Ridge Mahoney examines the Galaxy's rebuilding
Growing pains and preseason glitches do not a smooth transition make, but they do make for intriguing television. One sidelight to the Los Angeles Galaxy's well-hyped Hawaiian-Asian preseason tour is every game is being televised, so the ebbs and flows, and warts and glitches, of a dysfunctional team under a new head coach are there to seen. And dissected. And debated. And analyzed ad infinitum.
After losing to Gamba Osaka and beating Sydney FC playing on artificial turf in the Pan-Pacific Championship, the Galaxy headed to South Korea for a match with FC Seoul, on grass, in the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Saturday. The result: a 1-1 tie broken by Seoul's 2-1 victory in a penalty-kick shootout.
Alan Gordon chested down a David Beckham free kick and volleyed the ball into the net midway through the first half, FC Seoul equalized with a penalty kick whistled for a Celestine Babayaro foul, a much less justifiable foul than one the Galaxy had committed earlier. On the balance of play, FC Seoul posed more threat and generated more good scoring chances, as might be expected from players spurred by a big, noisy home crowd in their final preseason tuneup on the same field as Beckham.
More on point is the question: Is this work-in-progress named Galaxy '08 making any progress?
In three matches without Landon Donovan, the Galaxy has a win, a loss, and a tie. Its persona is hardly set in stone; Monday's roster and salary-cap compliance deadline will bring further roster changes, yet this team has already displayed traits – good and bad – in its games to date.
Against FC Seoul, with a grass field underfoot, Becks drove, chipped and flighted numerous unerring balls while roaming between the middle and the right flank. Just one serve produced a goal, but several balls yielded good chances for Gordon and Carlos Ruiz, who thrilled the crowd with a spectacular aerial volley and often seemed on the brink of scoring only to be betrayed by dull finishing.
Left on his own to float and drift, Beckham played balls over and through FC Seoul with uncanny accuracy. The South Korean enforcers roughed him up a few times, and he retaliated with a clattering tackle and sharp words. Yet his knack of finding seams in the middle, lanes in the channels, and spaces near the touchlines can't fail to flummox MLS defenses.
His free-kick chip to Gordon was a marvel of precision: a free kick straight out from goal, about 10 yards beyond the penalty arc, was chipped directly forward for Gordon to take very high on his chest, and bang right-footed into the net.
Gordon has put away difficult chances like this in the past; will this be the season he can also consistently exploit good passing, which he should get with Donovan and Beckham in the lineup? He played up top slightly behind Ruiz and Bryan Jordan, who lacks polish but more often than not gets through tackles still in possession.
Brazilian trialist Álvaro Henrique Alves Pires, who goes by the name Alvaro but sported Pires on his jersey in South Korea, is nicknamed, "Buffalo," and for good reason. He didn't mesh very well with Babayaro, who played left mid, but they did short-circuit FC Seoul's midfield with shuddering challenges. Yet they couldn't shut off a steady stream of short balls played out wide or up the sideline, especially to Jung Jo Gook, who scorched left back Mike Randolph repeatedly in the first half.
At halftime, Michael Gavin replaced Randolph and Ely Allen took over for Babayaro. The changes brought some stability to the Galaxy's left side, and yielded more Galaxy possession as FC Seoul tightened its grips on Beckham and made numerous substitutions that disrupted its rhythm. Still, had FC Seoul striker Dejan Damjanovic not been more wasteful than his Galaxy counterparts, it's doubtful the regulation 90 minutes would have ended with the teams tied.
Attacking prospects abound, assuming Ruiz refines his finishing edge and a consistent attacker or two emerges to complement the Donovan/Beckham/Ruiz tridente. In the back, however, Los Angeles is unsettled.
FC Seoul, which finished seventh in the 13-team K-League last season, took apart the Galaxy numerous times. Abel Xavier, while strong in the air and loud of voice, floundered awkwardly on three glaring occasions; his central partner, Greg Vanney, kept his errors to a minimum while scrambling to cover for Xavier and Randolph. In the opening Pan-Pacific Championship match, Gamba Osaka ran roughshod through the defensive third and should have at least tripled its 1-0 victory.
Waiting in the wings are defender Troy Roberts, whose last two seasons have been marred by injuries, and rookie Julian Valentin.
The right back, Chris Klein, is not a right back, per se, but a rugged, determined veteran whose salary might not fit under the cap. If the Galaxy goes with speedy, raw rookie Sean Franklin, it will pay a heavy price now for perhaps a grand payoff down the road. Roberts played that position as a rookie yet is surer in the middle.
Keeper Steve Cronin pulled off a pair of excellent saves during regulation and snuffed two penalties as a misfiring Galaxy converted just once (Beckham). Cronin, 24, has played only six league games for the Galaxy in the past three seasons, and experience is really all he lacks. The size (6-foot-3, 200 pounds), quickness, sure hands, bravery, reflexes, footwork, etc. are all in place. His rival on this leg of Tour Asia, Josh Wicks, led the USL in shutouts and goals-allowed average with Portland last year.
The tour and TV coverage continue Wednesday in Shanghai (shown delayed on Fox Soccer Channel, 11 p.m. ET). The cast will change but the plotlines have been presented. Let the drama unfold.