Write On Sports LLC - " LA Galaxy in 2006: The Eternal Corner" by Jeff Bull

LA Galaxy in 2006: The Eternal Corner

2006-12-05 10:34:17 | By: Jeff Bull

The conventional wisdom on the Los Angeles Galaxy’s 2006 season goes something like this: the successful Cup run in 2005 papered over very real problems with LA’s squad and 2006 served as the reckoning. As with most conventional wisdom, this came into focus in hindsight. And as such things go, it’s one part accurate and one part fudging. At the start of the season, everyone agreed this team would miss star-man Landon Donovan when he went to Germany for last summer’s World Cup. That common knowledge aside, someone who placed a pre-season bet on the Galaxy’s season going badly as it did would have walked away richer by season’s end.

No matter how bad things became, however, the question was never “if” LA would turn the corner; it always seemed to be “when.” And there was certainly a time when they came to that corner and slowly - so, so slowly - scratched their way around it. The thing is they never made it all the way around.

New Men

Going by the old adage about things broken and fixing them, the Galaxy made very few changes during the off-season. They off-loaded Guillermo “Pando” Ramirez, the man who scored the winner in the 2005 final. In the annual “Superdraft,” LA signed a pair of defenders, Nathan Sturgis and Kyle Veris, both of whom stuck. Another new face, Quavas Kirk, came on mid-season as well - and turned a few heads when he did. But that ended the off-season changes and their impact was far from immediate. The big changes came during the season, right around the time panic set in.

Steve Sampson, who led the Galaxy to the 2005 title, got dumped after compiling a 2-8-1 (W-L-T) to start the 2006 season; Frank Yallop, already a name in MLS circles, replaced him two days later. As the season’s margin of error shrank, trades brought in more new players. Yallop shipped top, left-sided defender Todd Dunivant to Red Bull New York and replaced him a ways later with Canadian defender Ante Jazic. A massive May trade sent midfielder Ned Grabavoy and forward Joseph Ngwenya to the Columbus Crew in return for forward John Wolyniec and, he of eternal potential, midfielder Kyle Martino. Right around the time Jazic showed up, LA picked up youngster Santino Quaranta from DC United. A busy season all told, but one hewing to the season’s watch-word: “almost.”

The Bad

Ignore the final, 45 goals-for figure: the bad here is the mess the Galaxy made in front of the opposition’s goal. 22 games into the season - that’s until August 12th with the season starting in April - LA had “banged in” a total of 17 goals, a pathetic 0.77 goals per game average; the Galaxy didn’t score once during the entire month of May. Sampson’s record to start the season appears above, but they still didn’t manage a win till July. Then, of course, they went on something of a tear.

As pointed out by MLS’s hired pundits, the Galaxy took 27 of 48 points in the season’s second half; that may not sound like much, but LA would have finished one point behind regular season champs, DC United, had they started as well as they finished - and that’s before adjusting everyone else’s record. Useful as these numbers are, LA’s season can be summed up in one perfectly wretched moment: in the midst of the second-half recovery, which saw them collect 20 of those points cited above, they had Real Salt Lake (RSL) at their mercy away from home; out of nowhere, RSL forward Jeff Cunningham snuck behind LA’s defense on the left side of the area and stabbed a slow-rolling ball toward LA ‘keeper Kevin Hartman; Hartman, reliable as any ‘keeper in the league, somehow lost the ball and it slipped between his legs for the game’s only goal. Game, set, three points gone, and the margin of error shrinks a little more.

The Good

This came on the opposite side of the ball, though even here, the numbers are deceptive: LA ended the regular season with 49 goals conceded. But during their post-World Cup, July/August charge on the Western Conference table, when they had their team at last settled, with Donovan and defender Chris Albright back, LA’s played near-perfect defense. Even with personnel changes in defense, LA conceded only three goals in league play during those two months, it didn’t hurt they scored 14 over the same period. In short, when LA clicked - though allowing for the sprinkling of new players - 2005 looked less like a fluke.

Individual players stood out for LA as well. In spite of surviving his worst year as a professional, Donovan returned from the World Cup to take out his frustrations on a few teams; a “bad year” for him - 12 goals and 8 assists - is still the envy of half the league’s forwards. While some veteran players struggled, a few younger players came of age in 2006: Quavas Kirk drew some happy attention in spite of sparse numbers, as did defender Nathan Sturgis; forward Alan Gordon showed some promise as a “big-man” toward the end of the season as well.

Wrap-Up

LA’s 2006 comprehensive record looks bad on any team. But LA’s history creates expectations, which drags this past season toward debacle territory. An unequivocally dreadful May knee-capped their season; a September slump, which followed painfully close after their rally, took care of the rest. All in all, the conventional wisdom noted at the top of the page contained elements of the truth: the inconsistency that made 2005 hell for fans and players plagued the team through 2006, but, this time, the results were fatal; perhaps Steve Sampson is to blame (sorry...personal wish). Still, for two months, LA showed they had a team to beat anyone. Well, almost. For every win over, say, the Houston Dynamo or the Chicago Fire, there was one to match over Real Salt Lake, the Kansas City Wizards, and Red Bull New York; two of the former missed the post-season. But a successful season can only happen when you beat the teams you should.

The Future

While I’m looking back at 2006, LA’s front office has already begun gearing up for 2007. Over the weekend, they acquired goalkeeper Joe Cannon from the Colorado Rapids, a man widely regarded as the league’s best ‘keeper; he cost them 2005 forward sensation Herculez Gomez and hard-as-nails defender Ugo Ihemelu. That’s hardly a cheap trade - and never mind what it means to Hartman, a quality ‘keeper in his own right - but that’s the least of the changes to come. Observers count LA as one of the team’s most likely to take advantage of the designated-player rule - the so-called “Beckham Rule,” which allows MLS teams to break the salary cap to bring a star player or two. Rumors have attached David Beckham - yes, that one, the man himself - as being LA-bound. Will that be enough to return LA to their familiar place on top of the heap?

As much as anything, LA’s offense needs players to compliment Donovan, both someone to feed him the ball and, arguably, a forward big enough to muscle opposition defenses and to hold up the ball while the rest of the team catches up. With so many pieces up in the air, and so many questions over players now filling these positions on LA’s roster, they remain one of the mystery teams for 2007.

Editor's Note: This is part of a series wrapping up the 2006 season for each of Major League Soccer's 12 teams. Readers can find other entries in the series by clicking on the author's byline.

Comments

Heidi commented,
It will be interesting to see how Lalas’ obvious man-crush on Beckham will affect his ability to build a team that can score goals, put together passes and solidly defend, particularly in goal. The front office clearly gave up too much for Cannon, particularly when the Galaxy already have one of the best(and winning-est, if that’s a word) keeper in the league. Then again, maybe I’m just a Hartman loyalist.
December 5, 2006 2:37 p.m.

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