The Galaxy are giving up only 98% more goals per game than last year (0.82 goals/game in 2011, 1.62 g/gm in 2012)! Way to hold the line Galaxy! Allowing 100% more would actually be embarrassing. And we look even better ranking-wise. From that perspective our defense has only dropped from 1st (by far) in 2011 to 17th place this year. Only 16 spots in a single year! Pretty good when you realize that with 19 MLS teams we could have dropped a whole 18 spots! So obviously we have a coach that knows something about defense. I can tell you have this in control Bruce. Some silly people think you may not know what you are doing but what they don't realize is that it is only 24 games into the season. Who could expect a coach to figure things out that quickly? It's not like defense is a team thing that can be taught. And it's pretty clear you are putting your best available defenders out there week after week, so what else could you do? Defense is mostly luck anyway. So don't worry about your detractors Bruce. I'm sure it'll all work out. Everyone with half a brain knows that a strong defense isn't really that important when you get to the playoffs. (Yeah, I know the pessimists would say 'if' you get to the playoffs, but they are just worry-warts.) Because if there is one truism in sports it's that offense wins championships, right?
I know you're being sarcastic. But we still have those defensive players from last year, we seriously need to get back to that once Dunivant is healthy again. In the last two matches we have goal differential of -8, that's truly amazing. I thought all coaches Bruce would understand that you build dynasty's and win championships from the back forward. But the fact that all those guys are still on the team and not playing together is the most frustrating thing of all.
Oh, the benefits of playing without pride, determination, commitment, heart, consistency, continuity, guts, dedication, and a desire to improve. The benefits are ASTOUNDING!
Seriously, this has got to get fixed or it is going to sink Bruce. Defense wins, no defense loses. It's not as glamorous or fun as offense, but it can't continue. Offense needs to be sacrificed (trade) if necessary. Consider this: we have Omar back, not 100%, but we are still playing David Lopes. The guy has heart and he tries, but the lack of success is apparent for all to see.
There's no doubt that our defense has sucked this year. However, I don't get the sdarcastic tone and the hating on Arena. It seems petty and childish, and the thread title is stupid and unhelpful. Maybe a mod can change it to something like: "Why does our defense suck?" I'll tell you what I thinkk is the problem with our defense. We are not covering for one another the way we did last year. Each player is not taking personal responsibility for preventing a goal. The second Seattle goal was a perfect example of that. Seattle came in on us with numbers. Saunders made a nice initial save, but there weren't enough players hustling back on defense. When Gaul saw that Saunders had made the initial save, he turned off for a second and didn't attempt to close Montero. He just assumed one of our midfielders would be hustling back to help out. Contrast this with San Jose this year. As a team, they are INSANE in their own penalty box. They never stop fighting to keep the ball out of the goal. If one guy gets beat, another guy is there on the line to clear the ball. We played like that last year. That little added bit of intensity is REALLY hard to maintain. Until we get it back, we will be mediocre defensively.
I concur. That "we take it personally if the other team scores" mindset doesn't seem to be with the players this year. They seem to always turn off at inopportune times. Realistically though, Arena kind of made this bed. We started the season with our "top 2" cbs on IR. It basically necessitated us making some kind of move, but we decided to bring back Buddle instead of bolstering our defense with a top cb. Arena was hoping we were going to be able to survive until some of our defenders started to come back but it didn't happen. The Buddle move would have been gravy if the midfield kept playing the same way as last year but with the disappearing job they have been doing on defense it makes it really hard on the defense. The offenses keep evolving in MLS and are finally starting to punish defenses for mistakes. Arena gets paid to fix things like this. Let's see what ends up happening.
You have a point that going sarcastic may be a bit negative. But my frustration is such that I couldn't stop myself. I don't agree however that I'm 'hating' on Arena or being too hard on him. He has done a dreadful job this year in a) getting the right players on the field to play defense, and b) getting his team to play defense first, #'s behind the ball, especially given we were weak at centerback. The acquisition of Lopes was a boneheaded move. There is a reason the guy is now 30 years old and in 10 years of professional soccer has played for 9 teams, never staying with a team more than a year with one exception when he lasted two. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lopes When you are saying we aren't covering for each other you are partially correct. AJDLG has been covering for everybody every chance he gets. He is probably one of the best in the league at doing that. Franklin does it as well from outside back. But Lopes not only doesn't cover for anyone else, he doesn't cover his own man. It took me all of one game of watching the guy to realize that a 29 year old who, without cover behind, still repeatedly lunges at balls he can't get to isn't going to get better. Ever. Also putting Gaul and Lopes together makes it worse. Now you have two non-quick defenders on the same side of the field. And Bruce, with all his experience, should know better. And the final nail is moving Franklin off the backline into the midfield so that both Gaul and Lopes can play D together. Are you freakin kidding me??? Put AJ next to Omar where he was last year and AJ can cover for Gauls lack of quickness. And as far as midfielders not tracking back and helping the D, by this point in the season I have to put that on Bruce as well. For example Juninho is the primary central midfield defender on the team but has been remarkably lazy about this from time to time. A good coach would let him know in no uncertain terms that this is completely unacceptable and if necessary pull him from a game when it happens until he learns. But Bruce has never benched him for this as far as I can tell. Same thing with the rest of the midfield. If they aren't getting back by this late in the season then the coach hasn't done his job. Because team defense (unlike offense) is 100% teachable. So when a team has played 24 games and their team defense hasn't improved it's on the coach. So I'm not a Bruce 'hater.' But I do hate the fact that he is killing our team with the piss poor defense he is trotting out there week after week. Our shambolic defending is both embarrassing and unnecessary. And he makes it worse with his after game comments which are usually something like "Well the players just need to play better." How about taking some responsibility and admitting you did a poor job preparing them for once, Bruce?
No one wants to go back to Bunker Bruce. No wants to go back to Bucket Bruce. No wants to watch all hands on deck, 10 men behind the ball, defend at all costs, srping out on long ball counters for offense. That isnt f*cking soccer. that's garbage. that's pathetic. That's like watching your children being beaten by police officers. It's thoroughly disgusting to watch, it makes you hate something you love, it drives the life right outta you. But it wins championships. Bruce Arena is a monkey. he has all the soccer skill set of trained sea lion balancing a soccer ball on its nose at Sea World. The man knows what we all know, but don't want to admit it. don't want to believe it. don't ever want to implement it. If you do not let the other team score... and only play offense when it doesn't leave your defense at a disadvantage and you are prepared to give away all aspects of control to the other team. You will take points everytime. By Bruce Arena's MLS & USMNT own discipline. Points are won and lost not in the box, not at the spot, not in you own offensive third. Points are won and lost from midfield to the edge of your own 18 yard box. That is where Bruce's teams dominate the game by disrupting the opponents offense. confounding them. irritating them. and finally breaking their will. and running on counters as they look disgusted at the spineless tactics you have played. Shocked that a team got a goal on there one and only shot on goal. minimizing forward play for the bunkering mentality and not feeling bad about it. Bruce obviously can't coach offense, he doesn't understand 2 way soccer. he doesn't get why a team has to pass the ball so much for the possibility of a shot, or even a chance at goal. To his monkey like mind that doesn't make sense. What makes sense are breakaway oppurtunities.. landon donovan running full speed behind a defense pushed up to the midfield supporting it's dominating offensive and possesion attack. Collecting a ball with only the keeper to beat like a 1 on 1 and that offensive oppurtunity is wayyyyy better than holding the ball, passing it around for the very, very distant maybe chance at goal. If we want to win.... We know what Bruce has to do. God save us all.
By the way Mods - feel free to re-title thread to something less sarcastic and more informative like "Arena job with our defense" or something like that.
I agree 100% about SJ's defense in the box. But it isn't just their effort - which is stellar - it's also their personnel. They have some nimble and quick defenders and that makes it possible for them to recover and snuff out dangerous situations like loose balls or forwards in the box. And the back 4 that Seattle put out for this last game also showed a lot of quickness (not always the case for them) and were able to squash our forwards attempts. But when Bruce puts out Omar, Lopes, and Gaul side by side it's like we have 3 battleships (well 2 battleships and 1 barge) in and no speedboats for those times when we find ourselves involved in close quarter battles. How hard is it to see that Lopes is slow and exceedingly non-agile. I've never seen a defender fall over so often in a game (well not since 2008). All the effort in the world (and I do think he is trying) won't make Lopes able to change directions on the run & quickly close a gap. And Gaul similarly is no speedster, nor particularly nimble. Putting players together that share the exact same weaknesses is a recipe for disaster. So the truth is we can't look like SJ in the box as long as Bruce keeps trotting out this back four. That is why it is so frustrating to watch. Well that plus the fact that we have a cb pairing readily available which has a long history of success in this league - a pairing where the two players complement each other beautifully. Bruce just refuses to use them.
No need to re-title, SkyDog. Sarcasm is a perfectly acceptable way to vent frustration and dissatisfaction., something that most of us are feeling.
I think a lot of it is mental. The injuries sure haven't helped at all, but the team plays well when it's mentally strong and poorly when the concentration, effort, and cohesiveness isn't there. I don't know if it's championship hangover or what, but the team has had a beast of a time staying mentally locked in. We do for certain periods, and then lapse again and get whupped. The team is not dialed in all the time, and it shows.
Bruce can be stubborn and stick to stuff that he thinks is working. Agree that he needs to change it up, and it's not just about Lopes: 1. Quit relying on David Beckham for every offensive play out of the back. 2. Tell David he needs to stay central instead of creating a giant gaping hole at midfield. 3. Bench Juninho 4. Bench Lopes 5. Put Gaul back to where he should be: a sub for Todd 6. Move Sean Franklin 7. Train Magee and Jimenez on some defensive skills 8. Quit the monotonous crossing and long balls when it's clear they ARE. NOT. WORKING. 9. Resist the temptation to move Landon Donovan back to midfield. 10. Change up the gameplan mid-game when it's clear it's not working. Not just us: Matthew Doyle @MLS_Analyst Bruce Arena is the best coach in US soccer history. But whenever he starts Sean Franklin at right mid, I unleash an epic eyeroll.
Weren't we doing quite well when we were starting Jimenez at right mid? I remember those being the most attractive games of the year, including the home game against Vancouver which was the most skillful team performance I've seen in the history MLS. Seems like Omar's return to the lineup has given Bruce license to make the mistake of benching Jimenez and pulling Franklin off the back line to replace him.
Hey Skydog. I wanted to apologize for the harsh tone of my earlier post. To use terms like "petty, childish, stupid and unhelpful" was (not to mince words) petty, childish, stupid, and unhelpful. I also appreciate your measured response. That said... having sat on this ugly loss for the last couple days, and read various posts throughout the forum, I think it's not a bad idea to remind ourselves that we have been playing very well of late (until the last week... and luckily one of those two matches counts for nothing). Our three DPs have been tearing it up, and we've played well as a team even when they weren't available Lopez has been serviceable in the back Gaul has been a good replacement for Dunivant at LB Both Junhi and Sarvas have been very strong in the midfield Did we suck against Seattle? Yeah, but since the beginning of June, we are 7-3-1. If we close out the season with that sort of record we'll be fine, and likely go into the playoffs with a lot of confidence.