Minnesota’s Tony Sanneh and the LA Galaxy – Looking Towards the Playoffs

Special to IMS

With the MLS All-Star game finished, the attentions of players, coaches and fans turn toward the 2009 MLS Cup. Only 8 points separate the league-leading Houston Dynamo and the final spot in a tight race for the eight team playoffs. In contention for the post-season is former Minnesota Thunder player Tony Sanneh’s team the LA Galaxy.

Sanneh is now playing his 7th season of MLS in his 15-year soccer career, which has taken him to play in Germany with FC Nürnberg and Hertha Berlin, D.C., Chicago, Columbus, Colorado, Milwaukee and Minnesota. His long career also includes 43 caps for the US National team, highlighted by a stand-out performance in the 2002 World Cup.

Now with the LA Galaxy after taking a year off to recover from two hip surgeries, Sanneh is one of the elder statesmen brought in by Coach Bruce Arena. At the age of 37, Sanneh is the forth oldest player overall and the second oldest field player in the league behind Chivas USA defender Claudio Suarez. Sanneh was just one player involved in a major change in the Galaxy’s defense.

Only two players from last year’s team, that had the highest goals against in the league with 62, were included in the 2009 roster. Going into the preseason, Sanneh held the leadership role in a defense that included 5 players with one year or less of experience. The youth and lack of experience in the Galaxy’s defense didn’t seem to worry Sanneh too much early in the season. In an interview with Inside Minnesota Soccer he joked that “We have 16 years of pro experience which is kind of a lot. The problem is I have 15 years of that experience.”

However, the pairing of Sanneh, who was still shaking off some of the rust from his year off, and a group of young defenders appeared to be less than ideal for Bruce Arena despite a decent showing at the Pan Pacific Championship, where the Galaxy made it to the final only to lose in PKs. Early in the season Arena brought in Sanneh’s 2002 World Cup teammate and fellow defender Greg Berhalter to provide some more experience and leadership for a sometimes shaky back line. Unfortunately for Sanneh, this caused him to lose his starting spot on the field. Since the arrival of Berhalter, Sanneh has seen limited playing time and has only started three times, twice when Berhalter has been serving red card suspensions.

Hopefully Sanneh will see himself on the field more often in the months to come, but Bruce Arena might be hesitant to change a back line that has only let in 20 goals so far this season. However, suspensions and injuries are always unfortunate possibilities and Sanneh may find himself playing more consistently in the last stretch of the season. Omar Gonzalez is one yellow card away from a mandatory one game suspension. Having a defender with his amount of experience and knowledge as an option off the bench is never a bad thing.

Coming off of a 2-1 loss to Barcelona in an exhibition, where Sanneh played the first half and was subbed out for Berhalter, LA is looking to extend their five-game unbeaten streak in the league. The Galaxy’s next game is against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium where the Galaxy are 0-5-2 since the stadium opened in 2002.