I am having a hard time figuring out where all the pieces will fit once the full team is back in place.
Awesome game! Debate in the stands: Is Robbie running his ass off because he's pumped to play with a class player like Stevie G. OR, because he knows Stevie G. is walking? F San Ho. Most important question of the night: Why was Buddle wearing #9??!!
When did Goodson turn into a huge baby?? It's the water up there, isn't it. Great game and a great crowd tonight!!
Just got back from the game. Started off not so great with the somewhat disjointed play, but the Gs turned it up after SJ'S second goal. I know Robbie "Hattrick Rick" scored 3 tonight, but Seb was awesome and had a great game too. He worked hard tracking back and had several heart runs. Rogers kind of had a tough 1st half, but came on strong the 2nd half I thought. I'm liking him and Seb on the left more and more. The place went crazy went Gerrard scored. Glad to see him get his goal and assist for Keano's cheeky goal. The crowd was pretty lively tonight. Was disappointed to hear a "********!" chant from what seemed like the LARS area though.
As he was about to go in, the sideline ref saw something about his jersey. Maybe blood? In any event it appears that there was so second Edson shirt in the gear kit and the ref let him wear an Alan Gordon shirt.
Well, that was entertaining. Both Landon and Beckham were spotted in the boxes. This Keane guy seems pretty good. Hope Bruce sticks with him. First SJE game I can recall where more of their guys hit the deck than ours. Maybe it's the Kinnear influence but SJE did not play flat out dirty the way the usually do. It's hard to get up the same level of hate when there is no Lenhardt and the rest of the team plays hard but clean. But I will work at it. How did their keeper escape a second yellow when he took down Baggio? And I thought Salinas could have gotten a second one too. Roger was an outright disaster in the first half. Rust? He was a giveaway machine.
Keane hat trick or not, Lleget was MOTM for me. We started off pretty poorly and then found our way. This team has potential
Gerrard's celebration was pretty emphatic too. First MLS goal, but not like he hasn't scored before. It seemed to mean a lot to him. I know it was San Jose and that, perhaps deservedly, brings out the worst in some, but ACB had a couple of chants directed at SJ that were disappointing.
Really? Gerrard moves to the middle with Juni, GDS in for Husidic and Zardes up top with Keane. Put it in a blender, shake it up from time to time and it doesn't really matter where all the pieces fall formation wise. Bruce will juggle a bit from one alignment to another, but the bottom line is we attack with Keane, Zardes, dos Santos, Lletget and Gerrard. Juni does what he does best. Oh, and not to mention Omar and AJ are paired in the back. Are you kidding me?! This is other-worldly in MLS. I've had a lot of fun the past decade with this team, but I'm refreshingly giddy with excitement. Don't over think it. Just enjoy what's coming.
It will be interesting to see how often everyone is healthy and available, but that looks a pretty straightforward front 6, and probably the strongest front 6 the league has ever seen. And, with a pretty respectable defense behind it.
If you're looking to tinker, I could also still see Zardes pushed out to the wide midfield spot on occasion with Lletget pushed to the middle to allow Lletget and Gerrard to play a rotating two behind Keane. As strong as Gerrard was in some ways tonight, he looked winded at times and a lot is going to fall to Juninho defensively when Gerrard is actually tasked to play as 1 of the 2 center mids.
I'm not entirely sure that is fair. Gerrard isn't match fit yet so will need a handful of games to bring his fitness back up. Anyway I have no doubts that he will go from strength to strength. LA Galaxy have one of the top 3 best ever to play in the MLS (Gerrard, Beckham and Henry) in their team now and he largely did what everyone expected him to do. 1 goal, won a penalty and setup another, not a bad days work for someone who is not yet match fit. He truly does love the game and will always give his all for his team, its just who he is, a winner. I'm confident he will turn around all of those either sitting on the fence or negative of him.
The versatility of that front 6 will allow Bruce to align them in ways that can exploit opponents defensive weaknesses.
Nope, just a fair, unbiased opinion, having reffed and played a lot. And that was a good call. Just because most refs automatically call a foul on the forward when there is any contact in the box doesn't make it right. And LOL... really rich calling me a homer... I'm prob the least homer on here.