P/I/P Game 24: LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo, 9/15/21, 7:30 PT on Spectrum SportsNet

Discussion in 'LA Galaxy' started by TrickHog, Sep 13, 2021.

  1. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    #226 skydog, Sep 16, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2021
    Agree 100%. When I saw the formation/lineup I didn’t like it, especially the use of Efra. When Gamer said Yay, three forwards I understood because on paper this is an an aggressive formation. But in reality Efra isn’t a forward. He especially isnt effective if he is put in a formation where he is expected to cover a lot of ground and stretch teams out. He has neither the foot speed nor the motor for that. OTOH Grandsir brings great energy - but has only 2 goals on 50 shots and a terrible 4% conversion rate.
    So when Vanney trotted this lineup out my first thought was at least Chich is healthy, because I don’t see him getting a lot of help. Poor strategy by our usually great coach.
     
  2. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Definitely.
     
    TrickHog and mbar repped this.
  3. El Futbolisimo

    El Futbolisimo Member+

    Sep 28, 1999
    I mean, yeah. Great breakdowns by the more tactical minded folks but yeah. What was shocking to me was the lethargy once again. It doesn't matter what players are chosen or what formations if the guys on the field, the ones who get picked to go make it happen, half-ass it.

    Disgusting display of heart and determination (except for Chicha and Dejan). Just hand them their checks and let them go home. Thanks alot guys...
     
    JPAR and TrickHog repped this.
  4. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    #229 skydog, Sep 16, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2021
    He surprisingly did. Better than usual. But usually only for brief moments before he resorted back to the usual ‘Cobi insights’ like “Well Chich and Jevan need to play well together - that’s the key.”
    Wow, never realized that! Mind blown…

    But yeah I hope he realizes it would be good to research the other team, maybe use his access to learn some particulars about our players and share them with us, etc. Also he needs to stop with the ‘participation awards’. For example a player will make a poor choice to dribble right into a wall and 99% of the time he will say “I like the effort there.”

    Am I being too grumpy? Well then get off my lawn! :)
     
    El Futbolisimo, JPAR, TrickHog and 2 others repped this.
  5. Geneva

    Geneva LA for Life

    Feb 5, 2003
    Southern Cal
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, I've been tuning him out so much, it was pleasant to hear anything resembling information that I didn't know myself. Cobi played at the highest level and he forgets to share some of that.
     
  6. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    #231 skydog, Sep 16, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2021
    This.
    (Personally I would add Grandsir to the heart and effort list.)
     
  7. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I like the bar you articulated- say something I didn’t know myself. My guess is that Cobi never was an analysis/strategy guy, even when he was playing. He was skilled enough and fast enough that the “just go for it” level of analysis was likely enough for him.
     
    El Futbolisimo and TrickHog repped this.
  8. FlapJack

    FlapJack Member+

    Mar 3, 2006
    Los Angeles
    Cobi mostly says too many bland things he seems like a corporate idiot. However, I still like him and I really like this saying of his: “sometimes a foul is just a foul”. Soccer is a physical sport and not every foul deserves cards, histrionics, or personal outrage.
     
    napper, 73Bruin, Berks and 3 others repped this.
  9. MPNumber9

    MPNumber9 Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #234 MPNumber9, Sep 16, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2021
    Yep, you're right. It goes to the point, Houston were smart about when they chose to close down and contest balls.

    To your other points (starting Efra etc.) it's like the goal was to grind this team down with possession, in which case Efra is not a bad choice. He started in the home game against Seattle where we outplayed them for long stretches and lost narrowly 2-1. But in that match we also had Kjlestan and Lletget.

    Sebastian Lletget is our best midfielder, which says a lot depending on your perspective.
     
    JPAR, TrickHog and shelbo repped this.
  10. MPNumber9

    MPNumber9 Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It was nice to see Chicharito get a goal; looks like he's able to hit the ground running.

    His strike rate has been ridiculous and despite missing 12 matches? He's still tied for 5th in the boot race with 11 goals in 12 starts.
     
    El Futbolisimo, skydog and TrickHog repped this.
  11. shelbo

    shelbo Member+

    Oct 16, 2007
    L.A.
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yep. And he's a B+/A- player. Tidy on the ball (but not going to dribble through traffic or break the other team down on the dribble). Makes good simple passes to keep possession (but seldom able to make a creative "key ball" pass). Can be physical (but not that big, seldom makes the "destroyer" tackle). Decent finisher (but not great). Gives his all, leaves his heart out there (but not fast enough to break anything open). Absolutely great to have him on the team, especially at his salary, but would be so much better paired with a true DP mid-fielder.
     
    Berks, JPAR, TrickHog and 2 others repped this.
  12. LEM-LAG

    LEM-LAG Member+

    May 28, 2011
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    I completely agree, good description of Seba. At some point I wonder if having a "just good" Seba is not a bad thing for our team. We've been terrible for such a long time, Seba was never our biggest problem but what if we had a Pozuelo or a Almiron instead of him ?

    I'm not saying we should trade/transfer him, I frankly have a soft spot for him, he loves the club, longest tenure with our team, came a long way with the USNT, came back form a terrible injury... It might be a situation of "you know what you have and don't know what you get", like the Magee/Rogers trade for example.
     
    shelbo, JPAR and TrickHog repped this.
  13. Beirut

    Beirut Member+

    Feb 3, 2010
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I guess my question is where is the intensity? There aren’t that many games left. Each game counts. How do we come out playing like that? It isn’t just the slow midfield, but the inaccuracy of our passes. I don’t see a team that’s focused in on making a playoff push. I don’t see a team that truly wants to challenge for a playoff spot. I’m not sure what happened. It seems like we lost steam.

    Anyone remember that 2014 team just TURNED IN ON in august? Good god do I miss that playoff push.
     
    napper, shelbo, JPAR and 3 others repped this.
  14. El Futbolisimo

    El Futbolisimo Member+

    Sep 28, 1999
    Where is the intensity? It's in Chicharito! Here again is the last part of his interview after Houston match after being asked why are you here?:

     
    shelbo, MPNumber9 and TrickHog repped this.
  15. TrickHog

    TrickHog Moderator
    Staff Member

    Oct 14, 2002
    Los Angeles, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yes. Now he needs to kick some butts in practice and develop that intensity day in and day out.
     
    El Futbolisimo and shelbo repped this.
  16. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I don’t mind Efra starting, especially in a midweek game. It was more the formation. JDS and Efra were our whole right side midfield. Thats a bad combo. - too slow, too much space to cover for those two. Efra doesn’t have wheels so basically our right side wasnt going to stretch them out.
    Efra is better at playing in support, finding space with his mazy dribbles. Or give him a mobile partner in support who can overlap. We just looked soft on right side and had too few “ground eaters” everall. A atatic starting lineup except for Grandsir and Chich.
     
  17. El Futbolisimo

    El Futbolisimo Member+

    Sep 28, 1999
    The issue of course is that they work for the team. So if it is expected from FO to be homers, they will be homers. Not as objective and as informative as they could be regarding what is happening in front of them. I know Cobi and Joe with his 25 years doing this would cheer if they were allowed to just call it as they see it.

    I look forward to a time when the people that own the rights to the telecasts also provide the announcers who can be less tied to any one team and improve that part of the match broadcasts across the league. Like in other countries.
     
    JPAR and TrickHog repped this.
  18. FlapJack

    FlapJack Member+

    Mar 3, 2006
    Los Angeles
    The ability of HD standards to carry multiple audio tracks is a low bw underutilized feature. Forget SAP, if I could have the ability to have field sounds only audio track, it’d make me a dedicated subscriber. Base audio “free” track could be more packed with adds. Or the homer R-rated audio track that cursed out the referees - I’d listen - is there an ex-Galaxy Roy Kent who could do that broadcast?
     
  19. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    In my 25 years of listening to thousands of soccer broadcasts, US and abroad, I’ve become pretty familiar with what is out there. Cobi is easily in the bottom 5% imo. The color guy who did the COL game was one of few I find worse. And the weird thing is I really LIKE Cobi as a person. So he has to be pretty bad for me to be critical of him.

    Actually I don’t think Cobi is too much of a homer - it’s the opposite actually. He doesn’t bring much emotion in general but he shows even less for the Galax . For example just in last nights game- he notes the reg ignored the advantage rule in a sentence or two an then instantly moves on. The ref blows the whistle to stop play right as we are about to enter the box with the ball. All so we could take a free kick from 20 yards further from the goal. How fing bad is that?! And there is a decent chance it cost us the game. That is a MAJOR talking point for any other soccer announcet but Cobi just glides over it. Then just a few minutes later Cabral is knocked flat on his ass in the box right in front of the ref by a player who never looked at the ball. But the ref swallows his whistle, doesn’t even bother to signal play on. That chickening out by the ref almost definitely costs us the win. Cobi’s flat reaction? “That was a clear pk, we should have slowed down the throw in..Oh, look look tomorrow night is going to be rainy.”. ANY other color guy/gal would have had a LOT to say - noting two terrible ref decisions costing us at least one, and maybe two goals at the end of a tied game. Cost the HOME team victory. You would never know. He didn’t even note that there were game changing calls in the last few minutes.

    He’s supposed to be a COLOR commentator for chrissake but his color is bland. And he often sounds more aggrieved for our opponents than for us.

    I won’t get into his endless banalities. Or just dumb statements like saying we are bringing in Cabral because he is a more technical player than Grandsir?? Grandsir is amazingly tidy with the ball. He can’t score but he has every other skill you want in a player. Meanwhile Cabral struggles to even trap a simple ball consistently, doesn’t have consistent close dribbling skills, is a terrible passer and regularly hits his shots so poorly they end up rolling like a slow putt righf to the goalie technical skills? On what planet is Cabral more technically gifted than Grandsir?

    OTOH Tutino does his job and probably would be fine with a good color commentator partner.
     
  20. cleschke

    cleschke Member+

    Aug 16, 2004
    Fullerton, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Spectrum also doesn’t seem to have figured out that the Montreal Impact is now Club Foot or whatever ridiculous name they came up with. They have been displaying the old logo on the I’m game score ticker at bottom of the screen the whole season.
     
  21. El Futbolisimo

    El Futbolisimo Member+

    Sep 28, 1999
    Yeah, You're right of course but the FO could step in a more round-about way and tell both Joe and especially Cobi what you just said and steer the broadcasts away from the fluff and gloss it currently finds itself in. All this crap is teachable. You just let them know you want them to be more clinical in pointing out strategies, changes in tactics as they happen, suggest changes in tactics that would help either team. Point out and break down the good but also the bad wether they think it comes from the players, the coaches or the refs. Just be honest, informative and educational for those listening. Cut the fluff out.

    I have feeling tho, the FO wants no waves with the league regarding refs blown calls and no problems with the coaches and the announcers as to being critical of them on air. Just take it nice and easy and entertain the people. They don't realize or don't care the audience has outgrown that crap.
     
    skydog, TrickHog and 73Bruin repped this.
  22. Berks

    Berks Member+

    Dec 22, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Grandsir has truly been a pleasant surprise. Originally Rayan’s flair and goal scoring caught the eye, but Grandsir leaves it all out there. And I love that attitude. Kinda like Gyasi or Marcelo. You could never blame them for being lazy.
     
    napper, 73Bruin, skydog and 3 others repped this.
  23. MPNumber9

    MPNumber9 Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Totally agree. Balance is the name of the game. But I also observe Vanney's hands are tied a bit, given the schedule. If you were gonna play your "softest" midfield...like if you're trying to give Vasquez his easiest game, on-paper it would've been this one. You're saving your work-horses, Cabral (for his other faults) and Lletget for the weekend. At least I calculate that's the plan. Of course, if we get nothing out of the next game, we'll have looked foolish for not going all-in at home. I feel like Vanney ran right into a cliff but I'm also starting to feel he just doesn't have the horses.

    It's a brutal stretch where we don't come home again till October.
     
    skydog, Bilgediver and TrickHog repped this.
  24. Bilgediver

    Bilgediver Member+

    LA Galaxy
    Oct 16, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Plus I don't think anyone expecting Vazquez to lay eggs like that, ordinarily he is quality.
     
    TrickHog and skydog repped this.
  25. skydog

    skydog Member+

    Aug 1, 1999
    Durham, NC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    #250 skydog, Sep 18, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2021
    Yes we had to rotate personnel - Vanney can’t always field our best 11.
    My problem was his formation didn’t fit well with the personnel we did use. It spread us out too much. The right side combo of JDS & Alvarez was slow and weak on offense and defense. Also a poor fit with JDS’s talents. Putting Rayan as our lone DM put him too far back, exposed his weaknesses (being a trustworthy drop-back defensive shield for our cb’s) and minimized his strengths (covering ground, mixing it up, disrupting opponents flow and getting forward). This formation gave him no help - he ended up being pretty much our entire defensive midfield. Not good. Especially not good with the offensive minded Vazquez right in front of him. That meant Rayan was going to be under attack. A lot. Like say on the goal they scored. (not Vazquez’s fault but showed the way Rayan was going to be isolated and under pressure a lot.)

    Here are the exact same personnel but in a much more solid, deployment. It’s stronger down the spine, will force more turnovers and puts players in their best positions:

    -----------------Chich-------------------

    Grandsir------Vazquez -------Alvarez --

    --------------JDS---Rayan----------------

    Hama—-DePuey----Sega--------Araujo
    ------------------Bond

    Or switched the 3 across to this which is probably an even better fit. Vazquez has been very good at attacking from left mid, and Grandsir is great at attacking from right. Not sure about Alvarez in middle though:

    -----------------Chich-------------------

    Vazquez------Alvarez-----Grandsir

    --------------JDS---Rayan----------------

    Hama—-Steres----Sega--------Araujo
    ------------------Bond


    Or Vanney could have used the same overall game personnel but given fresh legged Dejan the start, like this:

    -------------Dejan----Chich-------------------
    ------Vazquez---------------Grandsir
    ----------------Rayan----------------
    ----------------------JDS------------------
    Hama—-Steres----Sega--------Araujo
    ------------------Bond

    Or finally the 3-2-2-2-1 that worked so well vs COL:

    -------------------Chich-------------------

    --------------Grandsir---Alvarez --

    -------------JDS----Rayan--------------
    --Hama ------------------------------Araujo
    ----------DePuy--Steres---Sega--------
    ----------------------Bond

    All of these would have used available personnel and been much better than the weak-axx formation we put out there. :thumbsdown:
     
    MPNumber9, 73Bruin and TrickHog repped this.

Share This Page