De Jong karate kicked a dude in the World Cup final and didn't even get a whistle. Let's not go full Soviet and pretend the guy was misunderstood. 2014 was the definitive, all-time, ultimate "******** anything that isn't MLS Cup" team. Robbie Keane was preoccupied in Euros, as I recall, so that put the Shield campaign on ice early, but you look at the standings that year and we were average as buttered toast. Then the playoffs rolled around and it was time to kill people. In a way that's pretty impressive, because a lot of teams - including us, many many many seasons - try to flip the switch in October and can't. We did in 2014, almost nonchalantly.
Read the article I posted about de Jong. To this day I still don't understand the vitriol that he seems to draw from people. Other players have much worse records than he does, but seem to get a pass. If someone could bring an actual argument to the discussion rather than, "he made a couple of horrible plays in high-profile matches" I'd love to see that. To be clear... I'm not saying he wasn't a dirty player... I just don't think the evidence that has been presented is particularly compelling. Especially after watching him play for the team for a season. ... I do agree with you on that 2014 team. Actually, the year MLS moved away from the balanced schedule, Arena basically said "F*ck it! Regular season doesn't mean anything anymore."
I miss this team. I was watching some highlights the other day (going down a rat hole on Youtube), and man we were so good with the positive build up. Ha! I see you went down the same rat hole.
Oh I remember that game. I remember throwing crap in my living room and reading all the press the next day PISSED OFF.
Don't know if he really gets a pass (though the fair player award he got at the Gold Cup was laughable), but Rafa Marquez is far dirtier than de Jong ever was. FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I think Gordon may have been offside twice in that sequence! Great goal, wonderful to relive all the history in this thread.
So what's your Galaxy XI of the decade? 4-4-2 Keane--Ibra Pavon--Dos Santos-Juninho-Donovan Rogers-Van Damme-Omar-AJDLG
I like your picks but I would go with the unsexy choice of Dunivant at left back. He was as solid as they come. And Ricketts (1st version) in goal.
Actor of the Decade too! Okay, I'll stop digressing now, though when Magee is mentioned, talking about anything else other than Magee is digressing...
Definitely actor of the decade. His voice harmonizing with Lady Gaga was amazing but I'm even a bigger fan of his performance with J Law in Silver Linings Playbook.
Magic Mike is so Great, and his greatness was ever so present and known throughout the vastness of space and time, that Matthew Broadrick did a reboot of Ferris Bueller's Day off in 1986 to pay homage to Magic Mike, who was still only 2 at the time.
I quibble with your definition of Dunivant as anything but sexy. I waffled on that one; in fact I'd start Dunivant over Rogers in some matches if I need a little more D. I forgot GK, but I think I have Ricketts 1.0 as my #1. The bench is pretty tough, as some guys who were iffy starters could be amazing super-subs: R. Alessandrini S. Lletget M. Magee G. Zardes T. Dunivant D. Steres J. Saunders Edit: I had Gerrard in there, but ultimately went with Lletget, Magee and Zardes, all of whom have multiple goals in the playoffs.
My personal opinion is that Rogers playing in the back was a little like Cole. Rogers was better that Cole overall but they both had unearned reputations for being good in attack (mostly because they looked good going forward). In reality they seldom produced much with these forays. They also both were suspect decision makers about when to push forward. I watched both do it for example in the last few minutes of road games when we were leading by a single goal or with two goal leads and say fifteen minutes to go. Why put yourself in such poor risk/reward ratio situations? And both cost us points in games by doing so. My other argument for Duni over Rogers is that with Keane, Ibra, Pavon and Donovan on the field together we won't need any more stinkin' goals! I haven't taken the time to look at the entire decade roster - can't we do better than Steres and Saunders coming off the bench?
------Keane-----Ibra--------- Romain----LD------Becks ----------Jds---Nigel-------- Jelle------Omar------Sean This might be interesting as well.
All I know for sure is that Duni-AJDLG-Omar-Sean were a fortress, especially at home. They got shut out after shut out. And the great thing was AJ could play all four back positions and played them all superbly. Getting rid of him when we did was one of the stupidest moves in franchise history.
What, all for $375k too right? Well, to me, one of the dumbest moves of the decade was breaking up the AJ/Omar pairing.
Omar was such a beast in the air during that period. I never had any fear of an opponents corners. He just dominated.
And AJ would typically clear up most everything else. They just complemented each other really well. Another bad move of the decade was not keeping the Sarvas/Juni pairing. They made tiki taco possible along with Keanovan.
Yep AJ not only did his job but also covered his teammates if they were beaten. He just read the game so damn well. As far as Sarvas and Juninho - IIRC (and that is a big if) we at least had the excuse that their salaries were ballooning up past 400k, back when the salary cap was tighter (pre-TAM I believe). Still I agree we pulled the plug too early on both, especially since they had the hearts of a lion and bled Galaxy blue. But AJ wasn’t overpriced and he filled a gigantic need at the time. We ended up starting the season without a single right back on the roster! Oh the genius of Klein/Vagenas/Onalfo — Let me count the ways I don’t miss you...