Official LA Galaxy @ DC United Post Match Thread [R]

Chelsea 3:0 Man City (Terry, Lampard, Drogba)

 

I agree..

 

Landon is hated, pure and simple. People around me in section 230 were cursing him left and right. He is such a waste of taleTn. He tries in MLS, but on our National Team his vagina hurts too much to try. He is the anti-christ as far as I'm concerned. I hope he gets AIDS. Anyone with me?

 

Interesting statistics: DC had 14 shots, 7 on goal. LA had 9, 7 on goal. DC had 5 corners. LA 1. Both teams gave up an own goal and LA had a penalty score.

Sounds like the big difference was our defense and their goal keeping.

We had 3 saves on those 7 shots on goal. LA had 6. That three saves on 7 shots (yet only 1 of those actually went in the net) is an interesting statistic. I guess I have a different interpretation of what 'on goal' means.

Guess we'll have to wait for some of those 24,000+ who made it to RFK tonight to report.

 

That sucked.

Jamil Walker is not a winger. He has to be up top to be effective.

And the PK was completely justified. Troy wasn't close to the ball. He had a horrible game. So did Namoff. And Boswell was pretty much a giant bagful of suckage.

 

Just got back from RFK and here's my take.

Well, it is true that we aren't playing great soccer for the past month. I don't mean that as a euphemsm for "we suck" but just that we aren't playing brilliant attacking soccer.

I think the key in this match wasn't about will or motivation or trying harder or any of that crap. It was playmaking ability.

We started Ben Olsen at A-mid. I love Ben and think he's the heart of the team. But we saw tonight that he wasn't and isn't an A-mid. With him at the helm, we passed the ball back and forth, took some long range shots in the first half and had 2-3 chances on LA defensive errors. No corners the first half (which is basically a way of saying we put no serious pressure on them deep in their end). And we had Walker at an outside mid role. Given that LA wasn't going to expose their backline, that meant Walker's primary roles in this match would be to provide service (which requires vision and touch--two things he's weak at), minimizes his finishing (which he scores at a reasonably high rate given his first touch and skill level) and defending (he hustles but he's a forward). So first half, we had most of the possession, more of the chances but none of the really dangerous chances and never put them away.

LA, meanwhile, had Donovan. I'd have to see a tape of the game but I think that all but 2 or 3 of their chances came off of service from Donovan. Insult him all you want but when the lad has space and is seeking to serve others, he can be downright dangerous. And this match he was. That also meant that when we pushed forward (b/c we were never in the lead), if the LA players made their runs, then Donovan would hit them. Tactically, the key to this team (LA fans may laugh at this) is to disrupt Donovan. Don't give him space, deny him the ball when you can, reduce the match to a 10-man game if you must. Not b/c he's so great but b/c he's capable of being a real difference maker at times like he was tonight.

Okay, second half we put in Gomez and the difference in our attack was obvious immediately. While Olsen was playing lateral balls, Gomez was playing thru-balls. The attack had more energy and more purpose and more threat. We got more corners (indicating we were more dangerous when compared to the first half).

In terms of LA, I'm not wildly impressed. They're a bit of a one-trick pony. They play their scheme very, very well. But they look like a limited team to me. But by letting them get early leads (first and second half), it allowed them to play their scheme to a "T" and that was the difference in this game.

As far as our guys, I think there are several issues to consider here.
1. We're not finishing well. This especially an issue with Eskandarian. He blows hot and cold. Right now he's cold I think.
2. We're not transitioning quickly into attack. Not enough 1-touch soccer being playing on the attack.
3. Too many runs not being followed through. I saw Gomez or Moreno lay off balls into space and in a couple of cases, our player had failed to finish the run.

Donnet comes at a good time. This is b/c we need to have Olsen in central mid as a holding mid. Simms wasn't bad but he was mostly conservative, making plays that sought to not be mistakes. Olsen would bring more energy, more disruption I think and that would help the defense. So Donnet as either a wing mid or A-mid is a plus for us by adding some more skill to the mix.

I don't know how to critique our defense this match. LA was making diagonal runs onto long balls or passes by Donovan. Most of those long balls were cut off or wasted but you hit enough of them and some will get through. I thought Gordon and others made some fine runs and carried them through into space. As we pushed forward, they had more space. It also meant they could bypass Simms and especially Carroll. Didn't think our defense was great and there were individual errors but I tend to think the score was more of a reflection of good tactics against us once we got down and had to push forward.

BTW, I was right behind the goal on Gomez' free kick. It looked to me like Gomez scored directly while the goal (on MLSNet) has been credited to Erpen.

 

The crowd was great but the effort not. Landon shed his little pink thong and dominated us. It was awful.

 

I watched on HDNet and I don't really recall a great save on Hartman's part. Most of the saves were pretty easy ones. I sure wouldn't say their goalkeeping was the difference.

The difference is that they came out in both halves on fire, scored early, sat back, and played counter attack. In the second half, their counters were more effective because we were pushing up so high trying to get something on the board.

 

Oh, and I hope that security caught the assholes who tossed bottles onto the field. They should be banned for life.

One of them nearly hit Donovan.

 

Stats don't tell the story of this match. LA was the far better team for most of the match. Q put one off the post in like minute 2 and they were all over us to open things up. After going up 2-1 LA pratically bunkered. That's why they weren't pressuring as much and building up shots on goal.

They spanked us. Luck wasn't really a factor here.

 

I want to see Landon captured in Iraq.

 

That's a bad thing???. Kidding. You are right, they should be banned.

 

That was awesome. They almost hit his dress.

 

Wow we really sucked tonight. We were at least 3 goals worse than them.

They dominated us from the start and Perkins had already saved our bacon a couple of times before the early score. Besides getting spanked on the flanks no one seemed to be cutting off the passing lanes well. Maybe we should have had Olsen just man-mark Donovan for 90 minutes and let Dyachenko or Adu play creative mid. There was never a 20-minute stretch where we looked like the better team. Way to disappoint the crowd when 24K show up. That'll turn the casual fans into DC supporters...

Some people in the crowd where complaining about the penalty kick call but it was obviously a foul by Perkins. The real fault though is for the defensive breakdown that allowed Donovan to find Veris (?) with the entire right side of the field to himself.

The early 2nd half goal that gave LA the lead back came after what I thought was a questionable call. It seemed a DC defender was called for an intentional handball after falling to the ground. After the freekick was taken (which eventually resulted in Albright's deflected goal) a lot of people were clamoring for a LA handball. How did it look on TV?

I'll go take a cold shower now and try to rinse tonight off.

 

On HDNet, they replayed the goal in slow motion, and it seemed pretty clear the ball came off of Erpen's head and slightly changed direction.

 

I think I saw R&B pointing them out to the cops. I hope they were caught. Throwing ANYTHING at players should result in lifetime bans.

And, of course, another moron tossed a smoke bomb onto the field too.

 

No, that is not awesome. What's awesome is the team shutting him down so he doesn't have a chance to taunt the fans.

 

As usual, LA came in here and played. We didn't do poorly but we just didn't play our game. The first three goals were all a bit irregular. LA's first one came off a rebound from Perkins; our first was an own goal and LA's second came off a crazy deflection from a rebound off a blocked free kick. In the event there was any controversy about the PK call, it was the correct call to me.

Several things caused me a great deal of heartburn tonight:

1. Allowing the Galaxy to come in here and win like they usually do.

2. Tino taunting the fans after LA's first goal. Not cool, especially after the supporter's groups gave him a pretty warm welcome. Somebody like Petke could come in and score a winner against us and he'd be completely stoked but he wouldn't rub it in our faces and we wouldn't hold it against him. Tino didn't even score the damned goal.

3. While I concede that LA probably wins anyway, the refs gifted them two goals. Albright's goal came off a sequence from a free kick that should never have been awarded. The supporter's side AR needs to review the rule book because it looked like the LA player was three yards offside on the goal that led to the 4-2 lead. Strangely, MLSnet.com lists that goal as a Namoff own goal. Somehow I don't recall seeing it that way.

4. Landon taunting us. Face it, he routinely uses us, and he's a great player in MLS. However, having been to Germany and feeling personally ripped off by Landon's absolute no-show in Germany (mother********er, you owe me 5 grand) I feel his taunts are the pathetic acts of someone too gutless to take his play to the next level. Play like that in the Champions League or the World Cup and you can be the biggest asshole on the block. Limit that kind of play to MLS and it just shows what a loser you are.

 

The natives were certainly restless tonight. The all kinds of crap was coming out of BB/SE.

On the 4th goal I was embarassed to hear our fans go after referee so vehemently. Kirk was onside by a good two or three steps as Namoff was keeping him onside from the far side.

At the end of the match someone near my seat in 232 fired a bottle that hit one of the vendors standing in the nest in the head.

I was disspointed that with a 24k crowd the team and the fans would have put on a better showing. As fans we really lost it tonight.

 

I'm back from the match and am still pissed-off. LA was good on the wings and caused us trouble all night. Our shots on goal were mostly harmless - they were softballs, straight at Hartmann. LA was quicker to every 50/50 ball and header, and ran rings around DC.

DC was playing with 10 men around the 75 minute mark. Ehemelu took out Mediate with a studs-up tackle that should have earned him his second yellow. He injured our player, and only received a "talking-to" after the Center Ref conferred with the AR on the quiet side.

It was glaring how slow DC was compared to the galaxatives. We need to speed up the run of play and quit playing the soccer equivalent of the "Dean Smith Four Corners" offense. It only gives the other teams time to pack all 11 players back in the box.

I'd better stop. I'm getting more pissed off thinking about it again.

 

I'll never forgive him for his lack of effort in Germany this summer. It hurts to see him try here but seriously give up against tough competion. I find Landon Donovan to be pathetic, as do most serious fans.

And yes, he dominated us. Truly a pathetic effort by DC>

 

I don't know about a hand ball. Nothing was mentioned or shown. However, I did think Erpen's tackle that lead to the FK was a good tackle and shouldn't have been called.

 

Epren truly blows. He should sit immediately.

 

One thing Adu and others American players have to learn is that you don't have a great performance by giving 110%. That's not the secret. You have a great performance when "you're in the zone." You perform the best when you are the best. It's about being in that zone where you know exactly what to do and you can do everything you want.

 

Absolutely. Great atmosphere at the game, but really, LA could have scored 2 or 3 more. We just simply allowed too much space on the wings, and Alan Gordon dominated us holding the ball up front. Kirk and Cobi killed us on the wings. The only thing that disappointed me as a fan was I think that Ihemelu should have been gone. He picked up a fairly early yellow, and then he hacked down Walker early in the 2nd half as he was getting blown by, and should have been gone. Then he injured Mediate on a studs up tackle in the 81, and STILL didn't get his 2nd. But really, that's all window dressing, because the boys didn't put in a good enough game to win. Hopefully Donnet can do for us what Gomez did 2 years ago ......... vary the attack and provide that UNKNOWN force that sparks us back to winning ways.