Okay, I can breathe now. I've slept (for a solid two-plus hours) and ate breakfast and have had a chance to digest the game.
I think I was wrong about FC Dallas. Yes, I picked them to finish last (that sounds harsh but I just thought they'd have about 35-40 points which this year I think will be good for 6 out of 6). I know it's still waaaaaay early but FC Dallas looked pretty solid. Carlos Ruiz and Kenny Cooper are men among men. Cooper incidentally is a giant. Those two guys are going to cause problems for other teams all season long.
Now, I figured as much but the rest of the team to me was suspect. But their midfield worked well yesterday. Cooper played pretty deep and helped out a lot in the middle of the field. Ramon Nunez and Dax McCarty played well together too. McCarty has a lot of potential and Steve Morrow seems to have a lot of faith in young Dax.
Granted, this club does not have many big names after Ruiz and Cooper. Shaka Hislop is an adventure in goal and the depth needs to be sorted out but there are just a lot of solid players on here.
To me, the key was how FC Dallas stopped the Galaxy from creating much and the way they contained the Galaxy's speed and creativity in the middle of the field. FC Dallas did well to foul Galaxy players - namely Landon Donovan - in places where they couldn't create any damage. And Tyrone Marshall said the Galaxy needed to do more of that to FC Dallas.
The Galaxy meanwhile just looked a bit off. There was never a flow to their game. I think it's going to take a while for them to figure things out. Nate Jaqua needs to be more of a presence. He's essentially the same height as Kenny Cooper but Cooper was 10 times the presence than Jaqua was last night.
I don't know that I liked the right side last night. Chris Albright is one of the best right backs in MLS. Why mess with that sort of success? He adds a physical presence to the backline and can create mismatches when he makes those overlapping runs down the right side. You lose the physical play with Ian Russell at right back and that attacking element as well.
The Galaxy won't play again until April 24 at Columbus in a US Open Cup qualifier. You don't want a team to lose necessarily but a loss here would probably help the Galaxy down the road. Already their schedule is loaded this summer. The Galaxy should leave its big names at home and let the reserves play for Open Cup glory.
6 comments:
My only comment on the game has more to do with the coverage.
Yes, I'm happy that espn is putting games on TV. However, Wynalda and O'Brien are terrible commentators and play by play guys.
O'Brien has no sense or understanding of the game whatsoever. Why not pay up for any of the outstanding Foxsports guys? Or how about giving a guy like Allen Hopkins, who has a clue about the game, a shot at play by play.
Wynalda, I have no idea what he is talking about half the time. His points make no sense, and I'm convinced that despite his successful playing career he has no idea how to analyze a team or game. He calls it like a 40 year old soccer mom who never played. It's bewildering.
Why doesn't espn film the game like the rest of Europe films games? We're left with this overall much lesser quality of production. Between the dullness of O'Brien and the bizarre incoherent ramblings of Wynalda the games are almost unviewable.
Lastly, the refereeing in the MLS is dreadful. Yes, officials will miss calls and make bad calls. But the consistency in which many refs make bad calls or misses calls shows that they have no idea what is and isn't a foul.
Anon, you make several good points. I was talking to Max Bretos recently and I mentioned that I was surprised that his former broadcast partner, Allen Hopkins, would be content with sideline reporter duty.
"Allen's better than that," I said. "He should be up in the booth. Let me do the sideline reporting. I'll translate what the players are saying Spanish."
Max laughed and then told me that Hopkins took the ESPN job with the promise of getting some booth time in the future. Hopefully that will happen soon.
The points by Anonymous about the refereeing are interesting. I'm new to watching MLS this year after enjoying European soccer, and I was thinking about how much less diving there is in the average MLS game. (Ruiz being the big exception, but it wasn't even all that effective for him.)
I noticed this also last year in the Real Madrid-DC United game, where one RM player flopped to the ground and rolled around for ages, and then when play had moved fifty yards downfield he kind of sheepishly got up and rejoined the game.
I wonder if this isn't because MLS refs seem less likely to call fouls than their European counterparts? So they're not about to call pretend fouls. (Or at least they do it much less frequently.) Which means that perhaps there is a benefit? Just a thought.
I'm guessing that Anon, like a lot of grumbling fans at the Galaxy game, might have unhappy with the PK call, believing that Toja had shot the ball into Ty Harden's arm, rather than that the young defender had intentionally handled it, and that the referee make a poor call that turned the game.
I'd agree that there's a lot of physical play in MLS, but there's also this slightly weird American code of honor in the league about diving. The players will get on each other about it. They scorn the players who dive, and I think peer pressure limits the practice mostly to slight embellishment. Ruiz is one of those who doesn't seem to care what people think - he'll do whatever it takes to win.
"but there's also this slightly weird American code of honor in the league about diving. The players will get on each other about it."
I think this is fantastic, and kudos to the players for this. BUT I have to say, if diving worked in MLS, more would do it. It doesn't seem to work, and my hat is off to the refs who keep it from working, even if it means they occasionally miss a legitimate foul.
By the way, I love your site here and at LA Soccer News. I use you often, especially whenever the Galaxy website doesn't come through with information. Which is frequently.
I think our officials who have never played the game and probably only watch games that they ref or watch games on TV to observe the referee simply DON'T KNOW WHAT A FOUL IS. So they just make it up.
I also think they let way too much go. In the rest of the world, players are rewarded for drawing a sloppy or late tackle even if the embelish it a little. Our referees swallow the whistle anytime they think there might be a little diving going on.
The end result is the skillful players stop playing as clever and the hacks get away with being thugs and you have an overall lower quality of play. The big goons dictate the way the game is played.
This also goes for cards. I see fouls that would draw reds in Europe that don't even get yellows here. All you have to do is whipe out a skillful player once early and if doesn't result in a card, he's going to know that there is no reward for being skillful.
This type of refereeing is harmful to both our attackers and defenders. The attackers become afraid of contact because the refs don't protect them enough, and the defenders think all you have to do is take someone out and that's good defending. It doesn't work in the rest of the world because they have quality refs that reward the clever skillful players and the defenders who make timely clean tackles.
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