When you allowed 67 goals last season, which averages out to nearly two per game, any time you keep an opponent below that is a positive.
That’s a good way to describe the Galaxy heading into their second game of the season.
The Galaxy held Inter Miami CF off the scoreboard until Lionel Messi scored in the second minute of stoppage time, when the Galaxy was down to 10 men after Mark Delgado’s second yellow card.
“Defensively, I felt like we were really compact,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “When we were high, we were together, when we were low, we were together … we were really spread apart and I think that’s going to be really important for this team, for the whole season.”
The Galaxy (0-0-1, 1 point) will face the San Jose Earthquakes (0-1) on Saturday in the 99th edition of the Cali Clasico (7:30 p.m., Apple TV+)
A lot of questions coming in were focused on the center back pairing of 35-year-old Maya Yoshida and 36-year-old Martin Caceres. The duo brings more than their share of experience.
“For me the center back position, you only really have to be athletic when you make bad decisions or you don’t read situations, or when things break down around you and you need to make covering plays,” Vanney said. “When you have nearly 80 years of experience, you don’t get many bad decisions from these guys.
“You get a lot of good decisions, recognition of scenarios, seeing things happen before they happen so they’re able to cut them off. If the group in front of them is doing a good job of keeping us connected, then they don’t get exposed in big spaces. So, that’s why I say our connections is really important to help those guys out. Both of them is probably a little more athletic than they get credit for at their age, but also we don’t want to get them in position where they’re chasing guys all over the field, so we have to remain compact.”
That helped against Inter Miami, but San Jose expects to pose a different challenge with their movement at the forward position.
Caceres missed the majority of last season with an avulsion fracture in his left knee. His return didn’t come as a surprise to Vanney.
“First of all, he’s a machine,” Vanney said. “He just puts in the work every single day, he’s the in weight room every single day, he takes care of himself. I wish at 36 I looked like he does. He’s really professional about those things and besides from that he’s a warrior. You have to drag him off the field with a crane because he just wants to play and compete and he wants to play.”
Delgado eligible Saturday
Delgado’s reaction to his second yellow card late in Sunday’s game against Inter Miami was one of shock. Soon after, everyone else felt the same as video replays showed Delgado had missed the tackle on Sergio Busquets.
The Galaxy appealed the decision and the Independent Review Panel, which consists of a representative from the U.S. Soccer Federation, Canadian Soccer Association and one independent representative nominated by the Professional Referee Organization, ruled to rescind Delgado’s second yellow card, allowing him to play Saturday.
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“Between A, looking at the footage, especially from different angles you see that he doesn’t get him; B, I think there’s a little bit of the collective community like this isn’t (a foul); and C, when Busquets comes out and says he really doesn’t get me, it shouldn’t be a yellow card,” Vanney said Thursday. “I don’t know how much all of that gets calculated into it (the decision), but I think there was enough evidence there to overturn it.”
“I think it’s best of a bad situation. We lost two points because of it, but we shouldn’t lose the two points and the player on a situation that is that questionable.”
Galaxy at San Jose
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: PayPal Park, San Josse
TV: Apple TV (MLS Season Pass)