CARSON, Calif. – Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the LA Galaxy in 2017, as the club’s transition into a new era following the departure of ex-manager Bruce Arena ended with the nominal MLS titans finishing in last in the entire league.
The 2017 failures meant the club had to engineer another rebuild ahead of the 2018 season. This time, they think they got it right.
The Galaxy opened preseason on Monday at StubHub Center, and there were plenty of introductions happening. LA have had more turnover this winter than they’ve had since Arena cleared house after taking over for Ruud Gullit in 2008. There’s great optimism in camp that Sigi Schmid's side won't just batter last year's woeful record, but will be in the thick of the Western Conference playoff chase and take a shot at the available trophies.
That's the plan, and there's no question that LA's personnel this season is far better suited for such a quest than last year's. Now it's time to get on the same page.
The recent acquisitions of striker Ola Kamara from Columbus Crew SC and free agent midfielder Chris Pontius, a Southern California native last with the Philadelphia Union, makes for 13 newcomers since the Galaxy wrapped up an 8-18-8 2017 that was beset by injury and questionable squad depth.
“I think we accomplished quite a lot ...,” Schmid, who took over from Curt Onalfo last July, said following his team's first on-field session. “You're never going to [bat] 1,000 percent, but if we hit on two-thirds, three-quarters of the players we brought in, we'll be happy.”
Last year's success rate was just 33 percent. Only four of the dozen players brought aboard – including late arrivals Jonathan dos Santos and Michael Ciani – remain with the Galaxy. The team have jettisoned 14 players since last season closed, including six Homegrown players and two others who came to the first team through Galaxy II.
LA has upgraded all over the field this winter, bringing in goalkeeper David Bingham from San Jose, Norwegian center back Jorgen Skjelvik from Rosenborg, Swiss-born Venezuelan right back Rolf Feltscher from Cardiff City, former D.C. United holding midfielder Perry Kitchen from Randers, Kamara, Pontius and a bit of depth.
The Kamara deal, in the works for months, is the most explosive. The Galaxy let go of hometown hero Gyasi Zardes, plus $400,000 in Targeted Allocation Money (and another $100,000 if Kamara nets a dozen goals), to get a proven scorer, something they did not possess last year.
Kamara joins what could be a potent attack manned by Jonathan and Gio dos Santos, Frenchman Romain Alessandrini, tricky Ghanaian winger Emmanuel Boateng and newly healthy midfielder Sebastian Lletget, whom we last saw rocketing into a big role with the US national team before suffering a serious foot injury in a World Cup qualifier.
“Jorgen is a defender who we think is very good at playing the ball out of the back, which I think will help us find players in good pockets on the field that makes it easier for them to get forward,” said Schmid, who is in his second stint in charge of his hometown club. “We got a right back and picked up David Bingham in goal, which we felt we needed to do. Picked up a sitting midfielder in Perry Kitchen, which we needed to do. And we ended up getting a center forward. Then we got some bonus in there as well, like a Pontius.”
And having Lletget return is “like picking up a new player.”
Schmid revamped Columbus Crew SC after taking over after the 2005 season and won MLS Cup three years later. That makeover was far more extreme.
“There's definitely a much sounder base here [than in Columbus 12 years ago],” he said. “What we basically tried to do was find pieces that would complement the pieces that we had. It was important for us to find pieces to complement Gio, to complement Alessandrini, to complement Jonathan, to make that all work for us.”
Chemistry must be created over the next six weeks – a trip next week to Tucson will be valuable – and another move or two, likely for depth, could be coming. LA expects to compete, for real.
“Our goal is to get into the playoffs,” Schmid said. “You can't win a championship unless you get into the playoffs, and that's where we want to be. We want to be competing for championships. There's MLS and there's Supporters' Shield and there's the [US] Open Cup. We want to compete for all of them.”
