MLSsoccer.com polled 22 of our editors, writers, videographers, statistics specialists and social media masters to bring you the Stories of the Year, our annual look at the biggest storylines from the outgoing year in Major League Soccer. Contributor Scott French recalls the LA Galaxy's "First to Five" season.
CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy this year played some of the most brilliant soccer Major League Soccer has seen, amid a season of storylines fitting of a Hollywood tale, ending only as it could have – with an MLS Cup title.
There's no question they're a dynasty after lifting the Cup for the third time in four years and reaching the title game for the fourth time in six seasons with their 2-1 victory Dec. 7 over the New England Revolution. And this most commanding of Galaxy championship teams did it with a verve the others can't match, not even the wire-to-wire 2011 side that had David Beckham and a newly arrived Robbie Keane playing alongside an in-his-prime Landon Donovan.
This year's model so often played beautiful possession soccer, all ball movement and interchange, with 25-and-up-pass sequences leading to goals that Donovan noted “would be [talked] about for months on end ... if Barcelona or Arsenal” put them away. And when it mattered most, they grinded out results to claim the hardware.
Just how dominant were they?
LA ran up one-sided romps over nearly every other top team in MLS while scoring a league-best 69 goals for a plus-32 goal differential – the league's best mark since the high-flying 1998 Galaxy group – and prevailing against three of their best rivals, Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders and New England, maybe the three teams right behind them in MLS's pecking order, to claim an unprecedented fifth MLS Cup championship.
If it sounds like it was easy, it wasn't. There was plenty of drama – remember, LA were last in the Western Conference in mid-May thanks to a sparse early schedule and results that failed to match their form – and if not for an uncommon chemistry, things might have collapsed at several junctures. It's worth marveling over what the Galaxy might have accomplished had they wrung out every last point they deserved, scored every can't-miss goal they did, indeed, miss.
They fell just short in the Supporters' Shield chase, losing the battle to Seattle by earning just one point when four were required in the season-ending home-and-home showdown with the Sounders. It wouldn't have been close had they claimed just a fraction of the points they squandered – they watched as many as 23 slip away – or scored a handful of the additional 33 goals that, by statistics giant Opta's estimation, should have hit the net.
They didn't always fire on all cylinders, skipping a few beats down the stretch – a 5-0 Western Conference semifinal dismantling of Real Salt Lake aside. They relied on the old Bruce Arena standbys – (mostly) great defense and a knack for prevailing in tight combat – to end Seattle's title dream in the conference championship, then beat New England in the final.
There were compelling storylines galore, none bigger nor better than Donovan's last go-round – from the World Cup snub to career goals/assists records to unexpected retirement with a storybook finish – and none so tragic as the far-too-brief life of A.J. DeLaGarza's son, Luca.
Keane finally claimed the MVP award after scoring 19 goals with 14 assists in 29 appearances – numbers that only begin to illustrate all he does. Robbie Rogers found a new home at left back, and fared quite well there, all while penning a memoir and helping to create a television series inspired by his story.
The Galaxy started slowly, winning just two of their first eight games while trying out a diamond midfield that worked until it didn't, and they came out of the World Cup minibreak barely above .500 and sitting seventh in the West but with games in hand on everybody.
Things kept falling into place. Homegrown forward Gyasi Zardes, in his sophomore campaign, moved up front next to Keane in late May and started scoring: 16 MLS goals, 18 in all, with a lot of game-winners among them.
Dan Gargan won a roster spot in preseason, stepped up as injuries clobbered the outside-back corps and played a significant role at right back. Offseason acquisitions Stefan Ishizaki and Baggio Husidic solidified the midfield, where Marcelo Sarvas was enjoying his finest MLS season and fellow Brazilian Juninho made his argument for the league's top defensive midfielder. Alan Gordon showed up in August, his second stint with LA, and started scoring vital goals off the bench.
And DeLaGarza answered his pain with a phenomenal campaign, playing all four backline positions while providing Best XI perennial Omar Gonzalez the foundation to do what he does so well.
They took off come summer, going 13-2-4 over 3½ months – with 50 goals for and just 20 against – and building a 10-game unbeaten streak before slipping in tough matches against FC Dallas and Seattle to finish the regular season.
Arena called their three-goal second-half comeback in a 4-3 win over the Colorado Rapids on Aug. 20 “the defining moment in our season.”
He may not be wrong. But with so many defining moments – the three-goal first half in a 3-0 rout at Seattle in late July; the four-goal routs, a month apart, of D.C. United and New York, at the time considered the East's two best sides; the 5-0 playoff win over RSL; the away-goal triumph in Seattle; Keane's game-winning goal in overtime to deliver the championship, to name a few more – there’s no question it’s a season that will be talked about for years to come.
“Pound for pound, for me, it would be hard to argue it isn't [the finest team in MLS history],” said associate head coach Dave Sarachan, who won an MLS Cup title as an assistant coach during D.C. United's dynasty and guided Chicago to the 2003 title game. “As far as the quality of the team and the type of soccer this team played, and the level of every position, the star power – when you add all those ingredients up, it would be in the discussion [as] one of the best, if not the best ...
"I don't know how you use the measurement [to compare teams] because all the championship teams had certain quality players. But the way I would say it is the soccer that was played and the entertainment value and the quality of play and what your eye saw, I thought this year was up there.”
