MLS flavors of the week: 2011 Edition [MLS R's]

he did when he first got there. its fizzled away though since it seems.

 

Pretty damn good performance from the Timbers all-around tonight. Thought Zizzo looked good in parts.

 

I don't think so, and I hope he doesn't. He does not deserve a call-up.

It's just like Bunbury, he's one of my favorites, but his form was poor up until 3 games ago. Even know all he deserves is camp-cupcake.

 

Sean Franklin had a nightmare at RB today. He directly caused all 3 goals. Omar Gonzalez and Todd Dunivant had a pretty good game actually. Gonzalez kept Cooper off the board and stopped a lot of attacks. Too bad that Portland realized Franklin was having an off day and only attacked down that side.

 

eh....that second goal Gonzo had a good deal to do with IMO.

 

Ugh, L.A. played poorly today. This game was doomed when I saw that Birchall and Angel were in the starting lineup once again. Donovan was invisible for the majority of the night, and De La Garza and Franklin were getting abused. I thought Omar and Dunivant were the only two in the defense that had solid games tonight.

 

Not really. Birchall and Franklin failed to cover their man who sprinted towards AJ then shot. Not much AJ or Gonzalez could do.

 

LA could use that Edson Buddle dude

 

Cooper was one of the top scorer in MLS. I'm sure Gonzalez will get a call up with his great performance today shutting down Cooper and Timbers attack. Gonzalez needs another look. I saw an improvement from him this year, he is more focus. He used to ball watch and quit on play when beaten but he is better player now. And he lost some weight too.

 

fyp

 

Franklin definitely had a shocker today, he is a good attacking fullback though.

Gonzalez while not totally at fault with some of the goals, I can see he has problems dealing with quick small players (like Brazil) or reacting to quick combination plays in the box.

I thought he was ball watching a bit on the second goal.

 

Although he didn't have a great game, he wasn't the defender that was the worst, so I wouldn't single him out.

Sean Franklin had an absolute horror show (to go along with his bad year).

And AJ was burned multiple times.

Omar and Dunivant were decent comparatively. Dunivant wasn't responsible for any of the goals, Sean was directly responsible for 2.

 

Ding ding!

And we should add the reason that LD was invisible the first half was that he played 2nd striker and the ball never made it out of the midfield.

2nd half his passing was not on target, that's on him.

Entire team had a crappy night, with the exception of Dunivant (and yes, 2nd place Omar).

 

I went to the Portland - LA game last night. Gonzalez is a different version of the same player the US already plays in central defense. Big, slow, with poor footwork. Arena plays DeLaGarza next to him to compensate for his lack of speed, which usually works. Last night AJ could not keep up with Perlaza, and Gonzalez was not quick enough to provide secondary cover.

 

I would just like to add that KC is the most fun team in the league to watch, especially at home. Vermes has pretty successfully gone to a 4-3-3 in a 4-4-2 league. He's done what JK was attempting in Toronto.

Aside from a near horror tackle on Beckerman, I thoroughly enjoyed that match.

 

This is OT, but I have yet to see Angel do anything but fail this year. Offside at critical times, losing the ball with his back to goal EVERY TIME. Honestly, each game I've watched (including in person last week in Vancouver), I've come away with the impression that he's the worst forward in the league. Sad for a player that was so impressive his first few years in the league, but father time always wins in the end.

I have to believe that LA is looking hard at finding a better option up top.

Cristman provides a little bit more, but that situation is dire and will be their undoing.

 

This is when you know you're done as a player.

Totally agree on Angel, and its sad.

 

Gonzalez is not slow, I've seen him and hes decently athletic. But the footwork is not there, and his biggest problem is dealing with small, quick forwards and reacting to combination plays. He'd have a nightmare marking a Luis Suarez or a Tevez. He can only get better, but I can't really see him being better than Onyewu at his prime.

 

Perhaps I poorly chose my words. I do not know how he would perform in a timed 40, but I do know he is not agile. Even Kenny Cooper can put him on the wrong foot, an easy tell a player lacks agility. He well might be a step up from Goodson, but he is not what the US lacks in central defense, which is a player with the footwork and agility to track the quicker forwards.

On a side note, I have said for a while Jack Jewsbury has been the emperor with no clothes in Portland. Yesterday was a good example. Chará and Marcelin closed down spaces on LA midfielders in a way Jewsbury simply cannot. That and a strong performance from Perlaza were the difference.

 

Watching the Portland-LA highlights, it didn't look like Gonzalez was at fault on any of the goals. First goal, he slides outside to contain Nagbe after a breakdown on the right, but Nagbe is able to pass the ball back to an unmarked Chabala at the top of the box. Second goal, he prevents Cooper from turning after the throw-in, but Cooper is able to tap it back to an unmarked Chara, who springs Perlaza to burn De la Garza with his speed. Third goal, Franklin loses his man on the corner kick.

 

As NGV explained, Gonzalez really wasn't at fault for any of those goals. The Galaxy had a terrible game and it seemed Franklin was out of it. I really hope Gonzalez gets called up because many of you say he can be this good or he will never be as good as this guy, but in truth we will never know until we give him a try. All I know is that Gonzalez has been a very dominant defender for the Galaxy the last 2 years especially. He has his faults, but Gonzalez is young and can still work on them. For instance, last year his biggest fault was not being able to pass the ball well. So, in the off season Gonzalez trained on that part of his game and now he isn't an amazing passer, but he can definitely distribute the ball much better. I just want to see what Gonzalez has brought to Galaxy games this year to the national team.

 

If that was Ream, you would be blasting him. You would go on about how you never understood why Ream was ever called into the USMNT and how you never thought Ream was any good.

Gonzo had a bad game; however, I have faith that he'll be a good player for the USMNT.

 

I don't like Ream on the national team because there are so many better options then him. John and Gonzalez are elligible for two other nations and have been very dominant in the MLS and yet we still don't play them. Ream has been a mediocre CB in the MLS with really good passing skills and he gets called in. Ream is the direct cause of USA to lose its first ever game in the Gold Cup group stage and yet Ream is still in the line-up. Ream has not learned from any of the mistakes he has made this season. I see Ream make the bonehead play and then he does the same exact play a few days later. Ream is way too risky on defense to be representing our nation!

 

You're missing the point. Ream has a bad game, you bash him. Gonzo has a bad game, you go nowhere close to bashing him.

Ream mediocre CB in the MLS? wrong. starts pretty much every game, was an all-star, just played a heckuva game against Arsenal.

Ream is the direct cause of USA to lose its first ever game in the GC group stage? this is so stupid i can't believe i'm even responding to it. but wrong. you could just as easily put that blame on Wondo, or Jozy (left his mark on the first goal) or the 10 other players that were on the field. yep, ream gave up a PK, but even by your silly measuring stick, we still didn't lose the game 1-0.

Ream is no more risky than Gonzo. They are just risky in different ways in my opinion. They both need a lot of work to be very good international CBs. The problem I have is your inability to be somewhat objective.

 

Several posters have already pointed out that Gonzalez didn't have a bad game. The LA defense was under constant pressure, and the blame for the goals lies elsewhere.

Omar is not perfect by any means, and another poster said his ceiling is no higher than Onyewu at his best. Well, if that is true, then we have a national team candidate for sure.

I hope JK identifies a few good young centerback prospects, and then gives them time and experience, because they are going to make mistakes.