2008 LA Galaxy

Discussion in 'General Football & Other Sport' started by Fitz, Mar 4, 2008.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. wfcwarehouse

    wfcwarehouse First Team Captain

    Well, they kind of HAVE to display that..

    Give me a KFC anyday.
     
  2. Y&P

    Y&P Squad Player

    Not as prominently as they do.
     
  3. wfcwarehouse

    wfcwarehouse First Team Captain

    I thought it was a requirement of some sort to have it in prominence.
     
  4. fan

    fan slow toaster

    prominence to the extreme
     
  5. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    To the Extreeeeme...
    [​IMG]

    Galaxy had a 3-2 loss to the Quakes, giving up the most goals to the expansion team yet this season.

    Duffman says, "Galaxy suck!"
    [​IMG]
    Oh YEAH!
     
  6. fan

    fan slow toaster

    what is an expansion team? is it curious american insulting slang or a proper sepp blatter endorsed technical term?
     
  7. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    I have the slightest tingling feeling that you already know, but in case you really don't...the league expands by granting franchises to investors who seem competent in markets the league is interested in. The staff are hired by the owner, the players are drafted from the existing teams. The existing teams protect the players they can't do without and offer only the ones they are willing to part with...in other words the crappy ones.

    Expansion teams have woeful records, pathetic defenses, inept offensive capability, and are generally laughingstocks.

    The Earthquakes are an expansion team this year. We should not have lost to them.

    Clearly we are in more trouble than they are...

    Their trade for Arturo Alvarez and the Darren Huckerby signing advanced the Quakes a lot in recent weeks, and the Galaxy have just been floundering.

    Something's gotta give, and my money is on Front Office firings.
     
  8. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    or they will contiune to get player in complete defience of the salary cap.. how could they afford cory gibbs?
     
  9. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    The league's salary cap rules are very complex. I don't claim to completely understand them, but...

    Teams are often given 'Allocations' by the league for trades or as a compensation when someone is injured, signs to a foreign league or retires.

    The allocation is used like cash on top of or outside of the salary cap to pay players that meet certain conditions.

    A hypothtical example would be: trade Nathan Sturgis and Robbie Findlay for Joe Cannon 'plus allocation'. The Galaxy have made some of the most ridiculously lopsided trades over the last two years giving away nearly half of the best players in the league under the age of 25, bright promising young players, for old fat c*nts who then get traded away...all we are left with is the allocation...

    Oh, but I'm not bitter. Seriously sonofben, look into the trades made by the Galaxy over the last 3 years to see the talent drained out of the Galaxy by the league and the boneheads who run the Galaxy.

    EDIT: In the pre-season, Paul Bravo said we had $800k in allocation money, and we've gotten a little more now, I think. This is a lot for an MLS team, but every team has some...most have $200k or so I'd guess. Well managed teams like Houston and New England don't NEED the money.
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2008
  10. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    The Galaxy have acquired defender Cory Gibbs, who spent a year without appearance at Charlton, and before that was at Feyenord, ADO Den Haag, MLS's Dallas franchise and St. Pauli.

    He had a fantastic game in the World Cup in 2002 against the Germans, but is renowned more for his injuries these days, which incidentally started when he blew out his knee in the US/England friendly in Chicago in May of 2005.

    I am ambivalent about his acquisition here.
     
  11. fan

    fan slow toaster

    i really didn't know what it was so thanks for the detailed info amigo
     
  12. Defunct

    Defunct First Team

  13. krisvad

    krisvad Forum Viking

  14. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Lalas and Gullitt have been kicked to the curb.

    It is extremely unlikely that Phil Anschutz will divest himself from the Galaxy to allow Beckham to buy in. If you don't, know who Phil Anschutz is, and you are reading this thread, you really ought to look into it. He has done more to carry the MLS since day one than nearly anyone else, and has more money than nearly everyone you can think of except Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei. If Becks wants an MLS team, he would likely need to buy a new one somewhere else.
     
  15. Y&P

    Y&P Squad Player

    Just heard about this, came on to see Mr Fitz's reaction. To be fair it isn't the worst thing that could happen. Gullit isn't THE man, especially not in a league that he knows nothing about. There are plenty of suitable coaches around that would be lured by the prospect of working with Donovan and D-Beck. It's the old addage that old-pros usually fail when coaching players a lot worse than they were. (Is that an old addage, or have I just made that up?).

    Similarly, Lalas can now get back to what he does best: growing beards and playing the guitars. From interviews I've seen of him he didn't seem to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. Of course I have little to no knowledge of the other GMs in the MLS so couldn't compare them, and maybe I'm just holding his past against him. In fact, now that I think about it it may have been Agoos who played the guitar and had the beard.

    So there are my uneducated thoughts, many of which are based on fact that may or may not be true. Ignore them all and listen to Fitz instead

    GO GALAXY
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 12, 2008
  16. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Saw this coming...a while ago. I am a little sad about losing the kind of offensive potency the team was gaining, but I have no sadness about losing the crappy defense he was responsible for. I found this, rather entertaining:
    [​IMG]

    So Galaxy great (and former Vasco de Gama and Coventry player) Cobi Jones is named interim coach, with Paul Bravo and Tom Payne filling in as Gen Mgr. Cobi (the REAL Cobi, not the fake Kobe), just retired last year, and will be a breath of fresh air, though it frankly is too soon for him to be head coach. He is Galaxy to the core and he is intimate with the American soccer scene. He will be a fiery coach, but will he have the tactical awareness to generate wins?
    [​IMG]
     
  17. Y&P

    Y&P Squad Player

    Headless chicken.
     
  18. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    To your point:
    Check out this article
    I like these snippets:

    "Nothing rosy can be forecast for the short term" in L.A., Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney wrote, lamenting "the train wreck the Galaxy has become."

    Grahame Jones of the L.A. Times, meanwhile, pronounced the Galaxy's "Major League Soccer season [to be] in meltdown mode."

    ...the L.A. Daily News ... Nick Green asserted that "the Galaxy has never been this ugly."

    "Comparing the situation to both the Keystone Kops and a Saturday Night Live sketch, Steve Davis of ESPNsoccernet joined in with "Honestly, they just can't get anything right out there."


    HOWEVER...the gist of the article is that the Beckham effect is alive and well, despite the crappy results on the field...
     
  19. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

  20. sonofben

    sonofben Reservist

    What do u think of there move to pass on gibbs and getting eddie lewis instead
     
  21. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Gibbs is so injury prone he is useless to us, and as old and slow as Eddie Lewis is, we can actually put him to use right now.
     
  22. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    He looks like he would stink if you got near him, doesn't he?
    [​IMG]

    He was not a success as MLS' NY Metros/Red Bulls coach last year, he was not a success as USA's World Cup coach in 2006, but he was a victory machine at DC United before that and in the US College ranks before that.

    I'm always hopeful, yet discontent like Tom Sawyer.
     
  23. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Chivas USA 2 - 2 LA Galaxy played as a Chivas home game.

    Galaxy takes the series between the two teams for the year by winning one and drawing two. Bruce Arena is spied smugly chatting up Tim Leiweke (AEG henchman) and Paul Bravo (Galaxy Director of Football Operations) up inthe AEG box during the game...it made me throw up a little in my mouth when I saw him and his fat face reminded me of how terrible his perfomrance was in the 2006 World Cup.

    In the aftermath of the game, the Chivas USA coach tooak a swing at one of the Galaxy players. The Chivas coach's name is Preki and he tried to smack a player named Vagenas...I found that a little funny.

    When the trophy (for winning the series) was presented Vagenas proceded to run over to the super obnoxious and occasionally violent Chivas supporters group know as La Legion and waved the cup in their faces.

    I have ling ago stopped appreciating Vagenas play, getting nick named "Passback-Pete" for good reason, yet that gesture earned him huge props in my book. Beckham was a short distance behind...

    Here is a photo: click here and here. They are too large to post here.

    Beckham has looked poor and out of form, very MLS-esque, in the last few games. I hope he is injured and will recover from it. He is 0 for 53 on converting corner kicks into goals...Even Donovan's miserable kicks were more successful than that. Peter Vagenas was a more valuable player on the pitch tonight and that is pishpoor for a guy making the kind of money he is.

    Next up is the Chicago Fire on Thursday. Both Donovan and Blanco will be away for World Cup Qualifiers, but Blanco has been out of form lately so the absences will hurt the Galaxy more than the Fire.
     
  24. Y&P

    Y&P Squad Player

    The Fire, The Fire, The Fire are on fire. We don't need no water let those mother****ers burn. Burn mother****ers burn.

    Woop, woop.

    Surely it is not the job of the corner taker to convert the corners? Rather the gormless *******s in the middle? Is D-Beck still having the problem with not wanting to shoot? And how the hell is Hucks doing?
     
  25. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Yes, he still won't take the friggin shot. The numbers speak for themselves with regard to corner kicks. Galaxy's attack is the best in the league...if the service is on, the goals will get struck. The service isn't on. Like I said, when Donovan takes the corners, we are more dangerous, and he is a terrible corner taker...begging the question, why do we have Sir Goldenballs?I'm sure a lot of the problem is the disruption int he front office, but still.

    I have no idea what Huckerby is doing, except that he scored on us in his game against us a few weeks ago. I haven't been able ot keep tabs on the rest of the MLS on account of work interfering in my soccer life. I hate it when that happens.

    I even had to miss the Chivas/Galaxy game for work! They have no idea how much of a sacrifice that is for me. Basetards.
     
  26. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    PS I am not above heavy handed Bill of Rights crunching censorship in this thread.
     
  27. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    [​IMG]

    Weird.

    And WAY too much nipple.
     
  28. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Isaac's Preview:
    My note:
    Carlos Ruiz was traded away to Toronto yesterday. The US team played against Carlos Ruiz and the Guatemalan national team today with the US coming out on top 1-0 with both teams finishing with 10 men. The Guatemalan red card came on despicable challenge on new Galaxy signee Eddie Lewis during a header which resulted in a lot of blood pouring out of his face. CONCACAF is rough. No word on when Lewis can rejoin the Galaxy in training, but we sure do need his defense...
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2008
  29. krisvad

    krisvad Forum Viking

    Changing formation midway through the season is very risky especially if the squad isn't the most tactically gifted.

    There is a reason why almost no european clubs play 3-5-2 and that is the fact that players who can fill in at wingback are very very rare. They need defensive as well as offensive skills, pace and lots and lots of stamina. And without them you're left vulnerable for wide attacks.

    If you look in the premiership there are maybe a handfull of players who could play at wingback in a 3-5-2. john Aren Riise (not in the prem anylonger I know), Ashley Cole and that's me out of names but there are a few more I'm sure.

    I don't know Klein and Randolph but they are key players for that formation to be succesful.
     
  30. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    So the result was a 1-0 loss. under Ruudboy, it would have been a 4-0 loss or at best a 4-3 loss.

    The Galaxy acquired Eddie Lewis who may be familiar to many of you for his time with Leeds and Derby among others.
    [​IMG]

    He's a local kid, having grown up in nearby Cerritos, so basically he's coming home to play for the Galaxy, He was recently given 5 stitches after colliding with a Chapine who got a red card for it during the US World Cup Qualifier with Guatemala.

    Quick little
    interview with Eddie.
     
  31. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Things are getting very very tight now. There is hardly any room to screw up now, and only a little reason to be optimistic.

    It makes for a very interesting end of season!

    Here's Isaac's preview.
     
  32. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Result:
    Galaxy 2 - 2 Revolution

    Scoring:
    NE -- Taylor Twellman 5 (Khano Smith 3) 22
    LA -- Landon Donovan 15 (Peter Vagenas 3) 34
    LA -- Landon Donovan 16 (Eddie Lewis 1) 55
    NE -- Shalrie Joseph 1 (Michael Parkhurst 1) 71

    The team looks a lot better with Arena's arrival and Gullitt's departure.
    The Revs are a very strong team, so scoring two on them and holding them to two is a good result at this point.

    There are 8 games left, and the Galaxy needs to get WINS from here on out. We are 2 points out of a playoff spot.

    Standings/Single Table
    Columbus 22 / 40 E1 (away)
    New England 22 / 38 E2
    Chicago 21 / 35 E3 (away)
    Houston 21 / 32 W1 (away)
    DC 22 / 32 E P1 (home)
    New York 22 / 32 E P2
    RSL 22 / 30 W2 (home)
    Chivas 22 / 27 W3
    ----------------------------
    Dallas 22 / 26 W (home)
    Toronto 22 / 26 E
    Kansas 22 / 26 E (away)
    GALAXY 22 / 25 W
    San Jose 22 / 25 W
    Colorado 22 / 24 W (home)


    still to play
    Real Salt Lake
    @ Kansas City Wizards
    DC United
    @ Chicago Fire
    @ Columbus Crew
    Colorado Rapids
    @ Houston Dynamo
    FC Dallas
     
  33. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    The relationship between American college soccer player, the MLS, and the development of young American players.
    Written by Andrea Canales, a local LA soccer beat writer, using Galaxy players as examples.

     
  34. Fitz

    Fitz Squad Player

    Getting tighter....
    Here's Isaac's preview.
     
  35. pauls yellow army

    pauls yellow army Reservist

    its looks as if things are very tight.
    What's everyone's views of Bruce so far??
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page