Push the Button

Yep, now it’s time to panic. Mathematically we are not out of the playoffs. We’re still a long way from that. So I suppose theoretically the season could be saved. But let’s face facts. We lost to Seattle at home after being up 2. We’ve won 3 of our 16 season games, the last one being 7 games ago. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was being eliminated from the US Open Cup by the Carolina Railhawks.

Chad Barrett tweeted the other day that it was nice to finally win something. You know what that something was? A reserve match! It even made it to the Galaxy’s home page. Please don’t patronize us by celebrating reserve match victories that don’t count for anything! Let’s admit we suck. Let’s see who the real fans are. And let’s do what we can to turn it around. But don’t try to gloss the turd!

But here’s the real question: what does hitting the panic button mean? We could try playing less well known players — oh wait, we’ve already done that. We could try changing the formation. Oh wait, check on that too. We could fire Arena, but seriously, does anyone think getting rid of one of the best coaches in the entire country is going to make the difference?

My solution: radical trades. The first being Landon Donovan if possible. Don’t get me wrong. Landon is still one of our best players and is still my favorite player in the world. That’s why I say sell him now. His heart is not in it for the Galaxy, but he still has great value. Try to sell him to Everton. Not sure they can afford him, but if they are active in the transfer market so maybe.

Getting rid of Donovan opens up space for a new DP. Yes, it’s a big loss, but we have lots of good midfielders. It’s the one area of the field where we aren’t hurting. Their are now lots of good attacking players on the market with the end of the European season. Maybe we can lure one here.

My first choice: Alessandro Del Piero. Yes, he’s older, but if you saw Juventus play at all this year you know he’s still got it. He’d be a good match for Keane and a great attacking threat. He supposedly loves Los Angeles and would consider playing here. Okay, he might choose a big money move to China or somewhere else in Europe instead. But we at least have the location to compete with those options.

If we can’t unload Donovan, how about Keane? Makes less sense to me, but he too seems to want to go back to England. I guess it’s a bit too early, but after the Euro competition there might be alternatives available.

I know some would suggest we dump Becks, but that makes no sense to me. He is still a remarkably good player. He still plays with heart. He also sells tickets and jerseys, an important part of keeping the team afloat and paying for those other DPs. He’s also the least likely of our DPs to be away on national team duty.

If you can ship out Barrett and Buddle, do it. But frankly, I’m sure we’re too late to make that work. J-Ro and the Gues-monkey had it right, we should have sold Barrett right when the season ended. He wasn’t getting any better than that. And in his current form, why would anyone take Buddle, except in a fire sale?

One other possible sale: AJ. I know it sounds crazy. Defense is our weakest point right now and AJ is an experienced, lionhearted defender. He’s got skill and overflows with passion. So why let him go? Two reasons: he isn’t critical and he is worth something. Let’s face it, as great as AJ is, he’s small for a central defender. And so far he isn’t really pairing well with anyone else we’ve got. It may hurt to lose him, but a young, talented guy like that might net us the funds to bring in a more Omar-like player.

Frankly though, our options are pretty limited and I doubt any will be season changers. I’m afraid we’re just going to have to hunker down and bear it. Hopefully we can find a way to scrape into the playoffs at least.