Galaxy’s woes aren’t confined to one source
With the Galaxy having won only four of its last 15 games, things could get worse before they get better.
Tonight, Los Angeles plays D.C. United at sold-out RFK Stadium in Washington where England Coach Steve McLaren will be among the 45,000 on hand. McLaren is paying a quick visit to check on David Beckham’s injured left ankle and assess the quality of play in MLS.
Unless the Galaxy can raise its performance level, McLaren is unlikely to be impressed.
As for Beckham, he might play a limited role tonight, but it is not a sure thing. “Hopefully, I will play some part of it,” he said Wednesday before a closed-door training session at RFK Stadium. “We’re not sure yet.”
The fact that the game is on grass, as opposed to an artificial surface, increases the chance that Beckham might make a token appearance. In his first public criticism of MLS, Beckham on Wednesday said it should not be using artificial surfaces.
“As professional athletes, you can’t play a game like soccer on that sort of field,” he said. “Every game, every team, should have grass, without a doubt. You can’t ask any athlete to perform at a high level” on an artificial surface.
The Galaxy’s next two MLS games, at New England and New York, are on artificial surfaces.
Beckham’s eventual role as a starter is crucial to the Galaxy turning its season around.
So far, this has been a fractured and frustrating year for Coach Frank Yallop’s team, with a spate of injuries to key players, some dubious trades, the distraction of the circus that follows Beckham, and the demands of a schedule complicated by simultaneously playing in four competitions -- MLS, the U.S. Open Cup, the SuperLiga tournament and the so-called World Series of Football.
But it goes far beyond that.
Inconsistency is one thing, but the pendulum for Los Angeles has been swinging wildly: Great plays are more often than not followed by great blunders.
Defensively, the back line crumbles when put under sustained pressure, especially when opponents flood the area with additional attacking players. Creatively, there is not a player on the field who can consistently supply the sort of passes that open up games and unlock defenses. Beckham is supposed to fill that role.
Offensively, the forwards, lacking the service from midfield, are not scoring with any regularity. The Galaxy has scored 30 goals in 22 games in all competitions, or an average of only 1.36 a game.
Beyond that, there is an obvious lack of chemistry, an inability to get the game flowing. There are tantalizing patches where the Galaxy strings together a series of passes and shows some inventiveness, but they are brief and infrequent.
Yallop has tinkered with his lineups, sometimes by choice, more often by necessity as injuries have robbed him of not only Beckham and Chris Albright, but also, for varying lengths of time, Cobi Jones, Gavin Glinton, Kyle Veris, Edson Buddle, Alan Gordon, Kevin Harmse, Quavas Kirk and others.
Add it all up and the result is a 3-5-5 mark in league play, early elimination from the Open Cup, an 0-2 effort in the World Series of Football, and -- in the lone bright spot -- advancement to next week’s SuperLiga tournament semifinals.
Landon Donovan has won three MLS titles and knows what it takes. So far in 2007, the Galaxy does not appear to have it.
“We don’t have enough guys that are in tune together,” Donovan said. “At times we’ve been great. But then at times you see big letdowns and it’s kind of disappointing. . . . We have the potential. I don’t think anyone denies that. But it’s got to come together.”
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GALAXY TONIGHT
at D.C. United, 4 p.m., ESPN2
Radio -- 1700, 830 (Spanish).
Records -- Galaxy 3-5-5; D.C. United 8-6-3.
Record vs. D.C. United -- 0-0-1.
Update -- The Galaxy, second to last in the Western Conference, is 12 points shy of the eighth and final playoff spot, now held by the Columbus Crew. If he scores tonight, Jaime Moreno, D.C. United’s Bolivian forward, would surpass Jason Kreis and become the league’s all-time leading scorer with 109 goals.
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