Landon Donovan's `Bad Night'

There are reasons why Landon had a "bad night" (actually, two in a row, if you count the New England game). He's playing more in the central midfield, where he's ineffective, because the Galaxy has no strong central midfield. If that weren't true, then why do we see a different cast of characters in central midfield practically every game? It's past the season's mid-way point and Gullit has no idea on whom he can rely for consistent possession there?

Of course, Donovan is getting marked more judiciously. Eight goals in five games will do that to you. Donovan and the Galaxy should have expected that; what, you think opponents are going to let Beckham and Donovan run wild over them all year? It's up to the team to adjust -- and the Galaxy doesn't have the personnel to make those adjustments w/o placing more of a burden on their already overburdened defense.

All of this, again, goes back to Lalas and the panicky trades he made last year that gutted any sort of chance of developing a consistent chemistry on the field. More importantly, this goes back to Leiweke, who creates the kind of intimidating atmosphere that encourages Lalas to make the kind of panicky moves that, until this season, defined his approach to player personnel.

Why do I blame the moves that Lalas made last year and the year before that? Simple. Those moves were apparently made without recognizing their long-term affects on the salary cap. Consequently, the Galaxy has to dump reliable professionals like Joe Cannon and Chris Albright in favor of Abel Xavier and Chris Klein, rely mostly on young (cheap) players w/minimal (if any) pro experience, and waste its salary space on players like Greg Vanney and Joe Franchino who have seen better days.

This is what happens when you're desperate to become a "superclub" at any costs, even to your own credibility.

P.S.: Hi, Justin and Sahar!

I'm with JDH: Chivas' marking was very good all night, especially in midfield. There wasn't a lot of space for Donovan to work in.

Compound that with the rest of the midfield for the Galaxy. Beckham had nobody to work with in the middle for the first half, and Donovan had nobody to work with after Gullitt moved things around in the second half. The Galaxy couldn't carry the ball thru the midfield, period.

The one Galaxy goal was well-developed, well-finished and well-deserved, and they did start to look more like a team in the final 10-15 minutes, but it was a pretty disorganized night, especially on the left side.