DC United Wary of Galaxy Stars

Mike Martin

June 28, 2008

Luciano Emilio escapes the mark of San Jose's defense on his way to his 8th goal of the 2008 season

Luciano Emilio escapes the mark of San Jose's defense on his way to his 8th goal of the 2008 season
Photo: Martin Fernandez

Unbeaten in their last five games and rapidly rising up the standings, DC United hosts the Western conference leading LA Galaxy, who boast the most deadly offense in MLS. In what is easily the best league wide rivalry, United and the Galaxy are used to big games and bright lights, but the storylines in this match are about as good as it gets in the regular season in MLS.

Washington D.C., First of all, it’s a marquee matchup of superstars on national TV as David Beckham, Landon Donovan, and Edson Buddle or Carlos Ruiz square off against Marcelo Gallardo, Luciano Emilio, and Jaime Moreno. So, you have the most famous player on the planet, the league’s top scorer so far this year, and the second highest scorer in Buddle or the ever deadly Guatemalan sharpshooter Ruiz on one side. While United will trot out a world class Argentine playmaker, the reigning league MVP, and the highest scoring player in league history.

Both teams are capable of lighting up the scoreboard being first and second in the league in scoring. LA has an incredible 31 goals in 13 matches with Donovan and Buddle responsible for 20 of those, Donovan at 11 goals and Buddle 9 overall including 5 in the last three games. DC on the other hand is second in the league in scoring with 24 goals, and Emilio is just as hot riding a five game scoring streak, and is third overall with 8 goals, while Moreno has chipped in 5 more and is fifth overall.

Now considering these same two teams are last and second to last in defense, that makes the over/under for this game around seven goals total. LA’s defense is hot and cold having some lovely shutout performances and some hideous three goal clangers as well. Being in the anemic West has surely helped them statistically. DC on the other hand was appalling earlier in the season, but has only given up 7 goals in their current five game unbeaten streak. They are still prone to the odd howler, but the defense has tightened up very nicely overall of late.

Then there’s the spectacle of this being the first and only ABC game of the regular season being played just prior to the European Cup final. With RFK nearly sold out and likely thousands of casual viewers tuning in, this could be a huge boost for the league in general especially as it’s also a matchup of the two most successful and decorated franchises in MLS history.

Since the formation of the league, DC United and the LA Galaxy have won fully half of the 24 total MLS Cups and Supporter’s Shield’s awarded to date. United claiming four MLS Cups and four regular season championships to the Galaxy’s two of each. Add in some CONCACAF hardware and a couple Open Cups, and it’s easy to see why these two teams can legitimately claim to be the class of the league. Not surprisingly, they are also the two winningest teams in MLS history with DC holding a slim one game lead in total victories as well, 183 to 182, as each creeps towards being the first to 200 regular season wins.

Considering DC beat the Galaxy for the first ever MLS Cup and then beat the LA again for their third Cup win, as well as having met in international tournaments too. It’s easy to see how this East West rivalry has become the most tense non conference matchup over the course of the league’s short history. DC being the beast of the East and LA the best of the West.

However, despite winning the lion’s share of the MLS honors, DC has not fared so well against the Galaxy in the regular season, even in the vaunted House of Payne. In fact, incredibly, DC has only beaten the Galaxy three times in the past nine years in RFK. Although DC did win the last meeting here 1-0 in Beckham’s first ever MLS match.

Typically, it has been Sideshow Cobi and the dreaded anchovy Ruiz that have done the damage, but Donovan is steadily rising to the top of that festering heap as he has been known to torch United on a few occasions, so no more taunting banners please! At least Cobi won’t be scoring this year as he’s been relegated to the bench permanently, but it is not good news that Ruiz is rounding back into MLS form after being away with Guatemala for world cup qualifiers considering his propensity to burn United.

Still, DC is far and away the more settled side having all their starters in place and available for the match. Soehn appears to have finalized his tactics and strategy and pecking order all of which has been the backbone of United’s current unbeaten streak. United has become the most consistent performer in the league over the past month, with maybe only RSL slightly behind them with a five game unbeaten streak as well.

LA, on the other hand, has been wildy inconsistent, and still has some juggling to do and decisions to make especially down their left side and at the playmaker spot. Gullitt has tried a veritable army of combinations in central midfield and on the left side, but has yet to find any consistent winners. That’s not to say they haven’t found ways to score and win, especially in the shockingly weak West, but they are vulnerable in those obviously weak areas.

On the left side of their defense, Gullitt seems to have settled on the speedy Mike Randolph over the painfully past it Greg Vanney, but Randolph is young and prone to bad mistakes that are especially crushing since he is backed up by rookie Sean Franklin on that side of their back four. Lately, it has been Ante Jazic playing their left wing probably to help solidify that side of the defense, but he has contributed precious little to their attack, which makes them grossly one sided going forward, although that right side is decidedly devastating to be sure.

Centrally, Gullitt has tried rookies, Brandon McDonald and recently Ely Allen, young pros playing out of position in Josh Tudela and Alan Gordon, grizzled veterans in Peter Vagenas and Joey Franchino, even Donovan has had a run out in central midfield. Yet, none of them has truly taken hold of the position. Now, with Ruiz back, no doubt the temptation will be to play Donovan there again and start Ruiz alongside the red hot Buddle, but that would certainly be a mistake as the farther Donovan is away from goal, the better for DC.

No, I suspect Gullitt will stick with the hideously effective forward pairing of Donovan and Buddle. My guess is it will either be Ely Allen again in the center, or maybe the athletic McDonald, or the surprisingly effective Gordon playing out of position in midfield.

So, if that’s the way they line up. DC has some clear advantages in defending that devastating attack. For one thing, Martinez is easily the best defender Beckham will face one on one this entire season. He has the speed, skill, and experience to smother Becks and certainly eliminate his ability to look up and pick out scorers for his brutally accurate crosses.

United’s Devon McTavish made it clear to Access United that shutting down Beckham’s deadly service and Donovan’s lightning attacks as a key to the match saying the team needs to “contain Beckham, limit his freedom to look up and make plays.” Also, to “force Donovan backward as he likes to attack space.”

McTavish and Peralta have the size, speed, and savvy to stay with Donovan and Buddle for the most part. Those two dynamic attackers will get their chances for sure, but at least DC is not totally outclassed by those two like most teams in MLS are. Plus, Namoff easily contains whatever threat they mange to cobble together on our right side, as will Simms and Gallardo easily outclass anything they try to pull off down the center no matter who they play there.

So, there is some very real hope to minimize their attack, maybe even shut it down completely if DC controls the ball as well as they are capable. LA is far and away the most dangerous in quick counters where they collect the ball and strike before the defense can recover from a turnover.

United’s Clyde Simms said as much to MLSnet.com. “They’re playing well right now and they have some good attacking options. It's going to be a day game, it’s going to be hot. I think the key will be to keep the ball ... we do that and it’s going to be a tough one -- you waste a lot more energy defending than attacking, so if we keep the ball and make them run around a little bit, make their attacking options a little tired, then I think we can do well next Sunday.”

Obviously, this will be a test of United’s ability to take care of the ball better than they did for most of the early part of the year when they were gifting turnover chances to their opponents. If they fall back into their old ways, it could be a bloodbath as LA has been known to cruelly punish those kinds of mistakes in RFK.

As for going forward, DC has some blatantly obvious advantages given LA’s pathetic defense. Emilio and Moreno are lightyears better than Xavier and Franklin, especially as Gallardo should be able to push up in support, with only the Alvaro Pires to beat. Frankly, I see a red card by the Buffalo as almost a foregone conclusion. Plus, Fred on the left will keep Klein in check, maybe even pull Beckham back to help out too. Leaving the truly blatant threat to come from our prodigal son, Quaranta down the right side where he should absolutely wreak havoc if he plays as good as he was playing before his suspension.

Bottom line, DC has advantages and should be able to pull off a win, but given the wacky world of MLS and the Galaxy’s sick record of success in RFK, a tie might be a good result. Soccer gods willing and Donovan has an off day, maybe DC even pulls off an improbable shutout for the first time this season, but perhaps that wouldn’t be the best thing for MLS in front of a national audience. It would be an enormous coup for DC however!

United is clearly the more desperate team too as LA is relatively comfortable at the top of the West, while DC is in a dogfight in the far tougher Eastern conference despite a mere two points that separate the two teams overall. DC needs every point possible as they will take a break from MLS action for over a month, except for the re-scheduled Houston match in late July. The LA game marks the midway point of the season and a tie for 20 points total is the barest minimum of acceptability.

United turns to the Open Cup next Tuesday evening at the Soccerplex in Germantown against a familiar foe in the Rochester Rhinos.

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