Well that performance does not inspire much excitement for the upcoming season. Our defense was lucky not to concede four. Our offense didn’t seem to have a lot of ideas. I feel like we have to hope that they just flip the switch and are a much better team than it looks today or else it will be a long season. Insua looked real good.
I was there. Moving Lletget wide and having Katai and Pavon switch between outside/inside helped in the second half. But, yeah, we are struggling to get the ball to Cheech and to create good chances. Corona better than Kitchen. Insua and Depuy looked decent. Pavon is great. But, we are far from ready to compete with the best.
We looked a little better in the 2nd half when we switched to a 4-4-2. Chicharito is very average, if that's all he's got, we are going to have problems. In the 2nd half GDS had Sasha drop deep to collect the ball and distribute, it helped a lot. Up until then Kitchen saw most of the ball, and he's just not good enough. For me, the most disappointing thing is we are one week from the start of the season and don't have an identity....again. When we press, it's only the front 7, Kitchen and the defense are way back guarding no one, making it easy for CHicago to pass around and break. Gonzalez play like an ayso defender, everything is cleared out of bounds or straight to Chicago. A defender at this level has to be able to make a pass to his own teammate....right? I would love to be a fly on the wall in practice and listen to see if GBS has any instructions to the team at all. Hopefully it's just pre-season. Right now it looks like this season we will live and die by Pavon's individual talent.
This is the way I see it as well. We’ve gone from Zlatan reliant time Pavon reliant. I think Chicharito just needs a goal to get going, but I’ll go back to a point when we first signed him: he needs an attacking mid behind him to be successful. I thought the 2nd goal should have been offside, but I’m okay conceding it. Our defenders need to learn to communicate better and there’s no better lesson than conceding a dumb goal like that. Here’s hoping Franco puts Giancarlo on the bench. Game after game he’s either extremely mediocre or the worst defender on the field.
I didn't get to watch so I will take your word that we still suck. Truth is after watching the CCL just about every MLS team participating is off to one degree or another so we fit right in. we have to give it time to gel I suppose. I saw an interview with Guillermo. Says Efra is not as bad as he thought given the initial horrible sight of him at time of injury. Maybe two weeks he said barring any bad news from the MRI. He says Insua will start training with team this week and so will Jona. News conference was bilingual and I have to say when they ask him stuff in Spanish the dude is like ten times more informative. If he wont take a translator maybe they should provide one for the media. I mean it is just night and day!
Insua played today, and maybe it’s the last year of watching Skelvik play LB, but he looked like a big upgrade. I can tell why he has played for some big teams. Hopefully he holds up.
Weird, the live game was blacked out for me on my DirectTV SportsNet but when I turned on the set 3 hrs later it was still on DTV ch 691 and they were re-broadcasting the game, this time not blacked out. So SportsNet policy is you can watch the game on a 3 hour delay?? Anyhoo, I got to watch it. Here are some brief impressions: Bingham: Familiar story - nice saves (especially a goal preventing foot save) accompanied by head-scratcher gaffes. He almost cost us the game when he mishit a high ball directly into the path of a CHI player in the box. DePuy: A pleasant surprise and our best defender in this game. Small sample size but he looked like a "better Steres." More active and more proactive, attacking the ball on set pieces and initiating a smart strategic fouls to kill off potential counter-attacks. Insua: I'm with Beirut - looks like an upgrade at left back. Took care of his defensive responsibilities and looked better than either Romney or Skjoiu going forward. Gonzalez: I'm not as critical as others. I thought he played ok. I still believe we need a more physical, air dominant cb though. The air dominance is especially important (see Bingham and high balls above). Feltscher: Mostly played wing midfield and looked ok there. Like always - good at advancing the ball, not great in the final third. But toward end of game he had to play defense and was exposed, creating some Keystone Kops moments. Kitchen: Too passive and reactive, as always. Makes the conservative pass almost every time, but did that adequately. Katai: Looked ok, better than Antuna. Kljestan: My expectations were low but he exceeded them. He made several key passes and fought hard in spurts. Seems to lack stamina though and he will be a defensive liability. Lletget: Active, ok until he gets in the box where he continues to be ineffective. Pavon: Best player on the pitch, by far. Was twisting defenders inside out and got off a couple of beautiful, delicate chip crosses. Blew the early breakaway chance with Chich by holding onto the ball too long. Chicharito: Unlike Ibra, Chich is not athletic enough to create his own scoring chances so his performance is dependent on his teammates. And yesterday most of the passes to him were a bit off - too slow, too fast, too far in front, too far behind him. His quick reaction lunge assisted on our goal but he failed to capitalize on a couple of other half chances. For me, jury is still out. Cuello: Blew his big breakaway chance, hitting a meek pass in Chich's direction. Corona: Better than Kitchen. Big Picture: We looked meh on both offense and defense against a meh team. Compared to last season we've upgraded at left back but that is cancelled out by the downgrade at left cb. I do like our additions DePuy, Insua and Katai but none of them are game changers. Kljestan is also better than expected but my expectations were low. Offensively Chichirito (and our team) will struggle if our final third passing doesn't improve.
Everything should improve. Lots of changes and new people. Once all the horses are pulling hard and in the same direction we'll have a good time. And thanks for game breakdown and highlights guys.
I agree with most of previous posts about who played well and not, but here are my two, somewhat random thoughts: Chicharito was set up on a platter directly in front of the goal by Kljestan and was not ready/stumbled? Also fired a weak effort into the goalie's hands when set up on the right side early in the game. Not inspiring confidence right now. Hope he is miles better than he is currently showing or we way overpaid. Sad to say it, but Lletget seems to be regressing year after year. He looks like a guy that expends A LOT of energy to make plays or just maintain possession, which could mean a rapid decline in performance as he ages. Hope his experience and confidence can compensate.
He sure did, although it was more in the goalie's direction than Chich's. And with a wide open net directly in front of him to boot. Got to hope he will learn from that one, to calm down and not panic.
Best thing about the game yesterday... The real season begins next Saturday! I'm operating under the assumption the Galaxy is holding something back until convinced otherwise...
Thank you all for the reports (though they are not reassuring) for those who weren't able to watch the game!
I'm more optimistic than many of you. I think DePuy improved significantly between the first game and the second. In the first, he was almost afraid to pass the ball forward. It may not be a smooth path, but he could end up as the best defender for the Galaxy since Omar and JVD. I think that the Galaxy will eventually get Franco, who can apparently also play on the outside.
I want to add a caution to my post above. I have never seen Franco play and was going by the highlight clips which led me to believe that he at least occasionally played on the outside. However, Transfermarkt lists him as a CB only for the last several years. Who knows how old the clips were or how they were edited. I feel like Pete and Jovan except I get paid less.
Positives from the last game: -Pavon looks amazing and seems to keep getting better -Chicharito linking up well; got an assist -More team-wide defensive organization (albeit in fits and starts) -Lletget playing very well all over the pitch -Good combo play in the final third leading to chances (again, in fits) Negatives: -We're very reliant on Pavon to get the attack going -Chicharito didn't score (on decent chances) -Midfield still feels like a project; for instance, pressing is not always organized allowing team to get stretched out of position and easy to pass through -Katai was pretty invisible in this match Overall, we still need a bit of work both on offense and defense. Hopefully we're good enough to still beat teams while we wait for everything to click.
I'm not seeing much improvement over last season. We had a tidy spell in the first 20 minutes of the second half but our defense still looks very shaky. I'm also a little worried about Chicharito. He may not have had great service but he's still had a couple of chances that he would have gobbled up in his prime. Perhaps it's just a matter of the team gelling. I certainly hope so!
Wondering when JDS gets back if he will get the captaincy. I think he should. But looks like it's going to stick with Chicharito, which I get...but feels a little off relative to how important JDS is to our team. Then again, JDS seems like a quiet leader, so what do I know? Not really an important question, but it is somewhat symbolic.
Seems like we've just repeated the same cycle from last preseason, and are hoping something changes this year, but it won't. Our defense is still way too shaky, and we will drop points numerous times that will stop us from challenging the top clubs. We will finish in a low playoff spot, and hopefully win our first round only to lose to one of the clubs that have their shit together.
If that's the case, GBS shouldn't remain in charge past this season. He got a huge pass last season based on what he inherited from the past regime. We've heard up and down about how with Zlatan gone and a roster built around his philosophies, we'll see a more cohesive system. MLS is a parity-based "win now" league. You don't need multiple rebuilding years in a row to compete. It's time for GBS to deliver.
GBS has to show he can organize a team this year, but wasn't that the criticism of him at Boca? We don't really seem to have an identity, a plan of what we want to do as a team, either with the ball or without it. Just get the ball to Pavon and see what happens. Hopefully I'm wrong and it's just pre-season with lots of new faces.
That would make the comments about Zlatan's effect on our tactics completely incorrect then. Not saying that's not possible by the way. Just pointing it out. Isn't team organization Dom's wheelhouse though?
He sure does a great impression of post-Crisis Fernando Torres at times, which is worrying. On a few of those I wondered "how'd he NOT score there?" The upside is he created some good chances with his link up play and dropping deep, including the goal he assisted. But he really needs a goal. Chichartio's knack is sorta disappearing. As a line-leading CF, he doesn't really impose his will on the game for 90 minutes, he's kinda just looking for a moment. I won't be surprised if we end up pairing him with someone else up top. Pavon, also, could be a little less selfish. He could've set Chicharito up with an early cross on one play (would've been an amazing pass, but it's within his ability) but he dribbled and shot instead.
GBS / DtK said they had a 3-year plan. This is year 2, but I think this is pretty much the squad. We might see some depth added and maybe 1-2 upgrades in the starting positions, but this is pretty much it I think. So yes, we definitely need to see an identity emerge this year and we should be using it to achieve -- maybe not a championship, but a deep playoff run. Next year we should be a well-oiled machine. I have heard, contrarily, that Schelotto was a task-master a Boca, which is why I've given him the benefit of the doubt. BUT -- he needs to prove it here.
I noticed that too. I know that in preseason games, players sometimes go a bit more "off script" in terms of expression. Hopefully he reigns that in a bit once results are on the line.