Saturday, 12:30 PM PT TV: FSN-W, DK, MLSLIVE.tv Radio : AM 570, 1330 AM (Esp) The last time I started a thread about a Toronto game I tempted fate & sarcastically called them "next victim". We all know how that turned out, so now I have nothing but good things to say about Toronto, Toronto's players, Toronto's Director of Soccer, Toronto's coach and most of all, the paragon of paragons, Toronto's fans. I visited Toronto once. It was a lovely city. So... We are afraid of turf, because we are spoiled California wimps, but still we will brave it without Donovan & Beckham, who are gone on international duty. The Open Cup game against Colorado tomorrow may give us a preview of our plans without our main offensive weapons, although Ruud could opt to go with 2nd team players, like he did against Vancouver. We caught a break when Bob Bradley called up Maurice Edu for international duty as an injury replacement for Benny Feilhaber. Xavier never plays on turf - - what will our lineup be? Toronto has had a successful 2nd year campaign so far, surprising many by going 4-3-2, 4th place in the East. For the 2nd week in a row, LA has an identical record compared to its opponent, however in the West we are in sole possession of 1st place on 14 points.
Weather.com for Saturday, 5/31: Cloudy with showers and thunderstorms; 60% chance of precipitation. High temp: 69 degrees, low temp: 59 degrees. Have you guys and gals seen this field when it's soaked? The grass lies flat and it's dismal for the players. I hope the weather changes and it doesn't rain. For the LAG: Ruiz Buddle Randolph - Frappuccino - MacDonald - Tudela Jazic - Vanney - Franklin - Klein Cronin
That's actually not that bad of a lineup. Worry about Tudela wide right, though. But isn't Jazic going to be gone also? I thought he was called up for Canada and will miss this game. Or is that another weekend?
lol the grass lies flat? its field turf. in any case, the pitch is extra shit when its raining as the water doesnt percipitate through and you basically get 22 jesus's running on water. i remember playing at bmo after its been raining - fill in your bathtub with water and try running in it, its about the same. so i imagine technical players like ricketts and guevara will be a non factor for us (actually i believe guevara will be on international duty anyway) robert is red carded so we expect to see jarrod smith on. i do believe the powerful players like dichio and wynne will get to shine more. i can also see harmse coming on for edu's absence.
Crap, Jazic WAS called up for Canada v. Brasil friendly.... who can play left back (or center D)? Thoughts?
Roberts & Vanney in the middle, Franklin on the right, Randolph on the left. Klein and Ely Allen on the outside midfield. Not that I have to like it!
That's what I was thinking, but afraid to post for fear of angry feedback LOL Ruud has shocked us before with moves that have turned out in our favor... maybe Gordon plays center MF... you never know. Ruud is definitely worth his $2,000,000/yr salary; he has these guys playing sexy soccer.
I am worried that lacking Jazic, we will see Roberts for this game. As much as I would like to Franklin on the right, we need his cover in the middle. So roberts gets to play Right back. Klein must play in the Beckham position, he will be our main playmaker. Here is my lineup. ----Gordon ----------- Buddle Randolph - Franchino - McDonald - Klein Vanney - Franklin - Valentin - Roberts Ruiz as needed in the second half. We will be very thin in the back. McDonald could always cover if needed and I will say again. We may still see Pete V.
The sad thing is is that this is the match we need X. Dichio is big and slow so Xavier would be a perfect match. I'm guessing ----Gordon ----------- Buddle Randolph - Pires - McDonald - Klein Gavin - Vanney -Franklin - Roberts I think we need Klein and Randolph up to give us any attack. Also, I think Pires brings more on the attack than Franchino. At some point, Allen at left mid and shift Randolph back.
X is not listed on the injury report. In fact nobody other than Alamo is. Barring an injury tonight in the Open Cup I would expect X to play in Toronto. Also everyone is assuming Donovan won't be there. I am assuming he will be. I'd be very surprised if Bradley brings him to Spain. I expect him to give Cooper a shot there. Bradley is fully aware of MLS club needs and I don't expect him to screw us by keeping Donovan for all three of these friendlies.
i think that's about dead on. with ruiz coming on in the 60th for once i think international call-ups are going to hurt the opponent as much as us. TFC with guevera can be an obnoxiously dull team to watch, but without him they lose a large amount of offensive thrust. no robert either will be a massive blow. cunningham is questionable as well. like colorado in the first game of the season, we go in to a game against a weakened opponent. we really need to take advantage and come out with at least a draw. it's going to be a real test of our growth as a team. we will also need at least a point to potentially remain in first place. colorado play dallas sunday both are on 12 points so a win for either one and they move one point ahead of our 14 points. chivas is at home to columbus and sitting on 11 points, houston and dallas both play twice if either of them win both games they move ahead of us.
Nevermind what I said about Donovan coming back for the TFC match. According to ussoccer.com and sidelineviews he is hurt and not playing tomorrow against England. Groin injury suffered against KC. If that is the case I bet Bradley keeps him for Spain. That is if it's not serious enough to send him home outright.
That's bad news - funny because in Canales column for soccernet she quoted Ruud as saying they took him out for a tender hamstring & that it was just precautionary. Edit: that article was actually not espn soccernet, here it is: http://ussoccerplayers.typepad.com/ussoccerplayers/2008/05/london-calls-fo.html#more
You sure about Xavier? Toronto plays on a field turf surface and Xavier seems to refuse to play on these. I'd be suprised to see him play, though given how thin our ranks may be, it might be neccesary.
Lando is questionable, and it seems as though it is just something minor, more report on this probably tonight like LATE tonight or morning....so he probably will play against england....against toronto, who knows though. btw, this would be a pretty good lineup.... -----Gordon----Ruiz---Buddle----- ----Allen-------Pires-------Klein--- -Randolph--Vanney--Franklin--Roberts--- Ruud has lately used the 4-3-3 with ruiz buddle and gordo up top...he used it today in the open cup game and in the second half of the kc game.... btw no X, sucks BUT he just doesn't play on turf. Doesn't want to f@ck up his knees....
Hi boys, I am not looking forward to this match at all. You guys may be missing Donovan and Beckham, but our list of International Callups + Reds includes: Robert, Guevera, Edu, Robinson (4 of our starting 5 man mid) Sutton (our starting keeper and the man who won the last game vs LA) Velez (starting Center back, I think he is gone to play Guevera) So... yeah. I have no idea what our starting 11 will be. Oh, and Dichio has a groin strain. I really hope he is back or we may be calling on our academy players. Our new mid is what made us a formidable team, the team we're fielding on sat is going to resemble our award winning (in futility) 2007 team more than our 2008 team. Oh well, I hope that you guys missing Donovan and Beckham allow us to at least grab a 0-0 draw (which I'm sure would be a first for the Galaxy this year). Edit: Son of a... I just noticed Ruiz might be healthy. Not good.
Is Ruiz playing this match? The way Ruud was talking after the Open Cup match last night it sounds like he is going back to Guatemala. Do they have friendlies lined up before qualifying? http://thelagalaxy.blogspot.com/ On the play of Carlos Ruiz...“I think the first half was ok but you can see that he is still not yet match fit. He was happy to get in the game. I am worried now that he has to play with his own country, when I see that he is not yet fit. Hopefully he comes back well and they don’t use him the whole game. That would be a pity. He has already had setbacks from previous operations when he went back to his country and played a match there and we all know what happened after that. I would rather he stayed here. I think he did some good things, but if he was really match fit is another thing. I am happy with the way that he performed especially in the first half.”
So, it looks like we'll be missing Beckham, Donovan, Ruiz and Jazic to international duty, and Pires and Allen will be questionable with injuries. And then the big question -- will X play on turf? If all of the above players don't play, then we've got something like: ------------Cronin Klein--Franklin--Vanney--Gavin ----McDonald----Franchino Tudela----------------Randolph ------Buddle----Gordon Or possibly remove Gavin, move Randolph to left back, slide Franchino out to left mid and insert Vagenas in the middle. The other possibility would be moving Klein up to right mid, removing Tudela, and then playing Roberts at right back (yeah, I know -- but we don't have many options, do we?). Any of those lineups would probably get killed by the TFC first team, but luckily for us, they're missing just about as many starters as we are.
What's the story with Pires? Injured? EDIT: Never mind - I actually read your post this time. (I don't read, I skim)
Holy Canadian Call-ups! So, neither team will have a midfield? So, for this match we might as well cone off the middle of the field for spectators (that's about 500 extra tickets). This will be like that offense v. defense drill where the coach stands in the middle and sends long balls in. Super-poacher Ruiz will put one of those hopeful passes in...and pull a pk. I'm thinking 2-1. We haven't kept anyone off the scoreboard yet...I don't see us starting now.
McDonald has looked good in the middle, but I think perhaps he could play RM more effectively than Tudela. Or maybe it's time to break up the backline and put Klein there, as you said. Maybe this would be more effective, especially as Buddle has looked very comfortable dropping back into the middle to collect the ball, or he can make wide runs allowing McDonald to come more centrally during the attack (if we ever have enough possession to attack). ------------Cronin Klein--Franklin--Vanney--Gavin ----Pires/Tudela----Franchino McDonald----------------Randolph ------Buddle----Gordon
Is there any chance that Beckham, if he goes 65 or 70 minutes or more today, will be told by Capello that he's not needed Sunday and can play at Toronto?
Really thats a good point, Franklin Dichio isn't a match up Id be too excited to see the whole match. My line-up buddle gordon franchino - pires - mcdonald - klien randolph - vanney - franklin - roberts cronin OK so X wont play on turf, idk maybe ruud has some I really would prefer to see X play as well though, maybe ruud can convince him. But Toronto will be missing Edu, Robert for sure, maybe Guevaraas well? So we now just need to watch out for hockey-check-Harmse EDIT - OMG! I just read the TFCSteve post and it is better than I expected, if Dichio is injured look we need to look out for that bastard-child Cunningham though. And I forgot to give my prediction 2 -1 LA, 2 goals for Buddle, one for the aforementioned bastard-child.