In a group sport no participant is irreplaceable. However for the Galaxy, Riqui Puig comes shut.
Puig, the playmaker and chief of one of the vital potent assaults in franchise historical past, will miss Saturday’s MLS Cup remaining with the New York Crimson Bulls at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in final weekend’s Western Convention remaining with Seattle. He’ll bear surgical procedure quickly and is predicted to be out till subsequent summer season at the very least.
And that leaves the Galaxy trying to find a alternative for his or her most irreplaceable participant.
“We’re definitely going to miss Riqui,” midfielder Mark Delgado mentioned Tuesday. “Special player. He just brings something completely different that nobody can really bring.
“We just have to move forward. The game stops for no one and we just have to sort it out. And that’s Greg’s job.”
Greg can be coach Greg Vanney, who was guarded in how he would possibly alter his lineup in Puig’s absence Saturday. When Puig was unavailable in the course of the common season, Vanney used Marco Reus and Diego Fagúndez in his place. However Reus is coping with a nagging groin concern and Fagúndez hasn’t began a recreation or performed greater than 17 minutes in a single since mid-September. Different choices embrace Delgado and Gastón Brugman.
“It’s going to be a different type of player than Riqui,” Vanney mentioned. “Marco, we’ll see how his health is as the week progresses. Diego gives us a little bit of the option that we saw before. I also look at the Red Bulls [and] see them as a little bit of a unique competitor because of their pressing.
“We’re working through, talking through, the right personnel to try to approach the game.”
The Crimson Bulls, 11-14-9 within the common season, completed seventh within the Japanese Convention desk however went on a run within the playoffs, sweeping the defending MLS champion Columbus Crew within the best-of-three first spherical, then shutting out New York Metropolis and Orlando Metropolis in elimination video games to turn out to be the lowest-seeded group ever to succeed in the Cup remaining.
The Crimson Bulls, who received simply two of their remaining 14 regular-season video games, relationship to June 22, have given up solely two targets within the postseason, with goalkeeper Carlos Coronel pitching three shutouts and making 19 saves.
The one group to complete the common season with a dropping file earlier than profitable the league title was Actual Salt Lake (11-12-7), which beat the Galaxy on penalty kicks in 2009. The Crimson Bulls, an unique MLS group, have by no means received the MLS Cup, dropping the one remaining wherein it performed in 2008. That recreation was additionally performed in Carson.
Bettering their probabilities on this one is the truth that the Galaxy received’t have Puig, who scored a career-high 13 targets and had a team-high 15 assists within the common season, the 28 objective contributions in 29 video games rating tenth in MLS. He additionally led the league in touches and passes, making him the motor of the one group in MLS historical past to have 4 gamers end with 10 or extra targets.
Galaxy ahead Riqui Puig controls the ball throughout a playoff win over Minnesota on Nov. 24.
(Shaun Clark / Getty Pictures)
And he was even higher within the playoffs, scoring 4 targets and getting three assists, contributing to the scoring in all 4 Galaxy wins. Together with playoffs, Puig has had a objective or help in 12 of his final 15 MLS video games relationship to mid-July.
The Galaxy had a profitable file within the 5 MLS video games Puig missed this season, going 3-1-1, however the group averaged simply 1.6 targets in these 5 video games versus 2.33 when Puig performed.
Puig torn the ligament in his left knee early within the second half of Saturday’s convention remaining on a non-contact play.
Within the sixtieth minute, Seattle’s Cristian Roldan introduced Puig down with a heavy sort out simply exterior the Sounders’ penalty space, drawing a yellow card and leaving Puig writhing on the bottom and clutching his left knee. Puig finally made his strategy to the Galaxy bench, the place he was briefly attended to by coach Cesar Roldan, Cristian’s brother.
However three minutes after the Roldan sort out, whereas racing Seattle’s Pedro de la Vega for a unfastened ball, Puig’s left leg gave method and he went down untouched. That was when the harm occurred though Puig performed on, establishing Dejan Joveljic’s game-winning objective within the eighty fifth minute.
“It was a pretty straightforward ACL tear,” Vanney mentioned. “I think, given the moment, the adrenaline, the competitor inside of him, I don’t know if he completely knew that.
“He felt like his knee was a little unstable, he felt some clicking. But he didn’t necessarily hear or feel like a pop, which sometimes is an indication. I actually didn’t even know that he had a knee issue.”
It was apparent he was ailing; late within the recreation, after planting on his left leg to take a shot, he limped away, flexing the knee. After the ultimate whistle, the seriousness of the harm turned obvious and a tearful Puig gestured to his dad and mom to return out of the stands and be part of him on the sphere, the place they tried to console him. Vanney additionally embraced and comforted Puig, who was then carrying a towel over his head.
“Emotionally, he’s devastated,” Vanney mentioned. “This is what he came here for, to be in this game and to win a championship. That’s what he’s been driven and motivated by.”
Vanney has some expertise with devastating accidents. He was named to the U.S. World Cup group in 2002 however missed the event after being injured in one of many remaining warm-up video games.
“I understand a little bit the devastation that comes with it, and I hope to try to be a resource for him,” he mentioned. “But it’s going to be hard for him. I can already see that the messages he sent the group, so he’s there, and the group’s going to want to fight for him. Because he’s certainly helped us to get here.”
Puig, 25, an MLS all-star, was named to the league’s postseason Finest XI Tuesday. He emerged as one of many league’s most dynamic and influential gamers after the Galaxy paired him with speedy wingers Joseph Paintsil and Gabriel Pec this season.
The three designated gamers, nicknamed “The Killer Ps,” mixed for 39 targets and 39 assists in the course of the common season, making them the most efficient trio within the league.
