Seattle needed luck and skill and high comedy, but they finally found the keys to the LA Galaxy's kingdom. It was a 3-2 win in the knockout round of the Audi 2015 MLS Cup playoffs, and it was a giant exhale for a franchise that's longed to finally land a punch on their southern neighbors.
This all felt very much like a dynasty coming to an end. LA were short on energy, knowhow and defensive playmakers, and this time through they weren't able to rely on chemistry, either.
The Sounders weren't much better. But they found one more play, and now have a date for this Sunday's Western Conference semifinals (opponent TBD).
1. Chemistry Failure
On paper LA are probably the most talented team in the league, and for a minute there in August they looked as much:
That version of the Galaxy are long gone, and with them has gone their ability to consistently trouble opposing defenses. The main issue is that Robbie Keane and Giovani Dos Santos just do not play at the same rhythm, and do not make the right kind of supporting runs for each other.
It's led to a horrible disconnect up top, where two talented players actually make each other worse instead of being force magnifiers for one another. If Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins are both 90s, together they add up to about 220. Keane and Dos Santos? A pair of 90s that add up to about 115.
This is damning:
It's worth noting that both of LA's goals in this one came when Gyasi Zardes, last year's starting No. 9, was pushed into the central channel. Other than those two moments, though, he spent most of this game pinned to the flank.
This has to be solved for next season. Dos Santos has to discover the fitness and will to be a two-way asset on the flanks because he and Keane are not a workable pair up top.
2. Old Faces
I was never a huge Jaime Penedo fan, but I think he stops the first and third Sounders goals this evening. And I'm certain that Marcelo Sarvas would have cleared the second one:
¡El León Guaranà ruge! Nelson Haedo Valdez pone arriba a @SoundersFC: https://t.co/mTl4osiSqm#MLSCupPlayoffshttps://t.co/zuQiY9rNn1
— Fútbol MLS (@futbolMLS) October 29, 2015Steven Gerrard made a big show of chastising Donovan Ricketts on that one, but given the angle and velocity of Andreas Ivanschitz's delivery, that's on the defender. The Austrian absolutely laced it, and Ricketts has never been particularly quick off his line. Add in the muffed catch on the first goal, and it was pretty good money that LA would have to drop their lines deep most of the evening.
Gerrard actually had good position on Nelson Valdez, too. Why he stopped instead of clearing it is, uh, unclear, but unless Ricketts called him off I can't quite figure this one out.
And that's the theme of the 2015 Galaxy: They can't quite figure themselves out. Gerrard hasn't contributed much on either side of the ball, Dos Santos just kind of drifts, Sebastian Lletget looks exhausted, the arrival of the other two DPs has pushed Keane into less influential places on the pitch, and Ricketts is too mistake-prone at this point in his career.
Even against a Seattle team playing without Ozzie Alonso, LA couldn't create consistent danger in the central channel. And that's in spite of a wonderful performance from Juninho, who got the ball out early and in stride to just about everybody in white. They should have been able to carve the Sounders up, but they never really came that close to controlling things.
It's a new era. And maybe not a great one, even if the names are 10-feet tall and luminous.
3. A Push
I haven't written much about Seattle thus far because let's face it: All three goals came off of royal Galaxy screw-ups. Ricketts fumbled it to Dempsey's feet in the box; Gerrard stopped marking Valdez; a Benny Hill-esque sequence of errors opened the path for Erik Friberg's game-winner.
These weren't moments of the Sounders's making, but they were moments Seattle were good enough to capitalize on.
Part of that is the "right place, right time" nature of both Dempsey and Valdez, and part of it was the relentless pressure Martins puts on every defender by merely existing.
Another part, though, was the presence of Ivanschitz. Every single set piece he stands over is a DEFCON 1 situation for the other team, and just as important is the fearless way he drives the ball into the box from midfield:
Green lines are completed passes, red are incomplete, yellow are key passes (passes that lead to a shot) and blue lines are assists. No matter where he was, Ivanschitz was looking to play Dempsey, Martins or Valdez into the 18, and if you ask any Sounders fan what's been missing, the answer you'll get is "a midfielder who freaking does that!"
They'll need more - much more - of the same in the next round if Alonso remains sidelined with that gimpy hamstring. Seattle will not shut anyone out without him, but now at least they have the chance of simply overwhelming teams with their attack.
