Tuesday's Rants

Well more than rants it’s just one rant. Plain and simple: What is the answer for the LA Galaxy. After having a bye week and two weeks to prepare, the Galaxy lost at home Saturday to the Colorado Rapids, or actually just Conor Casey, 3-2. Like they have been playing last year, the Galaxy let a lead slip away in the second half, in matter of minutes from themselves recapturing the lead. Well before I get into it, let’s take it from the top.

Seventeen seconds in the game, Colorado scored. That’s right, seventeen seconds. Surprisingly, it’s the second quickest goal in MLS history. Regardless, it was Conor Casey that made the easy tap in, after both Josh Saunders and rookie Omar Gonzalez failed to clear a simple cross from Omar Cummings. Gonzalez made up for it in the 37th minute when he headed in a corner kick from Landon Donovan - the best highlight of the night – tying the game 1-1.

Few minutes into the second half, it seemed that LA got control of the match, going up 2-1. Alan Gordon had an easy tap in of his own after Donovan’s crossed passed under the hands of Rapids goalkeeper Preston Burpo to find an open Gordon. However, since the Galaxy are the Galaxy, not sixty second later, the Casey–Cummings tandem struck again. Cummings played a low cross to Conor Casey who was left alone in front of Saunders’ goal, and tied the game 2-2. After Dema Kovalenko was red carded from a hard foul which was should have been more of a yellow, and since the Galaxy are playing with probably the slowest center back duo in Gonzalez and Tony Sanneh with a Sean Franklin on the right, it was no surprise that Casey was again left alone on a breakaway, in the 84th minute, to dribble by Saunders and complete his hat-trick as well as giving Colorado a 3-2 victory.

So where is the blame? Why was Conor Casey left by himself three times to score simple goals on the road? Can I blame Lalas? No, not this time, this is all Bruce Arena’s boys. Plain and simple, it’s the defense. With Eddie Lewis, Tony Sanneh, Omar Gonzales, and Sean Franklin in the back, the Galaxy has the oldest and youngest defense in the team. I understand that there has to be a blend between the veterans and rookies, but why always go to opposite ends? Why does the team keep signing these older players, not as agile, not as fast for the rest of the forwards in the league?

No one will take away Lewis and Sanneh’s great careers and what they did for the national team, but the team has to focus on younger players. Other teams have scouted all parts of the world for their players – DC United, Dallas, and Chicago have young talent that has come from Latin America. Even Seattle has taken advantage of it, signing Fredy Montero who’s quickly becoming a stud for the Sounders.

We did see good things from the youngsters this weekend, Gonzalez getting his first goal from a set piece, which is what everyone expected when he got drafted. Franklin also had a good run, setting up the Galaxy’s second goal. However, both also made mistakes on all of Colorado’s goals. Either being bad positioned or giving the ball away. The other rookies – A.J. DeLaGarza and Kyle Patterson are also not performing up to par. Patterson was consistently loosing the ball as he kept driving between Rapid players and De La Garza hasn’t shown much in his limited time.

Some might say that it’s just the second game of the campaign. But it’s no excuse for still having a bad defense when Bruce Arena has had an entire off-season, Superdraft, and preseason to prepare. I am tired of Arena trying to sign his old players, like Gregg Berhalter, the 35-year old defender who was part of the 2002 U.S. World Cup squad. He is 35, how much can he bring besides experience, and where is he going to play. Paring him up with Gonzalez makes the defense just as slow, and paring him up with Sanneh makes the defense one of the oldest in MLS.

Well, we’ll see what the line-up Arena will use tonight when the Galaxy face Colorado again in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play-in game. I would like to see what DeLaGarza could do with 90 minutes, as well as see more of Stefani Miglioranzi, Mike Magee and even Yohance Marshall.

The Galaxy does have youth in the squad, it’s not all filled with 30-something year old geezers. It’s just a matter of Bruce not holding on to his glory years in the early decade, and trusting the younger players who also have just as much experience.