Western Conference Final Exposes Holes LA Galaxy Have To Fill
Despite winning the Supporters Shield, the Western Conference Final exposed the holes Los Angeles has to fill this offseason.
Despite a roaring start that set a MLS record for most games to start a season without a loss, overcoming the loss of Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle to World Cup duty for a month, and not getting a single minute from David Beckham until the last few games of the regular season (as he battled back from an Achilles tear), the Los Angeles Galaxy still took home the Supporters Shield for the most points in Major League Soccer. A dominating first round playoff series win over the Seattle Sounders was another feather in the cap for one of the league's premier clubs, but despite all of the success, it was clear to anyone that watched the Galaxy on a regular basis that it was a far from flawless club, and in Los Angeles' Western Conference Final loss to FC Dallas, their two biggest weaknesses were exposed - a thin central midfield and the lack of a second striker.
Early on in the regular season, Los Angeles was getting stellar midfield play from Chris Birchall, but the Trinidad and Toboggan international was in the form of his life and one unlikely to keep up. Unsurprisingly, Birchall came down and began to play like the decent MLS midfielder that he is with some steel, a great work rate, a decent tackle and a lot to be desired in his passing. When that happened, the Galaxy became completely dependent on Juninho to have a tremendous match or they would be overrun by teams in the central midfield. It became so dire that late in the season manager Bruce Arena experimented with Beckham paired in the center of the park to keep teams from knocking the ball all around Los Angeles.
Juninho, a Brazilian on a season-long loan from Sao Paulo showed good skill, an impressive willingness to tackle in the midfield and several other positive attributes that make him a quality central midfielder, but he is not a world beater equipped to handle the job alone. Los Angeles became unfairly dependent on the 21-year-old ,and against halfway decent teams, they needed him to have a fantastic match or they would be overrun in the midfield. In Los Angeles’ two most dire performances of the season’s second half, Juninho had a poor match and the Galaxy were beaten soundly, by New York in September and then in the Western Conference Final by Dallas.
When the entire match is dependent on a young central midfielder who is good but hardly incredible, your team has a major hole, and Los Angeles saw their season come to an end largely because of that hole. When Arena and his staff start assembling their roster for 2011, they will have to focus on both bringing Juninho back, which is expected, and giving him central midfield help. Juninho isn't bad defensively and doesn't need a true destroyer playing next to him like Dema Kovalenko or even Birchall. Los Angeles can pair Juninho with a player who has better linking skills and an ability to move the ball around the pitch if he has just adequate tackling skills. Finding that player, or ideally two players, who can do that will be of the utmost importance.
Once Arena sorts out his central midfield problem, he will also have to build the squad's depth, especially going forward. How the Galaxy managed to win the Supporters Shield with Jovan Kirovski and Mike Magee as the striking options to pair with Buddle is beyond most people, but they did it. What it did though is make it so Buddle had to play for too much with far too much weight on his shoulders, and he was noticeably slower as the season moved on. Los Angeles will need to find someone who can take some of the pressure off of Buddle and make opposing defenses account for another striker. Bowen can serve a useful role off of the bench to give the team some of a threat there and Magee is a solid bench option as well, but Los Angeles needs to find themselves a true second striker to start.
With the Supporters Shield comes a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League group stage, a tournament that not only adds matches but miles to the Galaxy's slate in 2011 and will require them to build squad depth. Bowen and Magee can provide the necessary depth up front, but only if there is the true second striker in the starting lineup. Juninho and Birchall will be Los Angeles' only true central midfield options next year, making it important for Arena to not just find the effective partner in the starting lineup for Juninho, but also some depth there. At the same time, Eddie Lewis and Chris Klein are both retiring, meaning that Arena will have to replace each of them and add a couple more players for depth all over the field.
Los Angeles may have won the Supporters Shield, but it was a team that had several flaws and there aren’t any obvious cures to their ills. It will take some good work by Arena this offseason to make the necessary moves if Los Angeles is going to challenge in both MLS and Champions League action next season. Oh yeah, they also have to deal with the uncertainty of Donovan’s future because he may go to the English Premier League. Above all else though, priority number one is sorting out the central midfield and priority number two is a striker. Arena has built himself a reputation for knowing how to put together MLS teams dating back to the league’s first year and he turned the Galaxy around in a hurry, but now it’s hole filling time.
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