Lol lots.of ??? About Cabral's who scored rating. I'll post their stats in more detail but his score surprised me, too. I will say upon reflection, from what I remember, that Cabral's work rate this game was the highest I can remember so far. He really put in a lot of defensive work, too. He showed to the ball a lot, beat his guy a couple of times with successful dribbles, and was involved in a lot of successful passing sequences, including some key passes. His final product is still very inconsistent but He's definitely improving.
Damn, 3 successful dribbles. 2 interceptions, passing accuracy of 94%, 4 shots, 2 on goal, 2 key passes, fouled 3 times View attachment 201071 View attachment 201072 Defensive stats of top rated
I definitely noticed, after the first 15 minutes, that Cabral grew into the game. I saw a few hustle plays on defense that won turnovers. In the second hslf, it seemed like a tactical shift somehow really unleashed our wingers and both Cabral and grandsir were very effective. Saldena also showed more bite and fight then I’d seen recently. fun game.
Greg Vanney on the Galaxy’s performance:#LAGalaxy #MLS #LAvPOR pic.twitter.com/08BjPU3JE7— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) July 31, 2021 I like the way Vanney thinks.
Wow, great result! I was ready to write this team off after giving up Portland's first goal and getting outplayed early. But what a turnaround! Then I remind myself that we will soon be getting Chicha, dos Santos and Lletget back to the lineup, and the pictures really starts looking rosy! Once we get some reinforcements back, they have to sit Cabral and just let him watch a few games. His confidence level is at zero right now.
Great game. I love the way they clutched up after that weak start. It goes to show what they can do when the guys show up and put in the work. I love that it was the same team that tanked the road trip. A learning experience for them all as a team because just playing at home does not fully explain how they played last night. Yes, they were rested but they were more rested going up against Vancouver and we know how that turned out. It's a mental thing and championship level teams learn how to take the winning mentality on the road and avoid playing down to teams. So many cherries on top of this sundae. We got Sega back. The senior guys continuing to teach by example. Grandsir gets his first goal. Araujo on beast mode box to box is a sight to behold. Then there is Raveloson and that nose for goals that he has. Now he's not just satisfied with scoring goals, He wants to make the MLS season highlight vid also. He is playing at a different level. And Bond is, well, Bond. Can't wait until we can get the band all back together. GALAXY!!!
Big and important win. As others have said, the first 20 minutes or so were awful, but once we got around it we outplayed Portland for long stretches. Lots of good individual performances to go around and great team performance. Quick kneejerks: Araujo: Said this before, but had as dominant a game as possible from the RB position. Still has the occasional lapse in judgement, but otherwise completely owns his zone of defense. Nobody wants to go up against him 1v1. And then he's also hard to stop getting forward. His assist to Grandsir was pure class; gets his head up and picks the man out on a dime on the dribble. Whoof. This kid has the juice. MOTM, but this other guy has a shout... Kjelstan: Outstanding all-around performance, where on the night he looked as good as any MLS midfielder in the league. For instance, he totally outplayed Valeri and Blanco in nominally the same roles. Sinks the penalty super-cool. Actually got LARS MOTM if I'm not mistaken. Raveloson: 4 goals in 6 games for a defensive mid, one of them a bicycle? Come on. Maybe Chara felt a little threatened, which is why he went for the late tackle. Grandsir: Nice to see him get his first goal, as otherwise he does everything else right. He's starting to remind me a lot of Alessandrini (except without the end product). He's very dogged on the ball, but he's got a lot of technique. Overall, I love it when we play with finesse, but we're still sturdy in defense and strong in the tackle. A ruthless combo. Plus we finished!
What a game! That was my first in person game in two years. My wife and I loved it! We sat in the supporters section like always and it was great! 4-1 to the G’s! Araujo is looking better and better. Raveloson’s bike was perfect. I saw the ball bounce up and thought “someone should try a… holy sh!@! He did it!”
Getting Dani Alves vibes. What to do about Cabral? He was so snake bit this game it was funny. But despite my laughing at his frustrations, I also notice some cool aspects to his game. The nice heel flicks, that one whizzing cross, dribbling a defender or two. But then he gets easily muscled off the ball, or he jogs back, where if he hustled he could make a play, or he makes a lazy pass that almost costs us.
We are 15th in the league in goal differential but somehow also tied for 4th in the league for ppg. So we are basically pulling points out of our ass - which is great. This puts us in a good starting place for when we finally reach full strength and make our run to the Cup Final.
Btw, as great as Araujo played (and he was awesome overall) it’s also true that his mental lapse was a big culprit on their instant response goal. He is actually goal side of the defender when they make the long through pass. But he is slow to realize what’s happening and lets his man get a jump on him. That resulted in a breakaway which forces Williams to leave his man in the middle as he rushes out to try to stop the breakaway. Portland passes to the now open guy in the middle so Villafana rushes over to try to help. Portland guy jukes, Villafana makes a hash out of it and our lead is wiped out in 80 seconds. Bond also could have been more ready. How does he allow the guy to get to the right of Villafana and then get past his left side? Also in this play - Araujo does make a belated, but long industrious recovery run. Mucho credit for the effort. He actually runs past Villafana to help on the left side of our pitch. I see why he did it but might have been more helpful to run to the cb spot that Williams formerly occupied and helped Villafana shore up our center, stopping the immediate threat in front of the goal. But arguments could be made for that particular recovery run, and it certainly showed effort! All part of the leaning curve. For Araujo because he’s young. And for our back four, because they have little experience working together as a consistent unit. You can see the play at 1:20 below. https://www.mlssoccer.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2021/matches/lavspor-07-30-2021/
I’m really excited to see what a fully fit and in form Galaxy will look like this year. Araujo has been the best RB in the league this year. Williams was awesome before his red card and “attempted murder charges”. Sega is a baller and I think him and Araujo are going to make people look silly down the stretch. Villafana has been good all year long. Jona/Lletget/Raveloson has way too much talent to not work. I think we’re starting to see Grandsir come into his own. Cabral is the biggest question mark, but he’s starting to show glimpses of his talent. Hopefully he’s just adapting slowly and by playoff crunch he’s proving a lot of us wrong. Chicharito just needs to stay healthy.
What did you think of DePueys step all the way to midfield at the beginning of that play? I feel like our center backs are prone to do that and fail to get the ball too much. DePuey in particular. one thing of many that went wrong there.
Final thought, last night was evidence that Sega is also our right back alternate as we suspected. Explains why we have so many decent center backs. Great flexibility and depth on the backline with biggest question is if Acosta can effectively back Villafana up.
DePuy stayed on his line until he saw the ball about to be delivered to a wide open #8 (see pic below). DePuy doesn't get there before #8 has a chance to easily flick the ball into the path of Araujo's man, who had anticipated the pass. This is exactly how we have been giving up goals in recent games. Our wing defending is better than it's been in a long time. Unfortunately we are repeatedly leaving big gaps in the 10-20 yard central area in front of our cb's. That area should be crowded - either by Ravelson or Sacha dropping farther back or one of the cb's pushing up more quickly. More simply the back line and our defensive midfield need to be communicating to be sure everyone is marked in that dangerous area in front of the cbs. Individually DePuy knows he is slow and he either doesn't read the game well enough or trust his reading of the game enough anticipate such plays and make opposing forwards lives hell. So we either need a more active, athletic cb (Sega) or else Ravelson or Sacha need to be better at staying connected with their cb's when our opponents have the ball. A couple seconds before the flick-on pass: You can also see this earlier section of the play starting around 3:06 of the condensed match video: https://www.mlssoccer.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2021/matches/lavspor-07-30-2021/
Enjoyed the game so much, and this thread the next day. It's the first game I've seen for awhile, thanks ESPN, and the announcers were a step above, too. Dunseth is usually an unrepentant obnoxious homer when announcing RSL, but he was a breath of fresh air for this game and taught me some things. We were appalled by Cabral in my house, and the missed goal was the cherry on top of what seemed like a miserable night. But you've all made good points about the flashes of good play, and that he's making progress. In Vanney we trust to bring this guy up to the level he needs to be. Raveleson is a revelation, or a revolution, whatever, he's amazing. Can't believe what a goal-scorer he is. Plus apparently he can fake an injury like a champ. Chara deserves every yellow card he can draw. Portland's defense was atrocious, and Araujo picked out the open men perfectly. Well done, MOM. Augustine did pretty well, it seemed. Perez got a run out. We have a young team. Love watching these guys learn each other and support each other. RIP Zizinho.
After a couple of disappointing performances, it's nice to see both Bond and Williams having nice games. I saw a few posters comparing Villafana with Dunivant, couldn't agree more. What a season by Sacha. He was decent last year, at least one of the very few players who didn't disappoint, but this season, wow... And he doesn't look tired. You want to talk about a veteran presence? Him and Vazquez have done the job. I'm worried about Victor (who was subbed off because of an injury), he has a hard time at staying healthy. Finally, the Zizinho tribute looked nice and normal but... It reminded me of the Luca/AJ DeLaGarza story. This is a very good news : if Vanney manages to make the players care and fight for each other, we have all the tools to make a great playoffs run.