MLSsoccer.com continues our look back at the 2014 season that was for all 19 clubs in Major League Soccer, starting with the Montreal Impact and ending with this look at the MLS Cup-winning LA Galaxy. Over the weekend we'll also take a peek at the two new clubs coming in and pour one out for departed friends Chivas USA. You can find the 2014 Year in Review HERE, and the club-by-club history of MLS HERE.
2014 record: 17-7-10 (61 pts.); 69 GF / 37 GA; +32 GD
To say the LA Galaxy were very, very, very good in 2014 might just be an understatement.
They said it...
Galaxy president Chris Klein on whether this was MLS's best team ever:
“I think that we were very complete this year, from top to bottom. But the biggest thing is this group was a real family this year, and it didn't matter what happened. They rally around A.J. [DeLaGarza], they rally around Landon. This team had the characteristics of a true champion.”
Captain Robbie Keane:
“It's about winning, and it's about getting trophies. If you're not winning, people forget about you fairly quickly.”
Head coach Bruce Arena on whether the Galaxy are Robbie Keane's team:
“We've never heard one comment that this is how they do it at Liverpool or Tottenham. He's bought into Major League Soccer from the start, and he's our greatest advocate. It's been fabulous. Look what we've done since we've acquired Robbie. Is it his team? No, it's Mr. Anschutz's team, to be honest with you. But he's a pretty big piece, for sure.”
LA won it all again, their third MLS Cup title in four years and the club's fifth overall, a league record. And it was accompanied by a number of absorbing storylines, none bigger than Landon Donovan's season-long saga, starting with his World Cup nightmare, league and US national team records chase and culminating with his retirement. And then there was Robbie Keane's best MLS campaign being honored with the MVP award, Robbie Rogers’ tremendous transition to left back and Gyasi Zardes’ emergence as something of a star in his sophomore campaign.
Not only were the Galaxy’s accomplishments impressive, but so was the way in which they were achieved. By July the Galaxy evolved into a possession team, with a passing game marked by heavy interchange among attacking players, and went 18-5-8, playoffs included, after a mid-May loss to Houston left them last in the Western Conference.
They were dominant more often than not, routing Seattle, New England, Real Salt Lake, D.C. United, New York, Portland, Chivas USA, Philadelphia and Colorado at different points in the season while leading the league in scoring, defense and putting up a plus-32 goal differential, more than double the league’s next-best total and the finest mark in MLS in 16 years.
They even left their fair share of points on the table – by some estimates as much as 20 – wasting superb performances on draws and the occasional defeat, and enduring a season-long struggle with penalties. But they injected themselves into the Supporters’ Shield race by autumn, and if they couldn't quite catch the Seattle Sounders at the end, they took care of their Northwest rival in the Western Conference Championship, winning on away goals to get to the title game.
Best Moment of the Year
The Galaxy had watched a second-half lead disappear, dodged a couple of bullets as New England pressed for a late winner and were sitting 10 minutes from a penalty-kick shootout in the MLS Cup final when Marcelo Sarvas sent a long ball to an open Keane along the left channel. The Irishman took it into the box and fired across the goalmouth, past Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth and into the far-post side netting. It gave LA an unprecedented fifth MLS Cup title and their third in four years.
Worst Moment of the Year
Giving away a two-goal lead to the visiting Sounders in the penultimate game of the season, when a victory would have given the Galaxy command of the Supporters' Shield race heading into the regular-season finale in Seattle, was probably the low point on the field. But it wasn't anywhere near as devastating as young Luca DeLaGarza's death in early September, one week after he was born with a congenital heart condition. A.J. DeLaGarza and his wife, Megan, had learned in April that their son was in for a fight, and his battle to survive – marked in the ubiquitous “Luca Knows Heart” T-shirts sold to raise funds for Children's Hospital Los Angeles – brought closer a tight-knit club as support poured in from around the league. DeLaGarza used his anguish to spur superb performances all season and especially down the stretch, noting that it was his best season on the field and worst off the field.
Best Goal
There were plenty of candidates, so many of them following mesmerizing 15- and 20-pass sequences. Choosing one is nearly impossible, and it's hard to argue with the last goal, Keane's overtime finish to beat New England in the MLS Cup final. That's the most important goal -- or was it Juninho's to give LA the away goal that decided the Western Conference Championship series against Seattle? They were both special, as was Donovan's record-breaker just after being dropped from the World Cup squad.
But none stirred the imagination quite so much as Keane's chip over Chivas USA goalkeeper Dan Kennedy in a 3-0 “road” victory Aug. 31 at StubHub Center. The Irishman took a pass from Sarvas, turned toward the goal, pushed the ball past Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, saw Kennedy about 6 yards off his line, and chipped perfectly from 23 yards into the net.
Team MVP
This one's obvious – Keane won the league MVP vote, deservedly – but perhaps it shouldn't be. Sarvas' imprint on LA’s midfield was massive all season, Donovan, whose 19 assists is the second-highest single-season total in league history, enjoyed two of the finest months of his career in late summer, and Zardes' hot foot was critical as LA started to gel at midsummer. But who are we kidding? It's Keane, whow as the focal point of the Galaxy attack all year. LA's captain scored 19 goals with 14 assists (plus four more goals with three more assists in CONCACAF Champions League and MLS postseason play), was the pivotal figure and produced one of the finest individual campaigns MLS has ever seen.
Best Move
Rogers' first full year with the Galaxy was defined mostly by nagging injuries, and fans griped mightily about giving up Mike Magee to sign the winger. Then, in June, with injuries depleting LA's corps of outside backs – with major ailments sidelining Todd Dunivant and James Riley – Bruce Arena decided to try Rogers at left back. It was a master stroke: Rogers turned out to be a rugged and willing defender, and his ability to surge into attack, either overlapping with or using the entire flank as Donovan pinched inside, gave the Galaxy another dimension that bolstered their dominance.
Quotable
“When this league was founded, it was founded on the idea of parity. And the league does everything in its power to ensure parity. So when you have a team that wins three titles in four years, it's pretty special. And so when you put it in that context, it's not like we're Manchester United or Chelsea, who won three out of four years. We're not the [New York] Yankees, who won three out of four years. We're not the [Boston] Celtics or the [Los Angeles] Lakers, who won three out of four. We're a team that has the same rules that everyone else has. ... When you put it in that real context, I think it's a lot more special than just winning three out of four.” – Donovan said in his final news conference, following LA's 2-1 overtime victory over New England in the MLS Cup final
Three Offseason Needs
1.
A New Donovan:
The Galaxy know they can't replace Donovan, the league's best chance creator both by the numbers and the eye test, who hung up his boots at 32 years of age.
They'll bring in a big name, to be sure
– Wesley Sneijder, Andrea Pirlo and Steven Gerrard have been mentioned in European circles – and plan on adding a difference-maker, but it's not going to be the same. Donovan played both sides of the ball as a two-way No. 10 on the wing, something both rare and very, very expensive in modern soccer.
2. Improvement Curve: Zardes took a huge step forward in his second season, evolving into a fine, thoughtful forward who scored 16 goals, plus two more in the US Open Cup and a big one in the title-game victory over New England. He still has far to go, but his advancement is what LA want to see from their academy products. And they now expect to see it every year, especially with their USL PRO side, Galaxy II, providing the tools for development. The best candidate may be Bradford Jamieson IV, who has real star potential and could be part of the Donovan Replacement Corps.
3. Midfield Spark: Donovan's gone, Sarvas and Stefan Ishizaki are well into their 30s, while Baggio Husidic and Kenney Walker are best suited as defensive options in brief runs. Juninho is the rock it's all built upon, which is a nice start. But it's clear a little something more is needed -- perhaps a pure playmaker, but without doubt a dose of both youth and athleticism.
