I don't get what Juninho's role is. Donovan played for 20mins then just slowed down and hesitated and didn't know what to do with the ball. I don't want to be harsh on the young defenders since it is expected. It's the offense that really disappoins. They don't look dangerous at all. NYRB just needed to defend well, got ball out from Buddle or Donovan or Bowen and counter attack. It's so easy yet dead on.
So StillKickin is blaming Becks and Becks alone. Well..who's screwing the team's 'chemistry' and Juninho's play since back in June/July then? Yeah..I just had to.
That sucked. Interesting stat: This was the second game that Gonzilla missed from yellow-card accumulation. The first game: A Galaxy 0-2 loss.
Becks addition caused problems with the team, no question. Luckily we have 4 more games to get it straightened out.
Thanks for the response - good post. And you are absolutely right about the next 4 games being about getting everyone on the same page. But I just wonder how that's going to happen. Because if there is that lack of understanding between the two biggest soccer brains we have on our team, what hope is there for the rest of the guys? Adding Beckham's long-ball abilities was needed to go along with what we had been doing, which was the short, quick passing combinations and high-pressure tactics all over the field. Now it seems we resort to the long ball a fair percentage of the time. We've lost our central midfield - perhaps due to the young guys hitting the wall, as is suggested - and now it appears we are changing completely how we had been trying to play. Juninho, in particular, doesn't seem to know how he is supposed to play with this change in tactics. I remember all the talk from the players when we hit our rough patch after the World Cup was getting back to what had made them successful, and yet now I see us trying to play in a completely different style. And I am with you in overall pointing the finger at Bruce. As I said earlier, I just don't think he's putting the players in position to be successful and I question his lineup choices and subbing, even though I realize his hands are somewhat tied, what with injuries, suspensions and our younger players wilting under the long season. I hope Bruce figures it out and we get our act together soon. Winning the Supporter's Shield is looking doubtful, much less getting past the first round of the playoffs.
Oh, and Jukebox and Sanda - grow up, please. There are some folks in here trying to have an adult conversation. Use some intelligence and read what I wrote. I am not blaming David Beckham for anything. It's the style of play. And if you don't see it, then you're effing blind. Good lord. Course, Trickhog, I blame you - I wouldn't know what those two, ahem, "fans" said if you hadn't quoted them. Please stop or I may have to get out my paddle.
Unless it hasn't been reported, no, he is not. He's just in the dog house. He must have tapped Bruce's daughter or something.
We are not as deep as some think. This game showed that off and then some. GM Bruce Arena MUST go find some offensive talent for 2011. And I am not talking some 36 year old USA National team retreads from the late 1990's. DP-type talent. If Landon is still with us (and truthfully, Everton would have bought him if they really really really wanted him), then he must play up front or we gotta go get 2 strikers. Sorry, Edson. If Bruce insists on wasting Landon on the wing, them we gotta go find 3 midfielders who can freaking attack. Oh, to all you "is Juninho as good as Mauricio???" folks...shame on you. Take it back that ever even wondered it aloud. Juninho's field vision is very Mr. Magoo-like way to often. I don't think DB was too impressed with it last night.
Our team had a day-off yesterday (it includes coach too). I'm still recovering from that loss, trying to find some positives, and there are a few: 1. Sellout stadium, wow crowd was incredible yesterday, LARS and ACB sections were rocking the house. 2. Beckham was Galaxy's MOTM, even in the last minutes he chased the ball and hustled like an eager rookie. 3. It was a reality check before we go to must-win Chivas game, hope Friday's loss will help us to focus next Sunday.
I still don't think it is lack of communication, not wanting it enough, lack of effort etc. Here's why: For the whole game, but especially the 1st 30 minutes or so both teams played some very attractive soccer. Passes were being completed with astonishing regularity for MLS, players were making runs off the ball, long balls were being trapped with a deft touch, all kinds of nice things were happening that we aren't used to seeing in our league. Neither team is panicking with the ball nor resorting to mindless long balls over the top and we weren't plagued with the usual pinball version of soccer where the game is an endless scrum for 50-50 balls with no team ever able to string two passes together. So the problem for LA wasn't communication, not being on the same page, etc. If it were we would have seen repeated unforced turnovers from LA, which we didnt. The problem for LA was two-fold. (1) Structurally the starting lineup really had little chance of being dangerous no matter how well we passed the ball. (2) Tactically we did nothing to help overcome these structural problems. The structural problem was that we had one guy playing as a target forward (Buddle) paired with another forward who is slow and static (guess who). This might be ok if we were playing with pacy wingers who could stretch out NY and get behind the defense. But Becks doesn't do pacy winger, and LD seldom does either, usually preferring to work his way inside. Tactically we could have compensated by having Dunivant and Franklin repeatedly making overlapping runs into the winger tracks, or by having either Buddle and Kiro going out wide stretch the NY defense. But for some reason none of these things happened the whole game. Think about it. You are Juninho and you've just received the ball in the middle of the pitch. You look up and you see Buddle and Kirovski up front in the middle, both tightly marked. You can't send a ball over the top b/c neither player is pacy enough to get to it. You look to the open spaces high on both wings but you don't see anyone attacking those spaces b/c that isn't Becks or LD's game and b/c Franklin and Duni are both staying home. So you pass the ball to Becks who has shown for the ball. You are Becks and you look up and he see the same thing: Buddle and Kirovski standing around up top, both marked. Your favorite target Donovan is all the way across the field and really isn't making a run anyway. So you decide to send a 30 yard perfect ball in the air to Buddle who is marked but since you can put it right on his chest you give it a shot and hope he can do something creative with it. You are Buddle and the ball is coming to you. You have a guy hanging on your back and bumping you so you know you wont have much space to bring the ball down so you look for someone to lay the ball off to. You hope to see Kirovski making a clever run but he's just standing there next to his marker. So then you hope to see someone racing down the left winger slot but you only see LD coming toward you. So you lay it off to him. You are LD and have just received the ball from Buddle. You look up and don't see anyone streaking down wide left or wide right and you know neither Buddle nor Kiro will be able to get to a ball first if you chip it over the last defender. There are too many NY players between you and the goal for you to attempt to attack goal by yourself. So you pass the ball to Juninho who has shown for the ball. You are Juninho. You look up and .... Rinse and repeat. We did this over and over. With no pacy players up top, no outside midfielders playing like a winger, coupled with no overlapping runs from our outside fullbacks our team just had no chance to get behind the NYRB defense unless they made a stupid mistake like DC did. NY didn't accommodate us with mistakes so ergo we got what you would expect given our personnel and tactics; zero times getting behind NY's D. That of course changed a bit in the last 20 minutes or so when we put in a) a real winger in the form of Lewis , and b) a pacey player to make runs off the blal in the form of Bowen. Bowen has a lot of problems with the ball but we needed pace to get behind the defense and he wouldn't have certainly put more pressure on the NY defense than Kirovski. Stephens is rough around the edges but he is highly mobile and helps keep our team from being predictable. Either would have helped us if we had started them in this game. I put this loss on Bruce's misuse of his personnel and complete lack of a tactical plan much more than on the lads on the field who actually did the best they knew how to do. It's a shame b/c we have a lot of talent on this team and could be crushing teams if used properly. Our only hope is that Bruce finally sees enough of Kiro to realize he is exactly what we don't need or maybe injuries will force Bruce to put the right personnel on the field. Otherwise it will take a lot of luck to get anywhere close to being MLS champs.
Well, even with the best coach in the world and with the best tactical plan - Kirovski was a waste, Buddle played like in his first year with Galaxy, Marshall played like a rookie, Donovan had day off. What could Arena do differently yesterday? Yes, he could make subs earlier, but would really they help us?
Got to meet Gonzalez before the game last night, told him we'd miss him on the field, and we really really did. It's a shame we had a sell out crowd and lost that badly, how many of those first timers will come back now? The Briggs were awesome. Can we have them there for every game?
Great post. I too must spread it around. And for some odd reason - this post makes me have hope. I see we're really not trying to play a different style - we're just trying to freakin' play something and win a game and nothing is coming together. Bottom line: Bruce messed up. Bruce got out-coached. Bruce needs to get busy.
Quote: Originally Posted by GSSMember I believe they are training in the morning then heading out tomorrow night for LA.. If Henry makes the trip then he is playing... I just spoke to another friend on the team and he is saying the same thing... I'm almost willing to bet my week's salary that Henry will play.. will you be paying cash or check?....
Well, probably none of the 8 people we brought to the game last night; but that has more to do with HDC security than what actually happened on the field....
What happened with security? I had bad times with the first timers who sat next to my right (who ended up not having tickets for front row) and then the Red Bulls fans on my left who thought it was hilarious to laugh at us and talk sh*t about us in Spanish because they thought we didn't understand. Not to mention the Red Bulls supporters section in 102, wtf were they doing there?