Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Video Vault

With the players receiving the day off today, there's no real news coming out on the Galaxy front, other than the fact that Donovan Ricketts was named an MLS All-Star. He is on the inactive list for the game and therefore does not have to travel to Salt Lake City, but he is the first LA goalkeeper to be named to the All-Star Team since Kevin Hartman was in 2005.

With the All-Star Game upon us, join us as we clear out the video vault and take a look back at a hectic last two weeks with the Galaxy.

Starting with an extended look at the trip to New York with This Week Inside the Galaxy...

Then highlights from the draw with AC Milan...

And postgame reaction to that game...

As well as a short interview with Ian Sarachan about playing against Inter Milan on Thursday...

Finally, listen to Joe Tutino's call of the highlights from Saturday's 1-1 draw with Kansas City...

6 comments:

charlesj27 said...

Thanks for the videos, guys. I hope this Saturday will be a really, good, strong game from our LA Galaxy team. It's surreal to see FC Barcelona move the ball across a pitch. I hope the guys are resting up and taking advantage of massages/re-gen sessions. I know ALL of the guys have to put in a lot of ball movement work and drills before Saturday's game; and, it's going to be so essential for guys to get into groups/small teams of players they know and are comfortable with to keep strengthening ball movement and positioning on the pitch. I really, really hope Sir Don, Dema, Chris Birchall, Landon, David, Edson, and Alecko will be available for most of Saturday's game. However, Eddie, Chris Klein, Kyle, Bryan, and Tristan also have to make sure they keep practicing and improving their timing and services. With the youngsters, the ability to hold onto the ball and keep it in play, sheilding, and passing quickly and decisively.

Anonymous said...

Hell yeah!!!!! THANKS!

Anonymous said...

c27,

I'll give you a million bucks if you can teach the American soccer players keep possession, control the ball and not give it away under pressure. And another million if you can make them put five passes together. Also, who do think are the best top 5 American born and bread field players (currently active)?

The Fan said...

Thanks so much for this post! Really appreciate all of the videos! ;D

charlesj27 said...

Anonymous,
Love the offer... Not sure if it's real and more-so, not sure if you can cover that. In any case, American soccer players can and will learn the difficult aspects of maintaining posession and fluid passes/play-making... but, we're not going to see that in MLS games for another 3-4 years, at the earliest. Posession, Positioning, Shifting-of-formations leading to fluid ball movements and play-making are aspects of football/soccer that have to be taught, drilled, and tested from age 14 to 24. These are the years that coaches get to study, value, rate, and weed-out players with ability, promise, tenacity, and vision from the players who come to practices and stay with clubs because of social, monetary, and self-serving aspirations. No matter how good any individual player is - it will always take a team of unity, strength, comradery, and passion to win a season!
For me the five (5) best American born/bred field players:
(A) Steve Ralston
(B) Brad Davis
(C) Landon Donovan
(D) Taylor Twellman
(E) Brian Carroll
Why those five(5)? Because, to me, they make a very effective midfield-to-forward playing option in a traditional 4-4-2 diamond.

Anonymous said...

c27,

I'll keep the millions but thanks for your input. To me the most important aspect in developement of a soccer player is achieved at a much younger age. you can coach all you want from 14-40 but if a player does not have his technique down before that age he will never be a great player. MLS is full of "oops" and "my fault" players reducing the game to ping pong.

Posession means absolute confidence in controlling the ball no matter how it comes at you. Vision means how adapt are you at controlling the ball cleanly to allow for you to size up the play. Passing means how effectively can you strike a ball. Bottom line for me is that killer technique must be developed at a very early age with minimal coaching but tremdous amount of time spent with a ball.

My fav Americans:

1- Clint Mathis
2- Landon Donovan
3- Eric Wynalda (best of the strikers)
4- John O'Brian
5- Tab Ramos (don't know if US born)