(Editorial) – With the departure of Omar Gonzalez and Juninho, LA Galaxy fans wondered which position Jeff Larentowicz would play? Would Bruce Arena sign a center back with some bite? They have, in defender Jelle Van Damme of Belgium.
Jelle Francois Maria Van Damme is a 32-year-old Belgian international (31 caps since 2003) and has been with Standard Liège since 2011. He’s plays center back but has been a left back more recently. Still, he’s 6’4”, tall for a left back. He’s now the tallest defender on the Galaxy, with Dave Romney and Leonardo both being 6’2”.
Arena has favored having two trees in the middle of back line recently. He’s already confirmed the position he’ll be playing: “He’s an experienced player who will make the transition from left back to center back which is a transition that he’s very capable of making.” This is exactly what any LA Galaxy supporter wanted to hear.
There will be a bit of a transition as he gets back to an old position, but he fits the mold of MLS very well. He’s known as a very physical player. While some international players have a hard time adjusting to the physicality of MLS, we’ve seen some of those center backs have success.
Aurelien Collin, Lauren Ciman, and Liam Ridgewell come to mind. All three are foreigners. All of them are good in the air and rough up the game when needed.
The Galaxy could have used some bite down the stretch last season, especially at Sporting KC (2-1 loss to fall in the playoff standings) and at Seattle (the playoff loss). Van Damme and Larentowicz will provide that in the middle of the park. Leonardo is coming off his best season in MLS ever. It might take some time for them to gel, along with new left back Ashley Cole.
But once they get to know each other, they have the potential to be one of the best center back pairs in MLS. Van Damme can be the next good international center back in MLS. He fits the style of play. He’ll have a good center back partner. If he can get used to the travel, the varying weather conditions, and his new teammates, he’ll be exactly what the Galaxy need.
This signing would be an excellent signing if Van Damme turned out to be another Aurelien Collin (and not just in appearance). It’s a good sign to see he’s excited to join the club as well.
There are two concerns with Van Damme. He had a bit of an incident in a 2009 match against former U.S. International Oguchi Onyewu. Onyewu accused Van Damme of using racial slurs towards him in the match. The abuse was to the point where Onyewu “almost ended up fighting him.” Van Damme denied it.
Onyewu felt he had a moral duty to fight racist culture in European Football to the point where he filled a lawsuit against Van Damme. Reports are that the two players met soon after that. Van Damme apologized and the charges were soon dropped. Arena did contact Onyewu prior to signing Van Damme. Clearly there isn’t a problem there anymore if they decided to sign him.
My only other concern is how much TAM was used to acquire Van Damme. It’s been reported by many sources that TAM was used. The Galaxy most certainly didn’t use all of the $800,000 of TAM for 2016. I’d hope they didn’t need to use more than half of it. Anything less would have been a great deal.
