SB Nation Atlanta: All Posts by Josie Becker

Offensive woes doom LA Galaxy to 1-0 loss to New York Red Bulls

2013-05-19T19:36:54Z

It wasn't the best effort from either side, but the New York Red Bulls were able to pull out three points with a stoppage time goal by Tim Cahill on a long Juninho free kick. However, that opportunity for a late winner was won over ninety minutes by some excellent defense; most notably from Jamison Olave.

According to ESPN, Bruce Arena told his players at halftime that there were too many passes near the box and not enough shots. The shot selection supports that argument, with just three of the Galaxy's nine attempts on the goal coming from within the box. It wasn't until after Zardes came in, when Jimenez had a shot blocked inside the box at the 76' mark, that LA had a shot from inside the penalty area.

The energy Gyasi Zardes brought to the proceedings turned a lackluster match up a few notches in the last half hour. Taking on his marker like he was standing still, Zardes put together the Galaxy's best attempt of the match at the 77' mark which took a great save from Luis Robles to keep out. Zardes also fed Robbie Keane a cross at the 89' that Keane headed just wide for the other solid attempt on goal.

Otherwise the Galaxy were stymied by Jamison Olave and his twelve interceptions and twelve recoveries. He was all over any fifty fifty balls, and stopped Zardes from another solid attempt inside the box by getting the slightest of touches on the service.

Carlo Cudicini came up yelling after Tim Cahill gently directed Juninho's long free kick over Cudicini's arms. However, on a ball that he saw coming all the way, Cudicini needed to go up and get a hand on it. Cudicini's lack of decision making ultimately left him flat footed when the ball came in over his head.

That sequence cost LA a point, but of bigger significance was being in a position to give the match away in stoppage time. Losing Juninho to a right shin injury in the 10' significantly held back the Galaxy attack which had Hector Jimenez and Rafael Garcia on the same side of the pitch for much of the match. Both players are solid defensively, but their distribution leaves something to be desired. LA were already missing Mike Magee who sat with a right ankle injury.

Injuries, however, are part of the sport. The combination of Zardes, Donovan, and Keane was able to pick things up toward the end. It just didn't quite work out exactly as the team would have wanted. Three points over a three match road trip isn't awful, but it certainly isn't what the Galaxy wanted either.

Next up: vs. Sounders, 8pm PDT at The Home Depot Center

LA Galaxy vs. New York Red Bulls: Lineup analysis and team sheet

2013-05-19T16:42:02Z

The LA Galaxy inch closer to having a full strength squad, but after Sean Franklin rested on Wednesday the club is again one player short with Mike Magee now resting a right ankle sprain. As such, Hector Jimenez starts with what is otherwise a classic LA lineup.

-Outside of Hector Jimenez, it's the A squad today.

Gyasi Zardes is available off the bench, but at the moment Jose Villarreal is the man up top with Robbie Keane. Jimenez starts in Magee's left midfielder spot, but I expect he'll hug the touch line. Magee roams free, interacting more with the forwards. I expect more left side service to come from Dunivant than Jimenez.

Villarreal can disappear a bit when called on to go the full 90, so hopefully this combination of factors doesn't cause the Galaxy to become too one sided.

LA Galaxy subs: Rowe, Leonardo, Garcia, Stephens, Rugg, Zardes, Cochrane

The likely first two options off the bench are Zardes for Villarreal, and Stephens for Jimenez. Third sub is hardest to predict. The team sheet as tweeted by @LAGalaxyInsider:

The @lagalaxy team sheet for #nyvla twitter.com/LAGalaxyInside…
— Adam Serrano (@LAGalaxyInsider) May 19, 2013

New York Red Bulls: Robles; Kimura, Olave, Holgersson, Miller; Steele, Cahill, Juninho, Alexander; Espindola, Henry

NYRB Subs:Castano, Barklage, Pearce, Bustamante, McCarty, Obekop, Sam

LA Galaxy Academy update: U-18's lose 2-1 in youth Superclasico

2013-05-18T20:16:12Z

The LA Galaxy U-18's lost 2-1 to Chivas USA's U-18 side today, with the lone goal for the Galaxy coming from a Jaime Villarreal penalty kick in the 79'. Chivas took a 1-0 lead into halftime, and then went up 2-0 in the 57' when Caleb Calbert scored his 22nd goal of the season.

LA's U-18s have already qualified for the playoffs, and are still atop the division. For Chivas, the win pulls them to fifty points and secured a spot for them as a wildcard in the US Soccer Development Academy playoffs as well.

The penalty kick goal for Jaime Villarreal was his third goal of the season.

The U-18's have one game left on their schedule in the regular season hosting Real So Cal on June 1st. The Galaxy U-18's currently have the highest point total for any development academy side, but have a fair number of matches in hand on their east coast counterparts.

What other players will don the adidas Nitrocharge? LA Galaxy cleat list

2013-05-18T17:06:21Z

After seeing some of the new boots LA Galaxy players will be sporting this weekend (Omar Gonzalez|Juninho) I got curious about what boots the rest of the Galaxy have been kicking the pelota around in lately. The most obvious trend is just how many players are wearing some form of ball control shoe. The Nike CTR 360s and the adidas Predator LZ were easily the most popular boots on the club. What I'll be paying attention to this weekend is which LZ wearers have been switched to the Nitrocharge, Juninho is the only one we know for sure.

Robbie Keane and Jose Villarreal were noticeable breaks from the mold, preferring strike first Nike T90s (Keane) and adidas F10 (Villarreal). Michael Stephens was the only one of the group that I saw wearing a custom color way, the rest simply sporting the latest color design from corporate.

For the Nike folk, they all got a new color scheme back in late March with the adidas folk getting a new line this weekend. In this group there were no breaks from the Nike/adidas split. Certainly there must be someone in MLS wearing a pair of Pumas.

The complete list I compiled below

Player	Boot (Cleat)	Change from 2012
Robbie Keane	Nike T90 Deadly Strike
Landon Donovan	Nike CTR 360
Mike Magee	Nike CTR 360
Omar Gonzalez	adidas Predator LZ II
Juninho	adidas Nitrocharge	switch from Predator LZ
Marcelo Sarvas	adidas Predator LZ
Gyasi Zardes	adidas Predator LZ
Jose Villarreal	adidas mi adizero F10
Todd Dunivant	Nike Tiempo
Sean Franklin	Nike CTR 360
A.J. DeLaGarza	Nike CTR 360
Michael Stephens	adidas mi adipure 11
Hector Jimenez	adidas Predator LZ
Carlo Cudicini	adidas Predator LZ

Omar Gonzalez's new boots: adidas Predator LZ II

2013-05-17T21:08:32Z

adidas debuted the Predator Lethal Zones last year, an effort to take the Predators from being a power boot over to a control boot. The various rubber zones are involved in different elements of ball control: dribbling, short passing, first touch, long drives, and the bending shot. I was lucky enough to get to try out a pair last year. The 2013 edition of the Predator LZ's are ready to make their on the pitch debut this weekend, and the LA Galaxy's Omar Gonzalez will be one of the players wearing them.

Hopefully I'll be a lean, green, fighting machine in these new bad boys... adidasus #teamadidas #predator

via adidas US
— Omar Gonzalez (@Omar4Gonzalez) May 17, 2013

The new lethal zones feature a lattice design instead of three dimensional lines. The instep zone is also supposed to be bumpy now to increase friction between the ball and the foot. Seeing how Juninho has been switched over to the Nitrocharge, it's interesting to see how adidas is further dividing their athletes. There is of course the F50s floating out there as well for strikers.

David Beckham is also getting a pair of Predator LZ's for his final matches with Paris St. Germain. They're red white and blue with a union jack motif throughout the boot. He posted a picture of them on his facebook page.

The Predator LZ II's come in at just 199 grams, and have five basic colorways: the ray green/black; black/ray green/white; and white/high res orange/black. There's supposed to be an in fared/white version coming out in September as well as a pride blue/orange/white color way.

More images of the new Predator LZ II's can be found here.

Four Star Daily: David Beckham Roundup

2013-05-17T17:09:53Z

With David Beckham announcing his retirement from the sport yesterday, reactions were a dime a dozen but almost unanimously positive. There were a few non-soccer writers who used the occasion to say American football is better than Association football, but the mere fact that they can use a computer is a miracle so y'know, whatever. The New York Times went with the straight reporting, and then with an editorial saying Beckham gave a major boost to soccer in America. The Washington Post also backed up this claim of a huge impact.
The LA papers gave definition to that major boost and huge impact. The LA Times claimed Beckham put MLS on the map, like a crater left after a huge impact. The LA Daily News focused on Beckham bringing credibility and visibility, the kind of the that would happen after going on the roof and boosting the satellite signal. Can't stop the signal, Mal.
The main thread through both the national and local papers is that lasting impact and increased signal. That it coincides nicely with Firefly is an added bonus. The picture being painted is of MLS being a small town with a tiny radio station. Then David Beckham comes along, invests a lot of time and money in the town, and it grows big enough to be on the map, and the radio station is now a major TV network. Not that the metaphor is ever explicitly stated, but it's what all the idioms allude to.
The other major story of the day was the announcement of the United States men's national team roster, and specifically Landon Donovan being left off of it. The LA Times and USA Today both led with that detail, which had been broken earlier in the week by Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl.

The Pacific Coast League promotes its big league potential (1946)

2013-05-17T01:36:54Z

Today we're going to talk about baseball! It's always fun to talk about baseball, and history, so once again I'm combining them as we break down a 1946 promotional film for the old Pacific Coast League [embedding is disabled for some reason]. Now, the PCL has never suspended operations (so far as I know) so the league that we currently send Dodger prospects to is the continuity for the league that was once the pride of the West Coast. Oh and the promotional film would like me to remind you the PCL uses the Wilson baseball exclusively.

via farm8.staticflickr.com

Here's a map of the PCL's territory in 1946. The video brags about how much further San Diego is from Seattle than Boston is from Chicago (some 900 miles). Certainly it was a bigger challenge (read cost) to keep the PCL afloat in the days before plane travel was ubiquitous. It also meant more time spent on road trips. Luckily things did break down into groups somewhat.

1946 PCL

San Diego Padres

Los Angeles Angels

Hollywood Stars

San Francisco Seals

Oakland Oaks

Sacramento Solons

Portland Beavers

Seattle Rainier

This iteration of the Portland Beavers lasted until 1972, the Sacramento Solons were sold in 1960 when they were moved to Hawaii to become the Islanders. The Oaks were sold to a Vancouver group in 1955 to become the Vancouver Mounties.

However the rest of those cities stayed active up until the day major league baseball arrived. The Rainiers lasted until 1968 when the Seattle Pilots were added to the American League. San Diego was also a part of that expansion year, gaining a major league version of the San Diego Padres. The San Francisco Seal, Hollywood Stars, and Los Angeles Angels all played their last games when the Dodgers and Giants moved west from New York. The Angels moved to Spokane while the Stars moved to Salt Lake.

This is just given as backdrop as in 1946 these towns did not know that they would be home to both of New York's National League franchises, or that the ends of the PCL territory would be involved in 1968 expansion. Nor did they know that the move West would also cause expansion in 1962, or that a team from Kansas City would move to Oakland just before 1968 expansion.

No, in 1946 the PCL thought it was good enough and viable enough to petition as a major league in its own right. The major leagues recognized this, but thought colonization would be much more fun.

Indeed, the reason this promotional film was create in 1946 was because in 1946 the PCL declared their intent to become a major league. They would be granted an "open" status from 1952-57 placing them above Triple A but not as a full major league.

At the time, the territory the PCL claimed had 15 million people. The first of these people introduced in the film is San Francisco Seals manager Lefty O'Doul and yes the DiMaggio boys (all three of them) are name dropped right away. Next Robert Owen of Portland. Casey Stengel manager of Oakland after stints with the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Bums (hehe) back east.

Bill Sweeney is manager of Los Angeles. The Angels are wearing the interlocking LA on the jersey, but a side by side LA on the caps.

via farm8.staticflickr.com

Peper Martin is managing for San Diego, with a Cardinals '31 World Series on his resume. Buck Fawcet is managing Hollywood, with an H inside a star on the jersey and an H on the caps. Bill Skiff in managing at Seattle, a former New York Yankees catcher. Earl Shelley is managing at Sacramento, strange caps there with white piping along the stitching of a dark blue cap.

The footage is taken from Spring Training, as this was a promo video before the 1946 season. The video gives us all the Spring Training homes of the PCL: Hollywood training in Ontario; Portland training in San Jose; Sacramento training in Richardson Springs (Butte County near Chico); Los Angels in Fullerton; San Diego in El Centro; Seattle in San Fernando; Oakland in Boyes Springs. Having all the teams train in California certainly brought down travel costs....

Excpet for goodness knows what reason, San Francisco trained in Honolulu. They got there by clipper (the new plane travel technology where large boats could land on water). For the life of me I can't figure out the executive decision there. The players were greeted with a parade into the city and a ceremony in front of city hall with leis and the key to the city. These were admired ballplayers. The stadium they played in was quite spacious.

One of the striking things about all this spring training footage is that the teams all had stadiums in the spring training site. The small ballpark in Ontario where Hollywood trained in nestled in between two power line towers. We're taken through a number of exercises run by all the different clubs, sprints and ball drills and the like. When we get to see LA's facility in Fullerton, there's a busy neighborhood street on one side and small woods on the other

Pitchers are showing throwing a ball through a cloth rectangle, representing the strike zone. We've got the height of technology in the PCL.

"Spring training is not easy on veterans, who find it tough to take off weight". That's just a gem right there. The leagues attendance the previous year (just over three million) in saying why the PCL has to work so hard in spring training. The league needs great teams so attendance can stay up. With a stated population of 15 million in the territory, that's about one in five on the west coast who went to a PCL game at some point in 1945.

The next segment is dedicated to getting to know the players in the league. Some of them are former major leaguers, some are rookies looking for their first break. A lot of these players are returning from serving in World War II, and their branch of the armed forces is mentioned.

We get some great footage of Seals players taking canoes into the ocean in Waikiki, with Diamondhead in the background.

The film wraps by mentioning the stadiums which have expanded for the upcoming season. Oakland, Sacramento, and LA had all added seats to meet demand. This was a league on the verge of something big. Indeed the territory would become something big, but it would be a different league that would get to fully till the land.

via farm8.staticflickr.com

1946 PCL

San Diego Padres

Los Angeles Angels

Hollywood Stars

San Francisco Seals

Oakland Oaks

Sacramento Solons

Portland Beavers

Seattle Rainier

No, in 1946 the PCL thought it was good enough and viable enough to petition as a major league in its own right. The major leagues recognized this, but thought colonization would be much more fun.

Bill Sweeney is manager of Los Angeles. The Angels are wearing the interlocking LA on the jersey, but a side by side LA on the caps.

via farm8.staticflickr.com

Pitchers are showing throwing a ball through a cloth rectangle, representing the strike zone. We've got the height of technology in the PCL.

We get some great footage of Seals players taking canoes into the ocean in Waikiki, with Diamondhead in the background.

Juninho's new boots: adidas Nitrocharge

2013-05-16T22:26:42Z

It's that time of year when adidas unveils their newest soccer clear, and this year the focus is on conservation of energy. The adidas Nitrocharge makes amongst its claims energy retention, improved lateral movement, sharper on field reactions, and added sprinting power. LA Galaxy's Juninho is one of the players who will wear the new Nitrocharge on the pitch.

via adidas PR

Last year adidas released an update to the Predator line with the Predator LZ control boot which David Beckham wore on the pitch. They also came out with an update to the adiZero F50 line, first launched in 2004. The new Nitrocharge is the first new soccer cleat silo since that 2004 release.

The F50 adizero line is often at the top of the boot scoring charts. Nine goals were scored wearing F50 adizero's in last summer's Euro tournament, with the Predator LZ's further down the list with six goals. Joining the light-and-goal-scoring F50s and the ball control Predators is the endurance focused Nitrocharge.

"After two years of careful development, we've created a unique cleat that caters to the relentless energy of those players who are 'The Engine' of their teams," said Ernesto Bruce, director of soccer for adidas. "adidas upholds a standard for developing innovative footwear based on athlete's specific needs and Nitrocharge represents a unique extension of that meticulous process."

As easy as it was last year to equate David Beckham with the goals of the Predator (accurate passing, dribbling, and long range shots), Juninho as the Galaxy's engine. He's the player in the midfield constantly moving, recovering balls and redistributing from the midfield.

The cleat features contrast colored arches across the top, which are there to support lateral movement. There's a zig zagging sole plate across the toe to add energy when pushing off for a sprint. There are even protection pads at the areas which are the most sensitive during tackles.

Look for the new Nitrocharge boots on Juninho's feet in the upcoming weeks.