Association Football

You never want to call for people to be fired. But the LA Galaxy are just a horrible team and someone needs to be held accountable.

The bulk of the blame rests squarely on Lalas’s shoulders, as he has proven to be a horrible GM. What’s clear is that he panicked after the Galaxy’s slow start and made some rash deals that have left the Galaxy worse off. There are a number of problems with the moves that Lalas made.

First, the complete reshuffling of the Galaxy team before Beckham’s arrival threw them into complete chaos on the field. The Galaxy looked like a team in preseason mode in the middle of the season.

Second, the search for quick fixes meant the Galaxy brought in older more expensive players, while trading away some young talent. You look at the nucleus of the squad for next year, Beckham 33 years old, Klein 31, Pavon 33, Xavier 34.

Third, and most importantly, the deals haven’t improved the team.

Trading pacy forward Robert Findley and young but skilled defender Nathan Sturgis to Real Salt Lake for aging 31 year old Chris Klein, whose main attribute is his ability to cross the ball from the right wing – an attribute that with Beckham you have in spades – has been a disaster. With Beckham you need offensive weapons, not another guy who can cross the bar. You also need a solid backline and losing Sturgis certainly made it worse.

Lets look at some of the other deals:

Trade: Veteran Defender Tyron Marshall for unproven Forward Edson Buddle
Trade: 6-3 target striker Nate Jaqua for defensive-midfielder Kelly Gray
Sign: Carlos Pavon, a 33 year old, 5-6 Honduran striker.
Sign: Portuguese defender Abel Xavier

The only clearly positive acquisition here is the signing of Xavier. Pavon and Buddle have looked ineffective. Kelly Gray adds little to nothing, while Jaqua may not have set Houston ablaze, but he is a much more promising player than Gray.

All this adds up to a team that is just plain bad. Lalas clearly has to go. But you could make the argument that Yallop is a good coach that was put in horrible situation. Maybe. But he is still a part of that horrible situation. And this team needs a fresh start in the offseason.

Filed under: MLS |