Lack of Scoring Still Galaxy’s Top Concern
Can the Tampa Bay Mutiny, tonight’s visitor to the Rose Bowl, learn anything from last week’s 2-1 Galaxy loss to the previously winless Wizards at Kansas City?
Yes, if they listen to Wizard Coach Bob Gansler.
“Obviously give [Galaxy midfielder Mauricio] Cienfuegos a little extra attention,” Gansler said. “Have different people coming at him so that he gives the ball up and he doesn’t make the penetrating passes.”
That tactic has long worked for Galaxy opponents. Stifling the Salvadoran playmaker usually puts a crimp in Los Angeles’ offense, but that ploy can be used by the Galaxy too.
Carlos Valderrama pulls the strings in midfield for the Mutiny, and if Galaxy defensive midfielder Danny Pena, who enjoyed a fine game against the Wizards, scoring the lone Los Angeles goal, can shut Valderrama down, the Galaxy can get back on a winning track.
But the team is going to have to start finding the back of the net too. A quarter of the way into the Major League Soccer season, the Galaxy is at .500 and has scored only five goals.
It has yet to score more than a single goal in any game and has been shut out three times in eight games. Through eight games last season, the Galaxy was 8-0 and had scored 26 goals.
The individual offensive statistics, especially when compared to 1998, are equally startling. Consider:
* Cobi Jones, who a year ago led the team and was the second-leading scorer in the league with 19 goals and 13 assists, has one goal and one assist.
* Cienfuegos, who had 13 goals, five of them game-winners, and 16 assists in 1998, has no goals and three assists.
* Welton, with 17 goals and 11 assists last season, has yet to score his first goal and has only one assist.
Is Coach Sigi Schmid worried? Apparently not.
“It’s just a matter of finishing our opportunities,” Schmid said, adding that the team is creating enough chances.
“What I’m happy with is that I think we’re playing better than we played before. Now we’ve just got to work on how we play in the last 30 yards of the field.”
Against the Wizards, Schmid switched defender Zak Ibsen to a central striker’s role, a position the former UCLA player had not played recently.
“He hadn’t played there in a long time, but what I wanted to get out of Zak was somebody who was going to create a little bit more movement and somebody who had a little bit more size and [who could] take the pressure off Cobi, who has been getting beat up a lot.
“Plus, I didn’t know how long Welton could go because of his injury. But I thought Welton played all right and I thought Zak did what we needed him to do.”
It may be that the Galaxy will have to wait until Carlos Hermosillo returns from Mexico before the offense regains last season’s form. But even that is no sure thing.
As Gansler said, when Cienfuegos is stopped, the Galaxy becomes vulnerable. With that in mind, getting creative help in the midfield might be as important as getting Hermosillo back up front.
