MLS Week 22: The LA Galaxy’s designed chaos

The unique ways in which the LA Galaxy are adjusting to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and more from MLS Week 22.

An active midweek slate, with games on Wednesday and Thursday, was punctuated by another nutty LA rivalry match, with the Galaxy scoring twice in the last 10 minutes to steal a miraculous 2-2 draw from LAFC. LA, more specifically the Galaxy part, hosted Orlando on Sunday. Let’s start there:

The Galaxy thrive on chaos

LA seem to have settled on an identity. They want to put the maximum number of their stars on the field and play through them, especially Zlatan Ibrahimovic. All of their stars are attackers. They have no problem neglecting the defensive side if it makes those attackers better.

They have the highest-paid backline in the league, but lack starting-caliber players there beyond Ashley Cole. The solution, in Sigi Schmid’s eyes, is to play a 3-5-2 that stuffs the field with attackers. Against LAFC, they played Romain Alessandrini at wing-back; Alessandrini is a pure, natural attacker who has never come close to playing a defensive position in MLS.

It didn’t work from the start, as LAFC bossed the game and eventually took a 2-0 lead. But the Galaxy, of course, stormed back and stole a point. Nothing LA did seemed to work, and yet they did what they had to do against a good team. They looked poor for much of the game against Orlando as well, going down multiple times, until Ibrahimovic led them a chaotic 4-3 win.

At some point, the frequency of these kinds of results is a part of the plan. They were down 2-1 to the 10-man Revolution a couple weeks ago, until they scored twice in stoppage time and stole a 3-2 road win. They were losing 1-0 in Philly before three second half goals secured three points. LA make very little sense; it’s like this is what Schmid wants.

Given Schmid’s long history of pragmatism and fairly straight-forward managerial style, the way his team is playing is surprising. LA have all sorts of tactical flaws, weaknesses that jump off the page watching them. Schmid’s teams were always more well-drilled and organized than this.

This is a new kind of pragmatism for the Hall-of-Fame coach. He knows that his team will make too many mistakes defensively to rely on that side of the field, and he knows he has a surplus of attacking talent. Why not throw all those attackers out there and sacrifice some on the other end if they’re already going to give up goals? That’s how longtime wingers Alessandrini and Chris Pontius end up playing wing-back.

Concerns about defending from the front — bound to be raised when your front three includes Zlatan, 36, and Giovani dos Santos — are assuaged by the chaos-first methodology. Michael Ciani’s going to lose a header to a guy six inches smaller than him anyway, so Schmid makes the most dramatic of trade-offs.

The best example of the intentional disorganization: LA set their line of confrontation high, to let Zlatan and Ola fish for turnovers, but hold a low defensive line. That means there is a massive midfield gap that d-mid Perry Kitchen has to handle essentially on his own. Thus, the Galaxy constantly get overrun in midfield and lose every second ball. The opposition infiltrates every possible half-space. But this is by design, so what becomes a front five (including Alessandrini/Pontius and Jonathan dos Santos) has space to work.

Against Orlando, another team that is utterly incompetent on the defensive end, everyone had space to do everything and the game was as open as any game ever. The teams combined for 43 shots and the Galaxy won 4-3. It was a nutty affair. They bet on Zlatan to come out on top and he decidedly did.

Everyone wondered how Schmid was going to manage his weird collection of resources once Zlatan arrived. He’s produced something that’s about as unique as any style in MLS, and it has them sitting third in the Western Conference. At one point, it was an operating question as to whether they would even make the playoffs.

There is no obvious solution that would get the Galaxy back to normalcy other than “sign good defenders.” The three center-backs that make up their three-at-the-back, Ciani, Jorgen Skjelvik and Dave Romney, lack the athleticism needed to play in this kind of system.

Romney was a target all night against Orlando, and was routinely roasted by Mohamed El-Munir. A more conventional wing-back would have prevented some of the one-v-one situations he was thrust into, but conventional is not how one would describe anything the Galaxy are doing.

MLS Player Entertainment Power Rankings

We’ve done the team entertainment rankings, so why not the players? It was a good week for individual talent, with Josef Martinez adding another brace and Bradley Wright-Phillips scoring his 100th league goal.

Here’s a rough top XI of the most entertaining players in the league, judging by the enjoyment players provide on and off the ball:

11. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Galaxy)

That Zlatan, the one and only, is 10th should tell you the quality of this list. Ibra has been dominant in his MLS tenure, and while his pressing hasn’t been exactly top-notch, he’s world-class on the ball. Every time he touches it he’s a threat to do something productive in the direction of the goal.

And he hits the ball harder than anyone in MLS, bar none.

10. David Villa (NYCFC)

Another all-time great striker. Villa has missed the last five games (he’s only started 10 this season, with eight goals and four assists), but he’s one of the best this league has ever seen. His passing around the box, particularly when he faces up like a number 10, is vastly underrated.

9. Joao Plata/Jefferson Savarino (RSL)

I couldn’t decide between these too, so I put both RSL wingers on. Plata appears to be on the trade market (Columbus, maybe?), but each provides an electricity on the ball.

8. Bradley Wright-Phillips (RSL)

Watching BWP is a lesson in the art of being a striker. He’s amazing at finding little pockets from which he can generate tap-ins. He’s also a quietly skillful player when he gets on the ball.

Other strikers of a similar vein, i.e. Adama Diomande, Josef Martinez, Chris Wondolowski, are represented here by BWP.

7. Julian Gressel (Atlanta)

I might be alone in this choice, but Gressel is an incredible player. His talent does not jump out at you when you watch Atlanta, particularly with all the players surrounding him, but he does everything Atlanta needs of him. His skillset is among the most versatile in MLS — he’s best at wing-back, but you’re good putting him anywhere from right-back to center midfield to the wing. I will die on this hill.

6. Ignacio Piatti (Montreal)

Piatti is a top-five player in MLS, even at 33. He scores a ton (17 goals in 2016 and 2017, and 11 goals this year) and gets assists, already with nine this season — more than the six he picked up in each of the past two years. Montreal needs him to do everything and that is exactly what he does.

5. Alphonso Davies (Whitecaps)

Yet again, Davies destroyed an MLS team this weekend. After signing with Bayern Munich during the week, he ripped Minnesota United apart on Saturday to the tune of two goals and two assists. Vancouver won 4-2 on his back. Just watch the highlights.

4. Carlos Vela (LAFC)

You can sense Vela’s skill every time he’s on the ball for LAFC. He’s an MVP candidate in his first MLS season.

3. Alberth Elis (Dynamo)

Elis has slowed down a bit recently, but he has been one of the league’s best attackers by most metrics. He attacks the ball with an unmatched ferocity, as though he wants to power the ball into the goal with every touch. The combination of speed and flair (he loves those stepovers) is deadly.

2. Miguel Almiron (Atlanta)

For my money, he is MLS’s best player, with line-splitting passing and dribbling and all the characteristics of a South American number 10.

1. Darwin Quintero (Minnesota)

In 17 starts this season, he has nine goals and eight assits, including two more assists against Davies’s Whitecaps. His July 4 hat-trick against Toronto FC, featuring three legitimate golazos, is the best hat-trick in MLS history. He has free reign in Minnesota’s 3-5-2 and he has used it to great effect.

Awards

The best team in the league

Atlanta United won 2-1 in Montreal with two more goals from Josef Martinez. Eric Remedi, the 23-year-old recently-signed Argentine, started for the first time next to Jeff Larentowicz in the midfield, pushing Julian Gressel back to the wing. Remedi played well.

The Impact have rounded out into a competent MLS team. Remember that big streak of losses they barfed up in the spring? They can defend without falling down upon themselves now, and all of a sudden they find themselves in fifth in the Eastern Conference. Playoffs are a real thing in Montreal with Philly needing a striker, Chicago missing Dax McCarty and Orlando being Orlando.

They still got dusted by the Five Stripes, though.

The worst team in the league

San Jose vs. Real Salt Lake seemed like an intriguing game going in. Two young teams finding their way. They did not live up. The two produced a slow 0-0 draw that provides very little in the way of takeaways.

The Earthquakes remain the worst team in the league, though. RSL at some point have to figure out how to beat the teams below them.

Predictable result of the week

Portland beat Houston 2-1 with Fanendo Adi coming on as a sub and scoring a late winner in his final game as a Timber. (Reportedly, he’s headed to FC Cincinnati along with San Jose’s Fatai Alashe.) The Dynamo were too tentative later in the game, sitting back and letting the Timbers beat them. Their inability to finish results — or stay on the front foot and maybe score a winner themselves! — might just kill their playoff chances.

The Timbers, meanwhile, are very good at getting results. Diego Chara being back certainly helps.

Random result of the week

Columbus have struggled in recent weeks, having won just once in eight MLS games before narrowly escaping with three points last week against Orlando. A win away at the New York Red Bulls, in which Crew SC gave Chris Armas a managerial lesson, will help. The Crew took an early 3-0 and held on for 3-2. Armas’s game-plan, a return to Jesse Marsch’s 3-3-3-1, did not go as planned.

Goalkeeper howler of the week

Good old Tim Howard got megged on Wayne Rooney’s first MLS goal:

Start Zac MacMath!