PBP: P/I/P Game 11: LA Galaxy @ FC Dallas, 5/9/2015 at 5:30 PM PST

Where was AJ, anyway?

 

Bruce blames Bruce.

 

Yep. It's nice to see a coach take responsibility. JK should be taking notes.

"When a team plays that poorly on the road, they're not well coached." - Bruce Arena after #DALvLA

— Adam Serrano (@AdamSerrano) May 10, 2015

 

Disappointing.

So far I'm overall not enjoying this year yet. It's got to get better.

 

Yep. Good news is with a Bruce team, it usually does.

 

The subs killed the game unfortunately

 

He was worn out. I was expecting him to rest this game.

 

Well, yes.

But, isn't a loss pretty much what we expected before the match. At least for me it was.

The only reason it was disappointing is that for most of the game the Gs played so much better than we expected and had a real chance to steal three points against a very hot team on its own grounds. The team's mistake was getting our hopes up.

 

Yeah, maybe I'm just frustrated. But we keep making odd decisions that in the past we could get away with but I'm not so sure anymore.

On the personnel side we lose Opare and Sarvas in two failed attempts to get Kljestan and then bring in Vayrynen and Buddle.

And I get that we're a bad team after losing Donovan, Sarvas and Keane, but then we should play like that. Bad teams try to win at home and then steal points on the road. Bruce's attitude, and he said this, was that we had the opportunity to steal 6 points on the road. But the reality is that we managed 1 and gave up 2 at home.

I'm not giving up hope or anything, it's easy to get in the playoffs, and if Keane and Gerrard are healthy, we'll have as good a chance as anyone. But to me it seems like there's this attitude that as long as we get the big decisions right we don't have to worry about the little decisions and I think that could have bad consequences.

 

Perhaps a bit of compounded frustration. Each of the last three games three points

Sure, but year after year Bruce has shown (and I include his time at DC) getting the big decisions right is more important than the little ones. There have been better teams than LA over the course of the season for 2 of the 4 seasons we made it to MLS Cup and 2 of the 3 DC made it. Ultimately for me that final whistle at SHC in 2011, 2012 & 2014 makes up for a whole lot of crappy games. When and if the Shield becomes the more important trophy I'll probably be less forgiving of the casual attitude towards regular early season games.

 

Gave this a try but it froze up on me too. A few more attempts but then I just gave up. Sounds like LA did too?

 

Weird, weird tactics this game. For the vast majority of the game we were very tight and compact defensively, often with 8 or 9 players behind the ball. Dallas has no space whatsoever to work it - if they beat Rogers (which they did repeatedly) then Meyer was right there. If they beat Meyer then Gonzo was there. And Juninho was clogging every lane in the middle. We could have played 300 minutes like that and I don't think Dallas would score.

And then we had the great fortune of taking the lead of an nice Zardes header against the run of play . We have this. Our confidence is up, Dallas is frustrated, all we have to do now is keep numbers behind the ball and close up shop.

But noooooo... We decide to go with a completely different tactic - for the first time since the game began we start spreading our team all over the field leaving acres of open space in front of our back line. Or back three I should say since Rogers decided this was a good time to start pushing up more.

Don't believe me? Here is our positioning at minute 72. Gordon is in as our target forward and the rest should be goal-side of the ball, protecting our lead. But they are all upfield leaving acres of space for a wide open Blas Perez to work in the middle of the field, Gargan with the impossible task of covering two wing players coming at him, and non-speedy Myers isolated on the speedy Castillo. Ishi should be over on the right side with Gargan helping out instead of trailing the play in the middle. But can you find Maganto, Rogers, Husidic, and Zardes?



Well a few seconds later we can find them. In a clump. Slowly jogging. But we got lucky - first Castillo then Akindele missed open shots.


This complete loss of team shape continued for most of the time after we took the lead. It didn't help that Bruce decided to sub in Gordon and BJIV rather than defensive players like like Garcia and AJ who stayed firmly planted on the bench.

Omar started out the sequence leading to their first goal. The Dallas player (Perez?) had nothing going on until Omar decided it was a good time to go to ground and try a wild sliding tackle 35 yards from goal. He luckily avoids a card but they get a free kick which leads immediately to the Dallas goal. Of course for this to happen we also need a tired Juninho to also go to ground taking himself out of the play, and for our last man on defense to be Alan Gordon (literally true) rather than say AJ who could have come in for either of our tired outside backs. Gordon, using his finely honed defensive skills and renown sense of balance and body control decides he can help most by going for a spectacular bicycle kick, freezing our keeper and allowing the ball to come down untouched for Perez to finish.

After that we just gave up completely on defensive shape making the second Dallas goal almost inevitable (Dallas' frequent incompetence should not be underestimated) - it was mostly just a matter of when.

Here is our defensive positioning before the second goal:



Again Gargan is by left completely by himself on the right side as the entire team has been pulled to the left. Meyer is in fact 30 yards from where a centerback should be in this situation.

Now why would they all have to shift to this side of the field? Isn't that Rogers area? And wouldn't he want to stay back in the closing minutes of a road game that we are trying to hold onto for dear life? Oh. Nevermind. That's him upfield trailing the play and watching yet again as the whole team shape collapses to cover the field where he should have been. Can't fault the guy for wanting to get a closer look as his teammates get shredded.

The end result is Gargan is left in a difficult 2 v 1 situation he should have never been in. For the most part he did what he should have - shepherd the guys as long as he can and hope help comes. If he had stepped up early in the play Akindele could have easily slotted the ball to the wide open cutter in the middle for a point blank shot. Help did finally arrive and Gargan should have been a bit quicker to step up at that point, but that is difficult to time since you don't have eyes in the back of your head. As it was he narrowed the angle and forced Akindele to make a pretty pinpoint shot that grazed the inside of the far post - the only way he scores. Which he unfortunately did.

But like I said the problem wasn't Gargan - the problem was team shape that put him in this situation. This loss isn't on him. Or Penedo. Or Omar. Or Juninho. It's #1 on Rogers who decided that he should quit playing defense once we got the lead. And #2 on the rest of the midfield who went off and completely left their back line hanging out to dry. And #3 on Bruce who didn't recognize the problem and use his defensive subs after we got the lead.

We had this game and then just gave it away. Incredibly disappointing.

 

I was able to get it working finally. Not sure what the freezing was about. It's better than streams anyway.

 

I didn't read this before I did my post-match write-up, but it is what I was talking about in it (only you did a much better job).
http://www.lagconfidential.com/2015/5/10/8582119/positives-and-negatives-la-galaxy-at-fc-dallas

Over-all, I think Arena came into the match with a great tactical approach that worked until about the 75th minute, at which point the whole midfield seemed to lose the plot. At that point, we REALLY needed to have a veteran player step up and pull the team back together. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Hopefully Omar can learn to do that. This season is going to be a real growth opportunity for a lot of guys... none more than him.

The only other thing that really struck me about this match was how little joy Zardes showed after scoring. I think he is really carrying the responsibility of pushing our attack way too heavily. I think Bruce and some of the other veteran players need to step in and tell him to have some fun. If he can do that, I think he'll play much more freely and be much more effective.

 

Just saw the team at Dfw. They've apparently been here since 9am (4:15 here now) because of thunderstorms all day. Didn't have the heart to go up and bother them, poor ********ing bastards.

 

I agreed with Cobi that Zardes played better after he scored. So that's encouraging. Sleeping on it hasn't helped me feel any better about blowing this game, and yours and skydog's excellent analyses has just confirmed that this is a game we should have won, against a big conference rival. What a blown opportunity. Seems like we've had several of those this year.

 

Thoughtful but can't say I agree Rogers caused two goals or one goal or any goal for that matter.

 

You are right if you mean Rogers was nowhere to be found when both goals were scored.

But the practice of simply blaming the closest person ignores why goals get scored, which is more often due to a team breakdown than individual player mistakes. If a defense keeps its shape and stays compact then when an opponent gets by one player then he is immediately confronted by another player who is providing defensive cover. That is the way we played for the first 60 minutes or so. In fact that cover is exactly why Rogers' getting beaten repeatedly be Castillo in the first half didn't cost us any goals.

But once the midfield starts leaving large gaps between it and the back line and defenders get caught upfield on counterattack it all falls apart. And that is exactly what happened. The last 25 or 30 minutes Rogers and all of the midfield not named Juninho couldn't be bothered with their defensive duties. So Meyers, Omar, Gargan and Juninho were left alone to defend against the 4 or 5 attacking players Dallas was pushing forward. Worse Rogers absence forced Meyers to shift away from his natural center back position and left Omar where he had to repeatedly make difficult lose/lose decisions. Should he drift over and back up Meyers when Meyers was left 1 on 1 with Castillo? If he did that meant leaving Gargan by his lonesome and vulnerable in the middle of the field where most goals are scored (which is exactly what happened). But if he didn't drift away from the middle that meant Castillo had an open route to goal if he got by the slower Meyer ( which also happened but Meyers was reprieved by Castillo missing an open goal).

So bottom line once Rogers and the midfielders quit helping defensively, leaving Dallas lots of room to operate 30 yards from our goal and many opportunities to create 1 v 1's or even 2 v 1's without any defensive cover, they were going to score. It was just a matter of when and how often. As it turned out they did it twice.

But maybe you are right. Gargan should have just run upfield with Rogers and then he also couldn't be blamed for any goals being scored, right?

 

I didn't see it that way. I thought Rogers was basically fine. My problem was with Husiduc, Zardes, Ishi, and Jameison not getting back. The problems really started when the subs were made and the line-up reshuffled. I think it was immaturity from the young guys, and a lack of discipline from Husidic and Ishi.

 

My biggest problem with this match was bringing in Jamieson. He is like milk toast defensively. It was pretty obvious Arena wanted the team to push up offensively. A serious miscalculation. I would have brought in a 5th defender.

 

Ok fuller report since I'm not sitting on a plane. I was at gate 18 and I heard a voice say "is this it? It's supposed to be gate 21 but this says Los Angeles." It could only be the voice of Bruce Arena. I turned around and there was him and his son debating if this was the right gate. And then they went off.

After a minute of digesting, I figured, if Bruce is here, the team is probably here, so I wandered down to 21. First I saw BJIV sitting basically alone playing on his phone...hair is hard to miss. Next I recognized Robbie Rogers sitting with the defenders (Meyer, I think Gargan, Husisic, someone I didn't recognize.) they looked the kind of miserable only sitting in an airport all day can bring. Then I saw Gyassi sitting next to juni playing cards against Rafa and I think Nacho, with a couple other guys around. The closest I came to bothering them was trying to get a pic between Gyassi & Juni but they looked like they were having fun and talking trash and I didn't want to bother them. Then on the way back to the gate I saw Bruce sitting with the coaches in this Irish pub place they had, which made me love them all more.

I felt bad for them. Their plane that was supposed to leave at 10:30 left 15 minutes after my plane that was supposed to leave at 3:30. On the plus side, while I was waiting for my bags, all of their bags came off the plane to my carousel, (they're literally Adidas duffel bags with Gaalxy and their number on the top) so they didn't have to wait for their bags.

 

If the goals had been scored on Rogers side I would have blamed Rogers. Its pretty obvious Gargan failed to close his man down. He did not need eyes in the back of his head to assume a CM would be backing him up. On the otherhand, the goal was scored on a beauty of a pinpoint shot.

On the other goal, some one lost Diaz.

 

The Galaxy are really tired and banged up.

 

Careful. You are going to get a visit from the Rogers police.