You obviously didn't watch TFC last year. Marco Reda and Adam Braz may be the two worst defenders who will ever play in the MLS. Of course if Montreal gets a MLS team Adam Braz may yet be back in the league.
After watching the disappointed game, i ponder as to why Rudd would not change his formation. I am not impressed with McDonald many say that he is improving but i do not see what others say. Pires gave the ball away a few times, i dont feel he is as competitive as the others. The defense needs to strength and our forwards need to be forwards and score some goals. every week with the caliber of forwards we have, they should have hat tricks every week. Good luck next week gullit you need it.
I am pretty much done posting or reading the thread until we start playing better soccer on a more consistent basis.
Lifelong soccer fan here who is happy Beckham is here, but I have question. If you bust your a$$ working for developmental salary, $32K, $45K, $60K or $80K, and live in Los Angeles where the average home costs $565,000, and where traffic to-and-from the HDC practice sessions can make you very grumpy, how long would you be excited to play alongside Beckham knowing he will bring in one-quarter of a BILLION dollars in just 5 years? I am NOT a Beckham basher (I think the world of his playmaking skills, on-the-field artistry, professionalism and the excitement/revenues he generates for the LAG) but I work in the "real world" and know from firsthand experience that co-workers who make boatloads of money can cause upset employees over time. Also, I've noticed that the other MLS teams play harder against us because they probably want to prove they can beat a team with the world's most recognized athlete and soccer player.
Every one keeps talking great things about gordon and buddle, what they dont realize is they do great things only when they have great players playing for them like L/D and d-becks. Open cup or the toronto game neither played good wherewas buddle how did gordon do? Once fish gets better he will make the magic happen. Fish needs some one ( D-Becks) to feed him good passes and fish will make it happen. Its like hugo sanchez, lots of people bitch and wine on how good he was, well he better be good, he was playing with great players in real madrid it would of been stupid of him. With th passes he got all he preety much had to do was get in the way of the ball and it would go in. Am I wrong???
Can anyone explain something PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ... why in the hell would you hire some one and pay them the money you pay X when his ass doesn't want to play on Turf????? Last i heard when you don't do something your boss want's your ass gets fired... not even D-Becks bitches and wines about playing on turf... this means his ass can't play when we play against Toronto Or salt lake.
Plain and simple I think we all expect better from this team. Come on Galaxy pull your heads out. I mean that in a nice kind of way too.
Aw dammit, the quote thingy doesn't pullin what I wanted... this is in ref to the Seattle getting turf insteada grass thing. If it rains a lot, why not use grass? Turf in rain means ponding while grass drains (and down here in socal it scorches in the sun). England has buttloads of rain and they use grass not turf.... Somethings I will just never understand.
Two things about today's match.... 1. dammit, dammit, dammit. 2. OMG, I figured out Landycakes' OCD thing... he's got Tourette's! That shot in 76th min. on FSN's broadcast put up his mug and he totally had the same eye and facial-head tics the rest of us have. I knew it! That, and without his center circle rites... that's why we lost. dammit...
And balls of steel. Regarding the salaries ManU, its definitely a topic thats been talked ad nauseum, but I do believe that the salaries will get better. Beginning next season the MLS Players Union's Collective Bargaining Agreement kicks in, and where other people may seem some doom and gloom in the current real estate market, there is definitely some ray of hope for young adults looking to buy homes right now - this includes MLS players. Foreclosures and "Need to Sell" conditions result in some real estate bargains and steals. Also, I wouldn't mind MLS and Volkswagen (official car of MLS), Toyota (sponsor of Chicago's SSS) or Honda (sponsor of LAG-Chivas Superclasico) working out some discount car deals for their young players; even better if the various FO's provide some gas money. The idea may sound weird, but Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers and Beckham's first "company car" were Honda Preludes after all lol. I really like this poster's ideas about salaries: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697695
Are you saying that you think X would have made a difference today? Or just that he enjoyed sitting out of the game while still getting paid? What about Donovan? is he a whiny bitch too? He missed one of the most important National Team games of his life due to a groin injury, but he still got on the plane with his teammates to his club's next away game -- a game that he knew would be lacking several key players -- in the hopes that he'd be fit to play, but he ended up having to sit on the bench, watching his mates go down in flames. I might be very naiive (and I'll probably get a huge ration of sh(t for saying this), but I honestly don't think that ANY of these guys -- regardless of what they get paid or what famous players join their team --cares about anything other than getting out there on the pitch and giving everything they've got for their team. One thing I've learned form watching a ton of EPL, Serie A, Argentinian league and MLS games is that the difference between the worst team in the league and the best team seems to be ... dependent on the circumstances on the day they meet up. Even Manchester United lost to Bolton, West Ham United, Manchester City (twice) and Coventry City (a non-Premiere League team) this year. And that's not counting the teams they tied. These MLS guys are all really good players, and when they meet up, it can be a crap shoot as to who will come out on top. I don't pretend to know why today's game was such a disaster, but I sincerely doubt it had anything to do with players' resentment over other players' salaries or players being "whiny bitches" and not wanting to play on turf.
Our midfield really sucked today. Franchino was pretty bad, McDonald was pretty bad, Pires wasn't really involved, Randolph wasn't very good. All of them kept passing the ball back to Toronto... the first half was respectable at least, but the second half was a shambles. I was really hoping to see Klein move into midfield, he was our best attacker today, but he was rarely that far up. Gordon is amazing at controlling high balls up to him, but that's about it. Defense was decent, could've done a better job with the set piece goal, but they didn't look bad the entire game. Anyway, I blame the midfield, but its not like we had many options. Tudela and Vagenas weren't going to change anything.. needed Klein on the wing.
For me, the problem comes down to this: we had two players who could have contributed offensively to the midfield and we played them in ways that reduced their effectiveness. McDonald, Pires, Franchino are all holding midfielders and haven't been doing much on the attack. If we were going to create any danger it would have to be from Klein and Randolph. Playing Klein in the midfield would have meant playing Gavin at left back. I would have taken the risk, but I guess Ruud wouldn't. I don't know what's happening to Randolph but my theory is that the game is getting too complicated for him. What he can do is run down the left side and cross it into the middle. He seems like a traditional English winger. Making him play possession or sticking him on the right is forcing him to play a more complicated game and causing him to screw up.
I thought we had a pretty decent first half. Our defense was solid, we were getting stuck in and we were trying to create something with a few nice passing sequences. Second half it all fell apart. I think it was that they expended so much energy in the first half, keeping things tight, that when Toronto picked up their energy we couldn't match it. I also think perhaps they were thinking, we worked so hard, but how are we going to score, especially with the lazy blackhole of sucktitude on the field (see rant below). I wish Ruiz could have subbed in for Buddle to start the 2nd half. I truly think it might have made a difference. Midfield and forwards are the most to blame for this loss, not the defense. In fact, I'm getting kind of excited about our defense. They are coming together and getting better with each game. Once we add any combination or preferably all 3 of Beckham, Donovan and Ruiz into the lineup, I think we will be pretty consistently good. I thought our best player out there was Sean Franklin. He has to be the leading candidate for ROTY. He is solid and never panics. And Alan Gordon - I know I'm in the minority here, but Alan tried to be creative. He ran his butt off and produced some very nice sequences. Sure, he flubbed a few things too, but I still say his touch has VASTLY improved since last year (not world class by any means, but it has improved) as has his understanding of how to play. He's proved he can link up with Donovan and given more time together he can link up with Ruiz as well - he was that close a few times in their limited minutes together. He's out there giving it his all, trying to prove he belongs on the team and fighting for a starting spot. Buddle, on the other hand, is a different story entirely. He is to the Galaxy what Eddie Johnson is to the National Team. In fact, I wonder if they're not the same player. Has anyone ever seen them together? Buddle is lazy and dependent 100% on others to create for him. And if you're going to play that way, then by golly, you better be ready when they have created something for you and handed it to you on a silver platter. Alan Gordon's chest trap and pass to Edson was a thing of beauty and he should have been rewarded with something better than the crap Edson delivered. I am sick to death of Edson messing up promising opportunities that the team has worked so hard to create by not getting his lazy butt back onside. The sequence that Klein started from the right back was foiled because he couldn't be bothered to get back onside. Time after time, the team would work hard to win the ball and get the ball to Buddle only for him to lose it. It would appear that in order for him to control a pass he must be (1) wide open AND (2) the pass must be 100% perfect, right weight on the ball, coming at just the right angle, with just the right spin - then he'll control it; otherwise, he can't be bothered to actually, you know, fight to get it. On the other thread talking about Lieweke and his ultimatum, somebody mentioned that some of the players aren't too broken up about losing a game. I can just about guarantee that one of those players being alluded to would be Edson Buddle. He never gives the impression that he cares, he never gives the impression that he's giving it 100% (and that includes his "hat trick" game), and I still remember after a heart-rending loss last year (was it to Chivas?), his comment was, "It's only a game." I had the feeling he would perform exactly the way he did yesterday for 3 reasons: (1) he wouldn't have Donovan and/or Beckham creating for him; (2) he wouldn't have Donovan drawing the attention of the defenders away from him; and (3) after listening to his audio blurb on the Galaxy blog, I knew this was just another outing for him to collect his paycheck. He was asked if he was looking foward to scoring on Toronto, his last team, and he responded something like, "well, I already did last year, so that's already been done." Let's just say he sounded less than excited to exploit this golden opportunity to prove his worth on the team. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! What guy doesn't want payback on his old team EVERY TIME YOU PLAY THEM? You've scored a goal and think you've arrived? Not to mention, what about proving to Ruud that you can do something without Donovan and Beckham on the field? What about trying to prove you deserve to stay on the field even when Ruiz comes back and making Ruiz fight to win a starting position? What about actually caring about what happens on the field? I'm through with this guy and his attitude. He needs a wakeup call like Santino Quaranta got. I hope he's the first one to go when the transfer window opens up. Sorry for the long post and the rant.
Great rant... Edson, for whatever reason, doesn't give off a vibe of caring. I have no idea if that's true or not, but you never get the impression that Edson cares as much as you do about the teams results...
I said that before and say it again, "Given the money they paid to Buddle vs Gordon, I will keep Gordon and sell Buddle any time."
Eh We dint have our start players and it proved that our team is run by them. We were a joke offensively unable to keep possession and find the strikers.Franchino was totally taken out of his game my the Trononto atmosphere. Had a bad touch and then resorted to his physical play which got him in trouble. McDonald played at the level he really is at. Pieres is to one dimensional to try and change the game. Gordan worked hard just couldnt do anything. Buddle was lazy. Ruiz tried really hard and checked super deep into the mid to get the ball. We just couldn't find him or couldn't hold possession. Roberts ALWAYS bites us in the SS. He is gurenteed to let one goal in. Couldnt stay on Cunningham's give and go. I really feel like the rest of the defense is kind of gelling somewhat. But still not good enough to be expected to hold a shutout. Not Good
I learned that if Beckham and Donovan dont play, I dont let these type of losses get to me. Lets face it, we suck without those two players!
Galaxy needs a right back. Even a back-up right back would work fine. The team's two right mids are starting (Beckham at right mid, Klein at right back). Klein is never missing, but when Beckham is gone they can either keep Klein back or put Klein forward, but in any case, they're missing a right sided player. Having 3 defensive mids is good when you're attacking and they destroy everything, but when their workload in midfield doubles or triples, it's hard to expect much. Team could've actually used a guy like Martino yesterday. Buddle and Gordon were not the problem, their misses weren't catastrophic and they created a couple of chances. They just weren't getting enough good balls up there to do anything. So far Gordon and Buddle have put together enough goals + assists to worry other more expensive forwards.