Official: 2022 LA Galaxy II Season

No, he's on the bench. For whatever reason, Damet is switching Lopes and Sanchez one game after another. Because you know, why give minutes to a young and talented GK and let him build some momentum when you can play a 28 years old who got his chance in MLS years ago and didn't look good ? It's killing me.

 

God that was awful. You can see why all these guys will never have an impact with the first team.

- Sanchez : bad game, very few big time saves, didn't make any against Colorado.
- Lambe : so average on every part of the game.
- Harvey : strong, technically gifted, but so many bonehead mistakes.
- Doyle : not his worst game, but his passing off the back is not good. I also blame Damet for trying a style of play who doesn't suit his players, and the midfielders for not making enough effort.
- Drack : probably his worst game for G2, his positioning was awful.
- Barry : passing was off, not enough available in the midfield.
- Davila : same for Taylor who looked not interested at all. Very disappointing.
- Gonzalez : I've said it a hundred time, he's not a player who will make a 30 yards run with the ball and make a dangerous pass in the final third. That's how Damet is using him. Opposite teams don't defend on him because they know he's not effective.
- Cabral : not sharp in the final third, very little vision.
- Salazar : gifted, but hold the ball too long and no vision.
- Dunbar : our best player and I still have a little bit of hope for him, but not consistent enough around the box.
- Williams : no quality, just about speed.

Damet had the good idea to sub in Picazo and Johnson at the 82nd minute, both combined for a goal. Too bad it wasn't earlier. Well, I guess it wasn't that obvious that a real winger will be more effective than Gonzalez and that a midfielder who's sharp in the final third can help.

Callum Johnson is a player to watch for me, just 30 minutes of play this season after an injury but he looked skilled and interesting, and has already scored a goal. We'll see if nepotism is also a G2 thing because he's playing the spot where Cabral has played most of the season, and Damet seems to love his own Cabral.

 

Game against Orange County in a few minutes. Lineup :

For LA 💙🤍💛

The #LosDos Starting XI for #LAvOC 👀 pic.twitter.com/lkEnjbLAxy

— LA Galaxy II (@LAGalaxyII) July 24, 2022

No Sanchez, no Doyle, no Barry, no Salazar. No useless veterans. That's a good idea.

 

That was terrible, once again. Los Dos played a good first half of soccer, scored early and dominated OCSC, who scored on their lone opportunity thanks to an awful positioning from Drack. OC completely dismantled G2 in the second half, finding spaces from all over the backline.

Big positive from G2 : Jonathan Pérez started and was great, he had a beautiful assist and a solid goal, both from his wrong foot. He has looked too good for USL (two goals and three assists in two games this year !) despite not playing much for either the first or the second team, the difference between him and Dunbar for example is baffling. He has played just 8 MLS minutes this year and it looks a little bit unfair while our wingers have been struggling.

Less positive, but still : Gonzalez played as a box-to-box in a 4-4-2 so a more central position and looked OK, the first goal came right after he hustled to recover a ball in the midfield. Not a great performance but less useless than usual. Neal was OK despite the defense conceded five goals. I really want to see Callum Johnson starting, he looked a little bit light but his vision seems solid. He could be the playmaker we needed.

Lopez was anonymous and ridiculously spilled the ball on the third goal, Williams is raw as hell and Judd is tiring when he tries do dribble all the opposite defenders.

Doyle was suspended and Barry probably was too, let's see if we'll see them next Saturday against San Antonio, the best team in USL. We're currently 8th in the Western Conference, one place out of a playoff spot so not far away but the team above us have looked better and more consistent than us.

 

1-1 draw at San Antonio, who's the leader in USL. Good result in itself, Los Dos played a very defensive lineup with seven defensive-minded players, and had (once again) maximal luck when a SA player was sent off, then Drack scored a free kick just before extratime. Unfortunately, Los Dos conceded a very late goal deep in stoppage time...

Lopez
Lambe Harvey Doyle Neal Drack
Saldana Campbell
Pérez Dunbar Cabral​

It was the first time this season we used a five-man defense, and strategy was simple : play compact and try to catch SA on the counter. Pérez was once again our most dangerous player, capable to beat anyone with speed and dribble. Cabral was terrible, he has zero vision, he's good at sliding into spaces but with the ball at his feet, he barely makes something interesting.

Eric Lopez was once again clutch with many beautiful saves, but over the years he hasn't improved on his two weaknesses : his ball kicking (how many ended to the touchline yesterday?) and his inability to come off his line on set pieces, even if the ball is in his own six. Will he improve? I'm not sure anymore.

Saldana looked off and slow. Neal was solid, especially in his positionning. Over the last couple of weeks I've asked for more Callum Johnson and I stand my ground, but man he completely wasted a counterattack in stoppage time.

I think this is the end of Carlos Harvey's Galaxy career. OK game overall, but so many dangerous plays while trying to be too pretty, and so many violent fouls. His passivity (along with Doyle) on the SA goal cost us the match. I think he has reached his peak.

You know what's terrible? I think Los Dos is following the first team and will miss the playoffs by a thin margin.

 

Not related to the game, but it seems Los Dos have signed a new player a couple of days ago : defensive midfielder Milos Nikolic, 23 years old, from Serbia. He recently played in the Serbian and Bosnian second divisions.

https://www.transfermarkt.fr/milos-nikolic/profil/spieler/434056

 

Here you have one : https://www.sofascore.com/es/jugador/milos-nikolic/1107522

And he's in the Galaxy roster on the USL website : https://www.uslchampionship.com/la-galaxy-ii-roster

 

2-0 loss at Loudoun United yesterday. Los Dos, as the first team, lost to a bottom of the table team, and their playoffs race is becoming more and more difficult.

Lopez
Lambe Campbell Doyle Neal Drack
Gonzalez Davila
Dunbar Williams Cabral

Lopez
Lambe Neal Doyle Drack
Campbell Davila
Dunbar Gonzalez Cabral
Williams​

Damet used two formations, a 5-2-3 in the first half who did OK. Loudoun defense left acres of space but Los Dos didn't take advantage of it, in particular because Williams wasted several key passes (game could have been way different with Judd up top).

In the second half, he used a more classic 4-2-3-1 on defense who became a strange 3-2-4-1 on attack with Lambe sliding to the CM position. Damet has used this tactic a lot this year, and I must say... I'm fed up with this. Lambe is average and brings nothing to the position, I can tolerate it, but by doing it, you push defensive midfielders like Gonzalez and Campbell very high where they bring literally nothing. Zero creativity. It can't work.

Worse yet, at some point in the second half he played Johnson and Davila as CMs (a 8 and a DM who's better suited for a box-to-box position), Cabral as a 10 (he's a second striker or a winger) and Gonzalez, a DM, as a striker ! It made no sense, I couldn't believe my eyes. I don't know if Damet knows what he's doing.

The team completely fell apart on a basic play on the first goal : Neal follows a runner, another opponent makes a run in the space which was occupied by Neal, and no Galaxy player follows him. Basic play but it's exactly what the first team doesn't do.

On the individual performances, the front three was terrible but Duhaney Williams must be one of the worst G2 players in history, and Neal was torched on the second goal. Callum Johnson might not save this team but he should get more playing time and should probably start.