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| He was just as surprised to be named MVP. |
The Los Angeles Galaxy started as the first Buffalo Bills of Major League Soccer, losing the first three MLS Cup they went to. True story. Those last-minute stumbles buried more than one relevant fact – e.g., they won their first Supporters’ Shield as early as 1998, their first CONCACAF Champions’ Cup in 2000 (not the feat it later became, to be fair) - but the Galaxy put together competitive teams from the jump, even if they didn’t have all that many trophies to show for it. With long-forgotten players like Mauricio Cienfuegos, Kevin Hartman, Danny Califf, Cobi Jones and (the semi-infamous) Carlos Ruiz leading the way, the Galaxy won a Double in 2002 – and came damn close to a triple (they were runners-up in the U.S. Open Cup that year). Some real successes followed – an MLS Cup in 2005, if with a decidedly average team (also, won by one of the flukiest goals in MLS history) and the Shield again in 2009 – but LA spent the rest of the 2000s bumping their asses against the ground as hard and often as any team in MLS. Turns out that playing in a world-famous city doesn’t do a team enough favors when roster rules and small budgets have all concerned in shackles. It ultimately took not just the arrival of the Designated Player Rule (2007), but also the subsequent expansion(s) of the same (2010 and 2012), for the Galaxy’s natural advantages to well and truly kick in. Success wasn’t immediate - even David Beckham, aka, the OG DP, played under a peanut gallery calling him a flop – but the opening of budget rules, Rube-Goldbergian as they were, set the stage for the five-plus-season period that made the Galaxy what they are today, the most dominant team in MLS history. Between 2009 and 2014, LA won three MLS Cups, two Supporters’ Shields, and they went to one more MLS Cup besides. They owed a lot of that success to Landon Donovan, aka, the man whose name now graces the league MVP award, but Ireland’s Robbie Keane arguably put those teams over the top (his hit-rate in MLS was nuts). Those two, Beckham, some outstanding defenses, and unsung heroes like midfield back-stop Juninho turned the Galaxy into MLS first unstoppable force since the DC United teams of the late 1990s/early 2000s. There arguably hasn’t been one since (though both Red Bull New York and the Seattle Sounders would like a word), very much including the LA Galaxy. After that 2014 MLS Cup, they squeaked into the 2015 post-season as a wild card and went on to miss the playoffs outright in 2017 – their one and only Wooden Spoon season, btw – 2018, 2020, 2021 and as recently as 2023. The Galaxy continued to make big swings with player signings – see, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Giovani dos Santos – but they either couldn’t find a strong enough foundation or refused to pay for one. Throwing everything on Zlatan’s shoulders might have been part of the problem.
Total Joy Points: 74
How They Earned Them (How This is Calculated, for Reference)
Supporters’ Shield: 1998, 2002, 2010, 2011
MLS Cup: 2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2024
MLS Cup Runner-Up: 1996, 1999, 2001, 2009
MLS Playoff Semifinals: 1998, 2000, 2004, 2010
MLS Playoffs/Quarterfinals: 2003, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022
CONCACAF Champions’ Cup Winner: 2000
CONCACAF Champions’ Cup Runner-Up: 1997
CONCACAF Champions’ League Semifinal: 2013
CONCACAF Champions’ League Quarterfinal: 2012, 2014, 2016
U.S. Open Cup: 2001, 2005
U.S. Open Cup Runner-Up: 2002, 2006
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| Always the glamour team.... |
Andrew Shue (the deepest cut), Jorge Campos, Greg Vanney, Tyrone Marshall, Peter Vagenas, Guillermo “El Pando” Ramirez, A. J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Hermosillo, Abel Xavier
Long-Term Tendencies
Goals For: Very Over; Goals Allowed: Under
Over the full course of their history, the Galaxy have played well over the average on goals scored, while keeping on the right side of goals allowed. Their very best seasons (1998 and 2014) when a very sturdy defense and Bruce Arena’s second great run as a head coach supported one of MLS all-time great attacks. There’s a lot of reverting to the mean on either side of that, but nothing has defined the bad years (2017 to 2023) like defensive fragility: they’ve been over the league average for goals allowed in six of the past seven seasons.
Their 2024 Season & Recent Trends
It is hard, if not impossible, to appreciate what the Galaxy accomplished by winning the 2024 MLS Cup without knowing how fall they had fallen after their glory years; the Galaxy won the Cup this year against recent trends and/or what probably felt like a curse. The weight of the latter arguably showed up in their slow start to 2024 – they picked up just seven of their 19 wins over the first half of the season – but they rolled through the second half of the season, racking up goals in the first two legs of the playoffs (nine goals over two legs against the Colorado Rapids, then six more on Minnesota United FC). The most notable thing about all this, at least for me, comes with a shift away from signing big (often aging) names like Keane, Zlatan, or even Hernandez, Hermosillo, and dos Santos to finding younger, promising stars like Gabriel Pec, Joseph Paintsil, and Dejan Joveljic. Adding the first two, in particular, surrounded short, shifty Spaniard, Riqui Puig, with the supporting cast he needed to shine; the extent of the payoff only became more apparent when the Galaxy won MLS Cup 2024 with Puig sidelined by injury. One final, remarkable detail to mention: the Galaxy’s third-best in MLS offense carried them through 2024, but it was the defense that carried them through the Western Conference final against the Sounders, and also through the last 80 minutes of MLS Cup. With Puig absent, LA’s head coach Greg Vanney made the interesting choice of playing a fairly defensive midfield – built around Mark Delgado, Gaston Brugman, and the ever-reliable Edwin Cerillo (what a pick up) – and overwhelming the Red Bulls over the opening minutes of the game. That paid off in two early goals, which put the visitors in the uncomfortable position of chasing the game. From there, it was staying organized and lifting a trophy from there – a record sixth trophy, of course.
Questions from Their 2025 Season
The biggest question in all of the above is the extent to which it can be replicated. For instance, Gaston Brugman played as well as any player on the field in MLS Cup, but injuries (and who knows what else?) have limited his first-team minutes. Also, as much as the defense tightened up down the stretch, it still gave up 50 goals over the season, just 3.5 goals allowed under the 2024 league average. That included giving up two goals or more in eight games over the final 17 games of the season. I don’t know how much of this team stays together in 2025, but the main thing I’ll be watching is what happens around the defense and/or defensive midfield over the off-season. That’s barring other surprises…till the next one.
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