Galaxy preview 2007

I think this article has it nailed. I am pretty much on board with everything he says.

 

"Even without Beckham, the Galaxy are improved in almost every area of the field, especially with the addition of Jaqua and with Quaranta's availability for a whole season."

That's a bit of a stretch...

 

I don't think so. Jaqua > Alan Gordon, no? And Quaranta > Gardner. Add Kevin Harmes, a healthy and rejuvenated Kyle Martino, and an additional year of experience for Sturgis, Kirk, Roberts, and Veris. I think there is some reason to hope for improvement across the board.

And the team will have had Yallop for a whole pre-season's training, and they will be playing with his attitude and systems. Compare that to the start of last year and the quality of coaching the squad was getting.

I'm not saying LAG is a dominating team or should be favored to win everything. But there should be a marked improvement from last year.

 

I'm with Cadaver.

I think Carlisle did a really nice job of summing up the team.

Two points he notes seem a bit under emphasized and honestly they've both got me a bit nervous about earning any kind of championships this season:

1) Central Defense
The center of defense -- where the relatively untested duo of Troy Roberts and Kyle Veris will battle to partner Galaxy mainstay Tyrone Marshall -- does remain something of a question mark.

I'm glad to see Veris' name mentioned since he's not showing up on the roster but Ty's getting old and had trouble keeping his legs during last season's lighter schedule. I really hope we sign another center back soon. Seems like we're an injury or a card suspension away from disaster.

2) Depth
With the advent of the SuperLiga, and with the Gold Cup and Copa America on the international docket, the Galaxy are among several MLS sides whose depth will be tested severely.

The roster right now is 20 field players and 3 keepers. I guess technically we're 2 deep but what happens when Kirk, Sturgis (U20s) Jazic, Albright, Landon (Senior National Teamers) are all away? We're gutted. Add an injury or two and some general fatigue and we're limited to bunker ball (with a reasonable probability of Cannon being out on National Team duty as well).

Sorry to be gloom and doom. I am really looking forward to seeing the full team play (especially after that Brit - Beckerham? - arrives) but I also remember what the beginning of last season was like without Albright and Landon (granted Yallop is huge upgrade from SS2).

GET US SOME DEPTH ALEXI!!!

 

The G's could take 1/3 of the year off, and do better than last year - so that's not saying much.

I will say this though:

Attacking Prospects - Way Up. With Quaranta, Donovan, Beckham, and Jaqua + a more mature Kirk, we are way way up over the Wolyniec and Gordon show of last year.

Midfield Prospects - Up Slightly. Again- Quaranta, A More Experienced Kirk, Sturgis (Big Up), Beckham (for half a season, at least). Hopefully this will mean a more dimished role for Vagenas. However - our midfield will mostly be a completely new entity from last season. No Nagamura, Less Cobi(?), Where does Vagenas fit in? Is it a 4-3-3? Is it a 4-5-1? There's gonna need to be some time to figure out who's doing what, and it's gonna take a while. Plus, I'm not overwhelmed by our depth right now.

Defense - Down. Way Down. Marshall only getting older. I have yet to see ANYTHING that gets me excited about Veris, and Roberts I've only seen slightly more. Neither really get me going. Albright is still there, which is good, but Jazic is no spring chicken. I see one big injury and we're scraping the bottom of the barrel when National Team call-ups happen.

Losing Ugo, as I see it, pulled a major tent-pole out of our defense, and we haven't done anything to replace him. That worries me. What worries me more is that Ugo went to a conference rival.

 

Obviously as a team the Galaxy was much better at the end of last season than they were at the beginning of last season. I was looking at the team from a personnel standpoint from the end of last season to the beginning of this season.

We've lost Hartman, Ugo, Herc, and Nagamura. We've gained Jaqua, Cannon, some rookies and hopefully some guys have improved from last year and Martino should be healthy to start the season. From a talent standpoint, I think you could argue either way. Hopefully Yallop will work his magic and the team will continue to improve as they did when he took over last year but only time will tell.

 

I don't understand the love affair with Ihemelu. He must be the most overrated player in MLS. He has speed and strength, but the composure and distribution of a donkey. He's horrible passing out of the back. Not to mention that he's a red card waiting to happen. Troy Roberts is a bit smaller, but also quite strong and fast and seems to do a better job of keeping it simple. Veris has some real upside. He's huge and very good on the ball. He just needs to making quicker decisions. Harden I've never seen play, but the guy looks enormous and Yallop seems to be high on him.

 

The Love affair with Ihemelu was that in his second year, he was already a dominating center back - possibly the best in the West outside of Eddie Robinson, who is ALSO a Red Card waiting to happen. We had a lot of problems last year, but our defense wasn't really one of them - Ugo had a lot to do with it.

Veris and Roberts are fine stand-ins. They are serviceable, but have none of the intimidation factor or physical presence that Ihemelu brought.

 

Ugo seemed to be the most developed of the three young'uns (Veris, Roberts & Ihemelu).

I don't think many fans saw him as polished but he seemed to be climbing the learning curve at pretty quick rate. Personally, I thought Roberts was close to overtaking Ugo until Roberts got injured toward the end of last season.

The visible growth in Ugo's decision-making and tackling over the course of last season made me (and I think other Galaxy fans) believe we had a solid young core of central defenders for years to come. Expectations got pretty messed over with the trade of Ugo & Herc for Cannon.

Expectations can be pretty hard to let go.

 

These comments I can live with, but to call him a dominating defender is laughable. If he's dominating than Bobby Boswell is Alessandro Nesta

 

I think at centerback we will get a boost by having serviceable backups in Veris and Ty Harden - who's seen a lot of minutes and doesn't look out of place. The worry to me is that we have no depth for the outside backs (a position which seems to be key to our attack). If Jazic or Albright go down or spend significant time away for NT duty we will have a dropoff with Mike Randolph or Kirk. If both are out then we really take a hit as we have to do some juggling, but we do have some flexibility with Roberts, Sturgis, and Kirk.

One other note at centerback - it is a gross injust to Ihemelu to say that he was strong and fast and Roberts is also strong and fast. It's not to say that Roberts isn't athletic - I just don't see him keeping up with the fastest forwards in the league.

 

Yes, Ugo improved during his time here but I personally still never really found him special. I'd rather have Joe Cannon and go find myself an Ugo replacement.

 

We are talking MLS here. Wasn't Boswell the defender of the year? Ugo was coming along nicely, but Yallop put a higher priority on upgrading the goalkeeper.

The preview was a nice summary, and I have to agree with the concerns about our defensive depth. Or our depth period. What we really need is a reserve team or injured reserve list where we can activate players to replace our injuries or national team call-ups. It would be awesome if our reserve team was big enough for that or if one of the A-league teams could be a partner.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and invite the firestorm that will come upon me for saying this because I know most of your opinions are to the contrary, but I agree with Juventino here.

I never liked Ugo. He was a big strong athletic defender, which is good. Besides that though he had very little if any composure, very little vision on the ball, god awful distribution, and was prone to making horendous mistakes on an almost nightly basis. Whether they be commiting a stupid foul in or around the 18 yard box (the man must have been responsible for more PKs than anyone else on the team, though I know this is probably an exageration on my part) or taking a stupid yellow card at the wrong time or even a red. I suppose this is the hallmark of a young defender, but alot of people were alot more excited about the guy than I ever was.

That being said, I sure would prefer him to anybody else we currently have to partner with Marshall.

 

Last year, up until the injury, I thought that Troy Roberts was the best centerback we had. He usually seemed composed, rarely made huge mistakes and did most things right.

On contrast, Marshall is always a red card in waiting. I really thought that the Ugo-Troy pairing was a good one as Roberts acted as the centerback brain and Ugo could put on an amazing burst of speed to cover for Albright

Troy's first season was a mess, but he was playing out wide where he didn't seem to have the speed to cover because he always seemed like he was trying to catch up.

Since I've mentioned everyone else on the back line already -- I thought Jazic was great. Hopefully he stays healthy this year.

--ducks and covers

 

I like Jazic too. I think as far as outside defenders go, we are probably one of the better teams in the league. Its the center of the defensive line that is worrying me right now.