Jelle Van Damme (right) has been a valuable asset for the L.A. Galaxy on offense and defense, while quickly becoming a locker room favorite. (AP Photo)
As Nigel de Jong answered a question at his postgame media scrum in the Galaxy locker room after the Galaxy’s 3-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday, he paused. He heard a familiar song come over the speakers.
“Is that the Dutch National Anthem?” the Dutch midfielder wondered aloud, peering over the glob of media members for the source of the song.
He didn’t have to look very far. Defender Jelle Van Damme was smiling by his locker right behind the crowd of cameras and microphones.
“This brother right here,” de Jong said. “He’s just different.”
In his short time with the Galaxy, Van Damme has proven to be a triple threat: a brick wall on defense, a valuable asset on offense and a playful personality in the locker room. He displayed all three of those things on Saturday during and, in the last case, after the Galaxy’s California Clasico victory.
By just looking at Van Damme, it’s easy to see that he’s an imposing presence on defense for a team that lacked muscle last year. At 6 foot 3 and 198 pounds, he wins balls in the air much more often than he losses them and embraces physical play.
On offense, he has a “clinical left foot,” according to Gyasi Zardes, and the Belgian defender used it to send long balls over the defense with pin-point accuracy. Each time L.A. had a set piece, it seemed that the plan was simply just to get it to Van Damme, who is a threat in the air with his head. Besides his current position of center back, Van Damme has also played left back or left-sided midfielder.
“He’s a beast,” Mike Magee said of Van Damme’s offensive potential. “He’s a handful. He wants to get on the ends of things. He’ll throw his body into plays that he probably shouldn’t. And tonight, it was the difference in the game.”
Although Van Damme was one of the stars for the Galaxy on Saturday night, he took the blame for allowing San Jose’s goal in the 89th minute. He tried to break up a San Jose counter by sliding toward the ball at Marvell Wynne’s feet, but missed. Wynn then took it straight at Daniel Steres in the box, shot and was blocked. Wynn collected the rebound and passed it to Chris Wondolowski, who finished his shot for a goal.
“We have a few things that went wrong, but in the end, I always look at myself,” Van Damme said. “I’m critical enough to say that I didn’t do well enough. If I’m going to go down, I have to be 100 percent sure that I have the ball or I have to stay on my feet and run with it. So I missed it, and in the end, we take the goal.”
Van Damme keeps things light in the locker room after games, whether it was jumping into the media scrum and teasing Sebastian Lletget after the D.C. United game or playing songs over the locker room speakers during Zardes and de Jong’s interviews on Saturday.
De Jong joked that the 32-year-old Van Damme needs to “act like an adult once in his life.” The two first met when they played together for the Dutch side Ajax in 2002.
“He’s a great guy for the team and for the dressing room, always joking, and you need guys like that,” de Jong said. “And on the pitch, he’s a great force on the pitch. He’s the only left-footed center back that we have. And the way that he plays – the long balls that he is hitting – is just phenomenal.”
