Chivas USA seems to have the talent, but it still has yet to show on the field with positive results.

Even without the biggest brand in the world, the Los Angeles Galaxy still pasted their fellow Home Depot Center tenants 4-0 on Sunday night behind Landon Donovan’s four assists.

I’ve been watching El Clasico for years now, and it never seems like Chivas USA seems to get any closer.

I keep watching and waiting for Chivas USA to get better, and it’s just not happening.

But it should be! If you look at their roster, they have plenty of capable players. The addition of former Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph should help, but it didn’t seem to Sunday night as he was largely ineffective. But then again, so was everybody!

They have goalkeeper Dan Kennedy, Juan Agudelo (remember him?)…Juan Pablo Angel and veteran outside back Ante Jazic. There are no excuses for Chivas USA getting smoked year after year by the club that they share their stadium with.

Even without David Beckham, who was away for the Olympics (no way, wait, DB taking time off from his club team to participate in other activities? I don’t believe it!) the Galaxy easily dominated Chivas USA. I know it sounds outdated to say it in this day and age of zonal defending, but if a guy like Landon Donovan is having a field day serving balls to his teammates, wouldn’t it be a good idea to pay close attention to him?

Why not adjust to a man to man marking system on him? Maybe go three in the back and have one guy mark him all over the field? I know it sounds silly to modern soccer fans, but maybe it would have limited the amount of goals the Galaxy scored. And isn’t that the point of this game?

Forget trendy zonal and flat-back defending! If it isn’t working, change it! All teams at the bottom of their leagues should resort to play with a sweeper and at least try to stem some of the bleeding.
But no…week after week, game after game, I see teams playing flat in the back and zonal everywhere else and letting their opponent’s best players roam free.

It’s inexplicable. But it’s what everyone is doing, so it must be right. Contrary to popular belief, it is not correct. Playing sound defense and keeping the other team out of your goal for as long as possible is the way to play this game. Entertaining or not, it’s effective. And what would you rather watch, an entertaining team that loses all the time? Or effective soccer that garners points?

IS IT TIME FOR LOSING TEAMS TO ABANDON THE FLAT-BACK-FOUR AND PLAY WITH A SWEEPER?
 

Mark Vincent Lincir is the author of the best-selling book A SOCCER LIFE IN SHORTS. He blogs daily at www.markvincentlincir.com.