Defense Is Unsung Hero of Galaxy
Seemingly lost in the Galaxy’s recent offensive burst has been the suffocating play of the Western Conference champion and top-seeded team’s defense.
But that’s OK with the Galaxy’s back line players. They’re used to it, even after limiting the opposition to two goals in the last two playoff games.
“Anytime you’re going for a championship and you score a lot of goals, the emphasis is always on the guys that score goals, so it comes with the territory,” Galaxy defender Danny Califf said with a grin. “As a defender, you grow up knowing that you’re not going to be the guy that gets your name in the paper or anything like that and it’s kind of what you expect.
“You just put your head down and you know that you’re not necessarily going to get the respect or the notoriety, but you know that your job is just as important as the guys that put the ball in the back of the net.”
In the Galaxy’s most recent victories--a 5-2 blowout of the Kansas City Wizards in the deciding game of a first-round series and a 4-0 spanking of the Colorado Rapids in Game 1 of the semifinals--the Galaxy defense and counterattack have sparked the offense.
“What’s really improved ... is the defending in the more advanced parts of the field,” Coach Sigi Schmid said. “I think our forwards have done a better job helping us out defensively. We’ve gotten tighter to people.”
Alexi Lalas, who was retired two years ago but is now a candidate for Major League Soccer’s comeback player of the year, has thrived in his role as the Galaxy’s sweeper behind man markers Califf and Tyrone Marshall, who sat out Monday’s practice because of flu.
“If you’re [a defender] to get headlines and to have girls screaming at you, you’re playing the wrong position,” Lalas said with a laugh. “You take your pleasures, and most of them are unseen. If you’ve done your job correctly as a defender, people don’t notice you. So it could be lonely.”
Especially since a defender is rarely a hero, mostly a goat, in the eyes of the uninitiated.
“They’ll be the first to run that replay over and over again when you miss a tackle or you screw up a clearance or you take somebody down with a penalty kick,” said Lalas, who has picked up yellow cards in each of the last two games. “It’s a different mentality playing defense. You can play well 99.9% of the time but that .1% that you screw up, that’s the one that could cost the game. You recognize that responsibility and understand that that’s your bed.”
