A chance for the team to bounce back and prove that Saturday's lost to Vancouver was just a blip and not a full-blown problem. Still short on players but let's see if they are short on heart or ready to dig in and make the embarrassment of last game a distant memory. Let's Go Galaxy!!
I wouldn’t be surprised if Steres starts this game after getting a few minutes over the weekend. Hard to believe Vanney will start both Vasquez and Kjlesten again on short rest if he thinks he can get away with playing Aguirre or Perez.
Vanney talked about Galaxy not winning long balls, bad 50/50 challenges, bad ball recovery, disjointed mid and defense, bad tackles, bad passes, bad defending gaffs and zero finishing. That is also, basically, RSL in a nutshell if you look at their last match vs LAFC. Salt Lake has a good keeper but they are a sketchy team right now. Trouble is, so are we. Now granted we will play in their stadium but we have been there a few days acclimating while they have had to travel. My heart says we win this match but my gut is shaking it's head and calling a tie. We will see. Lets hope the guys respond and bounce back. GALAXY!!!
I'm not surprised we only scored once, even though we were playing a weak opponent. And you guys all know why - a lack of goal scoring when you have no healthy, reliable or proven goal scorers should not be shocking. But I am flabbergasted that we continue to give up so many goals. I know we've had a lot of injuries and a lot of players shuffling in and out - but even with the turnover we shouldn't be allowing 1.54 goals/game. Currently eighteen MLS teams have stingier defenses than ours. Say what? How are we giving up 2 or 3 goals regularly with Bond in goal and being fronted by some combination of Araujo, Coulibaly, Williams, Villafana, DePuy, Ravelson, JDS and Steres on the back line/DM? How is that even possible? It sure as hell it can't continue. Allowing that many goals is well.... "This is not right" as a former Galaxy defender would say.
Yeah, I'm in agreement. It's predictable that we might have trouble scoring right now, so it's disappointing we couldn't keep a pretty miserable Vancouver from scoring on us twice. I think you can excuse Vanney for not having a back-up striker locked in since he prioritized defense first, but in those circumstances, games like that last one need to be ties.
It's going to be a tough game. RSL are not a bad team, but they don't look to be a top team either. We have struggled against bottom half teams so hopefully we break that habit tonight.
I think its a better lineup with Dunbar replacing Zubak (not positionally but in lineup). Zubak unfortunately brings nothing to the table w/o Chich. Dunbar at least brings some energy and athleticism.
I think with this lineup there will be a lot of buzzing around up front. Chaotic buzzing bees diving around trying to sting the Real-tors.
I really want to see us regularly limiting opponents to 0 or 1 goal. Giving up 2+ goals should be rare for this team.
Bond is very accurate with his distribution midrange kicks to our midfielders. We haven’t done much with those passes but hopefully we will at some point.