Who other than X(for a very short time) was any better than Harden. He was the most Consistent defender on the team. He had a rough start but it didnt take to long for him to smooth out.
I think Xavier is a great defender too. Sometimes he has problems tracking forwards through the middle and it seems that there was confusion between him and Harden a few times with that, but he's especially strong closing down an attack. I haven't seen anyone dribble around him and score except once when Razov got lucky( he had almost nothing for an angle by the time Xavier was done pushing him outside). When a forward has the ball in front of him, he's the quickest and most aggressive tackler in the league, and it's almost always a clean tackle. He's also valuable on corner kicks. He doesn't markup well, but he often finds the ball way before anyone else. As much as we all like Harden he may be trade bait at this point. Randolph will surely fit in to an attacking team, as well as Allbright.
Klein was better. Randolph was better though he had a couple of rough games as well. Jazic was consistantly better. Once he was finally healthy during our winning streak even Roberts was better. I am not saying that Harden won't be a good MLS defender but he isn't there yet. That you think he was our best defender by far speaks volumes about just how poor our defense was last season.
I see the same old smack in this thread against Cannon. Cannon is a huge asset for this club, and one I hope we don't lose this off season. Everyone is comparing him to vintage Hartman, the El Gato we loved for years. No one is comparing him to Kevin Hartman from 2007 who, at times, was downright awful for KC this year. He still can't judge a cross to save his life. All you had to do was watch the western conference final and see Hartman gift Houston a pair of goals that were at least 90% his fault. Please people, let it go. Cannon is an asset for us to protect. Cronin is a big mystery. He's had signs of quality in misc. matches but the one MLS game he started this year against RSL at home he looked below average to poor and was responsible in part for both RSL goals.
Just a thought and im not really sure if its been mentioned yet but? why not just poach Sebastien Le Toux from the sounders, he would be cheep, and he was the leading scorer in the usl. so i say we give him a trial see if he workes out i mean we might have the next Galindo on our hands and really he cant be worse then who we got already
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Harden becomes our Brad Guzan. Guzan was literally PUMMELED his first season, but is now on his way to being the US Nat Keeper after Tim Howard. We have no quality depth at any position, so we're going to need to make some smart trades, good drafts, and even better INTL scouting to get us up to speed for next year. In terms of trades, we're gonna need to lose some of our scant quality. Here's what we got: Young Up And Comers Despite another cruel year, we had two starters appear on our team this year. Although we haven't seen much of Sesay, there are probably a few teams that wouldn't mind taking some of our youth for themselves. Mike Randolph- I would have to say that our season started turning around when Randolph was placed into the starting line-up. His performace in the Superliga final was nothing short of STUNNING. Pachuca was actually avoiding his side of the field by the end of the game. He's got guts, speed, and determination. He's still raw, and prone to mistakes, but could be packaged to a team in need of some new energy on defense (like, um, us). The question is - do we go with the Youngster, or do we go with experience and keep Jazic? Quavas Kirk- When is he actually going to play, and play to the level everyone keeps saying he's capable of? Who knows. He wouldn't be be worth much on his own, but could be packaged to another team in need of depth on the right. Ty Harden Again, could be our Brad Guzan. Could just fade away. Who knows. But he's solid, and teams know that. Yallop wasn't crazy starting him this year. If any teams are desperate for a starting central defender, he could easily be traded for an upgrade. Kevin Harmse I really think this was Harmse's last year with the Galaxy. Considering Yallop's hard-on for him, I think he'll be in SJ or maybe Toronto by February. Josh Tudela Who really knows? He did play well at the end of the season, but he's still a bit of a question mark. MLS-level Stop-gaps I don't know what else to call these guys, but they are good domestic players, not National team caliber, but decent for MLS. Maybe they have leadership, or just fill a particular role. Pete Vagenas You know him, you love him. He's bad, he's beautiful - he's Pete Vagenas. Pete's been through like 10 coaches now. I don't know what to say. Who would want him? Probably not Yallop, since Frank basically benched him until Harmse pulled up lame, and Beckham couldn't play. However, Sigi loves him, and if Ruud says "hey, I'm not playing you, where do you want to go" Pete could end up lots of places. Edson Buddle Oi vey. I'd hate to see him traded, since he's been on ever other team in the league already, but c'mon. I don't know any coaches who would really want to take a chance on him, except for maybe Kinnear, who kinda needs forwards, and seems to turn our coal into at least better coal. Kyle Martino Don't get me wrong. Kyle could start for many teams in this league. And while he wasn't dominant on the left, I think he shook off a lot of his injury bugs this season and proved that he can perform consistently, which has been in doubt since he left Columbus. Wily Veterans Chris Klein I'm not thrilled with the idea of trading him, since we gave away two of my favorite players for his ass, but he has VALUE. He's still got skills that a lot of teams need. If we don't send Cannon anywhere, I could see Harmse and Klein being packaged to SJ or Toronto. Preki also knows his value well, so Chivas USA wouldn't be such a stretch. Chris Albright I know he's not that old, but Albright's been around for a while. When healthy, I still think he's the best attacking right-back in MLS. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - when Albright is down, we lose. Seriously, do the research. In the last 4 years, when Albright is injured, we tank. Since he is my favorite player, I really don't want to see him go, and I would love to see a Randolph/Albright counter-attack team ripping up our opponents. Joe Cannon Probably our best shot at a DP. Seriously - Jazic or Harmse + Cannon= DP Slot. OR, even better, Cannon alone would mean a major upgrade at any position on our team. Kenny Cooper and Arturo Alvarez for Cannon anyone? SJ's best expansion pick, a draft pick, plus an allocation to pay down Donovan's salary so we don't NEED a DP slot? Done. "Oh, but he saved us in so many games." Lemme ask you - how many more games would we have lost if we never traded for Cannon. My guess is none.
Cannon was traded for Ugo, Herc, and basically Hartman (kinda, since we just gave Thomas away). I'm hoping that was Yallop's idea, and that he would make the same mistake twice. Seriously, I'm willing to drop down from an A to a B-goalkeeper if it means we change our defense from a D to a B+, and maybe our forwards from a C- to a B.
In our 7 game unbeaten run at the end of the season we would have lost or tied at least 3-4 of those. But whatever... Great summary of the squad in your post, however.
I started licking my monitor when I read this sentence. As for your other post, I completely agree - having a GK be the best player on your team is never good; downgrading there to upgrade elsewhere is a definite "must do" trade.
Apparently it's today. http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/articles/11423991.html Interesting that there's quotes from LD and Tim Leiweke, but none from Alexi Lalas. Maybe this is a sign that Alexi will really be "The Man" for ticket sales and promotions, but the big decisions regarding players will rest with someone else.
This probably deserves its own thread... This seems to be proof that AEG doesn't already have some sort of arrangement in place, just that the plan is to convince the powers that be in the board room to change the rules for the coming year. As a Galaxy fan, I can only root them on. Not sure as a fan of the league if 2 DPs makes sense for clubs other then LA and NY.
I could live with Cannon being traded. Yes, our 7 game stretch at the end was due to his help, but where was he the other 23 games before that? He did get better as the season progressed and came up big for us at the end, but he looked rusty and awful at the beginning of the season. Im sure part of that is from a bunch of new players not knowing each other, but thats squarely Yallops fault for not running the trainings well. We solved THAT problem.
This part I really liked: This sounds exactly like what I wanted to happen in this midseason thread - Step 4: Stick it to the league, (the thread of course is The Future - Here's What Should/Will Happen, which is now famous (in my own mind ). Not sure how it will turn out, but it's the attitude the Galaxy need to have. Of course, if the Galaxy front office keeps doing things that I wanted them to do, I'm going to have to stop calling them total idiots (or acknowledge that I too am I total idiot).
I am leaning more towards the mindset of "How doesn't it make sense for clubs other than LA and NY?" Like TL said, 94,000 people to see them in Australia. If that isn't significant to the other owners then they are missing the point. Chicago ought to be lining up a match against Club America right now. If Chivas lands Borghetti they surely would benefit. I understand it takes $$ to go get the Beckhams & Blanco's etc and some owners are afraid to drop that kind of money but look at what Beckham is bringing to the league and team as far as recognition. The Galaxy are already seeing a return on their investment. Other teams would certainly see a similar windfall if they went and spent the scratch required to bring Becks quality players to the league.
I guess the counter argument to that is that I believe that there are very few players out there that could possibly have the impact that Beckham and Blanco have had. Borgetti is one possible example. Who else realistically might MLS get that would boost the gate? It's an honest question on my end. Remember, it's not about talent, it's about marketability.
hehe... and just to add that while the other clubs might piss and moan about unfair advantages going to the money clubs like NY or LA, it was pretty obvious this last season that having 2 DP caliber players doesn't mean we are cleaning up in the league..... why they might want to stick it to us would be for other reasons than us obtaining an unfair advantage over them.
Give me the names of some other players that would come to MLS and have that kind of drawing power? Beckham is a special case. There are not any others like him out there. That's the problem with that line of logic...
yep. there will not be another beckham like acquisition for many, many years to come. if ever. seriously where's michael jordan's replacement in the nba? gretzky and hockey? players that transcend their dedicated fan base. i have two minds about it. if aeg uses the next four years to expand mls beyond its capacity because of beckham the league could be in trouble. on the other hand, why not use these next four years, market and promote the hell out the galaxy/beckham and draw as many new fans as possible. sure 90% of the people watching mls now because of beckham are going to stop when he does, but a 10% worldwide increase in audience is huge. besides there's nothing stopping mls from dropping the DP rule in 4 years time.
I'd be hard pressed to think of anyone else anywhere that would have the same combination of sex appeal/soccer skills/name recognition that draw like beckham does. Forget whether they would come to MLS or not... The only one coming to mind right now would be cristiano ronaldo and outside of soccer fans, he is probably unknown here in the states. Soccer skills of course far exceed beckham, sex appeal... i'll leave that to others, and name recognition...... Though it probably wouldn't take too much advertising exposure to get the ladies excited about seeing the guy....... so for marketing draw, beckham is probably unique. But still, the quality of the league will only improve with more of these DP slots given and the amount of money we can pay increased. The cap shouldn't be removed completely yet, I'm not saying that, but allowing another spot will only be good.
I totally agree with you here, but the owners of the other teams probably don't look at the DP slot as a way to improve the quality of the league. They want financial impact like what we've seen out of Becks and Blanco.
The only other world soccer icon who even comes close is Zidane. The other side of the coin is what's the return on investment. Beckham was a $5.5 mil investment. Is there a possible $1.5 mil investment who could turn a combined revenue increase/league profile upgrade? I will admit those players are few and far between. The most obvious are beloved Mexican nationals and aging WC stars. MLS has already signed Blanco and the Borgetti rumor has been floated. What would a Riquelme or a Crespo cost? Is Totti possible? Figo? Ronaldo? Del Piero? I'm not saying any of these players would have the impact of a Beckham but they would raise the league and team profile in the game on a world-wide basis. It becomes a question of interest in exhibitions, jersey sales, sponsorship fees that would generate the funds to offset the expense of the signings.