On Saturday in Chicago the Galaxy will conclude a packed stretch of six games in twenty-two days, spanning just shy of nine thousand miles and eighteen hours flight time. Assuming their charter aircraft lacked on onboard video rooms and conference facilities, the players and staff skipped the usual per game planning sessions to concentrate on physical recovery, jet lag mitigation and team cohesion. They survived the first five games in the grueling schedule without a loss, two ties on the road and a 2-0-1 record at home for nine points.
In the first two consecutive home games of the year, they followed a gutsy 2-1 come from behind victory over Houston on Saturday with a more comprehensive 3-1 triumph over Dallas on Wednesday. One of three teams with an unbeaten record at home, they hover near the top of the table in second place with twenty-eight points, two behind Western Conference leading Real Salt Lake.
A casual fan might assume the 2024 version of the LA Galaxy to be a cohesive battle tested unit of veterans, refined in the fires of fifty or sixty MLS games. Nothing could be further from the truth. In less than nine months General Manager Will Kuntz and coach Greg Vanney completely revamped the team around Spanish midfield wizard Riqui Puig, replacing aging designated players, Chicharito Hernandez and Douglas Cosa, with young fleet-footed wingers, twenty-two-year-old Brazilian Gabriel Pec and twenty-six-year-old Ghanaian Joseph Paintsil.
Vanney preaches compact defense, pressure against the ball and a relentless possession game that maintains defensive shape at all times. But this team, like no other Vanney team, flies forward with abandon resembling a herd of mustangs more than the disciplined possession team they aspire to be. It mostly works, except when it doesn’t.
Take the Houston game for example, when coach Ben Olson tucked winger Coco Carrasquilla into the middle ahead of Mexican international Hector Herrera. The pair joined attacking midfielder Amine Bassi and shuttler Artur to form a rotating box in the center designed to free up Herrera to boss the midfield.
With wingers Diego Fagundez and Gabriel Pec high and no defensive support from Riqui Puig, midfielders Mark Delgado and Gaston Brugman found themselves outnumbered in the middle. Houston dominated possession and gradually pinned the Galaxy against their own penalty box.
Even before Houston attacker Latif Blessing scored the goal, Vanney wanted Fagundez and Pec to drop back and tuck inside to level out the midfield overload. Fagundez occupied the more offensive minded Carrasquilla, but Pec never really managed to negate the more defensive oriented Artur leaving Delgado to deal with two players.
In the eighteenth minute McCarthy passed the ball directly to Blessing, 1-0 Dynamo. With Fagundez focused on defending, Carrasquilla marauded forward and Houston took control, pounding the Galaxy penalty box. In the twentieth minute left back Miki Yamane prevented a two goal deficit by clearing the ball off the goal line.
Despite struggling to defend, especially after turning the ball over, the adjustments did provide the Galaxy with some spells of possession. In the forty-fourth minute Delgado played Yamane to the end line. The Japanese international cut the ball back, decleating a Houston defender, before clipping a perfect cross to Gabriel Pec for the header, 1-1.
Notice how Pec identifies the open space behind the defender marking him and dives into it. Yamane sees the movement and delivers a cross in perfect position for a right footed volley. Recall in a previous game that Pec skied the ball over the goal with his less favored right foot. He obviously replayed that miss in his mind many times, because this time he adjusted his body position for a deft header.
Vanney flipped Fagundez to the right and Pec to the left for the second half. The adjustment evened out the game. Fagundez could press higher without much concern that Artur would attack. On the left, Carrasquilla found himself dealing with both Puig and Pec. Artur in particular pushed over to focused on preventing Puig from getting out on the counter attack.
They did not anticipate what Brugman did next. Rather than pass the ball to Puig, he drove forward into the offensive third himself. Playing the ball wide to Pec who found Puig trailing the play at the top of the box. Puig pinged the ball into the bottom right corner of the Houston net, 2-1 Galaxy.
Notice how Artur struggles to track down Brugman while neglecting Puig, who found himself unmarked at the top of the box. The goal illustrates how dangerous Puig can be without the ball. Here he makes a late run to the top of the box. He has the vision to see a shot through a crowded penalty area and the skill to thread the needle.
The galaxy managed to see out a hard fought victory at home, despite being outplayed for long stretches. The game featured a more experienced Houston side with Herrera serving as a coach on the field. Whatever adjustments the Galaxy made, Herrera and his teammates managed to cope. The Galaxy players required much more guidance from the coaching staff.
As good as Puig is at attacking, he does not offer much leadership for team shape and tactics. As the Galaxy continue to develop, they will need players on the field to make tactical adjustments without waiting for the coaches at halftime. Vanney could be one of the best in MLS at halftime adjustments, but the league has progressed to the point that the players must learn to adjust on the fly.
Galaxy started against Dallas on Saturday firmly on the front foot, dominating possession and attacking with ruthless precision in transition. In the fourth minute Mark Delgado, a last minute replacement for Brugman, slipped a pass to Pec streaking in the center right channel. He discarded the scrambling defender with a cut to the middle. The move drew the center back toward him, so he calmly squared the ball to Jovelic for the easy finish. 1-0 Galaxy.
The play illustrates how potent the Galaxy attack can be, even without Puig on the ball. Unfortunately, a touch of tactical naiveté sometimes surfaces when the Galaxy play with a lead. Rather than stringing together long spells of possession to rest and tire the opponent, they seemed intent on scoring again, bombing forward at every opportunity.
Possession tires the defense with ball movement. Even high tempo passing sequences can conserve energy for the offensive players, since they make more frequent but less strenuous movements to find spaces and passing lanes. A good possession team locks in mentally to conserve physical energy.
Attacking in transition tires the defense with hard runs at or behind the back line. Both the offensive and defensive players expend energy. If the attack breaks down, players must work back into defensive shape expending more energy. After repeated unsuccessful attacks in transition players tend to take a break while tracking back.
As the clock wound its way toward halftime, Galaxy attackers increasingly rested as they tracked back on defense. The Gs defensive system depends upon the whole team working together. Center backs and fullbacks would rather limit the zones of opportunity than pressure the ball. They depend upon the midfield to track back and close space.
That thousands of travel miles, time zone hopping and short recovery times between games took its toll. In the twenty-second minute as the Galaxy midfielders jogged back after a counter attack. Former US international Paul Arriola strolled into the final third and played the ball to winger Marco Farfan. With time to look up and assess his options he picked a quick grass cutter pass to Dallas forward Patrickson Delgado who roofed it with a deft flick, 1-1. The ball nestled behind McCarthy’s neck like a pillow as if to say, “See what happens when you rest on defense?”
Notice Maya Yoshida’s posture at the end of the play, bent over hands on knees. The Galaxy can attack in transition almost at will. Just get the ball to Puig and run. But every counter attack by the offense requires support by the defense. The whole team sprints forward and back. When the midfield fails to recover the defenders suffer.
With renewed hope Dallas made a game of it. At least for a time the Galaxy learned their lesson, maintaining their defensive shape. In the thirty-first minute, Delgado played yet another perfectly weighted pass behind the defense to Jovelic. Dallas keeper Maarten Paes fouled the Serbian and the referee Filip Dujic pointed to the spot.
Pec immediately retrieved the ball and headed to the penalty spot. Jovelic clearly wanted to take it himself. Pec attempted to delay his kick to send the keeper the wrong way, but we tarried too long and Paes saved it. Jovelic followed up the play and scored, but the offside flag erased the goal.
The Galaxy forced Paes into several fine saves, two on Yoshida headers, two shots by Pec and a header by Jovelic. In the sixty-fifth minute the Galaxy pressure paid off. When Delgado played a quick flick toward Fagundez inside the penalty area, Dallas defender Sebastien Ibeagha tripped him from behind conceding another Galaxy penalty kick. This time Jovelic confidently finished low and to the keeper’s left, 2-1 Galaxy.
Substitutions by Vanney after the sixtieth minute signaled a shift toward managing the game. Miguel Berry and Daniel Aguirre replaced Jovelic and Fagundez. Ten minutes later promising youngster Jonathan Perez replaced Edwin Cerrillo. Dallas handed the Galaxy a gift when referee Dujic gave Nkosi Tafari his walking papers for a second yellow card.
Down to ten men Dallas battled, but they could not contain Puig in the fifth minute of stoppage time. The Galaxy talisman collected a stray header in space and exploded toward goal with the ball dancing at his feet. Few players can dribble at full speed and perhaps no other player in the world can execute a pass at pace like Puig.
What he did next defies the limits of human performance. Driving directly at three defenders he massaged the ball to his left and with the same right foot slid it between them, past the keeper and into the extreme bottom left corner of the goal. The entire sequence occurred while he pulled away from the players trying to catch him, game over, 3-1 galaxy.
The Galaxy travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Fire on Saturday, the last fixture before the international break. Sometimes talented teams take longer to gel because the players offer a wealth of possibilities. This Galaxy team can play a high tempo possession game and counter attack at will. They still struggle to find the balance between all out attack and conservation of energy.
Perhaps only Miami possesses an attacking talent like Puig, but he pays little attention to team defense, making him unsuitable as a tactical field general comparable to Houston’s Hector Hererra. The current crop of Galaxy defenders cannot sprint up and back with wave after wave of Galaxy transitions. The team has yet to find a suitable throttle for their attack.
Brugman and Delgado show signs of providing a creative complement to Puig, assisting on three goals during the homestead. When Puig arrives on a late run to the top of the box a goal or a magical pass will likely follow. If the Galaxy can soar anywhere near their ceiling no team in the league will hope to contain them. It remains to be seen whether the Galaxy can learn to contain themselves.
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