The Galaxy may not be mathematically eliminated from Supporters Shield contention, but their performance against St. Louis exposed that persistent underlying impatience at the root of all seven losses. The 2-1 scoreline does not tell the story. The patient Galaxy dominated the first fifteen minutes of the second half—victory but a matter of time. Then impatience happened.
Vanney calls them bad decisions. Fans call them hero balls, but Marco Reus put it best, “We have to learn that we don’t have to play every ball forward. We don’t need to wash every ball between the lines. It’s important that we protect our attacks and that we have enough players behind the ball for their offensive players. And when we do this, then we have wave after wave and then we can protect our energy.”
Leave it to the German legend to distill the entire Galaxy season down to four short sentences. Observers may think that Reus did not take charge of the game; that he didn’t get enough touches to make an influence. He attempted to lead by example, doing what he wanted his team to do; play quick one-touch passes to maintain possession until the opponent succumbed to fatigue or lost concentration.
The goal to start the second half illustrates the point.
After a possession sequence on the left, Delgado swings the ball to Pec on the right. Pec drives toward the end line as St Louis retreats. Notice how the Galaxy push up in support. Pec plays to Yamane on the right touchline and moves toward the goal. Berry occupies the center back on the near post, moving into position to support Pec’s run.
Pec touches Yamane’s return pass to Berry, who out-muscles his marker while moving outside the near post. Pec continues his run, expecting to get the ball back from Berry. Berry’s deft touch sets up Pec to bury the shot from close range.
St. Louis defenders maintained good positioning with enough players around the ball. But they could do nothing to stop the play. Like the consolation goal against Seattle in their Leagues Cup loss, where Piug threaded the needle to Pec on the move, when the Galaxy possess the ball with simple passes and movements, the best defenses in MLS cannot cope with it. It’s a subtle form of transition. Once Pec passes back to Yamane and beats his marker he has a path to goal—a transition moment.
Except for fifteen minutes in the second half, when the counter-press produced wave after wave of pressure, the Galaxy handed possession to St. Louis like gifts at Christmas. St. Louis can count themselves fortunate to score the first goal.
Delgado blocked the initial shot with a strong well-timed challenge. But defending for long stretches in the penalty box invites misfortune. This time the ball bounced kindly back to City midfielder Marcel Hartel who placed it into into the bottom right corner of the goal, 2-1 St. Louis.
Scrolling back the videotape reveals the cause of the problem.
McCarthy’s attempt to reach Deigo Fagundez or John Nelson found neither. A risky pass that City right-back Jake Nerwinski nipped ahead to winger Indiana Vassilev. Already sliding over to defend the pass out of the back, St. Louis found themselves in an overload situation in front of the Galaxy defense. The Galaxy defended it reasonably well before Delgado’s ill-fated tackle. Of all the defensive players, McCarthy consistently proves to be the weakest choice for line-splitting passes.
The Galaxy gift-wrapped the deciding goal. City opened it and took home all three points.
The Galaxy win the ball at the top of the box. With Berry posting up his marker ahead of the play, Reus moves out of the way so Joseph Paintsil can progress the ball. Inexplicably, Paintsil plays a soft aimless pass in the general direction of Reus. St. Louis pounces and a few seconds later they celebrate.
Like other Galaxy players, Paintsil did not robe himself in glory on the day. During the first half, he dallied on the ball, taking between three and seven touches, stalling the tempo of passing the Galaxy need to generate openings. Perhaps Vanney said something at halftime, so Paintsil played a pass to Reus rather than dribbling ahead or progressing the ball to Berry.
Even the goal by Pec started with an energy-draining dribble to the corner flag. Pec and Paintsil dribbled first before passing, perhaps thinking they needed to imitate Riqui Puig for the team to be successful.
Reus made a telling comment when asked what it will take for the Galaxy to be successful over the last six games, “It’s easy. We have to stay calm. Of course, we have to work hard. We have to speak about these games, about the last game as well. I think the most important thing is we want ball possession. We want ball possession in the opposite half.”
Pundits say that the Galaxy have the most potent transition attack in the league. Perhaps that’s the problem. Attempting the early pass out of the back to create a transition leads to opportunities for the opposition.
As Pec’s goal against St. Louis and Puig’s goal against Atlanta illustrate, when the Galaxy dominate possession in the offensive third, opponents cannot keep the ball out of the net, even when they play good defense. Once the Galaxy take the lead, counter-attacking opportunities will naturally follow if they patiently progress the ball.
Reus explained how the Galaxy suffer when they lose the ball in the offensive third before the defense can organize the counter-press behind them. “It’s really important that we don’t have really stupid mistakes. Because after this, we have to run back. It takes the power (energy) out of us. That’s the most important thing, that we stay calm.“
General Manager Will Kuntz gave coach Greg Vanney a gift by securing the services of Reus. In two short weeks, the Dortmund standout can explain exactly how the Galaxy can reach its potential. Eliminating unnecessary risks, passes, dribbles, kamikaze tackles, yellow cards, and tweets might help. Reus would never single out an individual teammate, but the responsibility rests on the Killer P’s. If they can achieve the lethal sort of calm Reus describes, the Galaxy might need a bigger trophy case.
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