I don’t mean to be over critical, but LA’s offense was dismal. Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle both played like they were trying not to get hurt. With the National team camp approaching, you would think that others like Jovan Kirovski or Mike Magee would step up, especially playing at home. In previous games, the rookie Michael Stephens made his presence felt. This is the first game that he was completely invisible. Overall, the two Toronto frontmen, Chad Barrett and Dwayne De Rosario, were the only offense that showed they wanted to be there and they showed their motivation from the very earliest part of the match. Omar Gonzalez was very nearly red-carded in trying to stop them.

This draw wasn’t due to rock-solid defenses either. Although, if I had to judge both teams by their defenses, I would probably go with LA being the better.

LA was unable to show any urgency in staying the cream-of-the-crop of Major League Soccer. Up until now, their tremendous run of 7-0-1 was due entirely to their professionalism in taking the game to their opponents. There was an urgency to prove that last year’s end of season form wasn’t a fluke.

Besides the fact that Landon Donovan may have had his mind elsewhere (i.e., the World Cup), this game may be the first sign that teams are falling into their mid-season MLS form. MLS doesn’t create a drive for teams to make needed changes mid-season (like in other leagues worldwide) because making the playoffs is all that is necessary. Teams like Toronto and Los Angeles are able to take their foot off the pedal because they have a sufficient amount of points to get them through the next several months. Coupled with the coming heat of summer, clubs know that all the other clubs are falling into the same attitude. Teams doing badly, like DC United and Chivas USA, are trying to right their ships but they know there’s no urgency to do so. There’s still a whole month before they need to make a run. Overall, the existence of playoffs makes for boring soccer at this time of the year.

Some have made a big deal of the fact that Toronto’s goalkeeper, Stefan Frei, was forced to make four saves. None of those attempts were going to be dangerous, even for a keeper with one of the worse Goals Against Average. Buddle put the ball on the post once, Magee had two close range shots (5 and 10 yards out) that he put right at the keeper, while Dunivant could only put a rebound right back at Frei as well.

I’m looking forward to seeing what this LA team will look like now that Donovan (and Buddle) are away with the National team. I have a feeling we’ll see Buddle back before Donovan but it will be good to see how this midfield does without their captain making those diagonal runs. I would love to see Alex Cazumba get some more playing time on the left. From what we’ve seen so far, Clint Mathis isn’t going to help this team. I think Bruce Arena would agree with me, as he’s chosen to go with Chris Klein ahead of Mathis.

While he didn’t impress me in the first couple of games, Juninho is proving to be a good asset to this team. He has potential to be a Cienfuegos type player, sitting right behind the forwards and making magic!

So, (beer glasses raised) here’s to MLS being what it is, the Galaxy doing some damage to Dallas on Thursday, May 20th, the young kids on the team picking up some good experience in the friendly against Boca Juniors, and another LA victory in the match-up of the undefeated’s on May 29 – Los Angeles at Columbus!

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.

Though the scoreline didn’t reflect it, the Galaxy had many more opportunities to score than their opponents. We were constantly in their half and had a couple of fast breaks that should have been converted. The Revs spent very little time on the attack as they resorted to long balls through to their wingers. These were easily dealt with by a Galaxy backline that looked to be in mid-season form.

The Galaxy took the field in a 4-4-2 formation, with Kovalenko pulling back into the defensive midfield position. This was a good game plan, given that its our first league match. Its good to go with what you know and experiment later.

Buddle                      Donovan     

Lewis (Alex 26)   Juninho (Stephens 80)    Magee (Birchall 67)

Kovalenko

Dunivant      Leonardo   Gonzalez        Franklin

Ricketts

This set-up would push forward into their opponents half with the two wings falling back into a 3-man line with Kovalenko. Buddle and Donovan would have room to run on each side and up top while Juninho roamed right behind them.

The first and only goal (14th minute), from a free kick by Donovan, was a perfectly headed ball by Buddle on the right side of the penalty box into the opposite corner. Buddle is big enough to handle just about any defender in MLS. He made good on his speed and size to get free and place the ball in the goal.

The first accolade I’ll give, and man-of-the-match for me, was the Brazilian (on loan from São Paulo) Leonardo, playing centerback in place for Gregg Berhalter. He had several key stops and kept the Revolution from getting looks at the goal. In fact, I’d love to give MOTM honors to both central backs in this game, Omar Gonzalez and Leonardo. Gonzalez was already looking like one of the best backs in MLS last season and picked up right where he left off. Our central defense will prove to be a key factor to LA’s success this year.

Eddie Lewis came up with a left foot contusion in only the 26th minute (a hard tackle from Kevin Alston), which meant that another São Paulo loanee would come on in the left midfield position. Alex Cazumba had some very good runs down the left hand side and seemed to work well with both Donovan and Dunivant. There’s definitely some potential there in terms of team chemistry.

I’ve saved the last Brazilian loanee for last. I’m sure Juninho has shown some attacking flair and ball control in practice, otherwise Bruce Arena wouldn’t be using him for games. But, he didn’t show too much here. For an attacking mid, he sure did find lots of time to be invisible. And, the times he did have the ball, he was as slow as you could get. I would much rather have Mike Magee (or, when healthy, Clint Mathis) playing in that role, given what we saw in this match.

This game didn’t show too much in terms of what to expect. First, Shalrie Joseph wasn’t patrolling the midfield for New England, and second, this New England formation and team was an experiment that failed radically. The next match, against Chivas, will show more in terms of how well our defense does and how Arena can put a team on the field to work against an opponent. I’m afraid any team could have done the job against the Revs tonight.

Many questions remain to be answered. Will Berhalter be able to win his spot back in central defense? It seems doubtful with how well Leonardo did. How long do we have the three Brazilians? Is Juninho really that slow or was it just jitters? What does Arena do with Jovan Kirovski and Alan Gordon? Gordon will be able to sub in for Buddle but I wonder if there’s any room for Kirovski here. When does Chris Klein take the field?

Next up is the Goats from Chivas USA on April 1st at the Home Depot Center. I hope its not an April fools … for the Galaxy.

Player Bio: Michael Stephens – UCLA OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE