When Laftc Entered the major football leagues GalaxyHis neighbor in southern California.
The galaxy was the class of the league, an original franchise and five -time champion which had made the playoffs eight times during the previous nine seasons, winning three cups of MLS and two shields of supporters. Its owner, the septuagenarian Philip Anschutz, had co -founded the League and the years later, saved him from bankruptcy.
Lafc was an expansion team with a owner group led by Hollywood, many of whom had no training in football. By facing the galaxy, he launched a confrontation of the establishment against the arrivals, of the old money against new. And during the first six seasons, the New Blood won, with the LAFC rewritten the plan for the success of the MLS by capturing twice in the final of two supporters, reaching the final of the Concacaf Champions League and winning two best League trophies, including an MLS Cup.
Lafc has won more games, raised more points and scored more goals than any team while the Galaxy lost more games than they won, conceded more often than they were marked and missed the playoffs twice more often than they did. The stick had clearly been passed.
This weekend, however, he was brought back with The LAFC season ends Saturday short of the Western Conference final for the first time in three years Waste Galaxy In Minnesota United Sunday in what was undoubtedly the performance of the most dominant playoffs in the history of the franchise.
“Galaxy”, coach Greg Vanney Said: “are back.”
Are they never. The team won 19 games and scored 69 times during the regular season, the two totals corresponding to the records of the modern era of the franchise. He entered an equal break in finishing at the top of the western conference table for the first time in 13 years. The galaxy really found their strides in the playoffs, marking 15 times in a pair of unilateral victories on Colorado in the first round, then dismantling the Minnesota 6-2 Sunday in the semi-final of the conference.
This sends them to the final of the conference on Saturday against the Sounders of Seattle at Dignity Health Sports Park. If they win this one, they will welcome their first MLS Cup final in a decade in a stadium where they are undefeated in 19 games this season.
The galaxy has not yet dragged in the playoffs with Riqui Puig And Dejan Jovljic marking four goals each and combining five assists Gabriel Pec And Joseph PaintsilWho both had a splint on Sunday, each scored three goals each. If the galaxy is not the best team in MLS, they are certainly the best of the four teams that still play.
However, there is a season, the main groups of the Galaxy supporters boycotted home matches, angry with the lack of management of the team and its dysfunctional front. The boycott got up when Chris Klein, the longtime president of the team, was dismissed in the spring, but the funk continued with the galaxy winning eight games, equaling the low franchise for a full season.
The basis of this year's success has been built in last year's failures. Will KuntzWho helped make the LAFC in a winner as the main vice-president of the players' staff, joined the Galaxy seven weeks before Klein's dismissal and immediately began to rebuild the list. Nine of the 11 players who started against Minnesota, including Pec and Paintsil, joined the galaxy in the last 16 months.
“I would love to say that it was all me (but) it was a confluence of events,” said Kuntz, who added 20 players since he took care of the role of staff of the galaxy players. “It was obvious that we had to change. This club has a truly legendary tradition and we had certainly become quite far from that.
“The thought of the club had become expired.”
This thought had always been that the galaxy needed players of the big name, which is why the team signed a succession, from David Beckham and Robbie Keane to Steven Gerrard and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Some have succeeded, others not. For Kuntz, it was a plan that no longer worked.
“It is almost as if it had become an obligation, almost as an albatrossee sometimes. People felt like having to deliver a huge star who had name recognition because he is a galaxy player, right?” He said.
“The league has changed. If we win, everything will take care of himself. Let us try to find the players who, in our view, will give us the best chances. ”
Kuntz therefore spent more than $ 19 million in transfer fees and an additional $ 6.4 million in 2024 salary on PEC and Painsil, two players in the twenty years that most Galaxy fans had to identify on Google while LaFC signed the stars of the French World Cup Hugo Lloris, 37, and Olivier Giroud, 38.
The script had returned.
Lafc barely had a bad season. He won 19 games and finished before the galaxy in the regular season ranking by a goal in the break in differential goal equality. It was the only MLS team to play in two finals, raising the American Cup trophy. However, after playing a record for the 103 -game League in less than 20 months, he simply missed gas, abandoning two of his last three qualifying games, the last defeat coming to Seattle in addition to time.
This would have been a very successful year for any other MLS team was a disappointment for Lafc, whose standard has always been higher.
“It's not black or white, was it a good season or a bad season,” said defender Ryan Hollingshead. “There were great and great moments when the team intensified and put trophies in our case. And there are other moments when we want more.
“The standard that we set ourselves here is a good one. We want to win everything. It looks like a big disappointment. It's so disappointing.”
Now the galaxy is continuing this higher standard and tries to win everything. Credit LaFC to have increased the bar and to redefine excellence, not only in Southern California, but through the MLS.
Create the galaxy for climbing the ground to clean this bar and grab the stick of its neighbor.
⚽ You have read the last episode of soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and highlights unique stories. Listen to Baxter in the episode of this week of “Podcast Corner of the Galaxy.
