Galaxy Draws Line With Its Triangle
Tyrone Marshall, noted hyperbolic philosopher from Jamaica, didn’t have to think long or hard about why the Galaxy’s defense has improved so dramatically of late.
“It’s the triangle,” he said. “The Bermuda Triangle. Anything that goes in there, doesn’t come back out.”
Marshall, who loves to drop names on objects, animate and inanimate alike, and refers to his slide tackle as “the Jamaican Machete” because it “chops down everyone back there, mon,” is not referring to the waters near his island home.
Rather, he’s talking about the area in front of the Galaxy goal that is patrolled by the defending Major League Soccer champions’ defenders -- Marshall, Hong Myung-Bo and Danny Califf, that threesome making up the three points of the triangle.
The trio has wreaked havoc on the San Jose Earthquakes, giving up only one goal in the last three games against the Western Conference’s top-scoring club, including two games to end the regular season and last week’s 2-0 Galaxy win in the opener of a first-round playoff series. A similar showing tonight at San Jose in Game 2 of the aggregate-goals series will end the first-place Earthquakes’ season and send the fourth-place Galaxy to the conference final.
Which prompts the question: How did the Galaxy, which struggled this season and wouldn’t have qualified for postseason play, had last year’s playoff format still been in effect, get to this point?
Look no further than Marshall’s Bermuda Triangle.
In 11 league games this year, including the playoffs, Marshall, Hong and Califf served as the defenders in a 3-5-2 formation and the Galaxy surrendered only five goals in the run of play. In the trio’s last four starts as a unit, the Galaxy has given up one goal.
Why the seeming sudden success?
“Continuity,” Califf said, pointing out that both he and Marshall missed blocks of time early in the season because of call-ups to their national teams.
“But I think it’s also a combination of athleticism, that Tyrone offers, and my strength is ball winning and Bo’s strength is reading the game and playing out of the back. We complement each other really well.”
Coach Sigi Schmid agreed.
“A coach told me a long, long, long time ago that in every part of the field, you need a playmaker, a player and a worker,” Schmid said. “And I think when you look at that back three, that sort of fits right now.”
Hong, the four-time World Cup veteran from South Korea who was aghast when he reported to the Galaxy and had to practice on a baseball field, was a midseason bust, playing out of position at midfield. But since displacing Alexi Lalas at sweeper, Hong has found his stride and is Schmid’s playmaker with his passing ability.
Califf, the surfer dude who broke his nose while riding the waves nearly three years ago, got himself all buffed out and added a menacing arm tattoo this year, just in case anyone thought him soft. His aerial superiority and “uncompromising” tackling make him the player, Schmid said.
That leaves the speedy Marshall, a mainstay with the Reggae Boyz Jamaican national team, as the Galaxy’s worker.
“He’s the one who sort of tracks things down, chases things in the corner and sometimes slides off his man,” Schmid said.
“The balance between the three, they all bring something different to the party. If everybody brings something different, then it’s very effective. If everybody brings the same thing, it becomes difficult to cover holes.”
Holes in the defense were few and far between this season as the Galaxy tied with San Jose for fewest goals given up, 35.
“We really have good organization with the three players in the defensive line,” Hong said through translator Steve Kim. “Califf and Tyrone are really tough players and strong players on the defensive line, so I can cover them with my experience. Good organization with the players is the main reason for the successful play.”
Marshall said he sensed the trio would be good the first time it started together, in a 1-0 loss at New York/New Jersey on April 19 that was decided by a penalty kick.
Califf, though, sensed it was truly something special during the Galaxy’s 3-0 victory over San Jose at the Home Depot Center on Oct. 18.
“It was really tight and it just felt like, ‘These guys aren’t going to get anything on us,’ ” Califf said. “They have three really good attacking options with [Rodrigo] Faria, [Dwayne] De Rosario and Landon [Donovan] and I think it was an attitude coming out of that game where we ... felt like, ‘You know what, we’re going to be able to handle anybody.’ ”
Even with a language barrier with Hong?
“We ... just graduated and felt more comfortable with each other,” Califf said. “Certainly, the verbal communication is a huge part of the game, but it was also nonverbal and it was also just the awareness of knowing where each other was going to be.”
Marshall said being able to switch positions with Califf only helps.
“Bo understands that sweeper position so well that if someone gets caught out [of position], we still ... keep that triangle,” Marshall said. “Once we’re in that triangle, it doesn’t matter who’s in left or right, it balances off and ... in that triangle, we’re pretty much always in contact with each other.”
Opponents, it seems, are the only ones who get lost in there.
