LOS ANGELES — There's already been plenty of talk about fitting Galaxy puzzle pieces together in LA this season, but the discussion will continue unabated into Sunday's Western Conference Semifinal decider at Colorado.
Most of the debate has revolved around which of the team's historically capable attackers can blend together to form one consistently productive offense. Injuries and international absences have kept Bruce Arena's selection rotating and the perfect recipe has thus far proved elusive.
Recently, this sort of chemistry talk has centered on the team's top two scorers, Giovani dos Santos and Robbie Keane. The former ran his total across all competitions to 16 with a lone goal winner against the Rapids on Sunday — but he's only netted once in games started alongside the Irishman, who has 12 goals on the campaign.
In the first leg of the Rapids tie in the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs, Arena made his lineup decision easy by simply going with the same group that strolled past Real Salt Lake in the Knockout Round. That meant Alan Gordon up top as the target forward, with Dos Santos running off of him. In these past two games, the duo have combined for two goals and three helpers, with the Galaxy taking both games.
Keane, who had missed a few weeks with a hip knock, appeared off the bench in both contests. Being the gamer that he is, he certainly wants to get back in the lineup. But how can Arena make it work with Dos Santos to give the Galaxy their optimum attack?
Though these players have different styles of play, they often like to inhabit the same zones of the field. When Keane is on the field, he works through the central areas and drops deep to aid the build. This often forces Dos Santos to drift out wide, where he finds it more difficult to offer end product.
"Each share similar qualities in terms of their technical skill, their experience, and their movement," associate head coach Dave Sarachan told MLSsoccer.com earlier this month. "There are times where I think their wires can get crossed, where both come too far from goal or they’re both caught on the same line."
The reality is that no amount of lineup-shifting will change this. It's simply something the two will need to work out in due course. It's not impossible, others have done similar commingling before them. But perhaps it's not even the real issue. Maybe those getting hung up on this dilemma have missed the point.
Throw Gordon, part-time forward Mike Magee and the recovering Gyasi Zardes into this mix and it becomes obvious that Arena has what Hall of Fame baseball manager Whitey Herzog loved to call a "good problem" to have. All in all, the LA Galaxy have gotten 46 goals from players working the front line in 46 games; many MLS clubs would love to be burdened with a selection "problem" of this variety.
The fact of the matter is, the Galaxy are quite spoiled for choice up top (if not all over), and that's not something to wring hands over. This term, they've run seven formations, with all manner of offensive personnel configurations. Regardless of any headaches derived from fitting attackers together, they still had the most prolific offense in the West (and third-best league-wide), they still have been shut out just twice in their last 24 matches, they still have dropped consecutive games just once in 2016, and they still have one foot in the Western Conference Final.
Instead of worrying over the elusive ideal, Galaxy observers should enjoy the luxury of Arena being able to specifically cater lineups to variables such as form and opponent. It's certainly worked well enough to date and there's much to be said about keeping 'em guessing.
Perhaps the optimum setting for the Galaxy attack has nothing to do with perfectly melding Dos Santos and Keane or choosing any magic combination of players. Perhaps, just perhaps, their lineup confusion is the ideal setting.
