FC Dallas enters the second weekend of the regular season looking for their first win of 2023. It won’t come easy, as they play host to the LA Galaxy.
Gregg Vanney’s side finished fourth last season in the Western Conference, a big turnaround from the prior years that saw them fail to reach the postseason. They’re led by some serious firepower up front with headline names like Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, Riqui Puig, Douglas Costa, and Dejan Joveljić.
Despite some restrictions on the club for the coming year in terms of transfers1, Vanney was still able to add some solid pieces in the form of newly signed U-22 fullback Lucas Calegari on loan from Brazilian side Fluminense FC, Memo Rodriquez (a free agent who was recently with Houston), and Chris Mavinga (who was last with Toronto FC).
Key Player: Riqui Puig
With Chicharito out for this weekend, the Galaxy will likely rely on their newest Designated Player2. Puig showed early on last summer that he is the right fit for this Galaxy squad, as he tallied three goals and five assists in 10 regular-season appearances.
Key Matchup: Puig vs Quignon
Puig is being heralded as one of the best midfielders in MLS right now, and stopping him will be a tall order. We could see Nico Estevez go back to Homegrown defensive midfielder Edwin Cerillo this week, but I would imagine he’ll stick with a veteran to slow him down in the middle of the park.
Quick Notes:
Strong starters - The Galaxy haven’t lost any of their last five season-opening matches (W4 D1) and have been defeated just once in their last eight season openers (W6 D1), a 2—1 defeat to FC Dallas to open the 2017 campaign.
Solid preseason - In seven preseason matches played in 2023, the LA Galaxy held a 3-3-1 record (12 GF, 12 GA). Efrain Álvarez led the Galaxy with four goals scored during the 2023 preseason.
Potential Lineup:
Without Chicharito, LA will have to shuffle some things around in their attack, but they still have plenty of firepower in their 4-2-3-1.
Bond; Edwards, Mavinga, Caceres, Leerdam; Delgado, Brugman; Rodriguez, Puid, Costa; Joveljić
Keys To Three Points over LA
Pressure the defensive spine - As good as their attacking core is, the weakness of this LA squad is still in the middle of their defense. In 2022, they gave up 51 goals and were pretty leaky away from home.
We saw last season that when you go directly through their defensive spine, they are pretty easy to break down and get chances on goal.
They did make some improvements, with Mavinga coming in from Toronto and then adding Calegari to the wings to replace Julian Araujo. FCD had several good chances last weekend against Minnesota but failed to really test the Loon’s keeper Dayne St. Clair. That has to change in week two.
Be more direct - Last weekend, we saw too many back passes and touches between Jose Martinez and Sebastian Ibeagha. A lot of times, the two center backs were trying to pick apart the Minnesota defense that was sitting back more as the game wore on. It didn’t help that the guys in the attack were doing a lot of standing around while Martinez and Ibeagha had the ball. We need less time on the ball between the center backs and more quality runs made in behind the Galaxy defense.
Stopping Joveljic - While Puig is going to get a lot of attention in this one, the attack will flow through Joveljic this weekend with Chicharito out. In 2022, he put up 11g/3a in just 983 regular-season minutes. An insane number considering he was just a backup last season since Vanney doesn’t use a two-striker system. Martinez and Ibeagha didn’t have a ton of defensive moments last weekend against Minnesota, but you can bet they’ll have plenty with Joveljic. If you can limit the passes in space to him in and around the penalty box, you stand a good chance to keep him off the scoreboard.
Comments