The Galaxy and David Beckham may be long-shot for the MLS playoffs but tonite they have a shot at winning the Superliga title against Pachuca.
The Galaxy did beat Pachuca in Superliga group play but the degree of difficulty is at a high tonite against the top Mexican squad.
LA comes off a poor loss to Colorado this past Sunday 3-0. Beckham and Landon Donovan were rested in this game and did not even travel to the Rocky Mountain State.
Pachuca lost in Mexican League play 1-0 to Santos Laguna who are perfect so far. Can’t see the Galaxy getting by Pachuca unless they are just not interested. Here’s hoping the Galaxy and MLS represent itself well tonite.
Rumor out of England has Jurgen Klinsmmann lining up for the LA Galaxy head coaching job. Would that mean Frank Yallop heads back to San Jose if this were to be true. Don’t tell me Yallop all of a sudden has become a poor coach.
Thoughts?
Glenn
Galaxy, Beckham in Superliga final tonite
August 29, 2007 5 Comments
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Yallop was in a no-win situation. Lalas did a terrible job of putting a team together for him. How he gets teams to hire him as their GM I will never know.
Yallop will be in S.J. next year and he\’s going to take Donovan with him. As for the Galaxy, I just hope it represents the league proudly by putting forth a strong showing.
Glenn, I do hope the Galaxy put on a good show tonight. Pachuca is a great club. Too bad the Dynamo couldn\\\’t put them away. As far as Yallop is concerned, I don\\\’t know enough about him to render a comment. However, Klinnsmmann would be a great signing by Lalos. He would add talent to that team and make it a force to be reckoned with. For the MLS to continue to be successful and grow further (imo), two franchises need to be strong, New York and LA. New York is doing just that, now LA can follow suit with KLinnsmmann. Now if the Dynamo can just get that latino DP and a new stadium to boot, Houston we have a go!
The track records of both Yallop and Lalas suggest who is to blame for the train wreck that is the Galaxy. Yallop has two MLS Cups, building the SJ franchise from its bottom-of-the-barrel standing prior to his arrival and setting the seeds for its success in 2005 and later as the Dynamo. Lalas has served as GM for 2 previous clubs, leaving each one in a state of, if not disarray, then definitely with no coherent strategy or defined identity. His handling of the Donovan loss was reviled by the SJ fans, and his inconsistency with the Metrostars left that club struggling for stability.
If the Galaxy hope to right their ship, they would axe Lalas and bring in a GM that has more intelligence and perception, even if it means fewer newsworthy sound bites. If the Galaxy choose to fire Yallop, it would be more of a boon to Yallop (who could easily find employment in a less dysfunctional organization) than to the Galaxy. Having said that, it would be interesting to see how Klins would do in the MLS…and he probably needs to coach something to keep himself visible for future coaching gigs. Plus, his name has a certain cachet that the Galaxy — image conscious as they are — would love.
One of the biggest complaints about the Galaxy is that it’s a random mish-mash of players who don’t comprise a coherent team. A couple of talented individuals can’t carry a team very far. Injuries have been a problem, sure; but even without the injuries there is an unhealthy randomness to the team roster. This being the core problem of the team means that whoever is responsible for this should bear the consequences. Based on past experience, I have to believe that Alexi is the culprit.
And now I read reports that Lalas is trying to blame the crowded schedule for the team’s woes. Oh really? Was he an unwilling victim of the scheduling (he sure spoke like he was integral to the scheduling process at the beginning of the season)? And if the schedule is to blame, then why wasn’t the team racking up points in the early season when it had a mostly open schedule? And how is it that a lowly team like the Dynamo from a podunk village like Houston was able to zoom to the top of the standings when it was fighting through a schedule that included 3 games a week, some against high-caliber Mexican clubs?
Even though Lalas is to blame, it’s the coach that bears accountability for the on-field performance, so AEG will probably fire both Yallop and Lalas. It doesn’t help Yallop’s cause that he played an injured Becks all 90 minutes of a losing match versus Chivas after Becks had played all 90 of a match in England the day before.
I used to be a fan of Alexi. Now I just wish he’d fade away.
In other countries Football has the same structure as Baseball. Yallop would be considered a manager who’s input has a lot of value. I don’t think Lalas is even listening.
I don’t want to give Yallop too much credit cause we don’t know how much of Dom’s input influenced the success of SanJose. I am sure that if somebody other than Lalas was GM with more business experience and little as talent evaluator they would allow Yallop to pick his team. Look at Bruce Arena in New York who has to be GM and manager fixing whats broken by getting rid of all of Lalas’ junk. And I foresee that happening in L.A.
If the rumor is true, Klinsmmann is going to make demands that include him making final decisions on all player personnel. He is going to make sure no one pins any bad calls on him, if he didn’t make them. Lalas’ only duties will be making sure there is ice and toilet paper at the stadium.
Damn….props to M@ for a great run-down.
No props to manny….this league does not REQUIRE LAG and NYRB to be successful to be a legite/good league. The NFL is proof of that, as is MLB. Any more attempts by MLS to skew things in favor of one or both (or any other team, including Houston) teams will change it from a legit league to the next WWE. The league has already given the Gals what they describe as an \’unfair\’ advantage due to the Bex situation and no more is needed (such as adding another DP next year so LA can keep Donovan and NY can get another DP). Keep things the way they are for the 3 years, like they said. Then review.
As far as the match is concerned, Donovan may do good in this match. It all depends on his mood…when he decides to come out and play, he is a top level player. But too often he doesn\’t want to for whatever reason. I don\’t expect much from Bex nor Xavier, if they do play. I can\’t imagine that either one is 100% and will probably play like it (especially Bex…what the hell was Yallop thinkin?). Pachuca should be able to win this by at least 2 goals. Should be a good game and party at the Mezz!
In regards to LAG Management: I hope AEG pulls an \’stros and fires Yallop and Lalas. Yallop has not been able to get the best of his players when he has had them. It is unclear just how much say-so he has in player acquisition but he had to have oked the deals to some degree. The best pickups by the Gals this year are Cannon and Xavier. That is all. Bex hasn\’t shown anything yet to be considered as good a pick-up as those two. Without Cannon and Xavier, MLS might have been forced to relegate them to the PDL. Lalas has been annoying since minute 1, especially since the Bex deal was announced. The runnin joke is that if Lalas says a deal is great, you know it was a bad deal for LA.
Rumor has it that Yallop\’s greatness in SJ was due in part to Dom. No one, of course, knows how true that is but…
I can see Yallop going to SJ again. Whether Donovan follows will be up to MLS…if they add that 2nd DP, he\’ll stay in LA…for now. If not, he has to be traded away. LA has nothing to trade to get a DP from anyone…\’cept maybe Cannon or Xavier, but neither is worth a DP, which would mean that at least 1-3 players would have to be added to it, severely depleting their team. In either case, they won\’t get rid of either of those two. Donovan is reunited with SJ.