The moral of the story: Start the players you want to play. Bruce started Kirovski and Magee, with Gordon and Lewis on the bench. If you start Gordon and Lewis, you are stuck with the incredible disappearing Magee and the useless Kirovski. One other note: No hat trick from Buddle this year That being said. I am happy. We did far better than I expected. I would have been happy with just making the playoffs. Conf and Finals are just cake.
The injuries are what cost us this game I think. Sure we are slower than RSL, with older players then them. If Ricketts didnt go down, if Omar didnt go down... we would have been able to bring Dema in for defense, Gordon in for that added spark, and Eddie Lewis out wide pushing Donovan up front... man, what a different game.. I think it would not have made it to the PKs and we would have won. But oh well What can I say... its a game afterall.
Given that Dema was unavailable, who would you have started instead of Kirovski? To be fair, Kiro was stronger then could have been expected for 60 minutes and likely would have been then replaced if not for the unfortuante injury parade. Not really a fair complaint tonight to blame bruce.
I don't get this. You compare MLS final to CL final or WC? I mean this guy had already WON mls cup before! CR is a choker too, but at least he missed it under higher pressure and more important match than Donovan did. Geez, missed in superliga and mls final both. Can you imagine to put responsibility to this guy on WC?
I'm 12 now? Cuz I don't agree with you and my views aren't the same as yours? LMAO. ******** outta here please. And bring some substantial arguments to help support your point instead of cheap vulgarities and name-calling. Grow a set.
Seattle should not host MLS cup final ever. It's a disgrace to play the final in artificial turf. That's just not right. pure bushleague.
Injuries, man. Both of those guys would've been withdrawn for Gordon and Lewis IMO had it not been for Ricketts and Omar getting hurt. Shit happens, but not having Gordon on the field for at least 20 minutes hurt us, he changes the dynamic of the game when he comes in. Too late now though, this team was falling apart towards the end of the play-offs. Our depth has improved significantly, but most teams wouldn't be able to cope with missing Dema and playing Kiro, Beckham limping, and the two in-game injuries. That's just bad luck.
I've not been a fan of Kiro (who is?), but I thought he played well today. Nothing stellar, but pretty solid. Every player on the field made a mistake at one point or another. It's not fair to castigate his entire match for that one bad pass. OK. Here's the thing about a leader. It's not that they ALWAYS do the right thing. It's that they are willing to step up and take the responsability when the time comes. And when they screw up, they suck it up and come back around and take responsability again. Donovan missed a PK in the North American Superliga final in 2007. He has made literally dozens of clutch plays in high-pressure situations since then. It's people like you, who put unrealistic expectations on others that make leaders like DOnovan so valuable to the team. You can kick them when their down all you want. They're going to get back up and come right back at you. He'll shake this off and come back as strong as ever (if not stronger).
Yes I agree with this as well. Those injuries changed the game and took into a direction we weren't planning on for it to go. On another night we beat them, but we missed PK's so it goes to them.
I wanted them to win. I live in the Appalachians (that's not in Utah, and no, I'm not Mormon, either). Hated it went to PKs, too. Kinda anticlimactic. RSL and LA should be fighting it out for the top of the Western Conference next year. It should be fun to watch.
JT sliped before he kicked the ball. Besides, he should not take that penalty if not for Drogba's red card. Donovan is the regular penalty kicker. How many penalties count in his total goals?
I see what you're saying. And I certainly hope so. But I just can't BELIEVE he missed THIS one in the freaking MLS Cup FINAL!!! Wow. I was glad to see him step up about to take the penalty. I had a smile on my face and I was telling everyone else watching "He's gonna come through. It's Landon Donovan. This is what he's wanted for so long.... he's our captain.... etc,etc" And wow HUGE mistake. Sorry I doubted you on your PK Becks. Can't believe we lost on PK's. Buddle.... you're on my shit list too. Excellent placement on that pk.
Look, I get that you're strictly a Beckham fan(by which I mean not a Galaxy or MLS fan), we're all aware, but do not diminish the importance of this game. Go try tell someone like Andy Williams, Robbie Findley or Sean Franklin that this game is not important. Yes, it isn't the CL final, but to those guys it's the closest they'll probably get and when the pressure is on and you're out there on the field, it's all the same. And calling Ronaldo a choker is ridiculous too, your boy doesn't exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to high-pressure PKs. But that's neither here nor there when it comes to disscussing the aftermath of a huge game for most of us here. I need to stop getting drawn into these silly arguments.
LA's record on turf was much better than RSL's this season. Kinda hard to blame this outcome on that. Or on the injuries. RSL lost their motor in the middle, Morales, when Beckham slammed his knee sideways. Lost our most energetic player over the past month, Johnson, at the half because he wasn't himself due to food poisoning the night before. So, the injury table was full for both teams. Making Andy Williams go 120 minutes is just cruel, he doesn't have that much in the tank anymore. The match could have gone either way. LA had the quality chances. RSL had the control of the run of play. Neither had enough to better the other. PKs is a crapshoot no matter what and your keeper did you proud on them.
If everyone would kindly stop quoting Sanda, it would make my participation in this thread much more enjoyable (and jbgeach's too, judging by this comment).
It's really too bad for Donovan 'cause just as he missed the potential winning PK in the Superliga final, he goes ahead and misses this. He must be hating himself. The one beef I have is with Buddle, the dude does absolutely nothing all season, he's just a body with the Forward label attached to it for 90 minutes. I know he can't finish to save his life during a game but he can't even finish the gimme of the season?? $($&@($ ME!!!
Strangely, I don't really fault Donovan. He usually makes these with such a high success rate that statistically he is due for a miss. I will take the miss now over a miss in the world cup. Ironically, I was listening to an espn interview with him this week where he discussed how to take a penalty kick. If you believe in jinxes, then that interview was it. As for the rest of the team, I am frustrated and angry. RSL equalized on a very luck goal and we allowed them to be energized by it and out play us the second half. Beckham put in a solid performance for a guy playing with one foot but I expected nothing less. Saunders was excellent in the nets for Ricketts and should be proud of his performance. The defense, especially Berhalter, should hold their heads up high. They fought well. Lastly, Arena made two key mistakes that cost us this game. First, he started Kirovski. I don't know what happen to Kovalenko but I would take Snowshoes Gordon over Kirovski, 99 out of 100 times. At least, Gordon hustles more and is more dominant in the air. Second, he subbed Klein for Birchall instead of Kirovski. Birchall was functioning well as an enforcer and Old Man Klein is still a better offensive player than Kirovski. And finally, Blackhole Buddle is one of the most worthless players that I have seen play up front for the Galaxy. I don't want to hear any blubbering crap from drew coho about Buddle's skills. His ability or lack of ability has been well documented here. He is lazy with a poor work rate. Although, he actually tracked back a few times this game to my complete amazement. His touch is horrible but only looks adequate because he is surrounded by galaxy players with even worse first touches. He rarely beats any player in a 1 v 1 scenario and he is a striker that doesn't convert his penalty kick in arguably the biggest game of his fast diminishing career. If he is not traded in the offseason along with that park bench, Kirovski, I am not renewing my season tickets. I can't sit in the stands and be sick to my stomach watching their dismal play anymore.
My boy slipped in Euro Cup, not MLS cup or superliga cup. I am so tired I wanna shout. When Saunders caught the second penalty I was screaming like crazy. Poor Saunders, he deserved better than this.
Sigh. That was really tough guys. Its so harsh to lose on PKs. Its almost not fair, and its always emotional. I'm not going to blame any of the guys that missed or were saved, especially Landon. This isn't the time for blame, and especially not on our captain. He is a great Penalty taker, but everyone misses. It happens. It's harsh, and its not the best time to miss, but what are you gonna do? To put this whole loss on him is insane, and I can't believe people are doing it. I thought we were okay in the first half, and unlucky not to be going into half time with a couple goals. We had some great flowing counter attacks right near the halftime break. Unlucky with all the injuries to both sides. I thought the replacements that stepped in for us- AJ and Saunders were both outstanding, but it was a shame to have use substitutions on injuries. Not to make this an excuse tho, as RSL had the same problem. I thought Kiro was pretty solid tonight, he doesn't have the same bite as Dema, but he did all he could. Buddle was amazing. He worked so hard tonight. He literally is the only guy who brings down the long balls, and almost all our GKs are long balls. He has to fight for every ball in the air, and those physical battles take a toll. But he won most of them. He was good attacking with the ball at his feet too. Great game I thought, maybe MOTM for us. Landon and Beckham were both pretty average... Especially in the second half, and OTs when we kinda got dominated. I was proud of Beckham playing through all the pain, which clearly got worse as the game went on. To see him step up first for the PKs, injury and all, and bury it... Wow. That was awesome. I know its hard tonight, because this one hurts so bad, but we shouldn't be too down. It was a fabulous season for us, nobody expected us to get this far. And we'll be back. We have three of the best young defenders in the league, that are only gonna get better. We have the best goalkeeper in the league, and of course we have Bruce. Bruce is clearly the best manager in the league, and I won't ever doubt him again. As long as we have him, we'll be back... Keep the heads up guys.