sucks that our most entertaining match for the past 3-4 months was a meaningless friendly. the guys were up for it playing some neat attacking soccer. our left side looked a bit weak and defensively in the first we just didn't have the speed to keep up with the necaxa front line. fortunately even though our guys made mistakes and were slow they had awesome recovery and prevented most of necaxa's real threatening chances. i must comment on ty and chris, just making absolutely picture perfect tackles to win the ball at crucial times. i mean they were pure class! btw how come our defenders (other than ty) are so afraid to go to the ground? i thought thompson was adequate. he made some nice attacking runs, but defensively was caught out a couple of times. gardner looked good too making some nice runs, but his decisions in the final third of the pitch were rushed or greedy. grabby proved again last night why he should be on the pitch all the time. he's not 100% ready for the league, but his 80% is better than some of the Gs 100% last year. the kid is going to be our next cien. (btw i believe grabby was listed as either a P40 or dev player and didn't need protecting in the draft). is sampson does anything to lose grabby... well "a rope a tree, hang the coach steve" chants come to mind. vagenas, ignoring the two goals, he's improved a lot since last season (i know not much time on the pitch in 03). he isn't just clobbering players these days and looks more like the pete of old. of course his "creative" passing is still pants. he should grab the ball and make the short direct pass to someone like ned. agree with the consensus on gordon and ale. heads up play and hustle. and memo of all people actually had a couple of decent balls tonight. maybe i'll lay off the kid. next season i want saragosa/grabby midfield! on the horns. so i spent the first half at midfield before moving over to the squad (you guys sounded good last night). interestingly enough you guys started a la-galaxy clap-clap-clap chant and people in 134 started to clap along, but then some berk with a horn started horning at the clap-clap-clap bits (badly) and obscured the sound, so the people stopped. on another note, people in 134 could hear you guys, but couldn't always make out what you were saying. time to enunciate! finally thanks topper!
What kind of system did you play? If mlsnet.com is accurate, it looks like you started with 5 defenders in almost a 5-3-2. Can someone who was there last night talk a little about that.
4-4-2 it looked like 5-3-2 because albright and marshall were moved to midfield positions. the back 4 were aloisi, califf, thompson, and broome. the mid was albright, tmarsh, vagenas, gardner up front: ale and gordon
That's actually an interesting midfield to tryout. Looking at our offseason needs, MF is probably our biggest question mark especially if Saragosa doesn't come back. I've thought about us moving Albright up to right mid for next year and trying to relieve him of some of the defensive responibilities of RB. Also, Tyrone could make an interesting CM with his agressive D and his ability to get forward. Haven't seen much of Gardner, would like to know how much he is progressing and if he could be a viable option at LM by April. Anyone know what kind of team this was for Necaxa?
Yes, and Josh assisted on Ty's first goal...great stuff. On a side note, after the game he handed my friend, whom I brought to the game, his jersey! Also, was anyone else digging Ty's picture-perfect tackle in our box, where he completely up-ended the guy, but got the ball at the same time?!?! Incredible stuff...THAT'S our defender of the year, and rightfully so!
they annouced 8K HAHAHA maybe 2500. Galaxy lloked good played well together and made few mistakes. I thought the Galaxy could of done anything they wanted with Necaxa. Got to talk to Daniel Hernandez. he very happy in Mexico and has little desire to return to MLS Props to Martin Vasquez for getting his 1st professional coaching win. Heard a few things of interest at the game Carlos doesn't want to be in LA anymore Cobi had minor surgery yesterday. Saurez will be leaving for Mexico next week apparently all the Galaxy fans hate Bimbo bread
Los Angeles Galaxy (4-4-2) – Kevin Hartman, Chris Aloisi, Paul Broome, Danny Califf, Scot Thompson (46: Ned Grabavoy), Chris Albright (70: Michael Erush), Josh Gardner (61: Guillermo Gonzalez), Tyrone Marshall, Peter Vagenas, Alan Gordon. What's up with Michael Erush? He is listed on Colorado's roster.
The source can't be revealed but its not the 1st time I have heard this. Are really surprised ? obviously we don't know each other BUT my credibilty is above reproach. I mentioned the Suarez to Mexico story two weeks before it went public.
Does anyone realize that Martin Vasquez was coaching last night not Sampson. That could be the reason we played so well 'you think?
I doubt who coaches the actual game matters much in soccer, it is who is coaching in preparations thats important
Sampson only gets credit for losing. Give the guy a break, he hasn't even been able to create his own team yet. At least let him build a team, and play a few games, before we run him out of town.
If this isn't the most pompous post on Big Soccer in recent years, somebody please link me to the one that beats it.
Why they would hold a game like this on friday night in he worst possible time to get around LA and when it is cold is beyond me? If this were held on Saturday in the day and some real marketing it could have been 15K-20K attendance. I agree this was one of the best 3 matches. It was nice to see a Galaxy team where all 11+ played their hearts out without Maradonas on the field. Future looks good if we can find a way to start getting more of these kids worked in next year. I think Ned is super at midfield; I love the way he takes it to the opposing team with energy all the time; super on ball control and vision. I personally think the absence of our 2 best play makers Ned and Herzog part way thru the season was responsible for the fall off in the Galaxy the rest of seaspon. I think there were as many LA fans as Necaxa fans. It was fun to watch the cheering exchanges between the opposing fans on the South End; a preview of things to come vs. Chivas. After growing up as a kid watching games in England I must say it's real nice to see the good faith and fun of fans competing with each other. I read in an earlier post about when the first fan brawl will be?...please don't even think about spoiling the great thing we have going here with watching soccer games in USA. Keep the brawls in Iraq where there's serious reasons for them. I look forward to the G's for 2005. Paul
Nix GM - you tell em'..... sum of these l3itches don't know who you really are. Going Mobile.... get it jerks?
WOW thanx that quite a compliment. If you go to LARS I am Stu Gotz over there. If I were DH I would have killed myself already, I have some dignity.
Grabavoy looked great, totally created that one Vagenas goal. Memo made some good crosses and corners. That Gardner kid made some quality crosses as well. It was funny to see Albright (playing wing midfield in 1st half) run circles around the hapless Necaxa defenders. Albright's got some wheels and works his butt off. Tyrone often plays d-mid for Jamaica. Interesting to see him forward a bit. Great to see some of the bench guys get a chance. If you're a real fan, this is the stuff you love to see. Gives you some perspective on potential changes come the new season. And it's always fun to beat a Mexican squad, just to see them get all chippy and whiney and pissy. --Mark
I've heard stuff too. I'd even bet my source is different from yours so if anyone finds me credible, there's two sources. LOL....ok, I'll vouch for GM, no he isn't Doug Hamilton. But he does have regular access to the entire Galaxy squad. As for the game.... I have to say I was impressed that the crowd were at least 50% Galaxy fans. It's too bad more didn't show as it was very entertaining. Tyrone stepped up in Saragosa's spot and showed why he is the best defender in the league. Albright showed he should get more attention from Arena for the US right back position. Josh, Grabby, and Aloisi proved they should be seeing more time in Sampson's line-ups. Necaxa looked like they were playing with 6 midfielders and clogged things up in the middle. LA did a great job attacking down the wing and burned their outside backs all night. Cold as heck...which kept my beer nicely chilled without going warm drinking the last bit. LARS sounded great and made a lot more noise than the Necaxa faithful at the resturant end. Nice to see most of the players give the crowd a clap at the end to thank them for coming out.