Not All There : Missing Elements on Defense--Turnovers, Campos’ Lax Play--Are What Could Keep Galaxy From Getting All the Pieces to Fit
Slowly, the Major League Soccer jigsaw puzzle pieces are falling into place. For the Los Angeles Galaxy, those pieces include two games, two victories and two glaring problems.
Unless they have been solved, the unbeaten run will be a brief one. When the Galaxy plays the San Jose Clash at the Rose Bowl today, its defense will probably come under intense pressure.
That defense already has been bent twice, giving up goals to New York/New Jersey in the opener and to Washington on April 20. But it has not yet been broken.
The Clash has a player who can break it.
Eric Wynalda’s speed and power could tear holes in the Galaxy back line. His finishing could force goalkeeper Jorge Campos into far more difficult saves than he has yet been called upon to make.
All because of two problems: Los Angeles’ inability to hold onto the ball and the tendency of Campos to be frighteningly casual about how he plays the position. Taking the second problem first, Campos is not going to change. That’s how he plays--far out from his net, a sweeper/keeper a la Colombia’s Rene Higuita. His wanderlust already has cost one goal--D.C. United’s Raul Diaz Arce taking full advantage when spotting Campos off his line. Campos also seems to have an inflated opinion of his ability to judge when a shot is going to go wide. Twice, he has been lucky and guessed correctly, but it is not a habit Galaxy Coach Lothar Osiander wants to encourage.
In the 2-1 victory over the MetroStars at the Rose Bowl on April 13, he casually watched as a shot floated over and narrowly missed the upper left corner of the net. His only response was to glance over his shoulder. Much the same thing happened in Washington. Arce fired a low diagonal 20-yard shot from left to right and Campos hardly moved toward the ball, which clipped the foot of the right post. Had either of those shots gone in, Los Angeles could as easily be 0-2 as 2-0.
Campos is a gifted player and a colorful character. His popularity in Los Angeles is huge. But he is not invincible. Even if his geometry tells him the ball is going wide, he should at least make an effort to cover the net in case he is wrong.
Then there is the other problem, the one that makes Campos’ full 90-minute attention vital. The Galaxy is a turnover-plagued team. It seems unable to hold the ball longer than a few seconds. Players are forever giving it away with poor passes or being stripped of the ball by not shielding it properly. The two most experienced defenders on the team, Dan Calichman, the Galaxy captain, and Robin Fraser, acknowledge it is an area that needs work. The problem became particularly acute against Washington with the Galaxy clinging desperately to a 2-1 lead and D.C. United attacking in wave after wave.
“It’s tough,” Fraser said. “When we give the ball away so much we have to defend a lot, and we tend to get more and more tired. There were definitely a couple of minutes of concern there toward the end.”
Calichman looked completely drained after the game, not surprising considering the amount of work he, Fraser and the third defender, Manny Motajo, were forced to do.
“I was pretty tired,” Calichman said. “Because I’m marking, I was doing a lot of tracking out there, and they kept playing these outside balls, so I had to keep doing these 40-yard sprints.”
Because of Campos’ ability to play with his feet as well as his hands, Osiander has chosen to go with a three-man defense, with Campos serving as goalkeeper and sweeper. The system requires a great deal from the three defenders, who don’t always get the help from the midfielders that they should. Turnovers make it doubly difficult.
“We’re good enough, obviously, to hold onto the ball [but we’re not doing it],” Calichman said. “The second thing is, when we [midfielders and forwards] get tired, we’re not dropping [back to help out the defense].
“We’re a good attacking team, but we’ve got to get everyone back. We’re too far from each other and we lose the ball. At the end [at RFK Stadium] it was just crazy.”
Osiander, who sooner or later might be forced to go with a less-adventurous but probably more secure four-man defense, recognizes the problem but lays part of the blame at the midfielders’ feet.
“We played very average,” he said after the victory over Washington. “I was not pleased with the performance. We have to rectify some of the things we did today.
“We gave up every other ball. We had a hell of a problem trying to play under pressure and we couldn’t handle it. The midfield wasn’t very good. I wasn’t happy with [Chris] Armas, I wasn’t happy with [Arash] Noamuoz.”
Armas, a 23-year-old All-American from Adelphi, had a nightmare game against Washington, missing one clear scoring opportunity and frequently giving the ball away. In all likelihood, he has lost his starting place to UCLA’s Jorge Salcedo, who scored the winning goal and looks altogether a more polished player. Noamuoz, like Mark Semioli, had far less impact on the game than he should have. The arrival of three new players last week--John Garvey, Joey Kirk and Curt Onalfo--should heat up the battle for starting places.
Right now, the Galaxy has eight players worthy of being in the regular lineup: Campos, Calichman, Fraser, Salcedo, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Cobi Jones, Jose Vasquez and Eduardo Hurtado. The other three spots still have to be earned. On the bright side, the Galaxy is in much better shape than many other teams. Most of its puzzle pieces are in place, even if the picture is not yet entirely clear.
