P/I/P - 11/12 CCL QF: Galaxy @ TFC; 3/7/12, 5:00 p.m. PT

I feel like Juni was invisible most of the game.

 

No need for everyone to be worked up at our route 1 tactics. They were clearly dictated by the pitch. There was almost no midfield play at all. It will be very different on Wednesday.

And as for Beckham, his long ball accuracy will always be part of our arsenal. For all the complaining last night he did connect on at least a half dozen spectacular long balls to Landon, Magee, Keen or even Buddle.

That crappy tactic of soccer was fairly succesful last night.

Defense still the biggest worry. On their second goal, does some of the blame fall on Dunnivent? Seemed to me that Boyens was put in a position of defending 2 players because he got no help from midfield and Dunnivent didn't follow his mark. What's your take?

Saunders didn't look great dealing with crosses at all. Hope he sorts it out.

Buddle and Keane have a lot of promise together. 2-2 was a fair result but probably flattered Toronto. We missed 5-6 other really good chances and I don't that is true of them.

Character fight back!

 

I am not talking about diving I am talking about Silva going down and staying down on stuff that doesn't even get called. Get up rookie. Morgan stopping to tie his shoe when he needs to get off the field. Koevermans losing his mind when he ran into Saunders. Officials in our pocket? You guys fouled all match long. What were the fouls 11-2? Exactly. How many blown offsides calls went against us? Exactly. On the whole we were the better team and it is TFC who is fortunate to escape with a draw.

And no matter how you want to sugarcoat it, throwing streamers and beer cans at players is low class.

 

If he wasn't injured, he would be playing in Germany right now and I have to think Bruce knew that when he made the trade.

 

This was an outstanding result after the poor start and hole we dug ourselves into. It's harder for a championship-winning team to get back started again the next season, it's only natural but we showed only the slightest bit of rust. Lots of credit to the professionalism on this team, starting at the top with Bruce Arena.

I'm going to give a a break to the backline, especially Boyens. It was the first game that mattered with this group, but you can see how Omar disrupted things so well and how much we are going to miss him. Defense settled down in the second half, looked better. My son asked why don't the Galaxy put Franklin at center back after we let the second goal in, it's a question to at least be considered if we keep giving up goals. Thank goodness Leonardo is a month away, but Boyens did fine after settling in.

Beckham playing those long passes are great because it keeps defenders back, therefore opening things up in the midfield. For that reason I say play Sarvas and drop Magee in MLS games, we will be controlling most midfield play that way. The offense is a thing of beauty though, and this team offensively could compete with most Premier League teams, I'm positive of that.

Buddle was a beast, better than ever and I LOVE Keane the more I watch him play! Having him for a full season is going to be incredible!

 

First game period.
First game with everyone together.
Away.
50k loud streamer obsessed (you know what to do ACB and LARS) beer can tossing (you also know what not to do) canucks.
on a terrible plastic pitch with infill visible from outer space.
Tied.
Actually lead series on away goals.
Back to the fortress.
Another week to mesh in training.

THE SKY IS NOT FALLING

 

One thing I realized last night around the 80th minute, our substitution patterns are going to be much different this year. I was surprised they hadn't made any subs yet, given the team may be a bit out of shape this early. Then I started thinking about who they could sub and couldn't think of any logical moves. Two of our best players are Keane and Buddle and as long as they have something left in the tank, you don't want them coming off. Last year, Bruce would often sub out a forward for a forward around the 70th minute, replacing Angel or Barrett with Lopez or Cristman for example. It will be interesting to see how the subs are used this season with a much larger drop off in talent between our 2nd and 3rd forwards.

 

biggest thing I noticed about last night's game was that LA was clearly more mentally prepared than TFC. Not that I expect anything less from Arena coached team. It helped that LA is used to playing in high intensity situation more than TFC. I thought TFC was going to run riot after going up 2-0, taking advantage of shell shocked LA defence. But LA fought back (though Frei gifting Magee didn't help)

Should be an interesting return match next Wed. While TFC generally sucks away from home (though got better late last season), LA does play on Sat so I think everything is more or less even. Hopefully will be another entertaining much. (though I dunno if my asshole can take another ass clenching moments whenever LA counterattacks lol)

 

Yeah dude, but honestly, thats a great problem to have. The "drop off" in talent is created by a starting forward pair that cannot be rivaled by anyone in the league. Barret would start for some teams, hes a scrub for us. Keane and Buddle raise the bar so much.

 

I think we only tied because we played a huge game in practice jerseys. What's up with that?!

Why didn't they use the black kit? seemed like a perfect time to me.

 

That's not true. Why do you think that? His loan was a short term one just like Landon and Robbie's.

 

I think Bruce's very aggressive move to go to 3 in the back and 3 strikers when down 2-1 with 10 minutes left deserves mention. We scored immediately (and not really because of that move) but that was not typical of Bruce Arena in his time in charge with LA (or anyone else for that matter). Very interesting and very confident.

I was surprised (a little) that he rode out the last 10 minutes with that formation after tieing the game 2-2. I sort of expected our last sub to be made to shift back to a 4-4-2.

I guess I'm more conservative then Bruce.

 

Some random thoughts:

Well done by TFC to bring it, particularly at the beginning. The inexperience as a team began to show toward the end, and it was a little bit lucky that we didn't have 3 goals and the win headed to LA.

Neither team's defense was that great...sloppy defending, pre-season stuff. Both defenses should improve and get players back.

Our attack is gonna be scary...lots of great signs, even though the finishing was a tad off. We're going to score a lot of goals this year to go with the goals we're going to give up.

Saunders didn't look good. Part of it is probably this is the first year he's the #1 and knows it...last year he got called in, got hot, and rode it all the way to the cup. It's different being the MAN. I still think trading Ricketts was a good call, we just can't really afford to tie up cap space with two #1 keepers, but Saunders is going to have to steady himself a bit and get in a groove. I think he will, but be prepared for a couple of stinkers here and there as he adjusts to the pressure.

I predicted 2-2 in Toronto and 2-0 at home....hopefully I'm as right about the 2nd leg as I was about the 1st.

BTW, all the wondering about whether Bruce thuoght Omar was going to be gone or here or whatever....probably all moot, as we know he was working on CB's, he is counting on Leonardo coming back strong, and I think there were other deals in the works that didn't quite come through, from his comments at the time. We used our cap space on Buddle and Juninho when they became available, so we're making do with Boyens and Meyer for a bit. If we're still leaking goals like a sieve when Leonardo is back, then we need to be a bit worried.

Juninho had an off night. Hope he takes it as a challenge to perform better and get back to dominating. He's not going to crack Sao Paulo's rotation like he wants playing like that, and I'm sure he knows it.

 

I could be wrong, but I thought it was a trial with purchase possibilities.

 

Well look what Bruce did last night. He went with three in the back (I think) and brought on Barrett and Stephens. I expect if we had a lead, he might have just kept same formation. Expect to see a lot of either Magee or Sarvas coming on. Donovan and Keane will still be the best counter attack options we've got with Beckham pulling the strings. I also wouldn't be surprised if because of Juninho's contract situation that Bruce doesn't rotate Juninho a bit more.

Personally from a tactical standpoint, if your personnel allows it without a drop in quality, I'd always want to swap high workrate high energy midfielders evey game around the 65th minute. Juninho/Stephens would be an interesting 1-2 punch if Stephens can continue to develop. I haven't seen enough of Sarvas, but I think with his attacking runs, he could provide a spark.

 

I think Bruce, and the Galaxy were planning to ride Omar for one more year and then let him go (sell him), not that it really matters now. For that matter, I'd prefer to get to see Omar play out the last year of his contract next year and the Galaxy retain his rights. Not that I think it will get them anything, only that I'd get to see another year of Omar.

I wasn't trying to say that trading Ricketts was a bad idea. It was a great move for the cap, and we should be a better team by the end of the year for it thanks to what we did with the cap $. I do think that Ricketts, when not injured, is a better keeper than Saunders, and those little lapses in form or inability to clear his box may cost us given the holes in the 'fense now. By the end of the year hopefully Leonardo and Meyer will be good options for us, and maybe in even Gaul as a viable backup defender and as we are pouring in goals it will be clear what a good move it was.

 

I think you're right on with this. Overall, I think Ricketts is a slightly better keeper. (Calmer, better positioning at times.) But that's balanced by age and injuries, and Josh won the job by getting hot as hell at the end of last year. So I'm with you completely on that, and I think that yes, Josh will get more exposed by bad defense just because of the experience level. Give him a full year of pressure, and we'll see where he's at, but this year he probably won't shine until he gets a better rhythm and the defense tightens up a little bit.

 

My thoughts:

I'm not sure why, but I never doubted that LA would get a comfortable result. LA were always in command of the game and even with their two goals against the run of play, Toronto were always the second best team. That second goal was always coming and I'm only surprised we didn't have more.

The pitch looked like a rock. The ball played funny. I'm sure when the meet again next week on a decent pitch (there haven't been an concerts or tractor-pulls or anything recently, right?) then it'll be an even stronger performance from LA.

Backline looked a bit dodgy at times, but I'm confident it'll get better as the season progresses.

Love the way Edson & Keane are working together. It's gonna be a lot of fun watching them up top with Landon & the English guy supporting them.

If the Orange Smurfs get their hand smacked for flairs, how can MLS not come down on the BS being thrown *at* players last night. MLS came out with some kinda guideline a couple years ago saying streamers were okay to celebrate goals, but last night was TFC fans back at being total douchbags with the paper...and beer cans.

Oh, and how can you not love how pissed off Becks is?

 

You are correct. Nuremberg had lost their best CB, and they brought Omar in as a permanent replacement. Officially it was listed as a full Bundesliga season loan, with an LAG option to recall him on February 15. Bundesliga doesn't allow for short-term loans like the EPL does. They had six weeks to agree on a fee, which no one thought was going to be issue.

If Omar hadn't gotten injured, he'd be permanently gone. Now we get a little more Omar, toward the tail end of the season.

 

Not exactly, things are different in Germany: http://www.noshortcorners.com/2012/01/zen-and-art-of-language-maintenance.html

 

That is so full of assumptions presented as fact that it is laughable. Links?

Fact is that Omar has 2 (TWO) (DOS) seasons remaining on his contract. He wasn't going to be gone after February 15th unless an insane offer came in. Much more likely was that a deal would be arranged to sell him after June 30 which would have allowed him to participate in CCL and give us time to line up his replacement.

You guys seriously think that Bruce would just sell Omar (with no real pressure to do so since he has 2 more years on his contract) just before the season with no replacement lined up?

Prove it.

 

Your link proves my point. At best (for Nuremburg) it would be a summer transfer. Everyone wins in that regard. LA get paid and get Omar for CCL and have time to replace him.

As for point #4 in which he claims unique knowledge about non allowance of short term loans...I really doubt he is right.

 

Believe whatever you want. The writing was on the wall. The pressure wasn't coming from the MLS or ownership to sell him this year, it was coming from Omar. Bruce has always been a players-coach, I'm sure Omar's agent went out and found this deal, and I don't see Bruce standing in his way. Omar had just won MLS defender of the year and won a very high profile MLS Cup. He felt this was the best time the leave and pursue his goal of playing in Europe and getting a nice pay raise. No way Bruce blocks this and forces Omar to stay in LA just for one more season or half season.