LA Galaxy Jersey. 12 games down, 32 points taken. 12 games down, ten wins and two ties. And zero defeats. The Galaxy could hardly hope for a better start to the season and could hardly have put themselves into a better position to take on Real Salt Lake in the last game of the season before the two week World Cup break. Their undefeated start to the season has tied the record for the longest undefeated streak to start a season, held by the 1996 edition of the Galaxy. They are sitting 12 points clear of their closest rival in the Western Conference, which happens to be Real Salt Lake, and 11 points clear of New York Red Bull, the current Eastern Conference leaders.
At this point it is something of a cliché to attribute the Galaxy’s superb start to depth of personnel, but it is also true. As noted almost continuosly since Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle left in mid-May for World Cup duty, other players needed to step up and take up the slack of the league-leading goal scorer and the league’s assist leader. Well, as this game against the Houston Dynamo showed, mission accomplished. After spreading the scoring around 11 different guys, the LA Galaxy Jersey minted two more multiple goal scorers – Jovan Kirovski’s brace gives him three on the season, and Tristan Bowen added his second goal. Other players have stepped up as distributors as well, lately Michael Stephens, whose deft touch and smart passes gave him three assists on the night, and Sean Franklin who delivered a beautiful cross for Kirovski’s first strike and a heads-up pass to a trailing Kirovski put the Galaxy ahead for good. There’s one last statistic that bears out the depth hypothesis: 22 of 24 players on the roster have started at least one game this season.
What’s particularly intriguing about the team that Bruce Arena has put together is that not only is it filled with people who can contribute at this level, but it is composed of players who can bring different strengths to the table. This allows for tactical shift in starting line-ups and in the midst of games. For example, Houston’s midfield is technically sound as well as speedy. To counter the challenge posed by speedsters like Corey Ashe and Danny Cruz and the ball control of Brad Davis and Lovell Palmer, Arena was able to call on Stephens, who only strengthened his case for Rookie of the Year, and Alex Cazumba, one of the on-loan Brazilians on the wings, and Juninho, back from family duty in Brazil, in the middle. With their agility, work rate, deft passing, and, yes, speed, combined with the steady defense the Galaxy have become known for, Houston’s offensive engine was mostly silenced. (Clearly in the second half, the schedule congestion and travel caught up with the Dynamo as the three games in eight says plus cross-country travel left them with dead legs.)LA Galaxy Jersey
On top of that foundation, there was plenty of opportunity for the Galaxy’s offense to puncture an unusually leaky Houston defense, starting with the new 3rd fastest goal in Galaxy history when Kirovski’s header found the back of the net in the 47th second. The Galaxy midfield continued to dominate possession for most of the game, though some parts were choppier than others and the speed of Bowen made itself felt throughout the night, including on a fantastic breakaway before the half that a more seasoned striker would have turned into a goal.