Allegedly chicha scored in that hush hush closed door friendly before he had his work permit. He has broken his preseason duck.
I don't worry about him not scoring right from the get go for us. I actually think it might take him a few matches to get going. His playing style heavily relies on his teammates and being on the same wavelength as them. I think once him, Katai, Pavon, and Lletget play a few mls matches together, we will see Chicharito scoring.
I don't think it's a preseason thing with him. I mentioned it last season - Pavon doesn't seem to plan ahead (a la Donovan) as much as rely on a rinse and repeat move to first create space and then decide what to do. Most of the time he will put head down, juke left to get around his defender and then take a couple more quick touches to create separation, and then re-assess. It's a predictable go-to move but due to his quickness it is hard to stop even when you know it's coming. But the end result is that Pavon doesn't make as many killer 1 or 2 touch passes as he should. So I wasn't surprised when he didn't make the early cross to Chicharito. Pavon has midlevel EPL skill and athleticism but the lack of creativity and diversity in his game holds him back. At least imo. Lucky for us - it means we get to keep and hopefully develop him.
I attribute a lot of that to him being a winger. Pavon is basically like Arjen Robben; you know what he's going to do, but no one in MLS is going to be able to stop him regardless. Hell, no one in Argentina could stop him. He seems similar to Almiron who wasn't a great or visionary passer, but I think Pavon is a better version of Almiron.
Agree with everything you said except that Pavon is better. As you say neither Almiron nor Pavon are great passers. And Pavon clearly has the better shot and is the stronger of the two. But Almiron has more raw speed and that is a big deal -- especially at the highest level. In the EPL there are quite a few players with the skill of Pavon, but very few as fast as Almiron.
Well, I'm probably being unfair. We've had some world class passers on the team, so we're a bit spoiled. Neither are bad passers, but I haven't seen either pull of really exceptional passes. Pavon's dead ball service, including corners, is excellent, though. While Almiron has better acceleration and is faster in the open field, I think Pavon is more...powerful? Hard to explain what I mean; strength is part of it, but he has a combo of strength, speed, balance, power and technique that (IMO) put him above Almiron, even if you consider them roughly equal technicians.
For those wondering, here is the lowdown on streaming and broadcasts this season: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/02/29/how-watch-stream-and-follow-mls-2020
Please tell me I don't have to fork out for another streaming service... In other news, I don't know if anyone listened to the LA Riot Squadcast last night, but they announced I'd be doing articles for them. It'll probably just be stuff that would otherwise be on the blog. And I guess I'll have to be a bit more dedicated to deadlines!
Sounds like the TV situation is the same as last year, which was Spectrum for the local Galaxy broadcast and ESPN+ ($5/month) for other MLS games or Galaxy games outside of the LA market. Well worth it in my opinion, give all the other stuff available on ESPN+. At least it's not LAFC Youtube which costs $50/month just to watch LAFC games. Now that's a rip off. Also seems like the same Spectrum broadcast crew with Joe Tutino, Cobi and Megan Reza. Guess it could be worse.
What the actual ****??? First the season ticket price hikes now this? Dear lord that fan base are schmucks.
It couldn't be much worse. I really don't know of any MLS announcing duo that I less like to listen to. When I heard them doing the LAG-CHI preseason game my thought was - damn another year of hearing Tutino asking Cobi if being behind a goal means the Galaxy should try harder to score. The team announcing crew are the "face" (err... voice) of the Galaxy for the vast majority of fans and potential fans, a group that greatly outnumbers those able to attend on game day. I think our failure to ensure we have the very best TV announcing crew is just more evidence of the lack of ambition at the top of the organization, especially compared to some other top clubs in the league. And that lack of fighting to stay at the top is just downright depressing for this long time Galaxy fan.
I like Joe T. Cobi is right up there with Marcelo Balboa In cringy, nails on a chalkboard, color commentary.
I guess I've gotten used to Joe. As for Cobi, I can think of much worse. Like Clint Mathis or Landon Donovan. At least Cobi brings a bit of levity and energy. Though there's certainly better out there. I happen to think Twellman and Holden are the best color guys in the US, which I'm guessing some on here would disagree with.
Not outraged. Incredulous. Are they really charging $50 a month to watch LAFC? A big argument I've heard from people who adopted LAFC either instead of the Galaxy or having jumped ship, is that they are are a "club of the community". In reality, it looks like that's just another marketing ploy and they're milking their fans for all they're worth. I mean, that doesn't upset me. I've no love for their fan base who I personally resent for rejecting our club, so if the LAFC ownership is gouging them, fair play to them.
Except for the first paragraph which natfaninla has already clarified, I agree about LAFC and their "fans". Its interesting that the only 2 MLS clubs, I actively rooted against were the LA goats 1 and 2. I wonder if the Galaxy had signed Chicharrito instead of Zlatan, 2 years ago if it would have balanced out somewhat.