CARSON, Calif. – LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena asserts that he’s “pretty far along” with his plans to retool the club after their disappointing playoff exit, but that has not stopped him from reflecting on what exactly went wrong in 2015.
The Galaxy ended the regular season on a skid that saw them collect just one point in their last three regular season games while conceding seven times. During the month of October, the Galaxy were a shadow of the team that steamrolled through Major League Soccer in the summer, as defensive miscues and an unbalanced offense sent the Galaxy tumbling down the standings to a fifth-place finish in the West.
LA’s defensive issues ultimately proved their undoing in their Knockout Round exit to Seattle Sounders FC, as three defensive miscues resulted in a 3-2 victory for the Sounders.
As the Galaxy prepare for their longest offseason since George W. Bush’s presidency, Arena says that it’s vital that Los Angeles learn to become a more consistent team.
“We had some players that never got it going for a long period of time. They were inconsistent. That’s always troubling. Your core players have to be there game in and game out,” Arena told reporters after the team’s end-of-the-year meeting. “Not that you’re not going to have a bad game once in a while. We need Robbie Keanes. Robbie’s [someone] that you generally know what you’re getting out of every game. We need other players like that.
“We were statistically the worst team in the league over the last three games. We gave up 10 goals in our last three games… and some were gifts,” Arena added. “How do you correct that? That’s going to be the challenge. That part has to be corrected. We have at times been a team that can attack well, but I think that there are a couple of things that we need to tweak.”
Inconsistencies weren’t the only issue for the Galaxy, however, as they were forced to deal with injuries to key pieces throughout the season.
Whether it was A.J. DeLaGarza, Jose Villarreal, Todd Dunivant or Robbie Keane or a host of others, the Galaxy were hit with the injury bug for vast stretches of the season forcing Arena to become quite creative with the teams that he trotted out.
“We had 11 and 12 guys who were like that, and when you tie any international call-ups, for a while, we put some odd teams on the field,” said Arena who trotted out 25 different lineups for the first 25 league matches of the season. “Baggio [Husidic] was playing every position possible and then we lost him, and he was never able to get his form back. It was too late for him. It was too late for a lot of guys. We had a lot of guys come back in October, which is kind of too late.”
The midseason arrival and acquisition of global superstars Steven Gerrard and Giovani dos Santos was expected to provide an immediate impact for the Galaxy, but despite initial success, the pair was unable to maintain their form into the team’s dire month of October.
It’s no secret that adapting to Major League Soccer is never easy for internationals, but heading into 2016, Arena expects that we’ll see more from the two Designated Players.
“That’s a problem. I know when I came in here David Beckham had already been here two seasons. It took him until his third season to get adjusted to this. I think that’s hard,” Arena said. “[The midyear signings]? It wasn’t’ even that; it was more of a two-thirds of the year. That’s hard. It catches up to you. We knew it would be difficult. In theory, you’d like to think it’d be better next year.
“It’s an opportunity that presented itself that we had to take,” he added. “We had an opportunity to get Giovani dos Santos. Gio was late. Stevie was well-in-advance, but Gio was late. When the opportunity presented itself, we had to take it.”
A full preseason together should help the Galaxy mesh ahead of the 2016 campaign and their crucial CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal series with Santos Laguna. The Galaxy are expected to start training camp in late January.
But before the team can worry about the CCL or preseason, Arena says he has tough choices to make during the club’s longest break in seven years.
“This is the first break that I’ve had in seven years on this job. I don’t think that it’ll hurt me. I think the last three or four years have been really hard on our team,” Arena said. “I think this break will be good, but there are a lot of decisions that we have to make in deciding how we piece together our team next year.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.