(Editorial) – “Our play in front of our goal was atrocious, just gift wrapped three goals for them.” “Christmas came early in Seattle. We absolutely gift wrapped that game.”
Head coach Bruce Arena could not have said it better. The LA Galaxy’s season is over after a wild 3-2 knockout round loss to the Seattle Sounders. Defensive issues, and the inability to come back did them in. For the first time since 2008, they have failed to reach the conference semifinals.
What then does this quick playoff exit mean? What does this LA Galaxy offseason have in store?
The Defense Has More Holes Than Swiss Cheese:
An argument can be made that the Galaxy gifted the Sounders two goals in this game, and noteworthy defensive mistakes occurred on all three. Omar Gonzalez and Donovan Ricketts had a miscommunication on the first goal. After the game, Gonzalez said he heard Ricketts call for it. The 38-year-old never got there and Clint Dempsey buried it.
The second goal came on a set piece. Steven Gerrard lost his mark on Nelson Valdez. The ball bounced right on the 6 yard line and Valdez was able to redirect it on. Gerrard should have stayed with his man but Ricketts was a spectator on the play. Both were at fault, but it’s inexcusable for a goalkeeper not to make a play at the ball when it bounces inside the 6 yard box.
The game winner came in the 73rd minute. A looping cross was sent into the box. AJ DeLaGarza headed it straight up into the air when he had the opportunity to clear it away from goal. He did not have a man on him, nor was there anyone contesting him on the header. With the ball going straight up, players from both sides converged, including Ricketts. Leonardo ultimately won the challenge, but headed the ball down and directly at midfielder Erik Friberg. At the same time, Ricketts had fallen down trying to get to the ball. Friberg put the ball in the far corner with the keeper off his line.
The Seattle Sounders were absolutely the better team in this match. That said, two of the three goals were gifted to them. There wasn’t much resistance on the third either. There were seven individual mistakes made on the three goals combined. That’s inexcusable. Clean just two of those up, and the LA Galaxy are probably in the conference semifinals right now.
This match was an exclamation point on what was a terrible finish to the season defensively. Leonardo and Gonzalez were taken apart by the Portland Timbers. The defense was improved against Sporting KC but still had breakdowns. One of the trademarks of a Bruce Arena team is their emergency defending. That usually bails them out of self-inflicted danger. It did not today.
That said, this team is just one year removed from winning MLS Cup. They were tied for first with only 37 goals conceded in the 2014 regular season. All with the exact same back four, and the same keeper for the better part of the year. The weak link in 2014 was Leonardo, who’s having the best 12 months of his LA Galaxy career.
The defense is not in total rebuild mode. Adjustments need to be made, even if it’s just players coming back to their norm and playing better as a unit.
The Uncertain Future Of Some Players:
It’s hard to look at Ricketts and feel good about his play since returning to LA. He’s 38 now. The Galaxy have backup Brian Rowe, who’s looked better the past two years in a more significant role as a backup. LA Galaxy have an absolute stud in Clement Diop.
Ricketts best years are clearly behind him and there are other options within the organization. The LA Galaxy would certainly be a desirable destination for any free agent goalies going into next year. Does Dan Kennedy stay with FC Dallas now that he’s lost his job to a 20-year-old academy product? Kennedy is a former Chivas USA player and he’s from the area. Just a thought.
It’s hard for me to see Arena cutting ties with one of his guys. He made the trade for Ricketts because he’s one of his guys. Arena trusts his veterans, almost to a fault at times. An argument can be made this loss is squarely because of Ricketts. At his age, it’s hard to believe he can return to his 2013 form. I wouldn’t bring him back.
Gonzalez has also become a scapegoat in the latter part of this season. He was consistently one of the best center backs in MLS and that culminated in appearing in the 2014 World Cup. While he had a good first half of the season, his skid at the end of the season paralleled that of the defense.
The other issue with Gonzalez is the salary cap situation. The Galaxy used almost their entire Target Allocation Money allowance on his salary for 2015 to sign Giovani dos Santos. At present, there isn’t enough to keep him and be under the cap for 2016. It would probably take most of LA’s allocation money and maybe cutting a role player to make him and the three DPs under the cap. It would be simpler to sell him.
Gonzalez got a DP contract in part because of his ascension in 2012. His stock again went up after the World Cup. If the Galaxy are going to try and sell him, the bidding price won’t be what it was in the past. He ended the season poorly. He hasn’t made any notable appearances with the national team recently. European teams might not be lining up like they may have in the past.
I have no idea what’s going to happen with Gonzalez. I’m sure Arena had a contingency play for this. We’ll just have to wait and see what it is.
The Offensive System Needs Some Tweaks:
Steven Gerrard came under criticsm to end the year. It’s clear that Arena did not do a good job acclimating his two summer DP additions. The ‘let’s just have Gerrard take over the Sarvas role’ didn’t pan out.
I still think Juninho and Gerrard can work as a central pair, but the system needs to be tweaked. Gerrard doesn’t naturally get involved in the attack as Sarvas did. He and Juninho don’t combine as well either. They didn’t work hard enough on the defensive end down the stretch either, which contributed to conceding goals.
Chemistry will come with time and another season together. Perhaps Juninho needs to assume a more significant offensive role. These two can be the best central midfield pair in MLS when given suitable roles in the right system. Rumors might start about Gerrard leaving. Unless Jurgen Klopp wants him for some reason, I don’t see it happening.
Robbie Keane and Dos Santos never really clicked either. Like the Juninho-Gerrard relationship, they do too much of the same thing. They are playmakers who want the ball to run through them. They also have had spacing issues that make it easy for defenses to thwart them.
Still, these are two world class strikers. There has to be a way to make this work. More time will lead to a better understanding. Defined roles will also help as well. They have very high Soccer IQs. They just never got on the same page and the changed parts in the midfield made it a steeper learning curve.
The other option is to move Dos Santos to the midfield and reunite Zardes with Keane up top. Zardes and Keane know their roles. Dos Santos could be a wide playmaker their system needs, similar to, oh I don’t know, Landon Donovan. The only argument against it I see is that Dos Santos doesn’t defend. Zardes isn’t that great of a defender out wide either.
Forget About This Season And Go Win Champions League:
This season is a wash and maybe for the better. Teams that play in MLS Cup get only six weeks off before preseason camps starts. A full three months off might do this team some good. If nothing else, the shock of getting eliminated so early will motivate them.
This organization has won 5 MLS Cups. They have 12 major trophies, tied with D.C. United for the most of any MLS team in history. 2016 will be about avenging this early exit in the MLS Playoffs. More critically, it will be about winning that all elusive CONCACAF Champions League.
Become the first ever MLS team to win the tournament in this variation of it, and the Super Club of MLS title will stick. The LA Galaxy will take on Liga MX side, Santos Laguna to start. While both teams could be very different 5 months from now, this series is very much winable. Santos are near the bottom of the table and could be fighting relegation in the spring. Get over the hump of beating a Mexican team in this tournament and anything’s possible.
Fix the defense, even if that just means players getting over a bad run of form. Maybe switch keepers. Make a few changes to the system and clarify individual roles. Add a midfield bench option. Get over this season and go win CCL next year.
