CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy would give anything to still be playing in the MLS Cup Conference Semifinals, but their early exit from the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs provides some benefits, too.
The Galaxy were ousted in last week's 3-2 Knockout Round loss at Seattle, the earliest the defending MLS Cup champions have finished in Bruce Arena's seven full seasons in charge.
“This is, like, the first break I think I'll have in seven years on this job,” Arena said Friday after LA's end-of-season team meeting at StubHub Center. “So I don't think it will hurt me, [and] I think the last three or four years have been real hard on our team.
“It's been year-round [the past few years], so I think this break is going to be good, but there's also a lot of decisions we have to make in terms of deciding how we'll piece together our team next year.”
The salary cap and the various mechanisms to keep their starters in place will play a role in Arena's deliberations, which he said were “pretty far along.” The only certain departure is defender Todd Dunivant, who is retiring after 13 MLS campaigns, and Arena would not say where he thinks the Galaxy need upgrades.
“We're clearly disappointed where this season ended,” he said. “It's all part of it. You don't win all the time – I know that. ... I don't think we played well [down the stretch]. We were, statistically over the last three games, the worst team in the league. We gave up 10 goals in our last three league games, two regular season and one playoff game, and some [were] gifts.
“So how you correct that, that's going to be the challenge. That part has to be corrected. We at times have become a pretty good attacking team, but I think there's a couple things we need to tweak in our attack to make us better.”
Arena said too many players were inconsistent this season, that some “never got it going for a long period of time” and that that is “troublesome.”
“Your core players have got to be there game in and game out, I think, not that you're not going to have a bad game once in a while, but we need more Robbie Keanes,” he said. “Robbie, generally, you know what you're getting out of him each and every game. And we need other players like that.”
Keane, who scored an MLS career-best 20 goals in only 24 regular-season league games, was clearly LA's MVP this season, but Arena acknowledged that the timing of fellow DPs Steven Gerrard's and Giovani Dos Santos' arrivals was awkward. Both of their adaptation processes – to a new club, a new league with very different challenges and a new culture – are still ongoing, and the Galaxy were still adjusting to what they bring when the season ended.
“I know when I came in here, David Beckham had already been here a season, and it took him probably into his third year to really get adjusted to this,” Arena said. “I think that's hard, that mid-year thing. It wasn't even mid-year, it was a two-thirds-of-a-year thing [this season], and that's hard. It catches up to you. And we knew it would be difficult, so that's part of it.
“In theory, you'd like to believe that means it's going to be better next year.”
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The Galaxy must also figure out how to deal with the roster status of center back Omar Gonzalez, who counted as one of LA's league-maximum three Designated Players before the club bought down his contract via the Targeted Allocation Money initiative announced earlier this year. That opened up a DP slot for the signing of Dos Santos, but it's not clear whether LA will be able to keep Gonzalez as a non-DP next year.
Asked what he planned to do with his US national team center back, Arena responded: “The same thing we did with him this year.”
Will that mechanism (Targeted Allocation Money) exist? “We will see,” he said.
Arena and his staff have done a pretty good job managing their roster and salary budget, reaching the MLS Cup final four times in the last six years with three titles, but injuries got in the way this year. That, the coach said, was the most disruptive force with which LA had to contend. Fifteen players missed games because of ailments, and 13 of them missed multiple games.
“We had too many injuries that lasted a long period of time this year, with guys out three to four weeks, which is tough to get them back,” Arena said. “… We had about 11 or 12 guys who were like that, and when you tie in then the international call-ups. For awhile we put some odd teams on the field.”
