fastidium

I will have my review up soon.

This Week Inside the Galaxy: 2010 – Episode 2

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.

The New England Revolution gave little resistance to the L.A. Galaxy’s first victory of the season. It was both teams’ first league match and the Revs looked terrible without Shalrie Joseph. Steve Nichols must be asking himself how his side could could look so bad without that one player.

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.

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)

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

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