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(Photo credit: AP)
If anyone wanted to question the Los Angeles Galaxy's toughness before the "SuperClasico" against Chivas USA on Saturday night, they can throw that criticism out the window. As evidenced by the scoreless draw, the Galaxy might not know how to win, but they know how to do what it takes - whatever it takes - in order to keep themselves in games.
Coach Bruce Arena needed to shuffle the roster because of midfielder Dema Kovalenko's red card in the previous MLS game against Colorado, bringing in Stefani Miglioranzi in his spot. But it didn't stop there. Gregg Berhalter got the nod at central defense ahead of Tony Sanneh, and most importantly Sean Franklin pushed up to right midfield, with AJ DeLaGarza taking his right back position.
Was the end result satisfying? Probably not - no matter how much players like Landon Donovan might talk about "improvement" in the locker room after the game, the simple fact remains: after Pablo Nakamura was sent off late in the second half for a rough tackle on Donovan, the Galaxy had around 25 minutes with a man advantage. This coming after having almost 90 minutes up a man against the Rapids in the U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday. Net result? Zero goals.
So for all of the talk about the defensive deficiencies - and they are still there - it appears to be the offense which has fallen into a well. Certainly, having gone the whole season without Edson Buddle - the team's second leading scorer - hasn't helped, but the major problem is in the middle, where there is zero cohesion. Kovalenko has been a disappointment at holding midfielder before his red card, and Miglioranzi hardly fared much better. Little wonder that the team was linked to Trinidad & Tobago midfielder Chris Birchall (a move since rejected by his English club side).
It's hard to be too crushed by the result: even hardcore Galaxy fans were predicting a Galaxy loss, and most outside observers thought that unbeaten Chivas USA would run up the score and kick the Galaxy while they were down. Even eventually going down to nine men, that didn't happen (it almost surely would have last season). But with the team going on the road for five of their next seven games, a scoreless tie is hardly what the Galaxy needs to jump start their season.
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