I am frustrated by Cabral. Really frustrated. The open net made me scream/groan. ARGH. (offside though it was, at least get the ball in the net) Rayan played some sketchy defensive work in the first half, but made up for it in the second. I am the opposite of Kévin with him. He's a find. Amazed Sacha played as long as he did over the two days. What a beautiful goal by Vázquez. Yeah, Williams has kinda looked a little shaky. I cannot wait for Séga to come back (do we know when that is?). Grandsir felt like the only offense we had for large chunks of this game, so I'm feeling favorable towards him (even with the lousy finishing). Dunbar has disappointed me. Headless chicken a bit. Hope he improves with time. Julian grew into the game, loved his assist. CAP. HIM. PLEASE. These are the games that make me appreciate Dos Santos and Lletget.
I thought this was one of Sacha's best games, actually. Once we settled into the match he was actively involved in both defense and attack.
Me too. He was really busting his ass out there too. That play where he put out the extra effort to get the ball over to Zubak, and Zubak just didn't try/was too slow to get there pissed me off. Sacha's interview after the game was great - really showed the leadership that he brings to the team.
Well, so much for 9 points on this road trip, or even 6-7. But I really think the Vancouver game was an anomaly. The game against RSL is more indicative of where this team is at with a bunch of starters missing. And it is actually not too bad, as RSL is a decent team, and we didn't get outplayed by them. Just need to get a decent striker to back up Chicharito.
Yeah, I mean the highlights I have seen are not clear on the offside and maybe the var calls it back, maybe not, who knows. It's the fact that he completely misses a clear goal is what is at the heart of the matter. This is his worst miss of a sitter and he has had a few. It will be interesting to see how long Vanney puts up with this level of performance from our third DP. game in and game out. There has to be a limit to the patience of oh, he is just getting his feet under him and he will be alright eventually. Because with that dude out there Galaxy plays a man down. I don't hate the kid and I know his friends, family and coaches are watching this and it has to hurt them. He showed some promise there for a bit and he kept slowly improving but now, starting Cabral means we play a man down.
Random question, does anyone know if I would be able to use ESPN+ to watch the LA/Dallas game this weekend if I was in Santa Barbara? Or are they still part of the Spectrum territory?
Not too shabby right? The old guys saved the day. Sacha paced himself enough to last the whole game and was very helpful in mid. Vazquez goal was a gorgeous thing now that I see the highlights. I don't know what Vanney said to them at the break but the team responded and came back to at least save a point and that sends a great message to the entire team and the fans. Last year under Guillermo we probably lose this match 2-0. In Vanney we trust.
I go as far as Temecula on occasion and that 80+ miles from LA proper and in the county of Riverside. I used to be able to catch Galaxy and Goats matches on ESPN+ but this year, no longer. So good luck. Maybe its different going north of LA.. There's always the YouTube option and its actually clearer and less sketchy than ESPN+ broadcast.
Want to feel better about this match? LAFC conceded in the 93'rd minute to lose to the Timbers 2-1, after equalizing in the 17th and looking to eke out a tie Portland. Also: first tie of the season!
But seriously folks - due to injuries and callups we were missing 3 national team quality players, were forced to start our 4th choice cb and had no real striker available (that last one is on us) - but we still got a tie on the road. That doesn’t excuse our terrible start but results-wise it was a decent outcome. My son is an RSL fan (he teaches at Univ of Utah) and he noted they were pretty much full strength (zero callups) and playing at home and they still couldn’t win. So be glad you’re a Galaxy fan. Vanney also recruited the two guys who scored for us.
Good point. Vancouver was also missing players and we played at a neutral venue, basically, so that's the game that on paper that we should have won. But RSL was at full strength and it was a tough real road game for us, missing 4 starters, and we played an excellent 2nd half and clawed back to get the tie. Now let's see what we do when exhausted and still short some players and on the road against Dallas....
Speaking of Vanney recruits - Williams, who struggled mightily at the start, turned his game around and played really well for the rest of the game. First of all he who made a beautiful 35 yard or so long pass to set up an Araujo cross that was right on the money to Rayan who got off a great header that required a great save to keep out. It was our best shot other than the two goals. But he did more than I realized during the game. In Sacha's post game interview he was asked about Vanney asking him to step up his leadership even more. Sacha said he took his leadership role seriously, gave it his all and thought he was doing a pretty good job being a leader, even pointing out his 80-yard run up the field and then running to get back. He said when the players see and old guy like him doing that they know they can too. Then he said something that caught me by surprise. Paraphrasing now, he said "I want to stop and give a special shout out to Williams for his leadership tonight. When we were all tired he was the one yelling at us, he was the one getting tackles in and urging us on. He gave us energy to fight on, he was our leader tonight." From watching the game on TV I had no idea that was happening. Kudos to Williams and kudos to Sacha for making a big deal out of giving him credit in his interview.
It's true. Williams struggled against Vancouver and during the first half against RSL, but his second half was miles better. I remember his debut against Seattle wasn't good too, but he looked strong before his suspension. Might be a game rythm issue.
Yeah I thought Kljestan showed tremendous leadership in that interview and especially how he publicly acknowledged Williams. I hereby take back all the awful things I said about Sacha Kljestan when he was a Chivas player....
Also...after getting our feet under us, we outplayed RSL for long periods. My gripe was that we weren't more pragmatic given our depletions, but Vanney remained committed to a certain brand of soccer and Vasquez and Sacha both shined on the night.
A deeper dive: Player, Age, Pos, Shots, ShotsOT, KeyPasses, P%,Touches,Rating Sacha Kljestan,35, M 1 1 1 84.5 83 7.07 Julian Araujo,19, D 0 0 3 79.5 74 7.61 Derrick Williams,28, D 2 1 0 83.9 65 6.48 Rayan Raveloson,24,M(90′) 2 2 0 89.1 63 7.84 Víctor Vázquez,34,M(75′) 2 1 4 80 58 7.99 Nicholas DePuy,26, D 0 0 0 73.3 55 6.50 Jorge Villafaña,31, D 0 0 0 89.5 52 6.33 Samuel Grandsir,24,F(76′) 4 1 2 85.7 52 6.78 Kévin Cabral,22, F(96′) 1 0 0 79.2 33 5.90 Cameron Dunbar,18,F(45′) 0 0 0 75 14 6.15 The above is in order of descending touches (highlighted). Sacha, age 35, with easily the most touches at 83! I thought you guys who were saying he was washed up last game were giving him short shift. Araujo, working hard from his right back winger position had 2nd most with 74. That is the kind of hard work he brings to the table. Williams at cb and Raveloson at CM also working hard with 65 and 63 respectively. Very impressive for a center back especially. Vazquez and Grandsir, while having only 58 and 52 touches, also only played 75 minutes - extrapolating it would be 68 & 60 respectively. Grandsir a bit less active than usual. DePuy has only 55 and Villafana 52. Villafana started off the season on fire but his play has dropped off a lot recently. But the bottom drops out after that. Cabral, age 22 had only 33 touches in 96 minutes! A bit of that is playing forward but that # is still waaay too low. And what about Dunbar? Did he even show up? At the ripe old age of 18 he had a a whopping 14 touches in 45 minutes! While playing midfield??! That's Kitchenesque! No excuse for being so inactive. So now let's look at passing %'s. Villafana and Raveloson took care of the ball, completing 89% of their pass attempts. In the mid 80's: Sacha, Williams and Grandsir. Dropping down Vazquez at 80.0, but he has a good excuse - he makes a high proportion of riskier, high reward final third passes. Below 80 we have Araujo at 79.5, Cabral at 79 and Dunbar at 75. The only excuse for completing less than 85% of your passes is if you are making a lot of final third passes, which have lower completion rates. To be fair Araujo does a lot of crossing. But he also makes a lot of easy short passes and he should be in the mid 80's. But Cabral and Dunbar? Not good and bad, bad, bad. The biggest sin is not working hard enough to get touches on the ball. Playing forward Cabral should be getting at least 40 touches in 96 minutes. But then even when they do get it, they give it away 20-25% of the time. And Dunbar shouldn't be on the field if he is going to play like that. Ok, Key Passes now: Vazquez 4, Araujo 3, Grandsir 2, Sacha 1, rest of team 0. No surprise Vazquez in the lead. Nice job for Araujo and Grandsir. Sacha is always good for a key pass or two per game. Not good that no one else was serving potential assist though. Btw I took out Aerials Won to make the chart easier to read. The leader there was Williams with 4, then DePuy with 3 and Rayan with 2 very good ones (one goal, one near goal)! No one else had more than 1. Ok, that's it for this dive. Enjoy or skip!
Not sure what to make of Dunbar as a starter right now. He is super raw, but he can create moments, even as he did in this match breaking away to get a cross into the box.