The LA Galaxy clawed their way back from a 2-0 deficit to salvage a point against the Nashville B team. The result fairly represented the balance between a collection of talented individuals learning to play together and an already cohesive unit.
Coaches and luminaries in the game often use the term “heart” to describe when members of a team understand and trust one another. Individual personalities and abilities function together so seamlessly that the personality of the team transcends individuals. Just as a strong heart supplies the whole body with everything it needs to thrive in difficult conditions, the heart of a team supplies every player with the support necessary to succeed against strong opponents.
Nashville coach Gary Smith depends upon his team’s collective heart. He selects and develops a whole squad of defensively-minded players and puts them in a position to win individual battles. Nashville ignores the beautiful game in favor of effectiveness.
With the return leg of the Champions Cup tie with Miami on the horizon, only one first-choice starter lined up against the Galaxy on Sunday. As expected, the Galaxy dominated possession until the sixteenth minute when a give-and-go with Diego Fagundez freed Riqui Puig to attack the top of the box.
With the defense in full retreat Dejan Jovelic initiated a diagonal run into the penalty box drawing defenders toward him. Mark Delgado attacked space vacated by the defense in a prime position to finish himself or make a killer pass. Puig ignored the obvious play and passed into the defense rather than to the space behind it. Jovelic drew a penalty, but why did Puig, with his elite soccer IQ, choose the inferior pass?
Jovelic draws a penalty
The play illustrated the astonishing talent of the Galaxy and its Achilles heel. The dazzling given-and-go by Puig and Fagundez scrambled the previously resolute Nashville defense. Notice the defenders in full retreat, focused on the threat posed by Jovelic. Delgado and Paintsil work together to create an overload against the goal-dangerous space behind the defense. When the defense faces their own goal, they cannot cover as much space. Yet Puig plays into the only area they can cover.
Puig ignores a brilliant passing opportunity
Perhaps the disconnect between Puig and Jovelic explains the pass. When Puig failed to bury his penalty kick against Miami in the first game, Jovelic let Puig know how he felt. This time, Jovelic found the toe of the keeper. Whether the struggle between them influenced Puig’s choice, the miss once again dealt a blow to the heart of the team.
Nashville seized the moment by taking control of the game. They avoided the strength of the Galaxy in the central midfield by playing up the flanks or directly into the attacking third. Smith coaches his players to put the ball into areas where they like the matchups and shoot at every opportunity, expecting a failed clearance or loose marking to produce a shot on goal.
They immediately flooded the Galaxy’s left, pumping crosses into the box mixed with combinations. For five consecutive minutes, Aude struggled as Fagundez, Edwin Cerrillo, and Martin Caceres attempted to support him and contain the onslaught.
In the twenty-fifth minute, the Galaxy escaped the pressure and created a golden opportunity to take the lead. A clearance by Miki Yamane found Puig with room to run. Paintsil recognized the opportunity to break and shot past the nearest defender, expecting an immediate pass. Instead, Puig took two extra touches before delivering a pass to Paintsil’s heels. When the Nashville defender intercepted, Paintsil waived his arms in frustration toward the space behind the defense he wanted to attack.
Puig sees Paintsil run
Puig holds the ball until the defender can retreat.
Paintsil frustrated with the late pass behind him.
Notice again how Paintsil’s run forced the Nashville defense into full retreat. But this time, his Galaxy teammates did not push up the field in support.
The strong Galaxy heartbeat of the early stages had become a flutter by the thirty-fourth minute. Unable to coordinate a meaningful attack, players stopped moving off the ball, making it easy for Nashville to cover all the dangerous spaces. Only Delgado attempted runs behind the defense, opening up spaces his teammates never filled. Frustrated with the lack of running and service, Delgado tried to play a ball over the top to a stationary Paintsil, but the defense calmly headed back to the goalkeeper.
Galaxy attackers were stationary as they string together possession.
Miki Yamane pushed the ball into the midfield, but no Galaxy player made runs off the ball, so he stopped and preserved possession. In the thirty-fourth minute, after a period of Nashville possession, Delgado split the lines with a beautiful pass to Jovelic. Puig positioned himself on the left to attack the defense as Paintsil attacked a gaping goal-dangerous space in the heart of the defense. Jovelic ignored Puig and carried the ball himself, wasting Paintsil’s run. Then he played back to recycle possession again.
Jovelic ignores Puig as Paintsil attacks goal-dangerous space
When a human heart begins to fail, the body exhibits unusual behavior. The same thing happens when the heart of a team begins to fail. The Galaxy struggled early in the second half. After tracking back seventy yards to win the ball from a Nashville attacker, Paintsil lost his soccer mind for a moment, inexplicably dribbled toward his own penalty box, handed the ball to an opponent, and fouled him. Teal Bunbury converted the penalty for a 1-0 Nashville advantage.
With the Galaxy on life support, Nashville piled into the offensive third, scoring again when Aude chested an easy clearance down to an opponent in his own penalty box. A series of unfortunate events later, Dru Yearwood plastered a sitter into the net for a 2-0 Nashville lead.
The second goal revived the Galaxy. Vanney added a forward and strengthened the midfield. The Galaxy entered the street fight, adding numbers against Nashville’s five-man back line. In the sixty-seventh minute, Yoshida angled a header toward a group of Galaxy players. The ball fell to Puig, who pinged a perfect curler into the right corner, 2-1 Nashville.
In the eighty-first minute, Delgado launched a rocket through a crowd that Eliot Panico could only paw away to Aude. Jovelic positioned himself perfectly in front of goal. When Aude provided the pass he roofed it, 2-2.
The Galaxy claw back a tie with individual brilliance.
The Nashville B team played with enough heart to win the game. Only when the Galaxy played Nashville straight up, talent against talent, did exceptional individual talent salvage the tie for the Galaxy.
The concern for Vanney will be that the players will stop playing the possession game together as a team and try to win games with individual brilliance. The effort they expended chasing the game in the second half cannot be sustained in MLS. It remains to be seen how soon the obvious team unity in the locker room will translate into a cohesive unit on the field. From what they have shown so far, their individual desire, heart, and talent cannot be questioned.