Any youth coach knows how LA Galaxy coach Greg Vanney feels after the 2-2 draw against Real Salt Lake at the Diggity. Good coaches design a system of play suited to the unique talents of the players on the team. The number of possibilities depends on the mix of talent available. The first seventeen minutes of the match proved that Vanney found a good formula for this team.
The Galaxy buzzed around the Salt Lake goal with relentless pressure. Pinned into their own penalty box the Claret and Cobalt defended resolutely, determined to weather the storm, hoping to provide just one chance for MVP candidate Chicho Arango.
The usually decisive Galaxy winger Joseph Paintsil tarried before shooting, enabling the packed in defense to block every shot. The other DP winger Gabriel Pec ignored crossing opportunities to take low percentage shots into a crowd. Forward Dejan Jovelic found good spaces to provide a finish, but never received the required service. Despite Paintsil, Pec, and Puig peppering the box with shots the ball rarely reached RSL keeper Zac MacMath.
Vanney saw his game plan working to perfection, “We were really playing well, organized underneath our possessions, recovering balls back. If we can sustain this for the larger part of the game, I thought, we have turned over a major stone in our development.”
That stone remains unturned. Left back Julian Aude lost his composure first, earning a yellow card for kicking a ball fifty yards after the referee called a soft foul. When Puig, Jovelic, Paintsil an Pec stopped defending, the suffocating counter press lifted and RSL strolled through the midfield.
“At the beginning I thought we had a chance to score multiple goals. Then you get disjointed and find yourself down two.”
In the twentieth minute Paintsil stood and watched while RSL left back Alexandros Katranis delivered a long cross into the box. Arango soared above Galaxy defender Maya Yoshida and thundered his header past Galaxy keeper John McCarthy, 1-0 Salt Lake. One shot, one goal, one zero.
Jovelic, Pec, Puig and Paintsil do not pressure the passer and Arango scores.
The goal stunned already frustrated Galaxy. “We tried to force things to get ourselves back into it. We started turning balls over, exposing ourselves in transition, rotating to random spots. The last ten minutes of the half became chaotic.”
Galaxy midfielder Gaston Brugman had been assigned to support Aude against the RSL’s Andres Gomez. Early in the game they stifled the explosive winger as Brugman positioned himself to provide cover, so Aude could body up Gomez.
In the forty-first minute Aude arrived too late to body Gomez as he received a pass. Caught upfield, Brugman provided no cover and Gomez did what Gomez does. A quick give and go with Matt Crooks left Aude in the dust. Gomez reached the end line and found Chicho at the top of the box, 2-0.
Aude arrives late with no cover from Brugman.
“My message to the group at halftime was slow down, get back to doing the right things, get into the right spots, and let the ball move. I wanted us to press more man to man.”
Early in the second half Puig, Pec and Paintsil began working on defense again as they forced Salt Lake into turnovers. In the fifty-fourth minute Galaxy center back Maya Yoshida forced a turnover toward Paintsil, who passed to Puig streaking toward the top of the box.
Jovelic made a hard run toward the near post opening up space for Pec behind him. Puig saw the play develop and found Pec The venom and movement of the shot overpowered MacMath, who could only deflect it into the net, 2-1 Salt Lake.
Jovelic makes a hard near post run to open up Pec.
The Galaxy lost the plot again for a few minutes after the goal. In the seventy-first minute a through ball to Gomez forced McCarthy into parry it out for a corner. Good news for the Galaxy, the new man marking defensive scheme comfortably managed every corner kick.
A minute later MCarthy gathered a harmless corner kick and rifled a seventy-yard throw to a streaking Paintsil. With MacMath at his mercy, the Ghanaian sprayed his shot over the near post.
Both Vanney and RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni made changes. Mastroeni subbed out Arango, replacing him with a defender in an effort to protect the lead. Vanney replaced Paintsil with Diego Fagundez, Delgado with Daniel Aguirre and Jovelic with Miguel Berry.
Paintsil seemed visibly upset as he left the field. “Joe felt really disappointed, like he let the group down. I told him he had really carried us throughout the season. It just wasn’t his night. Now it’s somebody else’s turn to step up.”
With Salt Lake content to defend, the Galaxy peppered the box with crosses and shots, probing to find a way through. In the last minute of stoppage time, Puig threw up his hands in frustration when Aguirre intercepted a pass intended left back Miki Yamane streaking toward the end line.
When Aguirre played the ball back to Puig he sent a wickedly dipping cross toward the penalty spot. MacMath misjudged the ball as it dipped and Berry jumped feet first. He managed to nick it with his toe into the back of the net, 2-2.
Puig frustrated before playing a dipping ball into the box for Berry to finish.
The referee blew the whistle on the ensuing kickoff and the Galaxy rescued a draw from the jaws of defeat.
The game encapsulated story of the season so far. A team of talented young men finding their way with an experienced coach and a sprinkling of battle tested veterans.
“I’m pleased that we took a point. Not to be too greedy, but the way we executed early thought there was more in this game for us. Tonight we were unable to finish.”
Because Major League Soccer maintains parity between the teams with strict salary cap rules, any team can beat any other team on a given night. Against a good disciplined opponent like RSL, a lapse in mentality and concentration can make all the difference.
Galaxy General Manager Will Kuntz likes to say, “We no longer want to be star takers. We want to be star makers.” The Galaxy signed three young designated players and a young striker, a team full of youth, learning to become seasoned professionals. They all show star potential with flashes of brilliance, counterbalanced with the emotional inconsistency of youth.
“With all the guys are out there, the game flows nicely. Different guys are set up for chances through different parts of the game. I think the group believes what they are capable of. It’s a matter of us managing those moments when there is a little bit of adversity, and sticking to the program and trusting ourselves over the long haul.”
By “long haul” Vanney most likely means through the end of the season when his contract runs out. With Puig purportedly signing a new deal all the young guns will wear a Galaxy shirt longer than that. If Vanney can mold these youngsters into a team that can dominate a game for ninety minutes like they did for seventeen against RSL, a new contract will undoubtedly be waiting for his signature.
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LA Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake | Stoppage-Time Magic! | Full Match Highlights