Along with his other opening weekend notes, ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle has plenty to say about the L.A. Galaxy’s humiliating 4-0 loss to what looked like a Colorado Rapids reserve squad. Sure, a poor penalty decision changed the game, but the greater problem, Carlisle says, is that L.A. quit. “If one bad call in Commerce City is going to unhinge this team so spectacularly, then I’d suggest that it’s collectively a pretty weak lot,” Carlisle says, adding: “I’d bet someone a Klondike bar that the Galaxy will benefit in 2008 from a more dubious PK award. These things balance out.”
Meanwhile, L.A. coach Ruud Gullit has plenty to mull over, particularly, whether or not his players have the technical ability or the tactical wherewithal to play the “total football” 4-3-3 system. Everybody loves watching a team that effectively plays this system. But the Galaxy is not the Dutch national team circa 1988. If Gullit doesn’t have the personnel to execute it, he will have to dump the 4-3-3.
Finally, should the Galaxy continue to fail — and it will if the team continues to play like it did Saturday — someone upstairs (namely, team president Alexi Lalas) would have to be accountable. Time will tell. But as Carlisle points out, “they can’t start fixing the thing until someone owns up to breaking it.”