Waiting for something amazing, Galaxy slowed by Chivas

Mr Incredible: "Well what are you waiting for?"

Kid: "I don't know, something amazing! I guess."

Mr. Incredible: "Me too kid."

The Incredibles is a fantastic movie not because it treats superheroes like normal people with day to day issues, but because it uses that framework to look at modern life and it's trappings. Every character's power relates to how they react to the world, and for Mr. Incredible that means being strong enough to literally put his entire family on his shoulders.

The LA Galaxy did something incredible in the later years of David Beckham's contract. There were back-to-back Supporters' Shield seasons, back-to-back MLS Cup seasons, the team was just a winning machine. LA was such a winning machine that the year after Beckham retired they were still the popular pre-season choice to win MLS Cup because who would bet against this core.

Over the last year and a half, we've seen what happens when Mr. Incredible retires from superhero work. Landon Donovan took a sabbatical, then when he got back both he and Omar Gonzalez were focused on making the World Cup team over just about anything. Robbie Keane's been around, but Sunday he missed an MLS match for a completely meaningless friendly.

"Let's face it," said Bruce Arena. "They did a good job. They dropped and played pretty deep to keep everything in front of them. They had good numbers behind the ball. The execution of the last pass or the shots, some reluctance at times to shoot the ball, and the crossing at times was not good or should have been there and wasn't there for us. All those little things that make a difference against a team that is going to defend with numbers."

The LA Galaxy go into MLS' World Cup break having played three fewer matches than the first place Seattle Sounders. Yet the gap they face isn't nine points. Their points per match total is good for fifth place. The team has limped along through distractions, simply going through the motions, arriving to this place.

Yes, Chivas USA played defensively. They put men behind the ball to the degree that Bruce Arena had to resort to inserting Rob Friend and sending in hopeful crosses. As pretty much is always the story when Bruce Arena has to succumb to inserting Rob Friend, nothing came of it. Friend didn't even fall while in the penalty box to earn a penalty.

"I think we expected to win the game," said Landon Donovan. "I think we played well enough to probably win the game, but again, at the end we didn't put enough pressure and create quite enough chances. Give them credit, they played, I think, the best game they played all year. You got to give them credit as well."

Outside of the Zardes goal, the Galaxy essentially let Chivas USA dictate things. This despite LA having the lion's share of possession. Donovan wasn't able to create much in the middle, the offense became incredible one sided only going up through Dan Gargan's overlapping runs.

"Sometimes not winning feels like a loss against Chivas," said Gyasi Zardes.

Out of the mouths of babes. So we wait, for what we do not know. Something amazing, I guess. The team has shown it a handful of times this season. They're going to need to be incredible a whole bunch more.