fastidium » Bruce Arena

LA Galaxy 2-0 Chivas USA

douglas — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 06:31:50 +0000

Its getting to be old hat for the Galaxy to beat Chivas USA. Once again, the goats played well at certain parts of the game but it was the “real” L.A. team that found net with their opportunities. This would be the 11th time (out of 19) that the Galaxy would claim victory.

The line-up included two defensive midfielders, Birchall and Kovalenko, lining up just in front of the defense. I would think Arena went with this as a way of containing the potential speed of Chivas because they would come at us faster than last week’s opponent. Better to slow them down and counter attack rather than pushing the attack ourselves.

Just as our 4-4-2 became a 4-3-3 during periods of the game last week, this 4-2-3-1 was able to counter quite readily:

Buddle
     
Alex (DeLaGarza 78)    Juninho (Magee 62)          Donovan           

Birchall (Stephens 90)      Kovalenko

Dunivant          Leonardo   Gonzalez            Franklin

Ricketts

The first goal, by Edson Buddle, was a result of this ability to counter. A quick restart from Donovan found Sean Franklin open on the right flank. Franklin quickly picked out Buddle making a beeline for the penalty area. Chivas’ Michael Umana was unable to handle the speed and size of Buddle, as the striker headed the ball cleanly into the goal in the 7th minute.

As its become customary in these clashes, the two teams traded nasty tackles and trash talking through out. Buddle and Sacha Kljestan exchanged harsh words in the 25th minute. It doesn’t look like it ended well. Kljestan is probably not going to South Africa this summer as his National team stock has plummeted in the past year or so. For Buddle, however, his stock is rising fast and may be able to sneak onto the team as a late replacement for an injured Brian Ching.

For much of the second half, the Galaxy looked like they were waiting out the attacks of Chivas and bunkering for the long haul. I’m sure the tactic was to absorb and counter, but when the counter doesn’t come faster than the other side can anticipate, it starts to look tiresome. One instance in particular resulted in a skirmish in front of Ricketts goal that almost found the back of the net for Chivas. Fortune shined upon L.A. though, as Maicon Santos sent the shot over the goal.

But the Galaxy did have one final counter that resulted in Buddle’s second goal. Donovan intercepted the ball and got around the defender just in time to speed into the Chivas’ penalty area before slotting the ball into Buddle. Not so much a shot as a redirect, Buddle defly placed the ball into the top left hand corner in the 87nd minute. That was a hard shot to make and Buddle showed some real focus (World Cup team worthy, I might add) for such a late-in-the-game maneuver.

So, now, the Galaxy have started with two, rather easy, victories. Both were at home and both against teams that didn’t look as prepared for the season as Bruce Arena has his team. Yes, this Galaxy team has been together for well into last season but these players themselves all look much sharper and fitter than the players from Chivas and the Revs.

The true test of a successful opening season comes this Saturday when the Galaxy travel to Robertson Stadium in Houston. The Dynamo have one draw against Dallas and a victory over last year’s MLS Cup champions, Real Salt Lake. Game time is 5:30 pm PST and televised on Fox Sports West.

By the way, I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice how spectucular the field looked at the Home Depot Center. Hats off to the grounds crew for doing a tremendous job, and with no X-Games this year, the field should keep its appearance through out the season.

Los Angeles 1-0 New England: Video Highlights

douglas — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:52:39 +0000

The Arena Effect

douglas — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:00:13 +0000

Bruce Arena succeeded Ruud Gullit as the manager of the LA Galaxy on August 18, 2008 ( press release ). In his first game in charge, he inherited a team from which he picked the following line-up against Chicago on August 21st. It was a home game that was lost 0-1. Beckham and Donovan were both away on national team duty.

G Steve Cronin
D Greg Vanney
D Troy Roberts
D Ante Jazic
D Sean Franklin
M Chris Klein
M Peter Vagenas
M Pires Alvaro  (Josh Tudela, 50)
M Ely Allen     (Mike Randolph, 67)
F Edson Buddle
F Alan Gordon   (Israel Sesay, 86)

The next match, which included both Donovan and Beckham, was August 30th, a 2-2 draw at New England. This was a particularly interesting line-up, seeing Greg Vanney in the midfield. Bruce was starting to bring in some fresh faces, with Eddie Lewis being the first.

G Steve Cronin (Josh Wicks, 45)
D Chris Klein
D Troy Roberts
D Ante Jazic
D Sean Franklin
M David Beckham
M Greg Vanney  (Mike Randolph, 65)
M Eddie Lewis  (Eduardo Dominquez, 81)
M Peter Vagenas
F Landon Donovan
F Edson Buddle

From this pool of 18 players, 11 are no longer on the official Galaxy roster: Cronin, Vanney, Roberts, Jazic, Alvaro, Tudela, Randolph, Vagenas, Sesay, Dominquez, and Allen. Over the past year, Vanney has retired, some have been traded and others let go. The rebuilding culminated, in my opinion, with the signing of Gregg Berhalter in April of 2009.

This team surely needed some senior leadership and Arena could trust some old-timey Nationals to provide it. He already had Chris Klein. Lewis signed the same day as Arena’s first game in charge, in August 2008. He brought Jovan Kirovski into the mix in October 2008. With the new season starting, Tony Sanneh and Berhalter came on board. The team started to look like the US National Team circa 2002, especially if you include Donovan and assistant coach Cobi Jones.

As a bit of trivia, I tried to find a U.S. National Team match when all 8 guys (Kirovski, Donovan, Lewis, Klein, Berhalter, Sanneh, Arena, and Jones) were involved but I couldn’t find any. I only looked at FIFA sanctioned matches so there could have been a friendly where all were there. Kirovski, Klein, Berhalter, Sanneh, and Jones (no Donovan or Lewis) all played for Arena in the World Cup Qualifier against Mexico in Azteca on July 1, 2001. Kirovski, Donovan, Lewis, Klein, and Berhalter (no Sanneh or Jones) played for Arena on June 21, 2003 in the Confederations Cup match against Brazil in Lyon, France.

The point of all this is just to say that we’ve finally got a good mix of players: a group of senior players, some established players (Dunivant, Magee, Buddle, Gordon), some promising new faces (Chris Birchall, Donovan Ricketts), and a couple of up-and-coming youngsters (A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez). I don’t know how all those salaries are staying under the cap, but we could make a serious run to the MLS Cup final. Its just amazing to me how the team has changed and how anyone thought that that team against Chicago a year ago, could do anything but stumble.

Just to give some perspective, here’s the lineup from the New England game again lined up against the team from the most recent match, July 16, 2009, at New York. Quite a contrast, me thinks.

G Steve Cronin                       G Donovan Ricketts
D Greg Vanney                        D A.J. DeLaGarza
D Troy Roberts                       D Gregg Berhalter
D Ante Jazic                         D Omar Gonzalez
D Sean Franklin                      D Todd Dunivant
M Chris Klein                        M Eddie Lewis (Chris Klein 85)
M Peter Vagenas                      M David Beckham (Christopher Birchall 70)
M Pires Alvaro  (Josh Tudela 50)     M Stefani Migilioranzi
M Ely Allen     (Mike Randolph 67)   M Landon Donovan
F Edson Buddle                       F Edson Buddle
F Alan Gordon   (Israel Sesay 86)    F Alecko Eskandarian (Mike Magee 74)