Everybody waiting for the other shoe to drop. Regardless if Galaxy acquires the services of Costa or not changes have been made. Big changes and small ones and as for me I now wait to see what I see. I need now to watch them play for a few games. People talk that we look same if not worse and there is merit to say that but you never know what all the cuts and new players will do to motivate the team plus any off-season work that may have been done from players like Grandsir and Cabral to improve wether that be mental or physical or what have you and also what tactics Greg may have adjusted to or fine-tuned given the year under his belt with his team. They may play better than the sum of their parts. You take a look at US v El Sal and all the hoopla about taking them to the cold and how much better the Nats are man for man and we are playing at home and its gonna be a rout and yadayada. You saw what happened right? El Salvador came in guns blasting. Ignoring they are practically out the thing coming in and almost pulled the stunt over there. They looked equal to the task to me for the most part. Point is you never know from looking at anything on paper. Galaxy may pick itself up if a few things go our way. A guy can hope. Galaxy!!!
I actually like the pieces we've brought in so far. And I'm optimistic that having a team that now knows each other and knows what Vanney wants will help a lot of last year's players improve - we brought in A LOT of new guys last season. So the big albatross hanging over our off-season moves is we still haven't signed our big DP and TAM player. And those 2 pieces will really decide the off-season grade. Obviously, with his history, Costa is a huge gamble as a DP, and if we roll with Costa at DP and he crashes and burns, this time Vanney catches the heat as well. He's now had the time to put the personnel and game plan he wants into place so this year there are no mulligans for him.
Lopez apparently signed a GII contract. Hamza Barry seems like a lottery ticket trialist. He is a central midfielder and former Gambian international who played a lot in Israel and Croatia before tearing his ACL in 2020. He apparently hasn't played anywhere since. He was an Everton and West Ham target at one point: https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/11/...-or-west-ham-hamza-barry-is-now-a-free-agent/ Judd is on the preseason roster, despite not being in the picture from the Rose Bowl
⚽️ GOAL Deandre KerrWe’re tied at two.— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) January 29, 2022 Appears to be 2-2 in about 30 minutes in todays friendly. defense in midsession forum. (of course he have no idea of lineups)
We need a preseason thread. Toronto is now up 3-2. Still first half. This must be a defense optional scrimmage.
Busy first half in the books pic.twitter.com/tIGoEM7xAe— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) January 29, 2022 Toronto’s players they’ve named are young ones. Maybe everyone is playing their babies.
Hamza might be an interesting trialist. He's only 27 and spent the last 4 years playing for one of the top clubs in the Croatian league, where he played in 133 matches over those 4 years. He's out of contract because in June of 2020 he tore his ACL, just 1 month before his contract was up, so he's now out of contract. The red flag is that he hasn't played in nearly 2 years because of the injury. But definitely a quality player if he can regain his pre-injury form.
The LA Galaxy are finalizing a deal to sign Brazilian winger Douglas Costa, per source.Costa, 31, will be the club's third DP. He's made 31 apps with Brazilian national team, has featured for the likes of Bayern, Juventus and more in hugely successful career. pic.twitter.com/1wsD2f4i1I— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) January 31, 2022 This pundit is basically the guy every team feeds leaks to in order to make them all but official. He's right about 99.9% of the time. All we can do with Costa is pray that he gives a shit. It would be nice if this could be positioned into a win-win situation for us fans. Either he is a successful addition or the FO (Klein/Kirovski) get cleaned out. That is what should be the case.
Huge gamble. Of course, every time this FO gambles and loses they don't face repercussions, so we shall see...
All we need is another injury prone player to get us to be vocal enough to clear out our leader ship. I am OK with Vanney though.
In about 3 days, podcasters and bloggers with no other sources than Twitter will announce Cristian Pavón/Douglas Costa to @LAGalaxy #LAGalaxy as if they broke the news. Happens every year. You're welcome. Nice attacking line that's being put together. Kichan's rep in LA today🤫 pic.twitter.com/gHwqceIJMR— ЯΣПé ЯӨMΛПӨ (@reneromanosport) January 31, 2022 Cristian Pavon’s agent is in LA to negotiate a deal to possibly return to the #LAGalaxy, according to @pasefiltrado https://t.co/FrGZfAN5n1— Galaxy Fan Talk (@LAGalaxyFanTalk) January 31, 2022
If we can get Pavon and Costa, that's a lot of potential firepower and I'd be pretty excited to see them on the field together. I would think Chich would get a lot more service from those two . I wonder if Pavon comes in the summer, half year TAM deal and then becomes a DP? Interesting to see how they can fit all these guys under the salary cap.
I guess the question is do these pieces fit together and who fills the X... ------Pavon----------Chicharito------Costa -----------------------------X ----------Raveloson------------Delgado Edwafaña---Williams------Sega---------Araujo --------------------------Bond We definitely become deeper on attack with Noodle, Grandsir and Joveljic all available on the bench to start games.... But I don't see an obvious answer for "X". Unless we go more empty bucket and play 2 strikers with either Joveljic or Noodle next to Chich, knowing much of our attack and service into the box would now come from the 2 speedsters we would have on the wings...
Lots of hurdles to Pavon: Hurdles to Signing Pavon:- Would need to be a TAM player- Would probably need to wait for summer- No INTL slots if/when Costa is signed- Pending legal caseAll of these can be overcome. And some of those hurdles are minor. #LAGalaxy #MLS— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) January 31, 2022 I'm not that worried about his legal status from a contract perspective (the optics are a different matter if it isn't fully resolved). Argentina won't let him leave and the US won't let him enter or grant him a visa if the judge doesn't want him to leave the country. The int'l slot can also be solved by trading for a slot, getting someone else a green card, loaning someone to the G2s etc. It's also possible to see him on a TAM deal, at least for the short term, especially if it's only half a year.
I don't know how all of you do this, speculating and what ifs is exhausting, somebody just @ me when the games start
Reports are saying 1 year contract with a club option on a second year for Costa. If true, at least we aren't gambling on an often-injured, frequently unmotivated player with a long-term contract. And also could explain how we get Pavon here on a 6-month TAM contract this summer once he's free from Boca. Since Chicharito is in the final year of the guaranteed portion of his contract - that would mean we have the ability to decide which 2 of the 3 (if any) we want to bring back for 2023. So maybe the thought is they couldn't get that franchise DP this window, so they'd take a gamble on some players, knowing they weren't tying themselves down to any long-term deals with any of them.... Per @NicoSchira Douglas Costa has a 1-year contract with an option for 2023. The deal should be announced soon!⚽️#MLS #LAGalaxy #VamosGalaxy pic.twitter.com/YhGfLsQXFG— Alex Ruiz (@AlxRuiz15) February 1, 2022
Douglas Costa as a DP is underwhelming but if it's a one-year "bust your ass if you want a second year" contract, and if we can sign Pavon as a midseason TAM deal (even if he's a DP after 2022), these are solid moves. It probably means we'll switch to a 4-4-2 with Douglas Costa on the right, Pavon on the left and Grandsir as a backup. Cabral or Joveljic alongside Chicharito and if it doesn't work, play a CAM like Vazquez or Alvarez behind Chicharito. Watch out for the international spots. If Harvey has a green card (sill not confirmed), we're full after the Douglas Costa signing (8/8). With Pavon possibly coming and two players in camp who would require a spot (trialist Hamza Barry and Draft pick Farai Mutatu), these international slots are question marks.