CARSON, Calif. – For the LA Galaxy to earn a result on Saturday against the Colorado Rapids, LA must slow down Colorado’s newest weapon—speedy forward Deshorn Brown.
The rookie forward from Central Florida has excelled during the first three games of his career tallying a goal and an assist in three starts. His first career MLS goal was an opportunistic one as he was able to strip Real Salt Lake defender Chris Schuler before beating Nick Rimando during Colorado’s 1-1 draw with RSL last week.
“I thought have been very good. He’s definitely a threat with his speed to get behind back lines and that’s how they’ve been utilizing them,” said Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena. “He scored an opportunistic goal against Salt Lake by stripping a defender and having a great finish. He’s a player that we’re well aware of and he’s really had a great start in the league.”
When it comes to marking Brown, Arena is likely to turn to center back A.J. DeLaGarza to stop the Jamaican. Quick in his own right, DeLaGarza is often deployed by Arena to neutralize faster threats and will likely be partnered with Leonardo in central defense with Omar Gonzalez away on international duty.
Although containing Colorado’s speedy Jamaican, defender Todd Dunivant, who will serve as LA’s captain on Saturday, insists that slowing down the Rapids will be a team effort.
“From looking at the video, their team is good at sending in penetrating passes so when they break our pressure and have their head up with the ball and time and space to play, their guys are taking off. Not just Brown, but [Tony] Cascio and [Atiba] Harris too,” said Dunivant. “They like to get in behind and they’ve been successful at it. They’ve had a couple of breakaways and really put ourselves in dangerous positions so we have to do a good job of first getting pressure on the ball and second if they break it, then we have to drop our line.”
