've missed that recently. Beautiful dummy play by AJ though created one of our two best chances of the match. Gerrard - I had hopes that the lack of stamina we saw from Stevie early on was because he wasn't match fit but this game showed just how much age has taken away from him mobility wise. He trots around all game but is completely gassed after any sprint forward and literally walks back to his position. And too often he and Keane force passes to each other when they aren't on. Gerrard repeatedly tries to float passes to a well marked Keane, passes Montreal gobbled up. On the positive side he played the ball quickly (at least compared to his slow as molasses teammates last night) and made all the side to side simple passes pretty well. One nit though - most of them were a yard or three behind where they should be causing the receiver to slow down his run. He made good tackles when the play came to him, and made some nice clearances when we were facing set pieces. Juninho - My man of the match. He was the one player who continued to hustle for 90 minutes. It's interesting to compare his stats with Gerrard on whoscored.com. Gerrard had an excellent 90% completion rate on his 67 passes. Juninho otoh made 20 more passes than SG and completed 92% of them. Both were credited with two key passes but of course Juninho's brilliant through pass to Keane was the pass of the night and created our best opportunity of the match. Here is Juninho's heat map: And here is Gerrards' About 33% more touches for Juninho and moreover he is all over the field trying to help, ala Sarvas last season. The way it's working out SG is more of the stay at home defensive midfielder, with Juninho doing the roaming. SG still does the occasional solo run forward and if he ever gets his best form back those will score us some critical goals. But Juninho is the workhorse of this team. Zardes - Our other workhorse. He covered a lot of ground and won back a lot of balls that his teammates tried to turn over. Zardes crosses were rushed and not that accurate but he did advance the ball a lot and gave us a lot more energy than most of the team. Lletget - Just got shut down by Reo-Coker and couldn't figure out a way to adjust. Gio - Disappointing outing for him. Didn't do much. Keane - Starved of service. Nearly scored brilliantly on Juninho's pass, but blew a couple of other opportunities to be dangerous. Like most of the team, his touch was a bit off. I think the long break hurt the team's form, as often happens. They weren't sharp and somehow they lost some of their game conditioning. Montreal - I thought their positioning and game plan were superb the whole game up to about minute 75 or so when they ran out of gas. The closed all the passing lanes well, times their tackles and interceptions well. Lucky for us they were just incompetent in the final third. Bruce - I think we were are more dangerous team with Gargan at right back than with AJ in that position. Gargan is underappreciated but he is actually effective at advancing the ball up the right side and when he gets to the final third he mixes up his runs and passes intelligently. That is why Gargan has created a few late game winners for this team something that just isn't noticed for some reason. AJ is very predictable going forward and has few go-to moves when he gets to the end line. So for those reasons I would have preferred a back line of Rogers-AJ-Omar-Gargan. You go home with the one who brung you - and one of those who brung you here Bruce was Gargan.
Just watched the replay. I swear I'm no masochist. I just like getting a different perspective on the match. Can we pass the snowshoes nickname to Zardes? His touch is still awful. Can he just stay on his feet when he passes or shoots? Whats with that, seriously? He falls down all the time when he needs to be most accurate. Gerrard had several misplaced passes, mishandled a pass to him at the top of the box and skied his only opportunity on goal which he had time and space for. Does anyone else think "Clydesdale" when they watch him run jog? Are Ricketts' gloves made of concrete? Honestly though, the whole team played slow, apathetic ball like they expected Montreal to roll over - that we would score eventually like it was automatic. I won't lie, though. At the half I expected Bruce to make positive changes and for us to score at least once. I swear I'm no optimist, either.
Baggio is reliable but subbing him for Gio did not increase the likelihood of us scoring. It was a necessary move and a safe move, but is that the best we have to offer behind Gio? Maybe even Mika for Gio would have been a more aggressive move. I think Bruce was gambling that there would be one Keane brilliance or maybe some Gordo magic, and neither happened. And, I was impressed by how hard both AJ and GZ worked given the international games. Even though they both worked their tails off for their respective national teams, and in AJ's case followed that up with a grueling travel schedule, those two were about the hardest working guys out there, except for Juni who continues to be the little engine that could.
I was at the match and for the first time, I saw Gerrard appear truly frustrated with Keane, especially on one particular play. Regardless, I wonder if SG is "pacing himself", as Ian Darke commented, or is he simply not asserting himself so as not to disrupt team chemistry, that we had prior to him arriving, but has since dissappeared? Or is it the heat and "athleticism" of the league, as Twelman commented that SG, surprisingly, told him about MLS play? Whatever the case, if SG has more in the tank, it would sure be peachy to see it bit more of it now. I agree that his game was good against the Impact, (his passing and defensive stops were brilliant), but the one opportunity he had to score, and probably win the game, skied over the goal and seemed wide as well, though I couldn't tell from where I was sitting. Which brings up another point: why is he NOT shooting more, even from the 25-30 range like he did at Liverpool? He may not be able to run like he once did, but he still has the power to blast it, in both legs, so why isn't he doing it? Furthermore, why isn't he taking the free kicks and why is Dos Santos continuing to take them? Gerrard is no Beckham but he is better than anyone else on the team and he really should be taking them. One more thing, SG seemed to be covering a lot for Juninho, who wasn't fully committing to going forward, so many times we were attacking with only 3--Zardes, Keane and Dos Santos--against 6 defending players and Barcelona we are not. Frankly, I think SG needs to be an attacking mid and stay in that position while Juninho lays back. Gots to do something because the only real attack last night took place in my stomach after 70 or so minutes of cringeworthy 'football'. Comments welcomed and appreciated.
Ditto . You'll note that your post is the only one overly critical of Gerrard. In fact, every post after yours, while critical of his fitness and a few misplaced longballs (It needs to be stipulated that they're tough longballs. Not misplaced passes that suggests short and along the ground) still acknowedges he had a good to very good game. So are you questioning everyone's soccer IQ except yourself? Throughout the whole game, there was only one player playing the sort of passes that got the attack moving (barring Juninho's pass of the match) and it was Gerrard. His longball forward was slightly off, but the way he spread the passes (often at distance) to both wings was the only reason LA had any width play. There were a few up for MOTM (Omar, AJ, Romney), but Gerrard took it narrowly from Juninho.
Couldn't agree more with the attacking midfielder comment. I mean this with respect, but brutal honesty, the EPL is a much tougher league than MLS so when Gerrard started getting older, Liverpool switching him to the more defensive playmaking midfielder role made sense. But he doesn't need to be that in the MLS. I swear if Bruce had played him just behind Keane as a designated attacking midfield borderline center forward (as he did to success with Torres for a whole season at Liverpool), you'd have won almost every game. Look at the times in the last few games where SG's tried a one-two from deep and powered into the box. If you had that going on at the edge of the penalty area for the full 90, logic dictates it's impossible that there wouldn't be goals. The fact that Gerrard, one of the greatest strikers of a ball perhaps ever, gets one shot on goal per game is criminal. The problem is Bruce is shackling him. He's asking him to do a job because frankly, you put Gerrard most areas on the pitch (with the exception of GK and bombing down the wings) and you've still got a great player. But it's not taking full advantage of his skills. Stick him behind Keane with less obligation to track back and defend and let him unload pile drivers. Anything else is a waste.
One more thing. I think, whilst he'll score goals and have a few good games, the signing off Dos Santos will ultimately prove to be a bad thing. Before he arrived, Bruce tried Gerrard in that advanced position behind Keane and, whilst SG was nowhere near match fitness, there were positive signs. Signing Gio put the final nail in the coffin of Gerrard ever playing in that advanced position and so you're not getting the benefit of his playmaking/piledrivers up top. The best LA line-up, in a parallel world where Gio wasn't signed, is Keane up front. Gerrard just behind him. Lletget and Zardes on the wings. Juninho advanced as playmaker and whoever your best defensive midfielder is playing the current Gerrard role. Instead, you signed Gio and you didn't need him. Bruce should have used his final DP, instead of signing another attacker, nailing down a high quality defensive midfielder and pushing Gerrard up front where he doesn't need to track back. For all the tactics Bruce gets right on the field, the boardroom level stuff such as signing players you need is off. Not just for LA either. It's staggering how little emphasis the MLS puts on defense. Hence the almost non-existent presence of Defender DPs. So focused on flash and shirt-sellers, the league neglects the fact everything is built from the back.
Great post. I don't agree with a few things, but overall hear ya. I wonder a little bit if we get the bye what that long lay off will do to this team. We historically don't like byes except in the case of injuries.
Think this would be suicide on the high press and counter, and Juninho is best when he can roam the field and play dmid to the best of his abilities. I don't think we've seen the best of GDS yet and I have to remind you that it can take new players as long as 6 months to adjust to the league (see: Clint Dempsey). The only way we "don't need" GDS is if Jose Villarreal gets good. And he's been way too injury prone to judge. Also, we had the league's best defense last year and Bruce is one of the coaches that puts incredible, incredible emphasis on defense. It's why we are the only team that does have a defensive DP. Omar has been a FORCE in MLS on D. Many other coaches in the league value D as well. The fact that the league doesn't have defensive DPs in general is due to the salary cap and needs elsewhere, not because the league doesn't value defense.
But it wouldn't be if Bruce hadn't wasted a DP on an attacker he didn't need (but no doubt felt pressured to sign after Lando went) and signed a quality Matic-type player to cover. And Juninho, on the basis of his passing skills, could easily transfer to a more advanced role. Agreed. Which makes it strange that Gerrard doesn't seem to be afforded quite the same stay of execution. So, they have a salary cap based on positions on the field? Genuine question.
Here's the problems as an outsider looking in. When Bruce signed Gerrard, he should have made the decision right then that he'd play him up top to form a frankly terrifying partnership with old teammate Keane. He should have known Gerrard wouldn't track back or make box-to-box runs anymore so keep him up top and, as cover, use the final DP position on a Matic-like Defensive midfielder. He should have realized he didn't need Dos Santos because you already have Zardes. The fact he's played on the wing BOGGLES THE MIND! He's a striker through and through. The right build. Can get behind players. Has bad touches everynow and then (Drogba, Benteke, Torres) but can drill the ball home when needed. I'm truly trying to think of a winger anywhere that is his size. He just doesn't fit the winger mold. You need him up front, out-muscling defenses. Without Dos Santos, Bruce brings the largely attack minded Rogers across to RM. Pushes Zardes up front and starts converting him to a Drogba-esque striker. See Dos Santos was not needed and so Bruce signing him messed up a number of positions. Gerrard had to drop back where you can't take advantage of his attacking skills. Zardes had to remain at RM rather than adopting Landon's position and so Rogers, who has shown he can play RM, is in a defensive role he's not suited to. That way you'd have had an attacking force of Keane, Gerrard and Zardes. Why the hell would you need Dos Santos?