The day after
By Jeff Carlisle · April 4, 2008
There is a reason why Galaxy forward Alan Gordon, big lunk that he is, has a job in MLS. He’s a player that can hold the ball up, and no amount of sugar-coating can gloss over the fact that until Frank Yallop finds a striker with at least a hint of this skill, the Quakes are going to find it difficult to score goals. What’s worse is that other teams already know this.
You could see it in the way the Galaxy defended the Quakes in the first half. The moment any ball was played into midfield, L.A. pounced. This not only caused turnovers in the middle of the park, but it eventually forced the San Jose backline to resort to long balls that L.A. dealt with quite easily. For all the talk about the pace of Shea Salinas and Kei Kamara, speed will only get you so far. Not every one of those passes goes over the top of the defense for the forwards to run on to. Sometimes those balls are played into feet and Salinas, Kamara, and Gavin Glinton needed to do a better job of simply maintaining possession. When they don’t, it puts the Quakes defense under a lot of pressure.
Is trialist Michael Ricketts the answer here? At a height of 6-foot-3, he could be, although the one practice I saw him play he didn’t look that impressive. Now, there are plenty of factors (jet lag, new teammates, etc.) that could account for this, so it will be interesting to see how he progresses.
Of course, the poor hold-up play was far from the only problem the Quakes had on Thursday, with defender Ryan Cochrane turning in a stinker and goalkeeper Joe Cannon not playing much better. Mental mistakes and poor passing are problems that are correctable, however, especially now that the first-game jitters are out of the way. The inability to hold up the ball isn’t. Players like Kamara, Salinas, and Glinton are what they are, and their skill-sets aren’t going to change overnight. The only question is can Yallop find this kind of player before it’s too late.
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[…] Jeff Carlisle wrote an interesting post today on The day afterHere’s a quick excerptThere is a reason why Galaxy forward Alan Gordon, big lunk that he is, has a job in MLS. He’sa player that can hold the ball up, and no amount of sugar-coating can gloss over the fact that until Frank Yallop finds a striker with at … […]
[…] I’ve calmed down a bit and read Jeff Carlisle’s excellent analysis of our performance last night. Coupled with the positive comments from dwsharks and Alex (thanks […]
Disagree with Carlile: Gordon lost the ball numerous times or could not control it when receiving it. I think the SJ short game in front of the goal was better but they could not convert. Gordon is a slug whom I would not want for the Quakes. It is not about size it is about skill, speed and creativity on front of the goal, which needs to be worked on. One good Argentinean is not going to do it by himself, it takes team combination.
Gordon lost the ball “a number of times”? Watch the tape again and don’t let his terrible finishing obscure thte fact that he kept the ball well for his team. I counted the touches. In the first half, excluding the long bombs from goal kicks, his ratio of keeping it to losing it was around 3.5:1. Compare that to Kamara and Salinas, which was around 1:1. That is a huge difference. If your forwards can’t hold the ball, no amount of skill, speed, or creativity in front of goal is going to help you because you will be forever pinned back in your own half.
Being in L.A. for the game last night I was able to catch the local news and was pleasantly surprised . Even though I was unhappy with the game result it was nice that their local media(tv) made the game one of their top news stories, not just the 15 second story that the Quakes received last time thay were here at the end of the sports segment. This was at least a 5 minute story with the reporter admitting he had never seen a MLS game but was thrilled with the crowd excitement and likened it to nothing he had ever experienced in other sports. Let’s hope that our local media is even half as good. If not, its time that Quakes management , supporters groups such as Soccer Silicon Valley and Club Quake, and individuals make it known to these media that we deserve equal airtime
All I know is that the Galaxy goals had nothing to do with Gordon and everything to do with Cochrane and Cannon. If I was playing I would be happy to see Gordon on the other team.