L.A. Galaxy vs. Manchester United: Three Major Takeaways
By Brian Flores
7-0.
No one really expected the Los Angeles Galaxy to beat Manchester United, but no one expected this final score. Everyone expected the team to keep it close. At the very least, to keep it respectable.
Instead, Los Angeles got embarrassed.
The game was an exhibition, but it wasn’t meaningless. This was an opportunity for the Galaxy, and MLS as a whole, to really do itself proud and to prove that it had closed the gap in quality between itself and the rest of the world.
Instead, the Galaxy looked like what the rest of the world expected: a quality-deficient team from a mediocre league.
Fortunately, the poor result doesn’t mean that there aren’t lessons to be taken away from the match. MLS and the Galaxy would be wise to learn from clinic Manchester United put on if there is to be any hope of U.S. soccer catching up to the rest of the world any time soon.
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Humbling Loss a Wakeup Call for Galaxy for Rest of Season
For all the talent on the Galaxy roster, the team has underperformed all season. With a 7-4-6 record and currently sitting at 27 points, the team has been disappointingly average all season.
Los Angeles is currently halfway through the season, and although it’s currently in the playoffs, this is only by a few points. As the season has progressed, the team has yet to find consistency. When it plays well, it plays really when. When it doesn’t, it looks like a team that doesn’t quite seem to know what it’s looking to do on the field.
Although the loss came in an exhibition game, the Galaxy should take this as a sign that it hasn’t been playing to its full potential. The loss isn’t a surprise, but the fact that the team seemed to have little to no actual game plan is unacceptable.
With players like Landon Donovan, Omar Gonzalez and Robbie Keane on the roster, the team should be feared in MLS. It certainly should have more than seven wins out of 17 matches. Complacency seems to have set in, and it appears that the team is just waiting for the playoffs to begin before it really begins to care.
But for that to happen, the team has to get in the playoffs first, and this is not guaranteed at this point.
This loss could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for this team. The team has basically been sleepwalking up to this point. Now that it realizes how far below its own standards its actually been playing, it should finally begin to play to level it’s capable of.
If this happens, the second half of the season should see a major run by the Galaxy up the standings.
MLS Coaching Still Far Behind the Rest of World in Quality
The fact that Manchester United, one of the premier teams in the planet in any sport, is better than the L.A. Galaxy isn’t news. What is shocking is just how much better they are.
Yes, this was only an exhibition, but the results can’t be just brushed off as inconsequential if MLS really hopes to one become a respected league nationally and, more importantly, internationally.
The difference in quality isn’t just on the pitch. It includes the coaches as well.
Los Angeles Galaxy manager Bruce Arena has his work cut out for him if L.A. is to get back on track. Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
What the Men’s National Team was able to accomplish in Brazil this summer can’t be overstated. But what really has to be recognized is that what the USMNT was able to accomplish had just as much to do with Jurgen Klinsmann’s coaching and tactics as with the quality of players.
This is something that has to become the norm in MLS.
Even the best quality of players in MLS are not on par with the best in the Premier League, but as Klinsmann showed this summer, the right coaching can get more out of these players than what was previously expected.
One of the things Klinsmann has tried to establish during his involvement with U.S. soccer is that these players can’t just show up on the international stage and be expected to perform at that level. It begins at the club level.
The reality remains that the bulk of U.S. players are found in MLS, and frankly, they are not being prepared properly. That was exposed in this matchup, where Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena was outclassed by his counterpart Louis van Gaal in every area from start to finish.
MLS Players Must Get Over Inferiority Complex
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Blowouts happen in every sport. Sometimes, teams just have a bad game. But there is something to be said about the way a team gets blown out.
Watching the game, it almost looked like the Galaxy players expected this to happen. Yes, they were running, jumping, playing defense, trying to build an attack, but it never looked like they actually expected any of it to work.
Coaching has something to do with this, but it has just as much to do with the players on the pitch and whether or not they believe in themselves.
The overall quality of the Galaxy roster is far below that of Man. U., but having less talent doesn’t mean having less heart. Even with the same score, the Galaxy should’ve had more fight. There should’ve been more of an indication that the team was actually still in the game despite the score.
It’ll still be a long time before an MLS team can consistently keep up with an international power in actual quality, but that doesn’t mean Galaxy shouldn’t have put up more of challenge.
The Galaxy likes to consider itself the jewel of MLS, and that’s probably true, which is why showing up for a game like this is even more important. What the world saw in this match was supposed to be the best of what MLS has to offer, an example of the improvements made in MLS.
Instead, all we got was a practice run for Man. U. and a Galaxy team that never seemed to believe it belonged on the same field.