(Editorial) – Since joining the Los Angeles Galaxy, DP Giovani dos Santos has two goals and two assists. In that time, the LA Galaxy have a win over Central FC in CONCACAF Champions League and a 3-1 win over the Seattle Sounders.
Thursday’s CCL match didn’t provide much to draw conclusions due to the reserve lineup and the quality of the opponent. Sunday’s nationally televised game against the Sounders did shed some light on the new super club the LA Galaxy are building. While Seattle was far from full strength, a few moments demonstrated that the LA Galaxy still have work to do.
Many will look at a 3-1 score line and think Seattle was lucky to score early as LA dominated the match. This game could have been a blow out, with Stefan Frei making several big saves throughout the match. A goal ruled offsides and a few defensive mistakes by the Galaxy, and Seattle could have lucked into a draw. Even without Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey, the Sounders did show several things that the Galaxy need to work on defensively. Let’s break it down.
Give Dos Santos time to assimilate:
While the attack did a good job scoring three goals and creating chances this past weekend, the first half was a big of a slog. Head Coach Bruce Arena started Dos Santos up top with Captain Robbie Keane, moving Gyasi Zardes out to right midfield. Keane and Dos Santos weren’t on the same page on several plays in the first half. The pair also did not combine with Steven Gerrard out of the midfield very well. The group looked much better as the second half progressed.
There’s no mistaking that Dos Santos is world class and a better striker than Zardes. It was refreshing to see Keane paired with a forward who is on his level mentally. That’s part of what made him and Landon Donovan so dangerous together. They fed off each other well and anticipated the run of play.
Dos Santos could very well be a better option than Zardes up top in the long term for this reason. For the immediate future, Zardes and Keane have a better partnership because of their familiarity. Give Dos Santos time to gel with Keane and Gerrard and they will be able dominate in MLS.
Put them together with Sebastian Lletget and Zardes, and this could be the best attack in MLS on paper. Lletget has six goals and an assist and could be the steal of the season. He and Dos Santos linked up on plays in both games. Lletget had an assist on both of Dos Santos’s goals.
This move does bring up the question LA Galaxy (and now USMNT) fans have been asking: Is Zardes a midfielder or a forward? If anyone can figure this out and make it work in an established system, it’s Bruce Arena. For what it’s worth, Zardes had an excellent game at right midfield over weekend. It was possibly his best performance at wide midfield since turning pro.
Another Goalkeeper Who’s Questionable Coming Off His Line:
Donovan Rickets came back to the Galaxy through a trade with Orlando City. This was to replace starting goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, who recently left the club due to dissatisfaction with his contract.
Rickets did not have a good game against Seattle. The Galaxy were lucky that a Zach Scott goal was ruled offsides. Defenders Omar Gonzalez and Leonardo got caught ball watching on the play. Rickets hesitated coming off his line, which allowed Scott to score.
In the 71st minute, Rickets dropped a cross on his own 6 yard line and Andy Rose was able to get a shot off close to goal. It took Robbie Rogers clearing the ball off the line to prevent a goal. While this was only Rickets’s second game since joining the Galaxy, they were very worrying moments that could have had a serious impact on the match.
The one saving grace is that the Galaxy are used to having this as a weakness. Penedo was never stellar coming off his line and the Galaxy was able to cover up this mistake. Gonzalez and Leonardo are good in the air. So are Zardes and Alan Gordon. Bruce Arena coached teams are often excellent at emergency defending.
Rickets did not have this weakness when he was in Portland. Still, if this is a trend, it’s something the Galaxy are used to dealing with.
A Slow And Mistake Prone Central Defense:
Gonzalez and Leonardo did not have a good game as a center back pair. While this could very well be an outlier, it has been a concern for the LA Galaxy for several years especially considering the historical success of Gonzalez and AJ DeLaGarza as a center back pair.
The Sounders created several good scoring chances using their speed on this relatively slow pair. Leonardo had a good stretch in the playoffs last year and has been decent this season. This was arguably his worst performance of the year. He was forced to make several recoveries and scrambling tackles. He did well on these plays to make up for his mistakes, but they could have been avoided in the first place.
While Gonzalez has broken his ball watching habit over the last two years, he was burned twice in this game: first by Chad Barrett in the first minute of play and then by Scott, though he was correctly ruled offsides.
This pair has had excellent moments together. They had one of their best performances last year in the second half of a playoff game in Seattle. They could very easily bounce back next game. The LA Galaxy hope this is the last of the slow-footed play and ball watching from this pair. Arena will have plenty to talk about this week during film sessions.
