We love to share what matters.
Going into this match, this team, our team, the LA Galaxy U14 team was undefeated with a 19-0-2 record in the US Soccer Development Academy with 101 GF and 12 GA.
You rarely, if ever, see us publish or mention our domestic exploits (we could be doing it weekly), because that doesn’t really matter.
What matters is the global context. We are helping drive the state of the art in the United States, and the benchmark is the best in the world. That’s the measuring stick.
It’s why we’ve published our matches versus FC Barcelona in years past, and now Manchester City – to teach and to show where we’re at.
It is here where players get exposed.
It is here where players get validated.
It is here where cutting edge coaching gets challenged.
If the objective is to develop quality professionals, competing against the standard is where we all have the possibility of learning the most important of lessons.
This match was a semi-final in the Cayman Airways U15 Invitational. And to offer some context, this Manchester City team had just won the Premier League in England and is considered one of best teams, if not the best, in Europe.
Their results leading up to this match had been:
Man City 5-1 over MLS’ DC United
Man City 9-0 over MLS’ Houston Dynamo
Man City 5-2 over Cuba’s National Team
Without further ado, the video:
Brian Kleiban, the coach of this team, will of course be a presenter at the 3four3 Summit this July 29-31. Come join us.
I’m not done watching yet (and I know the final outcome), but I just want to say: This is unreal, guys. As always, you and your teams set the standard for what’s possible here in the States. Thank you, thank you, for the work you do, and for sharing it with the rest of us so that we can learn, grown, and be inspired.
Amazing display guys. Another inspiring post from you all. I can’t wait for the summit. See you in a few months.
Amazing to me how negative the communication is between the Man City players. The immense pressure of the English system seems to create such a negative environment among the players.
If there is one thing I have learned, while the rest of us are giddy over the performance, you are constantly fine tuning. I’d be interested to hear what you all took from that game as a point of emphasis to work on.
Man so infuriating to see the loss after being 2 up! Great job guys, absolutely amazing soccer displayed. Huge fan of 3four3 and the movement to change soccer in the US.
Man City had some very quick players that repeatedly did well in 1v1 even 1v2 situations. Just curious, after watching the game, are there things you would’ve done differently with the team? Like a different starting line up or a different way to defend?
Certainly a tail of four halves…. You can see the pattern work of Galaxy in the first half, but after the water break, with some adjustments, the individual player difference of city was made obvious.
The second half looked odd from LA, as the general adrenaline wore off and and the boys looked flat, as city’s man marking defensive positioning took hold. Staying awake and aware seemed to be LAs Achilles.
The extra time, aside from the quick goal saw galaxy wake up abit, as they were able to find the flanks again, but once again, technical superiority were the difference as the general play became obvious.
On a positive note, that little redhead was good. He could have made a bigger impact had he been playing from the start, as he had great positional awareness, moved well and played the ball quickly.
City’s two over developed African boys up top were what gave them a chance.
I wouldn’t mind seeing more overlaps and shifting movement from Galaxy, as it’s easy to defend if the players are always in the same spots running the same plays.
To work on: Off the ball movement, quickness of passes, taking space quicker and technical work will see LA improve.
Fun game to watch tho
Gary and Brian, great game to watch, keep up the great work! I will watch your games over the USMNT any day! I had two thoughts though: 1) I am sure that you have looked into the positioning of the two CM’s and I can understand the effect that they can have by playing between the lines. However, what are your thoughts and reasons for telling them to play like this rather than playing deeper at times because it seems to me that they are at times easily screened out and not able to receive passes as easily and consistently. It might be interesting to compare how many passes players like Iniesta, Veratti, and Modric, etc. pass per game compared to the CM’s in your games. I could be wrong but it doesn’t seem like they have the consistent influence that is needed in a possession and pressure style of play. It also lead to several counter attacks starting from the center of midfield I thought. The Man City CM’s cut off passes aimed for the LA CM’s and directly ran at your pivot who was on an island since the CM’s were ahead of the ball and lead to dangerous direct counter attacks. Largely I thought the display was excellent. The building out of the back, the pressing, the combinations/patterns/waves were extremely obvious and very impressive. The one thing that seemed to be lacking was the anaconda like stranglehold on the game from the triangle in the center of midfield (Like Xavi, Busquets, and Iniesta used to be where you just couldn’t get the damn ball off of them.) 2) The other thought I had is have you ever tried Efra as the CF/False 9? There is no doubt that he is great in the midfield, however he seems to me to have all the qualities and tools to play the CF/False 9 role. He is very attack/penetration minded, he already scores and creates a lot of goals, and he might do so even more being slightly higher up the field. He has the physicality to hold the ball under pressure, he would be tremendous dropping into the midfield to give numbers up and hold possession, he would play killer pass after killer pass to the wings making diagonal runs (and anyone else making forward runs), and could be devastating picking the ball up in between the lines and running with the ball at the defense. He also has the athleticism and mobility to be excellent on the defensive side to lead the pressing and be the first line of defense. It might negatively effect the possession in the midfield a bit, but there are several kids on that team that can move the ball really well. However, having Uli and Efra as two of the front three would be completely insane. Obviously you see these kids day in and day out and probably have tried and looked into these things already but I just thought I would give my two cents from the little sample size that I have seen.
Fantastic. Are they 02s or 03s?
01s.
A team of 02s/03s wouldn’t be able to play to this level.