Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. Wow if that isn't depressing I don't know what is. You just got to hope for the best and ingore the rest. I still like the improvements made. It's certainly not enough to win the league, but I think we'll win a fair number of games this year.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. we don't have to win the league though, just hit top three, or the next best point total after that. then all bets are off.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. OK guys (and gals) you win... Albright is the best RB in the league (gulp). Now to turn your attention to the start of the season... we are already in 5th place in the western conference on mlsnet.com! Woohoo! Mooovin' on up!!! Its time we get a piece of the pie!
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. I agree here. I was hoping to see more of the young Tudela in the pre-season. Last year we were also better with Beckham was in the game at Central Midfield because we were able to control the ball more effectively. In the pre-season, I wasn't that impressed with Alvaro Pires in the middle but he is young. There is room for much improvement with Pires, but at this point I don't think he offers much more than Tudela. If Gullet is going to consistently play Beckham on the Right Wing, I think we need another experienced midfielder (or two) on the roster to help hold the ball. I think we would be able to gain the most possession with this lineup: Beckham can roam to the right or stay home and help with posession in the center of the field. Klein's foot becomes more dangerous further up the field. This would also get our strongest players on the field together: ..........................Cronin............................ Frankilin.......Xavier........Vanney........Randolph .....................Tudela/Pires.......................... Klein................Beckham....................Allen ................Ruiz............Donovan................ Key Subs: 1) Gordon at Forward (with Donovan dropping back to Midfield and Klein, Allen or Franklin leaving game) 2) Pires for Tudela 3) Valentin (when healthy for Xavier or Vanney) or 4) Gavin (with Randolph moving up to midfield and Allen leaving)... (Ship out Jazic)
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. colorado seem to have inherited our injury problems: OUT: Conor Casey (L knee), Ugo Ihemelu (R hip), Mike Petke (R foot) DOUBTFUL: Mehdi Ballouchy (L hamstring), Jovan Kirovski (R hamstring) QUESTIONABLE: Rafael Gomes (L Hamstring); Colin Clark (L hamstring); Nico Colaluca (L groin) PROBABLE: Omar Cummings (R ankle) so they're missing two of their starting defenders and two of their regular forwards. they're also missing, or certainly won't be starting colin clark who had a very good season last year. their projected backline looks like a joke -- even compared to ours -- kimura, erpen, keel and burciaga. burciaga of course being the exception. their projected midfield has a strong central partnership with gomez and mastroeni who should help support the questionable back four. looks like their front two will be herc and cummings. i don't think herc is fast enough to burn our ancient back four. cummings from accounts seems a real speedster, but inexperienced. their main scoring threats are cummings, herc, gomez and burciaga. i like the klein/burciaga match-up. klein know jose from their time in kansas city and klein is the smarter of the two. i think he can keep burciaga contained. gomez is tricky and it will be interesting to see how good he is without the caliber of teammates he had at united. it'll also be interesting to see how he reacts to the additional attention, teams facing united had multiple threats to deal leaving gomez a bit more open than he will find himself in colorado. herc, other than the clichéd storyline of the jilted player coming back to haunt his former team, i'm not all that worried. he had 4 goals and 2 assists last season. cummings i just don't know enough about. i'll say this, colorado is ripe for the plucking. that's not saying much considering our failure at toronto last season, but it would be nice, for once, to see a ruthless galaxy side that capitalized on a teams' weaknesses rather than get over-confident and blow their chance.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. I would never wish injury upon someone, but glad to see that Ballouchy is doubtful for this game. That guy is a hack-job artist if there ever was one (worse than Harmes).
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. That's the type of post you like to read in a pre-game thread! Nice work Dashiel. Anyone out there no anything about cummings? I'm not familiar with him either. where did he come from where has he played?
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. He was a draft pick last year, I know that. He didn't get much playing time last year but did score a couple of goals in the short amount of time he did get. Sounds like a second option to Conor Casey and Jovan Kirovski, which is good for us.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. Cummings is a very fast forward from Jamaica. He scored two goals in very little minutes last year. He has been a key bright spot during pre-season this year. If he keeps going like he did in preaseason you will all know who is by the end of Saturday night.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. we might actually get an entertaining game in colorado. our triple-threat of beckham, donovan and ruiz vs. colorado's shaky back four and colorado's gomez and cummings vs. our slow back four. could all come down to which goalie has the better game. fingers crossed cronin plays like he did against new york in the open cup.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. updated injury report from clavijo himself so looks like colin clark isn't injured which is a big boost for them, but pablo and mastroeni aren't 100%. bit of a zero sum game. source http://nofanalone.com/
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. Great info, sounds just like the type of forward that will really test our slow centerbacks... Hopefully Cronin continues to make good decisions coming off his line.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. I forgot that the crapids picked up christian gomez over the off season. How big of a factor in the game do you think he will play?
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. clearly he's a very skilled player. he can score goals, he can make goals and his free kicks/corner kicks are top 10 in the league. however while in d.c., teams had multiple, credible threats to deal with both in the midfield and up top. in colorado if you shut down gomez, who pushes the team forward? they do have some talented second tier MLS players: cooke, clark, ugo and they have some unknowns that might be breakout players this season: gomes and cummings. in all honesty i think the net effect will be colorado's front line will increase their goal tally by a goal or two thanks to gomez's passing, while gomez's goal tally will be reduced by 3-4 goals. the net effect will be positive, but colorado will still struggle to score goals. they won't score more than 40, won't finish in the top half of the GF table and i think they'll struggle to score 35 - they scored 29 last season. colorado this season reminds me of pre-beckham LA last season. some very decent journeyman/second tier mls style players, a couple of promising young players, an aging top-tier player (cobi/mastro) a make-shift backline and one superstar (donovan). as we know all too well from last season shut down donovan and you reduced the galaxy's ability to score by 50%.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. I hope Josh Wicks gets a look in at keeper, if not this game sometime this season.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. I really agree about us being most vulnerable the last 15 minutes. While X and especially Pires have improved their conditioning during this long preseason, both tend to tire the last quarter of the game. It's going to be worse at altitude. That leads to physical & mental mistakes and fouls. And Christian Gomez knows how to take advantage of those in a big way. Maybe Tudela coming in at minute 70 or so to help keep the pressure on our opponents and off our back line will be part of the solution.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. US-Poland game... at minute 63... Donovan out with no injuries, so hopefully he is a little more rested and ready for saturday. now we just gotta hope becks makes it out ok of the France-England match
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. might want to remove the result rt. some people might not want spoilers.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. likewise Beckham is out of the England-France game with no injuries at minute 63 Everyone back safe and hopefully rested
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. I like the way Bob Bradley uses LD in the midfield. I can see us playing Gordon up top with Ruiz and letting Landon come out of midfield with Alvaro behind him and Becks and Allen on the outside. Can't wait until Saturday!
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. Me too. He had a great game on the left side. He was everywhere.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. I taped the game and unfortunately for me I saw the post before you cleaned it up, so that kinda killed the suspense for the first half. At least the outcome of the second half wasn't given away.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. This is what I don't get about the Galaxy. I noticed on their weekly update, they're making these two fly all the way back to LA on Thursday so they can practice with the team Friday morning and then fly to Denver. Why not have the team fly to Denver on Thursday and Becks and Donovan meet up with them there and then practice on Friday in Denver? It saves those two from having an extra flight. It may not be much, but every little bit helps. What, they can't afford to house the team for one extra night in Denver? It just doesn't make sense.
Re: .:LA Galaxy vs C-Rapids 3/29/08 Pre-Game Thread:. The cost of putting everyone up for an extra night in Denver is greater than LD and Becks having to spend an extra 2 hrs on a plane.