Galaxy Defensive Stats

Its one of the hold-overs from American-sports-thinking to say that a team's defense is the sole responsibility of the back-five or back-four, whichever system you employ. The responsibility of a team's defense should lay squarely on the whole team. I see it in the over-35 league I play in, where you've got four or five defenders and everyone else is, technically, a forward because nobody wants to be a midfielder (we're all out of shape) and run the whole field. You're left with a huge gaping hole in the middle. I'm not saying the Galaxy are playing like an over-35 team but I see the same thing happening with huge holes in the midfield. <br />
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It may not be pretty to watch, but the Italian national team defends as a team. They're not as good as, say, the Netherlands, in going forward, but at least both of the teams gave us a sense of what it means to play as a team this past Euro championship.<br />
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And, now I come to my main point. All the trades and speculation about trades has left this team wandering in the dark. Its not a very good formula for playing as a team. Playing as a team is where a defense should come from, not from getting the right central defenders in place or making sure that you have speedy left-and-right backs. <br />
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The lack of unity in this time lays squarely on the shoulders of Alexi Lalas. Get rid of him and stop all of the mindless trading; let this team – it doesn't matter who they are – gel as a team and play as a team. It won't happen this season but its something to build from – something that AEG probably doesn't want to hear.