By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Sep 26, 2011) US Soccer Players -- It would be easy enough to congratulate the Los Angeles Galaxy for once again showing they're the team that can do one simple thing - win games regardless of circumstance. After the weekend schedule, that's not a category Real Salt Lake belongs in.
The Galaxy needed a stoppage time winner to knock off Columbus, and thereby playing a part in setting the top of the Eastern Conference table. They did it while resting two of their three stars and giving the third a cameo appearance in the second-half. Slightly insulting to a team the caliber of Columbus? Maybe, but even more insulting was the inability of the Crew to take advantage at home.
Meanwhile, would-be Western Conference 2nd-place contender Salt Lake did some roster maneuvering of their own on the road in DC. The result was United's Dwayne De Rosario having a standout game against an out of sync RSL. 4-1 DC, and pardon me if I make this more about Salt Lake's failings than some triumphant return to form from United.
With all due respect to De Rosario and United's Public Relations department, there's still very little to get excited about with this United team. All credit for the win, but consider the version of Salt Lake that took the field on Saturday. It was a weaker team than expected, something stressed by DC coach Ben Olsen in his postgame comments.
Also, let’s be honest with ourselves, it wasn’t Real Salt Lake out there that had a five-game winning streak. We need to keep that in the back of our heads, but I’m glad we punished them for putting that team out there.
Indeed, and credit Olsen with more candor than some of his colleagues in Major League Soccer's coaching ranks would bother to show. RSL saw an opportunity, took it, and as Olsen said, they got punished. Columbus, with a mundane scoreless draw in sight, let LA galaxy coach Bruce Arena successfully test the depths of his roster.
The difference is frankly scary. The League of parity coming face to face with the one team that can phone it in for a game they haven't prioritized and still come away with the win. Not that the Galaxy would put it that way, but the team on the field makes the argument for them. Columbus, still an Eastern Conference contender, isn't quite worth the Galaxy's full attention. Turns out LA was right. A lineup their own official site referred to as "unique" getting those three points on the road.
Just like before this weekend's games, we're still looking at LA's magic number for winning the Supporters' Shield. They could do it at home on Saturday against Salt Lake, a matchup that was wasted early in the season when LA had no choice but to field a drastically different lineup due to MLS scheduling a marquee game during an international fixture date. Though it was tempting to go ahead and pencil in Salt Lake as the team to beat after that 4-1 win, they got the benefit of the schedule.
Even with the Galaxy in CONCACAF Champions League action midweek, that shouldn't be the case in Carson. Salt Lake, and we'll assume that Salt Lake of the five wins in a row, will be facing the 2011 Galaxy mark II. There's an argument to be made that as much as the De Rosario trade helped DC go from bad to not as bad in 2011, it was the Robbie Keane transfer that did the most to make a team better. Yes, we're talking about the team that was already the best in MLS, but for an alternate version of how that could've gone consider New York's attempt to boost their goalkeeping.
There are no guarantees here. We've seen enough high profile players enter the League and need significant time to really adjust. Some don't manage that well, others can't get it together at all. Keane is in a different category, playing like someone who understands not just his team but the League it plays in.
Yet all of this will count for very little if the Galaxy story ends up being about the 2011 regular season. We've seen this before, an overwhelming team rolling into the playoffs and once again coming face-to-face with that strange version of MLS parity. More often than some would want to admit, the playoffs become a gauntlet of mediocrity designed to punish the teams that take risks and reward those willing to grind out results. It can be very tough to watch.
For a team like the Galaxy stressing a style of soccer that relies on a skill level from individual players other teams simply don't have, this won't be a cake walk. Teams they could literally beat with their B squad suddenly turn into problems not easily solved over 180 minutes. The motivations and tactics adjust, and it doesn't favor the kind of game LA plays at their best.
What that creates is another style of play indictment for MLS, an example of parity at its worst.
Playing down to get a result isn't the soccer equivalent of hard nosed Stanley Cup hockey where two teams beat on each other through multiple overtimes before finally one exhausted player manages to force the puck over the line from two feet away. Instead, it's the negative defensive play that mars sports across codes. The kind of game that needs the adjustment provided by the truly elite.
That could be LA and it could be this year, giving MLS a truly marquee team for the first time in several seasons. Right now, that's more valuable than telling yet another underdog story.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
