MLS week 25: LA Galaxy begin again and much more

In our Rivalry Week review, we take a close look at the struggles of the LA Galaxy and how they can rebound, plus much more in our weekly awards.

MLS week 25 began with an entertaining tactical chess match between two of the league’s best and smartest managers. Patrick Vieira and Jesse Marsch dueled it out at Red Bull Arena in the New York Derby, which finished 1-1 on an impressively-clinical NYCFC counter and a penalty-kick drawn by Sacha Kljestan.

It may not have been end-to-end action and it couldn’t be classified as a track meet like the Seattle-Portland match that closed the week, but watching the Red Bulls’ ever-changing pressing shape and how NYC combatted it with varying possession patterns was fascinating. Catching a replay of this might be on my schedule this week, and I’d recommend taking a close look at this one. It is up there with my favorite games of the year, and probably was the most enjoyable tactical battle so far this year.

Here’s hoping we get an all New York playoff series.

This week’s review addresses the latest LA Galaxy happenings in-depth, and why Chicago have struggled. Let’s go:

Begin Again

A lot has been made about the Los Angeles Galaxy’s struggles this season. They’ve gone through multiple coaching changes since the end of last season, they’ve brought in multiple star names and have been linked with more, and they continue to struggle with a mismatched roster and poor decision-making from the front office. For whatever reason, homefield advantage has completely gone away from the StubHub Center, and they now languish very close to last place.

Following an embarrassing 3-0 home loss to rivals San Jose on Sunday, those struggles were amplified to the max. The Galaxy already were down 1-0 and looking weak when substitute right-back Nathan Smith (on for the injured Pele Van Anholt) received an unlucky red card that put the nail in their coffin, a nail that was battered in harder by Marco Urena and Chris Wondolowski later on. On national TV and in front of a large confetti-throwing crowd, it was a disconcerting performance. Fox Sports anchor hinted some significant Galaxy news could be coming soon, providing zero details on the nature of the news:

Nevermind whatever this is, the issues running through this team are vast and well-covered. An identity is severely lacking, in part due to the star-focused individualism of many players. Young guys coming through LA Galaxy II that are finally receiving playing time have not fit well, and not one has done much to show they deserve a consistent starting role. It is hard to ascertain a direction from a front-office that spent considerable money on Jermaine Jones this summer. Sigi Schmid, hired in late July following the firing of disastrous Bruce Arena replacement Curt Onalfo, has had no immediate fix.

Chief among all of those is much more basic: LA’s current personnel lacks the talent to compete with other MLS clubs. Their first-choice starting XI — even if it does include three high-caliber international superstars — posses little skill. This only is increased with the departure of center-back Jelle Van Damme.

That talent deficiency was on full display against the Earthquakes. Goalkeeper Alex Kempin looked capable for 90 minutes, but gave up a bad rebound that led to the third goal. Daniel Romney and Daniel Steres struggled together in central defense, having trouble dealing with Urena’s splitting runs and Wondolowski’s never-ending movement. Smith looked shaky up until his red, which was soft but rash from the right-back. Bradford Jameison IV filled in for new father Romain Alessandrini on the right flank and never seemed to find the game. Gyasi Zardes contributed little up top.

Jonathan and Giovani dos Santos admittedly played relatively well in their first game starting together, and Joao Pedro didn’t look too bad in defensive midfield. But those performances were offset by the struggles of the rest of the squad, and the overarching team-wide tactical issues trouble that group more than the others anyway.

In short, there is no obvious “just do this and you’ll be fine” solution; the problems run deep within the organization, from poor player development to unwise personnel decisions to the troubling tactical set-up in place. The Galaxy need upgrades at numerous positions, they need to find an in-league trade or overseas selling spot for their ill-fitting Homegrowns, they need a top-class striker (as in Zlatan, or Andre-Pierre Gignac), and perhaps most importantly, they need to develop a tactical identity and fix the myriad strategic problems plaguing them at the moment.

There is work to be done. For now, they’re going to have to eat this lost season and hope they come back firing next year, when LAFC enters the scene. What a rivalry that will be.

Next: The best under-20 player on every MLS team

Weekly Awards

The best team in the league: Toronto FC, who will hold this title for the rest of the season. This week, they walked into Montreal and defeated the Impact 3-1 seemingly without breaking a sweat. Sebastian Giovinco was incredible, scoring another free-kick (he is the most dangerous dead ball threat in the world) and adding another late on to sink a dagger into a previously red-hot Montreal side.

Not much more than that to say on Toronto, who essentially have the Supporters’ Shield locked up. The Impact, on the other hand, have some work to do in order to simply qualify for the postseason.

The worst team in the league: Colorado Rapids, who reaffirmed their status as the league’s worst team with an ugly 4-1 loss at rivals Real Salt Lake, failing to take advantage of an RSL red card and quickly falling apart at Rio Tinto. Minnesota United’s 2-1 win at Chicago and D.C. United’s sudden three-game win streak only increase the case for Colorado’s league-best futility.

Real, meanwhile, have won their previous two games by a combined 8-1. Both came at home against non-playoff teams, but their attacking firepower has been on full display, with Luis Silva contributing five goals in four games and Albert Rusnak grabbing a goal and four assists in three matches. The exciting young depth in this squad (Brooks Lennon, Bofo Saucedo) rivals any other in the league.

Random result of the week: Minnesota’s grind-it-out 2-1 victory in Chicago. The Fire are slumping hard, losing a remarkable six of seven, and have seen previously red-hot striker Nemanja Nikolic go cold with zero goals since the start of the July. Backline injuries have hurt, and performances throughout the roster have downgraded, but we are seeing every concern with the acquisition of Bastian Schweinsteiger come to fruition at once.

A true creator is still not present (Schweinsteiger, as good a passer as he is, certainly does not fit that description); pressing opposing creators has been difficult given the German legend’s lack of mobility, which concedes all sorts of space to the opposition’s attack; and Bastian has not been able to track back defensively to almost any productive extent, as shown on MNUFC’s second:

A lot goes wrong for Chicago there, but the initial pass through to Jerome Thiesson would not have been successful if Schweinsteiger had covered his area. The Fire are quickly and harshly learning that Dax McCarty is unable to defend every spot on the field all the time.

The Loons are way out of the playoffs, but seeing Danladi score twice on Saturday night must have boosted the spirits of Adrian Heath.

Predictable result of the week: D.C. United win 1-0 for the third straight week. This time, New England were the victims of red-hot D.C. United, who are rampaging through the league en route to a playoff spot.

Eh, not quite. The first two wins came solely as a result of an own goal and two of their opponents were the horrendous Rapids and easily-eliminated Revs. And they are still in last place. But they’re playing kind of well!

This game, played in front of 13,000 people and maybe half that amount of raccoons at RFK Stadium, gets the “predictable result” distinction not because we were expecting another DCU win, but because New England put out another mysterious and disastrous starting XI, and it was clear from the beginning that they would not walk out of D.C. with a win. Juan Agudelo played either underneath Kei Kamara, next to Kamara, or out on the wing (accounts vary, which tells you a lot about New England’s lineup patterns). All of those are bad, because Agudelo is a lone No. 9 who can not function next to another lone No. 9 like Kamara.

I wrote a lot more about the Revolution during the week, which you can read here. Put simply, they are weird and make a lot of inexplicable decisions.

Attacker of the week: Abu Danladi, with two goals for Minnesota. I have concerns about his technical abilities, specifically his ability to get the ball quickly to his shooting foot in close-range situations, but he makes good runs, has breakaway speed and has displayed a knack for getting himself in goalscoring positions. Whether he can be as productive on the wing (Christian Ramirez as the striker spot locked up) is another question.

Also in contention here is Silva, with his two goals against the Rapids, Philadelphia’s Roland Alberg, who picked up a goal and an assist in a 2-2 draw with Atlanta, and of course Giovinco, who should have at least five World Cup qualifying goals for Italy by now.

Biggest result of the week: TFC’s win over Montreal, which not only put Toronto nine points ahead of NYCFC but also kept Montreal in seventh in a very tight race for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot. Atlanta, who still hold a game in hand on the Impact, are sixth, ahead of Montreal by a tiebreaker. Columbus have won three of four, and they have rocketed to third while Chicago and New York drop to fourth and fifth. It will be a tight one.

GK howler of the week: Cody Cropper vs. D.C. It could have gone a lot worse for Cody here than it did:

Not a single true howler that led to a goal, but a lot of shakiness shown from MLS keepers on the week. Tim Howard muffed a ball at RSL, Andre Blake’s weak punch resulted in Atlanta’s last-second equalizer in Philly, Kempin gave up a juicy rebound to Wondo, Stefan Frei committed a penalty against Portland, and Jeff Attinella let a ball bounce around his own six-yard box before conceding against Seattle. This was youth rec league level.