What is wrong with the production crew. There is no reason to cut away to a 1990's graphic for stoppage time.
Really appreciate the good video quality of the stream, right from the website. Nice. Many times Fox or ESPN are inferior to that, sometimes unwatchable. The graphics, camera and direction though...wow. Work out that production stuff, guys.
I thought it was a great to see the entire 1st half squad return to watch the 2nd half - good team-building move from Sigi.
He was so quiet the Galaxy basically played with 10 men. If the Galaxy sign Ibra, Gio should go to the bench.
Zubak was a 2016 Galaxy II signing out of the Academy. FWIW, Joe did state this early in the second half. Here is the official Galaxy bio. https://www.lagalaxy.com/players/ethan-zubak I also like Cobi. Take for example his Sigi quote about needing a right back last season and then that's not all he said.
I found myself yelling at the screen during the "replays"... which never seemed to run smoothly and would inevitably be shown while actual live play was rolling. You could hear Tutino in the background talking about some buildup and here we are watching that ridiculous graphic and several replays that didn't need to be shown. Frustration with that aside, it was great to be able to watch the game, and I'm so happy that the Galaxy are back in action and actually look watchable this year after the debacle of 2017.
Was fun at the stadium. I enjoy matches wher I’m pretty sure the players can clearly hear the things I’m yelling at them. I thought we dominated both halfs. And thank god because I get the feeling that 85% of the NYCFC players yesterday will not feature in an mls match this season. Would like to see a sterner test next weekend.
One non-game observation. The quality of internet connectivity has been radically improved from last year. Credit where credit is due.
The good : - Kitchen is the real deal. Maybe not as impressive as he was against Salt Lake, but you can feel how important he could be to this team. - Jona was all over the place, he's done exactly what he's supposed to do : maintain possession in the midfield, making good runs between the lines and being the link between defense and offense. - Kamara's goal, great finish but the clearance from NYCFC defender was laughable. - Skjelvik and Cole doing OK. - overall, the first half was good from our part. The team is slowly coming together. - Baggio goal and assist. Veteran presence. You can't hate him. - Hilliard-Arce goal and looking much more comfortable than he was against RSL. - as I said above, Carrasco has looked solid once again. - Romney looked decent, a lot better than Arellano at LB. If we don't want to sign another LB, Romney should be the number 2 in the depth chart. - Lletget : not great but maybe our best player in the second half. The so-so : - Ciani : a few good moments but sometimes a little bit shaky. Not his worst game but I can't see a big difference from Steres and Romney. - Alessandrini : still trying to do a little bit too much, but still our most dangerous player. - Gio : OK game. If Jona is the link between defense and offense, Gio is supposed to be a creator (along with Romain and Ema). He's still not involved enough IMO. - Pontius reminds me a lot of Magee : skillful player but slow. Don't underestimate his ability to be where nobody expects him. - Zubak didn't look out of place, but he's clearly not ready yet. As I said above, I've watched all G2 games last year and Lassiter is a lot, a lot better than him, and he should play! The bad : - playing at 11 vs. 10 for more than a half in a preseason friendly is a good idea for confidence, but I don't read too much into our performance. Plus, it was their second team. They sould have been allowed to sub in a player when Matarrita was ejected IMO. - the only positive I find on Cobi is that's he's a Galaxy supporter, but otherwise he's abysmal. - Ema in the final third is still a concern. - Feltscher did not look comfortable with the ball going forward. Not sure he will provide many assists. Klimenta did not look good once again, not bad but I don't feel our right side will be one of our strenghts this year. Not a real surprise TBH. - good job from the Galaxy to write FLetscher on his jersey... - given his shaky moments against RSL, I would have liked to see more of Sylvestre. - Joao Pedro was our worst player. So many bad touches... You can see his confidence is very low at the moment. The good moves to make right now could be to waive/trade both Ciani and Joao Pedro, saving a lot of money and two international roster slots. Somewhere Juninho could be screaming he wants to come back to LA. Edit : I just read this update on Lassiter and BJIV : Dealing with injuries.— Adam Serrano (@AdamSerrano) February 11, 2018
Thank you for correcting me. I need to take your attitude about Cobi because he's not going anywhere.
In person I thought Ciani was impressive. He dominated his duels. Again, I take it with grain of salt cause I feel that we were playing some really mediocre nycfc players. Edit to add- very disappointed that nycfc was not allowed to go back to 11v11 in second half.
This may sound strange, but my biggest takeaway from the game was how thankful I was not not have to watch Zardes and Garcia looking, respectively, clueless and flat out bad out on the field. I think that's a good sign for the season.