This is it....new territory for virtually everyone around this here parts....except for maybe Bobby Rhine and few FO old timers. What do we need to do to counter LA's solid wall defense? How do we limit Buddle's chances? How do we convince Schellas to keep Harris on the bench? Where did he get that jacket??!!
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA The folks watching at the house with me came up the theory that he lost his luggage and borrowed it from Kreis, only explanation...
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA WTF Adam? Taking my job. Good thread title though, but you missed the [R], but who gives a shit? This separates the men from the boys. LA seems to have our number this season but they never really looked like anything terribly unbeatable. We're going to need our defense to be on their game big time to shut down the Donovan/Beckham/Buddle monster. Very nervous, I want the cup so bad...
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA I'll admit I've only watched a handful of LA Gals this season, but last night they looked like a very different team than I've seen thus far. Their push to completely switch tactics from sit and defend then counter you to death, to high energy, high pressure, ram it down your throat is tough in itself, then to do it so well scares me.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA I guess the one thing we have going for us is that we haven't been beaten by set pieces all that often this season. Seems like LA is living off of them recently. That's got to be the focus this week in training....defending the wide midfielders so they don't have the space to send in quality crosses and marking up on set pieces. As for attacking LA.....I don't know how to break them down. I suppose we stay with our normal game plan of letting Ferriera find the spaces and make the killer pass...I just hope Dema doesn't kill him before halftime. You know the Ukranian Butcher is going to be given one objective...take David F out of the game.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA Beating LA means getting into the CCL... I wanna watch the Hoops in Mexican stadiums...
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA another big question for SH on how much we want to be the aggressor in the match. i hope we continue to roll the dice a little like we did against RSL, go for the throat and try and make Becks and Landy defend Shea and Chavez. i realize that seattle's speedy wings were shut down by LAG yesterday, but they never received one accurate pass behind the defense...nor were they able to execute quick combos with their central MF. thats because their central MF is a good DM (alonso) and thats it...and thats why dax and DF will again prob be the key for us - if they can get some time on the ball and unlock the flanks for chavez and shea, we will have a better shot at dictating the game. also like cunningham running at the center of the LAG defense. like RSL, they are good ball-winners but dont do as well with fast strikers either chasing down thru balls or running at them in possession. probably bears mentioning that we should expect no bounces to go our way from an officiating standpoint. not a conspiracy theory type, but if you dont think MLS wants LAG in the final then youre crazy. just need to persevere like we have all season, play our game and take that nonsense out of the equation.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA This season? I've done my best to forget 8-0, the first PHP Beckham game, and most of the others, but it doesn't change the fact that LA absolutely owns this franchise. Beating LA in LA would be like the Red Sox beating the Yankees in the World Series - totally against all recorded history. But this has already been a year of memorable accomplishments, so crossing fingers now!
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA I want FCD to be aggressive too and just go at them from the beginning, and I'm looking forward to Cunningham starting again. And even if the refs don't have a Galaxy-specific bias, there is always the home-team bias in a game like this, so reffing is something to worry about.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA Unless the referee allows them to blatantly push our guys off the ball, I can see this game going to PK's and several heart attacks for FCD fans. They got a fortunate call to go their way a few weeks ago, I think it's our turn now.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA lets not forget the ass-pasting we gave them in HDC last season during our near-playoff run. and then the post-game altercations. this one will get chippy.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA With Beckham back in form the biggest threat is his free kicks and crosses, especially to Landon. I will be unpopular here but I suggest that Harris and Shea are needed for their size in defending set pieces along with John and Ugo. Chavez's speed was kind of neutralized by Franklin a couple of weeks ago and with the physicality of LA he got shoved around. Harris is also need as a tough guy to go along with Hernandez (anyone forget who hacked back at Dema the Butcher?). Don't let Beckham unleash crosses and don't leave Donovan unmarked in soace. Make their central midfielders do the creating. Bring on Chavez (and Avila) when their defense is more tired but don't lose the big guys. Oh yeah. Everyone needs to bump and hack Dema from the first minute to goad him into an explosion. This game will not be pretty to watch and FCD needs all their big physical fighters to pull of win.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA I'm with you Pegasus, that's how I would play it, too. Plus, Shea and Harris are better system guys than Chavez. If there is one thing this team needs against LA it's discipline. I'm pretty sure Schellas is going to go with guys he trusts first and foremost.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA Minimize free kicks/corner kicks. It seems like LA scores a lot of goals off of set pieces. Don't give them the chance.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA The key to beating LA seems to just score when you get the chance. Seattle had chances in both legs, but poor finishing/inability to take half chances did them in. If you watched the LA games from their torrid start, and compared them to the games near the end, there isn't a tremendous amount of difference, except the team probably got lucky at the start and chances weren't converted, but when they started to struggle, the chances got converted. On the offensive end, Buddle is obviously been the key this year, but with the emergence of Beckham as provider, the team has looked a lot more dangerous on set pieces, which they'll always get with Landon running at you, Buddle holding the ball and fighting defenders off, and whatever sort of incompetent referring you can expect (I'm in the camp that the refs in MLS are too terrible to really give someone an advantage, and the poor calls are more down to being just that then some great league wide conspiracy to help the big teams). Also, Hartman has been historically poor at dealing with crosses (though this didn't seem to be much of a problem with him this year), so that's got to be a concern, since most of the attacks in the past few games from LA have come from Donovan on the left and Beckham on the right (mixed with overlapping backs sending in crosses from time to time). I'd look for Kovalenko or Juninho to attempt to man mark DF for the most part and take him off of his game. I don't think that LA will sacrifice LD and Beckham by asking them to do quite as much defensive work on the wings, which if LA has their way would mean your wings dropping back to help in support, so not sure if that means you'd rather have Harris or Shea dropping back to try and eliminate Beckham's influence going forward... At any rate, it should be a close contest, so good luck to everyone involved... I just wish the game had of ended up here in Frisco..
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA They may have more wins overall but we have given them equal (ok, not 8-0) ass kickings in our day. Not to mention the pasting we gave them last season at the HDC.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA we'll see how SH plays it, but hopefully the play-for-a-tie crowd will be wrong again and it will work out for FCD yet again. cant wait for this one.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA Exactly, the USOC Final when they scored off that push off by Gomez and the one by Landycakes are the two worst non-calls I've ever seen. Keep that from happening, expect nothing from the referee (last night Buddle elbowed Marshall a la Harris and red card? Nope, not even a foul!) and finish our chances (Seattle had a ton last night) and the effing cup is ours ... FINALLY!!! F the GALS! C'MON you HOOPS!
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA Can Cunningham mow the crowd down again 6 shooter then heavy artillery style like he did last year after one of his goals? That was so hilarious. Crass yes. Hilarious way to celebrate a goal. Check. Jump to about 3:53 of [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9jjMGtD31E"]these highlights[/ame] if you don't remember the goal and subsequent celebration.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA I think LA is going to keep Beckham back a bit, because it's really hard to play against him there. You have to respect his ability to drop one from long range between the midfield and defensive line. Donovan I think we might see play further forward to give some semblance of possession. The obvious difference between Dallas and Seattle is in the center of midfield. Seattle really didn't bring much, making it that much easier for LA to focus on the wide players. I agree that LA will indeed use Kovalenko and/or Juninho to try to hound Ferreira all game. To wiggle out of that, he'll need to either play brilliantly, catch the DMFs in a mistake, or get some strong help, probably from McCarty. If those two can bring the ball into the final third with options, looking for diagonal balls, they bring an element Seattle mostly didn't have, save maybe for the 45 minutes Alvaro Fernandez played. I do think the reffing will probably favor LA, though not because there's some conspiracy, but instead because that's essentially what Kovalenko lives for at this point. His 'skill' is giving the ref a headache. He has the same attitude to the rulebook that a control pitcher has to the strike zone. (Gimme 2 inches? I'll try 4. Gimme 4 inches? I'll try 6.) Like the first leg against Seattle, he's going to "play his game" until he gets a yellow, the natural consequence of his game, for it, at which point LA would have to try something else.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA We can only hope that Dema's "test" goes too far and he gets the straight red. I know...I know....never happen, but it's nice to dream.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA I'm dreaming of a 10th minute Dema red sans any broken legs to our heroes.
Re: 11/14: Respect the Jacket! Conference Final: FCD - LA All yellow cards are reset to zero now right?