You don’t have to look long or far to see the differences between this year’s team and last year’s.
What’s the lineup? Eight of the Galaxy’s starting 11 players were not with the team at the start of last season. What’s the standings? The Galaxy were 13th in the 14-team Western Conference standings at this point last season, but this year they have the second-best record in the league and are on track to win their first conference title since 2011.
And how are they doing? Last year, the Galaxy won eight games over the course of the season. They’ve already won twice that amount this year and are clinching a playoff spot with five games remaining.
To the coach, the only thing that has changed is the numbers. He says the team’s values, philosophy and goals remain the same. And it’s that consistency, a little bit of luck and some invisible factors that have helped propel the team to its best season in a decade.
“We’ve had to clean up the roster a little bit, but our vision for what we want and what we feel the team can be successful with remains the same,” he said. “A lot of things have to come together to turn it around like we’ve done. Credit goes to having a vision for what we want to do and sticking with it and finding players that fit that vision.”
Maybe, but there’s more to it than that.
Take Saturday’s game, for example: Both teams needed a win to improve their chances of winning their conference and securing home-field advantage in the playoffs, so the game looked decided when LAFC, arguably the best-strength team in MLS, jumped out to a 2-0 lead after 15 minutes.
Last year’s Galaxy would have given up at that point, and it wasn’t consistency of team vision that brought them back on Saturday – it was passion, grit, determination and a few other things invisible to the naked eye.
“He got punched in the mouth and was down two points. The way he responded just showed a lot of maturity and a lot of conviction,” Vanney said.
“It’s been almost four years since I’ve been here, and this is one of the proudest moments I’ve had about this team,” he continued. “The grit and character they showed in the second half was fun to watch. They came together, believed in what they were doing, believed in the mission and followed through.”
Want more stats? Three of the Galaxy’s four goals came in the first 14 minutes of the second half. Two of those goals came from , who started for the first time in over two months, and the other was Edwin Cerrillo’s first MLS goal. Midfielder , who hadn’t created a single scoring chance in his previous three games against El Traficos, scored the winner along with two assists.
“They say, ‘If you don’t play well, you won’t create chances,'” Puig said. “But there’s more to football than creating chances and scoring goals. This year we have some elements that maybe we didn’t have two years ago.”
“Winning the MLS (Cup) would be very important for us.”
A year ago, that would have been unthinkable, but what about this year?
“We have a lot of work to do with five games left,” Vanney said. “A lot can happen at the end. We have a lot of work to do to win, but we are consistent. We have to be at a consistent high level to stay in the race.”
Notably, this won’t be the Galaxy’s last time facing their city rivals this season: The team has made two playoff appearances at BMO Stadium and lost both times, but Saturday’s win puts the Galaxy (16 wins, 6 losses, 7 ties) seven points ahead of LAFC (14 wins, 7 losses, 6 ties) atop the Western Conference.
If the Galaxy win the West Division, they will play all of their conference playoff games at Dignity Health Sports Park, where they are unbeaten this season.
“After last year, we’re not taking anything for granted,” Vanney said. “Right now, we’re in control of our own destiny and we’re looking to win the West Division, which we believe is the best-case scenario that gets us to the playoffs.”
The end of the year will be tough for LAFC, who have appeared in the past two MLS Cup finals, made even tougher by the loss that has left them winless in their past three MLS games. Fatigue was an issue in Saturday’s game, the coach said, and the schedule ahead is only going to get tougher. Including this month’s U.S. Open Cup final against Sporting Kansas City, LAFC will play eight games in 31 days.
So depth will be key over the next month and depth this week could strengthen that.
“We will try to turn things around as quickly as possible,” promised Cherundolo, who hosts Austin on Wednesday.
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