the angeleno's guide to the galaxy
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The LA Galaxy worked with Howler Magazine to create The Angeleno’s Guide to the Galaxy, which serves as a commemoration of our team’s first 19 years.TRANSCRIPT
GYASI ZARDES
012 0 1 4 S E A S O N
a
Landon Donovan
b
Cobi Jones
c
Robbie Keane
d
David Beckham
e
Mauricio Cienfuegos
AB
C
D
E
c o v e r i l l u s t r a t i o n b y a s a f h a n u k a
It’s that time of year.
The LA Galaxy is preparing to compete for a record fifth
MLS Cup. Every season, our intention is to be recognized as
North America’s most successful soccer club, on and off the
field. The key to our success since 1996 is simple—it’s you.
Your unwavering support of the LA Galaxy for the past 19
seasons is what defines our club. Ever since our inception in
1996, you have pushed us to win championships and grow
the game of soccer in Southern California. From matches
at the Rose Bowl to lifting back-to-back MLS Cups at our
very own StubHub Center, your ardent support has made
the difference. You’ve pulled for the best in North American
soccer: Mauricio Cienfuegos, Cobi Jones, David Beckham,
Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan, Omar Gonzalez, and Gyasi
Zardes—the players depicted on the cover of this edition—
have all donned the Galaxy jersey in pursuit of bringing glory
to the city of Los Angeles.
We worked with Howler Magazine to create The Angeleno’s
Guide to the Galaxy, which serves as a commemoration of
our team’s first 19 years and a celebration of the club we
have banded together to shape.
We are excited to finish this season strong and continue our
journey into the Galaxy’s 20th season and beyond.
Best,
Chris KleinPresident, LA Galaxy
E D I T O R S
Astronomical FiguresA statistical look at the LA Galaxy
S C O T T F R E N C H
Side to Sideand Up and DownThe story of soccer in Los Angeles
A D A M S E R R A N O
A Brief History of(Our Corner of)the UniverseA timeline of America’s greatest club
G E O R G E V E C S E Y
Universal DominionCan the LA Galaxy call itself a dynasty?
02
04
10
16
09
19
C U T- O U T S B Y N O A H M a cM I L L A N
Landon DonovanStubHub Center
e d i t o r
George Quraishi
a r t d i r e c t o r
Joel Speasmaker
c o p y e d i t o r
Michael Agovino
e d i t o r i a l a s s i s ta n t
Dan Stelly
02 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY i n f o g r a p h i c b y i t a l / c
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
13 13
6
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
1115
6
LandonDonovan
8
W L D
914
7
LandonDonovan
20
W L D
813
9
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
126
12
EdsonBuddle
17
W L D
18
7 5
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
19
510
RobbieKeane
16
W L D
1612
6
RobbieKeane
16
W L D
1511 8
W L D
14
5 7
EduardoHurtado
21
W L D
19
13
0
CobiJones
19
W L D
24
8
0
CobiJones
&Carlos
Hermosillo
8
RobbieKeane
&Gyasi
Zardes
14
W L D
20
12
0
CobiJones
7
W L D
1410 8
LuisHernandez
8
W L D
147
5
CarlosRuiz
24
W L D
169
3
CarlosRuiz
15
W L D
912
9
CarlosRuiz
11
W L D
11 9 10
Welton
11
W L D
16 16
0YEARBY
YEARRECORD
ANDLEADINGSCORER
TO DATE
GOALSLANDON DONOVAN
COBI JONES
CARLOS RUIZ
ROBBIE KEANE
EDSON BUDDLE
48
45
51
70
111
GAMES PLAYEDCOBI JONES
KEVIN HARTMAN
LANDON DONOVAN
MAURICIO CIENFUEGOS
GREG VANNEY
206
193
240
243
306
SHUTOUTS (Goal Keepers)KEVIN HARTMAN
DONOVAN RICKETTS
JOSH SAUNDERS
JAIME PENEDO
MATT REIS
10
9
20
27
62
ASSISTSLANDON DONOVAN
COBI JONES
MAURICIO CIENFUEGOS
DAVID BECKHAM
ROBBIE KEANE
40
33
80
91
102
L AGAL A X YPL AY ERS TAT S
AWARDS & TROPHIES
MLS Cup2002, 2005, 2011, 2012
MLS WesternConference Champions
Regular season1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002,
2009, 2010, 2011Playoffs
1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup2001, 2005
MLS Supporters’ Shield1998, 2002, 2010, 2011
CONCACAFChampions League
2000
California Clásico1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013
SuperClasico2005, 2006, 2008, 2009,
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
908
936
897
886
873
949
990
869
858
842
LA Galaxy
Metrosta
rs/New York R
ed Bulls
FC Dallas/Dalla
s Burn
D.C. U
nited
Columbus Cre
w
Goals & AssistsMLS
MOST GOALS ALL-TIME
MOST ASSISTS ALL-TIME
586Games
936Goals
1.25Goals Against
Avg.
990Assists
161Shutouts
55Ejections
7,649Shots
2,006Saves
3,326Shots On Goal
960Yellow Cards
ALL-TIMETEAM
NUMBERSASTRONOMICALFIGURES
A S TAT I S T I C A L L O O KAT T H E L A G A L A X Y
032 0 1 4 S E A S O Ni n f o r m a t i o n c o r r e c t a s o f s e p t e m b e r 9 , 2 0 1 4
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
13 13
6
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
1115
6
LandonDonovan
8
W L D
914
7
LandonDonovan
20
W L D
813
9
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
126
12
EdsonBuddle
17
W L D
18
7 5
LandonDonovan
12
W L D
19
510
RobbieKeane
16
W L D
1612
6
RobbieKeane
16
W L D
1511 8
W L D
14
5 7
EduardoHurtado
21
W L D
19
13
0
CobiJones
19
W L D
24
8
0
CobiJones
&Carlos
Hermosillo
8
RobbieKeane
&Gyasi
Zardes
14
W L D
20
12
0
CobiJones
7
W L D
1410 8
LuisHernandez
8
W L D
147
5
CarlosRuiz
24
W L D
169
3
CarlosRuiz
15
W L D
912
9
CarlosRuiz
11
W L D
11 9 10
Welton
11
W L D
16 16
0YEARBY
YEARRECORD
ANDLEADINGSCORER
TO DATE
GOALSLANDON DONOVAN
COBI JONES
CARLOS RUIZ
ROBBIE KEANE
EDSON BUDDLE
48
45
51
70
111
GAMES PLAYEDCOBI JONES
KEVIN HARTMAN
LANDON DONOVAN
MAURICIO CIENFUEGOS
GREG VANNEY
206
193
240
243
306
SHUTOUTS (Goal Keepers)KEVIN HARTMAN
DONOVAN RICKETTS
JOSH SAUNDERS
JAIME PENEDO
MATT REIS
10
9
20
27
62
ASSISTSLANDON DONOVAN
COBI JONES
MAURICIO CIENFUEGOS
DAVID BECKHAM
ROBBIE KEANE
40
33
80
91
102
L AGAL A X YPL AY ERS TAT S
AWARDS & TROPHIES
MLS Cup2002, 2005, 2011, 2012
MLS WesternConference Champions
Regular season1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002,
2009, 2010, 2011Playoffs
1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup2001, 2005
MLS Supporters’ Shield1998, 2002, 2010, 2011
CONCACAFChampions League
2000
California Clásico1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013
SuperClasico2005, 2006, 2008, 2009,
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
908
936
897
886
873
949
990
869
858
842
LA Galaxy
Metrosta
rs/New York R
ed Bulls
FC Dallas/Dalla
s Burn
D.C. U
nited
Columbus Cre
w
Goals & AssistsMLS
MOST GOALS ALL-TIME
MOST ASSISTS ALL-TIME
586Games
936Goals
1.25Goals Against
Avg.
990Assists
161Shutouts
55Ejections
7,649Shots
2,006Saves
3,326Shots On Goal
960Yellow Cards
ALL-TIMETEAM
NUMBERS
04 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY
T H E
S T O R Y
O F
S O C C E R
I N
L O S
A N G E L E S
byS C O T T F R E N C H
j e f f r o b b i n s | a s s o c i a t e d p r e s s
052 0 1 4 S E A S O N
S O C C E R I N L O S A N G E L E S D AT E S
back to the late 19th century, and
the first local leagues were formed
in 1902. As in the rest of the US,
teams and leagues were drawn
along ethnic lines, and occasional
exhibitions involving big South
American or European clubs drew
decent crowds. The LA Kickers,
which came out of the German com-
munity in 1951, was the first great
SoCal side, winning the National
Challenge Cup (now called the US
Open Cup) in ’58 and again in ’64.
The pro game arrived in 1967,
when a consortium of businessmen
led by Jack Kent Cooke formed the
United Soccer Association (USA).
Cooke owned the NBA’s Lakers, the
NHL’s Kings, and part of the NFL’s
Washington Redskins. American
soccer was the next step. Play was
supposed to begin in 1968, but in
order to beat out a bid by another
fledgling league, the National Pro-
fessional Soccer League (NPSL),
for the imprimatur of the US Soccer
Federation (and therefore FIFA), the
USA owners decided to start a year
earlier. There was just one problem:
They didn’t have teams.
The solution? Bring over clubs
from other places to play a 12-game
schedule. The Cleveland Stokers
were really Stoke City. The Vancou-
ver Royal Canadians were actually
Sunderland. And Wolverhampton
Wanderers masqueraded as the LA
Wolves. Meanwhile, the unsanc-
tioned NPSL also launched, with a
32-game schedule and teams draw-
ing from mostly foreign talent. LA’s
entry in this league was the Toros,
owned by Dan Reeves, who also con-
trolled the NFL’s LA Rams. Both
soccer teams played at the Coliseum.
The Toros were managed by Max
Wozniak, a German-Polish goal-
keeper who would later coach the
US national team for two games
in the mid-1970s (both losses) and
guide Maccabi Los Angeles, a local
amateur side, to the first of its
record-tying five US Open Cup
G E O R G E B E S T WA S AT T H E H O T E L,
having just flown in from Europe. His
famous quote—the one everyone re-
members—goes something like this:
“I spent a lot of my money on booze,
birds, and fast cars; The rest I squan-
dered.” But that day, he offered some-
thing nearly as good to the reporters
gathered around him. It’s an anecdote
I’d hear a couple of years later, when
I started working as a sportswriter
at a local paper at the age of 16, and
it stuck with me over the decades I’ve
covered soccer in Los Angeles.
Someone asked him about Pelé,
who had joined the Cosmos the year
before and was pretty much the only
soccer player most Americans could
name. “Pelé?” he snorted. “I’m better
than Pelé.”
Pelé apparently agreed, reportedly
calling the Northern Irishman the
best player on earth.
Best was not the only
player to suit up for a
Los Angeles team who
might have believed he
was better player than
the Black Pearl—the
extremely talented and
supremely confident
Johan Cruyff joined the
Aztecs a year after Best
left—or at least a bigger
brand name: We’ve all
seen David Beckham’s
four-story underwear
advertisements.
Still, Best, Beck-
ham, and Cruyff, all
icons who transcended
the sport, are a good
place to start. Los
Angeles has always
worshipped stardom,
and celebrities are, of course, a big
part of the tale. But these weren’t
the only stars: Carlos Alberto played
in Orange County for
another North American Soccer
League (NASL) club, the California
Surf, in 1981, and the colorful Jorge
Campos put his costume on for the
Galaxy long before the arrival of
Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane,
who are about as big as they come.
Dig a little deeper, and there’s a far
richer narrative with a good number
of supporting characters—emphasis
on characters. Jack Kent Cooke, Dan
Reeves, Alan Rothenberg, and Elton
John are also part of this story. Them
you know, or ought to. You might not
know Max Wosniak and Poli Garcia,
Doug McMillan and Jimmy Hinch,
John Gregory and William De La
Peña, but they were there, too.
Over the last 50 years, Southern
California has been home to per-
haps two dozen professional clubs,
whether they played indoors (LA
Lazers, LA United, Anaheim Splash,
Anaheim Bolts, Ontario Fury, plus
the Aztecs and Surf in the NASL’s
winter seasons) or merely belonged
in the semi-professional ranks (LA/
Orange County Blues, Orange County
Zodiac, LA Fireballs, San Fernando
Valley Golden Eagles, Riverside
County Elite). There has been a
women’s team (LA Sol, with Marta),
a squad transplanted entirely from
England (LA Wolves), and of course
the Galaxy and Chivas USA of Major
League Soccer.
The Galaxy lost to D.C. United
in the first MLS Cup. A win, and
it would have been the city’s fifth
team to capture the league title
in its first attempt, following the
Wolves (United Soccer Association,
1967), Aztecs (NASL, 1974), Skyhawks
(American Soccer League, 1976), and
Hollywood Kickers (Western Soccer
Alliance, 1986).
This year, the team is taking aim at
its fifth title, and it’s kind of neat to
know that the team is building not
only on its own history but that of all
professional soccer in the region.
George Best (11) and his
LA Aztecs teammates
look on in amusement
as part-owner Elton
John kicks a ball at the
Los Angeles Coliseum
in 1976
06 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY
would complete his hat trick and
put LA ahead in the 82nd min-
ute, only for Frank Munro to bring
Washington level and send the
match to extra time in the 89th.
LA went ahead in the 113th minute
and had a chance to seal the win
in the 118th, but Terry Wharton
missed his penalty. Unbelievably,
Washington equalized in the 120th,
when Munro completed a hat trick
of his own on another penalty. Fi-
nally, after all of that, Washington’s
Ally Shewan put in an own goal in
the 122nd minute, and LA won the
league title, 6–5.
The USA and NPSL merged in
’68, forming the NASL. The Toros
relocated to San Diego and lost to the
Atlanta Chiefs in the first NASL
championship game. The Wolves
L O S A N G E L E S W E N T W I T H O U T P R O
soccer for six years, until real estate
magnate John Gregory brought the
NASL back in 1974. His team, the
Los Angeles Aztecs, won the title
under Alex Pirolli on its first try,
beating the Miami Toros on penal-
ties after a thrilling 3–3 draw at the
Orange Bowl. LA’s Doug McMillan
(who was named the NASL’s Rookie
of the Year, at 29, a season after he
had earned the same honor playing
in the ASL for Cleveland) forced
the shootout with a goal in the 88th
minute, moments after Esteban
Aranguiz gave the Toros their third
lead of the afternoon.
The city took little notice of the
Aztecs, which played that first year
at East LA College and the second
and third at El Camino College. In
1976, things changed. First, Elton
John joined the ownership group.
Second, George Best was lured from
his premature retirement.
Best was a true star, both at home
in Northern Ireland and for his for-
mer club, Manchester United. He was
one of the most skillful players ever
to kick a ball, and landing him was
a real coup, even though his primary
interests were women and whiskey.
Best was productive in two full
seasons with the Aztecs, contributing
25 goals and 27 assists, but the team
averaged only 8,000 fans in 1976
and 9,600 in 1977, which looked like
even less in the cavernous Coliseum.
He spent time in pretty much every
South Bay bar before deciding to
open one himself, Besties, in Hermo-
sa Beach, which became a hangout
for expatriate Brits, visitors from the
UK, and his teammates.
Best went to the Fort Lauderdale
Strikers during the 1978 season. I was a
17-year-old reporter for a small Orange
County newspaper, and I had arranged
to speak with him following a game
against the California Surf, the area’s
other NASL team, which launched in
’78. After the game, Best went straight
to Anaheim Stadium’s strictly 21-and-
up Stadium Club. They wouldn’t
championships. They had just one
American, Nicaraguan-born for-
ward Manuel Abunza, and ended
the season on a 13-game winless
streak to post the worst record in
the league (7–10–15).
The Wolves were much bet-
ter, advancing to what is surely
the greatest final in the history of
any American soccer league. They
were playing at home against the
Washington Whips—Aberdeen of
Scotland—in front of a crowd of
17,842. Tied at one by the 21st min-
ute, the game remained level until
Washington scored a penalty in
the 64th minute. LA answered in
the 65th. Washington regained the
lead in the 66th. LA tied it again
in the 67th. Both of LA’s rapid-fire
goals were by David Burnside, who
built a squad under former
Manchester United keeper Ray
Wood that starred future two-
time NASL MVP Carlos “Topolino”
Metidieri and limped to third in
its division. Both clubs folded after
the 1968 season.
Johan Cruyff, right, is presented to
the Los Angeles media by Aztecs
head coach Rinus Michels. The two
men revolutionized world soccer with
the creation of Total Football while at
Ajax, and would work together again at
Barcelona and then for the Netherlands
at the 1974 World Cup before arriving in
Southern California.
b o b t h o m a s | g e t t y i m a g e s
072 0 1 4 S E A S O N
Also notable was San Diego-born
midfielder Poli Garcia, who was
capped by the US at 17 and scored 50
goals in three years for the Sunshine
before moving on to the Aztecs and
then to the indoor circuit. This was
out of necessity; Once LA’s entries
in the ASL and NASL went belly-up,
it would be several years before
professional outdoor soccer returned
to the city.
That happened in 1986, when the
Hollywood Kickers and Torrance-
based LA Heat began playing in the
Western Soccer Alliance (WSA). Both
would compete for five seasons, and
the Kickers would change names
several times after becoming the
fourth LA team to win the league in
the year of its debut. The Kickers rep-
resent a fulcrum of sorts in the story
of Los Angeles soccer. Head coach
Rildo Menezes, a Brazilian who had
suited up for the Lazers during their
only season, was assisted by Octavio
Zambrano, an Ecuador-born mid-
fielder by way of Chapman Univer-
sity in Orange, California, who had
played indoor with the LA Lazers
(no relation the Southern California
Lazers Rildo had played for). Zam-
brano would go on to be an assistant
and then head coach with the Galaxy.
American soccer’s modern era was
beginning. The United States had
been awarded the 1994 World Cup
and played, with little success, in
Italy in 1990, its first World Cup in
40 years. A real professional league—
something worthy of the “major
league” moniker—was in the distance.
B U T U N T I L T H E N , T H E O N LY T H I N G
going was the American Professional
Soccer League. The APSL never had
more than seven teams after 1992, but
those teams had better backing and a
higher level of play than those that had
closed out the ’80s, and a successful
Montebello ophthalmologist named
William De La Peña wanted in.
as a Dip. Ownership had passed to
a group led by Alan Rothenberg,
who was in charge of the ’94 World
Cup, and then to Mexican tele-
communications magnate Emilio
Azcarraga, who shuttered the team
after the ’81 season.
The Surf had some big names of
their own—Scottish star Charlie
Cooke, who had also played for the
Aztecs, Brazilian superstar Carlos
Alberto, and in his final season as a
pro, future Arsenal boss George Gra-
ham—but only averaged more than
10,000 at the gate in two of its four
seasons. It also folded in 1981.
T H E A P PA R E N T S U C C E S S O F T H E
NASL in the mid-1970s convinced
another, much older league to expand.
The second American Soccer League
(ASL) launched in 1933, a few months
after the demise of the first, which had
been around since 1921. Both ASLs
featured northeastern clubs and had
been, between them, the best leagues
in the country for several decades. But
in 1976, league commissioner (and
former Boston Celtic) Bob Cousy
went nationwide. The LA Skyhawks
started play in the San Fernando
Valley, followed by Orange County’s
California Sunshine a year later, and
the South Bay’s Southern California
Lazers the year after that. By 1980,
all three were gone, and the league
itself vanished in 1983.
Still, the coach of the Skyhawks,
Ron Newman, had a lasting impact
on soccer in Southern California
and beyond. The former Portsmouth
winger had led the Dallas Tornado to
the NASL title as player-manager in
’71, and he became the only coach to
win NASL and ASL crowns when his
Skyhawks did it the very first year,
playing at Birmingham High School
in Van Nuys. Newman would later
guide the San Diego Sockers to 10
indoor championships in 11 years,
then become the first head coach
hired in MLS, by Kansas City.
let me in to interview him, and they
wouldn’t let him take his drink outside
to talk to me. We were at an impasse
until his gorgeous blonde companion
dragged him to the door. He stood
inside with his drink, and I lobbed
questions at him from just outside,
where I was holding my tape recorder.
The winger was notorious for
his alcoholism, and during his
funeral nine years ago, a plaque
commemorating him above the
bar at Besties—now called The
Underground—toppled onto the
taps, causing the ale to flow. It was
a most appropriate memorial.
After Best came the Dutch, with
Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff—
the architects, coach and star player,
of Ajax and Holland’s Total Foot-
ball. Defender Wim Suurbier and a
few others also joined, including a
22-year-old Thomas Rongen, who
would go on to coach MLS clubs
(including Chivas USA) and US
youth national teams.
Cruyff was a genius on the field,
one of the most incisive thinkers the
game has produced. He was mesmer-
izing in his sole season in LA, winning
the NASL’s MVP award after scoring
13 goals with 16 assists en route to a
second-place finish in the National
Conference’s Western Division.
Cruyff ’s poison was tobacco, and
he would roll his own cigarettes, in
the Dutch style, and smoke before
and after games and practices, and
even during interviews. As a man-
ager, before his heart bypass surgery
in 1991, he would smoke on the field
during games.
Even after the arrival of Best and
then Cruyff, the Aztecs never got big
crowds, drawing 14,334 per game
at the Rose Bowl in ’79 and 12,057
the following year. Those were the
only seasons attendance averaged
in five figures. In eight years, the
Aztecs had just nine crowds of more
than 20,000, the largest 48,483 for
a Fourth of July shootout victory in
1980 over the Washington Diplo-
mats—Cruyff ’s return to Pasadena
The Galaxy
didn’t have a
regular training
facility and
bounced
among college
fields, or
practiced in
Area H of the
Rose Bowl
parking lot,
which was at
least somewhat
grassy.
08 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY
Davis added coaching to his
duties, and the Salsa—with a roster
that featured US national-team-
ers Paul Caligiuri, Jeff Agoos, and
Hugo Perez; future Galaxy play-
ers Danny Peña and Jorge Salce-
do; and Bell High School legend
Waldir Guerra, who was capped
for El Salvador—made it to the
semifinals in year two.
De La Peña pursued and won a
spot in Mexico’s new Division 1A.
US Soccer and FIFA approved, but
CONCACAF vetoed the move. Plan
B was a 19-game exhibition series,
starting in October of ’94, against
Mexican clubs, to be played mostly
at East LA College.
The series would prove to be the
Salsa’s last stand—a bid by the APSL
to become the nation’s top tier of
professional soccer failed, and De La
Peña would move his club to a third-
division league in Mission Viejo—
but even that didn’t go as planned.
Nearly 15,000 people watched
the Salsa lose to Guadalajara, then
just 2,600 showed up for its defeat
to Puebla. A sparsely attended draw
with Veracruz turned out to be the
end: the Mexican federation called
a boycott of California after the
state’s passage of Proposition 187,
which denied social services to
undocumented immigrants.
in Area H of the Rose Bowl parking
lot, which was at least somewhat
grassy. Greg Vanney, a rookie out
of UCLA in ’96, once stretched for
a ball during a training session and
came down on a manhole cover.
The rest of the history you prob-
ably know: the sale to Anschutz
Entertainment Group; a few more
disappointing MLS Cup finals, and
then four triumphant ones; a new
stadium in Carson; the arrival of
Chivas USA; a guy named Landon
and a guy named David and a
guy named Robbie. If you’re not
familiar, there’s a timeline of Galaxy
history elsewhere in this issue. The
team inherited the tradition of Los
Angeles soccer, but they’ve done a
lot of the building themselves.
Here’s Cobi Jones recalling those
Area H training sessions:
“I remember, before practice,
picking up beer bottles and caps
and broken glass on the ‘field’ and
just throwing it out. The night be-
fore, people were tailgating there.
A simple pass from 10 yards is roll-
ing from side to side and bumping
in the air.”
I love Jones’s description of that
pass. Side to side and up and down.
A bumpy ride. Something that is
much harder to pull off than it looks.
That’s the story of soccer in LA.
s c o t t f r e n c h h a s c o v e r e d s o c c e r i n s o u t h e r n
c a l i f o r n i a f o r m o r e t h a n t h r e e d e c a d e s . h e
l i v e s i n o r a n g e c o u n t y a n d t w e e t s u n d e r t h e
h a n d l e @ s c o t tj f r e n c h .
So an eye doctor formed the LA
Salsa, hired as his president and gen-
eral manager Rick Davis—one of the
best American players of the 1970s,
who had lined up alongside Pelé and
Franz Beckenbauer for the Cosmos—
and brought in Rildo Menezes, now
a full-time Angeleno, to coach the
team. De La Peña wanted a first-
class team that would attract the
region’s mammoth Latino commu-
nity, and he wanted to be part of
the landscape after the World Cup,
whatever it might look like.
Davis and Rildo built a superb
team for the Salsa’s 1993 launch
around silky Brazilian playmaker
Paulinho and English-born, San
Diego-bred striker Paul Wright,
who finished as the league’s top two
scorers in ’93 and ’94. (Paulinho was
league MVP for both seasons.) They
also signed Javier Aguirre, who de-
buted in an exhibition game against
his former club Chivas de Guadala-
jara, playing one half for each side.
Returning to Los Angeles after more
than a decade—he’d played for the
Aztecs in the early ’80s—Aguirre
retired almost immediately in order
to begin his coaching career.
The Salsa made it to the ’93 APSL
final, where the team was beating
the defending-champion Colorado
Foxes (fielding future LA Galaxy
defender Robin Fraser) with three
minutes plus stoppage time left
in the game. (Phillip Gyau, father
of current USMNT player Joe,
had scored the game’s lone goal
for the Salsa). At that point, Ril-
do replaced Paulinho, who wasn’t
exactly known for defending, with
future Galaxy midfielder Harut
Karapetyan, and watched the sec-
onds tick down.
But the Foxes equalized, then went
ahead 3–1 in extra time to retain
the title. De La Peña was incensed,
railing afterward about the horrible
substitution. He wanted to fire Ril-
do that night. Davis intervened, but
within days of the final, Rildo was
out—a resignation, officially.
THE GALAXY FRONT OFFICE EXPECTED
around 30,000 people to show up
for the team’s first game, at the Rose
Bowl against the MetroStars. When
the teams came out for warmups 45
minutes before kickoff, there were
already that many people in the
seats. The players were stunned, and
they didn’t know that the Pasadena
Freeway leading to the stadium was
a parking lot.
“The best story from that night
came from the ticket office,” said
Danny Villanueva Jr., the Galaxy’s
first president and general manager.
“Somebody actually bought a ticket
to get into the game with less than
two minutes left [in the match]
because they had to get into the
stadium on that night.”
The team put on a good show:
Lothar Osiander’s squad had cen-
ter backs Dan Calichman and
Robin Fraser protecting goal-
keeper Jorge Campos; Salvador-
an star Mauricio Cienfuegos run-
ning the midfield with Cobi Jones
on the flank; and the hulking,
nearly impenetrably shy Eduar-
do Hurtado putting the ball into
the net. The team won its first
dozen games en route to a 19–13
regular-season campaign, starting
with that victory over the Metro-
Stars witnessed by 69,225—still
the largest MLS crowd for a game
that wasn’t part of a doubleheader.
The Galaxy didn’t have a regu-
lar training facility and bounced
among college fields, or practiced
LA’s three Designated
Players—Robbie Keane,
Landon Donovan, and David
Beckham (L to R)—combined
on the only goal of the 2011
MLS Cup: Beckham flicked
to Keane; Keane passed to
Donovan; Donovan finished.
092 0 1 4 S E A S O Ni l l u s t r a t i o n b y n o a h m a c m i l l a n
LANDON DONOVANM A K E Y O U R O W N
10 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY
JUNE 15 Two days before the opening game of the 1994 World Cup, Los Angeles is
one of seven cities awarded a Major League Soccer team. Play is expected to start with 12 teams the following year,
but the league will in fact begin with 10 teams in 1996.
JUNE 4 Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos becomes
the first international player signed by MLS, which pays a $2 million transfer fee to
Pumas and assigns him to LA
NOVEMBER 19 Former U.S. Men’s National Team boss
Lothar Osiander is named the Galaxy’s first head coach. Less than a month later, American
defender Dan Calichman becomes the second player
assigned to LA.
1994
1995
FEBRUARY 6 At theInaugural Player Draft, the
Galaxy selects Curt Onalfo, John O’Brien, Robin Fraser,
and Jorge Salcedo.El Salvador playmaker Mauricio Cienfuegos
and Ecuadorian striker Eduardo “El Tanque” Hurtado
also join.
MARCH 4 The Galaxy takes UCLA’s Greg Vanney with the 17th pick in the MLS College Draft. Three days later, LA
native Cobi Jones signs after stints with Coventry City and
Vasco da Gama
APRIL 13 Playing in front of 69,000 fans at the Rose Bowl,
LA beats the New York/New Jersey MetroStars 2–1in its first MLS match.
Calichman captains the side while Jones scores the club’s first goal, and Iranian defender Arash Noamouz
nets the game-winner.
APRIL 28 LA tops the San Jose Clash 2–1 in the first meeting between the in-state rivals. The matchup will eventually
come to be known as the California (Cali) Clásico.
JUNE 25 A 3–1 victory over the Colorado Rapids gives the
Galaxy its 12th-straight win, still the league’s longest winning streak within a single season
OCTOBER 20 In extremely rainy conditions at Foxboro
Stadium, LA takes a 2–0lead through Hurtado—the second-highest regular-
season scorer—andChris Armas in the first MLS Cup. However, United levelsthe match with two goals
in the final 17 minutes before Eddie Pope scores the winner
for D.C. in extra time.
The Galaxy debuts wearing a dark green,
two-toned home jerseywith yellow-and-black
patterned sleeves as well as a red collar. The shirt front
contains the club crest, player numbers, and “Los Angeles Galaxy” across the chest.
The jersey and shorts also feature Budweiser
sponsorship logos. The away jerseys, meanwhile, offer
white socks, white shorts, and a white jersey with similar patterns to the home top.
1996
Among the 69,225 fans who packed the Rose Bowl for
the Galaxy’s opening match against the New York/New
Jersey MetroStars back in 1996, there was one excited-as-
hell seven-year-old who would grow up following, loving,
and eventually working for the team: me. As I matured,
so did the Galaxy. At first, we were notable for our black-
and-orange kits—everyone goes through an awkward
stage—and the dreadlocks of our star player, but we’ve
become the standard bearer for Major League Soccer and
the American game as a whole. Nearly 16 years after that
first match, with the Galaxy at its zenith, I joined the club
and began to report on the club as the LA Galaxy Insider.
Like any great Hollywood tale, the Galaxy’s journey to
the top of the American soccer landscape has had more
twists and turns than the roads that lead through the
canyons north of our city. What follows is a look at the the
rich history of America’s greatest club. — a d a m s e r r a n o
Lothar Osiander1996—1997MANAGERS
r e s e a r c h b y d a n s t e l l y
112 0 1 4 S E A S O N
FEBRUARY 2 LA picks UCLA goalkeeper Kevin Hartman 29th
in the 1997 MLS College Draft
APRIL 22 Sigi Schmid leaves UCLA to become the Galaxy’s
third head coach, replacing Zambrano, who had begun the
season with a 2–3 record
MARCH 21 An arbitrator rulesin favor of U.S. internationalPaul Caligiuri, who had sued
MLS for violating his contract by allocating him to the Columbus Crew rather than his hometown
Galaxy. MLS transfers the 33-year-old defender to LA the
following week, allowing the Galaxy to break the salary cap
in order to acquire him.
OCTOBER 9 Hartman, who finishes with a 0.91 goals
against average, is the first keeper in league history
to allow less than one goal per game over a season
NOVEMBER 21 Fraser, whohad received the MLS Defender of the Year award days before,
exits the Galaxy’s secondMLS Cup final with an injury
after just seven minutes,and LA falls 2–0 to D.C.
at Foxboro Stadium.
APRIL 2 The Galaxy trades Hurtado to the MetroStars for fellow Ecuador international
Wéllington Sánchez. Hurtado ends his time in LA with 30 league goals in 50 regular-
season appearances.
JANUARY 21 Two goalsfrom Ezra Hendrickson
and one from Jonessee LA past Club Deportivo
Olimpia 3–2 in the finalof the CONCACAFChampions’ Cup.
JANUARY 14 Veteran US defender Alexi Lalas comes out of retirement, signing with the Galaxy as a Discovery Player
MAY 18 Due to financialissues, FIFA cancels the2001 Club World Cup andgives each participant—
including the Galaxy,by virtue of its CONCACAF
Champions’ Cup triumph the previous season—$750,000
in compensation
OCTOBER 17 Cienfuegosscores an extra-time winner
as LA bests the Fire 2–1in the third and final game
of its semifinal series
OCTOBER 21 At Crew Stadium in Columbus, Hernández gives LA a lead in its third MLS Cup,
but Landon Donovan levels and Dwayne De Rosario scores a
golden goal to carry San Jose to its first championship.
OCTOBER 27 A crowd ofjust over 4,000 at Fullerton’s Titan Stadium watches the
Galaxy take on New England in the US Open Cup final.
Hendrickson ties the match with 20 minutes to play,
and Califf nets a dramatic winner in the second minute
of added time to give LAa 2–1 win. It is Caligiuri’sfinal professional game.
POSTSEASON Vanney, one of the Galaxy’s most consistent
defenders, completes a transfer to French First Division side SC Bastia
FEBRUARY 6 LA selects Maryland defender
Danny Califf and UCLA midfielder Peter “Pasadena
Pete” Vagenas withthe sixth and 23rd picks
of the 2000 MLS SuperDraft.
MAY 16 Prolific Mexican goalscorer Luis Hernández joins from Tigres UANL for a
transfer sum of $4 million
OCTOBER 6 After finishingtheir three-game conference
final series level on points, eventual champions
Kansas City Wizards edgeLA with a golden goal
LA ditches its stripes for an all-green home jersey featuring gold side panels on
the shirt and shorts. The away kit follows suit with gold-and-
green side panels on white shirts and shorts.
JUNE 6 Harut Karapetyan tallies three goals within
five minutes, the fastest hat trick in league history, as the
Galaxy beat Dallas 8–1.
SEPTEMBER 27 Jones scores his 19th goal of the year in LA’s season-finale win over Chicago, which secures the Supporters
Shield for the Galaxy.
OCTOBER 13 LA scores three times in the final 10 minutes to defeat the Burn 3–2 in the
second game of their Western Conference semifinal series.
Rookie Clint Mathis’s solo effort in the 88th minute
is the game-winner.
OCTOBER 16 The Galaxyexits the playoffs at
the hands of eventual champion Chicago in a
second-leg shootout defeat
OCTOBER 23 EntrepreneurPhil Anschutz purchases
the Galaxy and namesTim Leiweke president
LA adds darkpinstripes to its white
away jersey while retainingthe white shorts and socks
JUNE 10 Following a 3–9 start, LA fires Osiander and promotes
assistant coach Octavio Zambrano to head coach
AUGUST 24 LA falls to Cruz Azul 5–3 in the 1997
CONCACAF Champions’ Cup final. Despite leading 2–0
with a brace from Hurtado, the Mexican side scores five in a row to win the title. The Galaxy’s consolation goal is
scored by goalkeeper Campos.
The Galaxy adopts green-and-black vertical bars with
gold piping for its 1997 home jersey along with black shorts and socks. The away number
remains all-white, although the shirt features green horizontal
stripes. Both kits featureNike logos for the first time.
1999 2000
2001
SUPPORTERS’ SHIELD
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS’ CUP
US OPEN CUP
Octavio Zambrano1997—1999
Sigi Schmid1999—2004
1997 1998
DANNY PEÑA:THE GALAXY’S
FIRST TRUEHOMEGROWN PLAYER
Local players have long been a staple in Galaxy lineups,
but no player embodied LA like defensive midfielder
Danny Peña. Having survived stints in the pre-MLS
professional soccer wilderness, the Inglewood-born
Peña joined the club through the league’s supplemental
process ahead of the 1997 season and immediately
provided the bite needed to bolster the team’s
high-flying attack. A true midfield number six, Peña
parked in front of the back four, breaking up opposition
chances with crunching tackles while also serving as an
offensive outlet with his deft passing. — a s
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
Pasadena-born Peter
Vagenas captainedthe Galaxy in 2005,
when the club won both the MLS Cup and US
Open Cup
Coming out of the
1994 World Cup, Cobi Jones was one
of the most talented, and recognizable, American players
12 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY
JUNE 7 The Galaxy plays its first game at the Home Depot Center, defeating the Rapids 2–0 with a brace from Ruiz
JANUARY 16 LA selects Oregon State’s Alan Gordon with the
53rd pick in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft. Gordon will fail to make the team, signing
instead with the A-League’s Portland Timbers.
AUGUST 16 Despite having the most points in MLS at this
stage in the season, LA fires head coach Schmid. General
manager Doug Hamiltonhad previously said,
Steve Sampson, who led the USMNT at the 1998 World Cup,
becomes the Galaxy’sfourth head coach.
NOVEMBER 5 The Galaxy loses 2–0 to Kansas City in the Western Conference final
NOVEMBER 30 After scoring 17 goals in 27 games for the Timbers, Gordon rejoins the
Galaxy on a permanent basis
AUGUST 20 Hartman setsa new Galaxy record with12 saves in a 1–0 defeat
to the Fire (Chicagooutshoots LA 23–2)
OCTOBER 11 Ruiz scores his 15th goal of the season in
a 2–1 defeat to the Wizards. The Guatemalan shares
the league’s goal-scoringtitle with Taylor Twellman,the first and only shared scoring crown to date.
NOVEMBER 9 Cienfuegosplays his last game
(see Wrong Side of History, right), retiring as LA’s all-time leader in appearances (206)
and assists (80)
LA changes its home shirt from green to gold with
a two-toned, black-and-green sash, and adopts green shorts
and gold socks. The white away jersey features a green-and-gold sash, green shorts,
and white socks.LA also removes numbers
from jersey fronts.
JANUARY 11 D.C. ships then-forward Chris Albright to
LA in exchange for the Galaxy’s first and second-
round selections in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft as well as a conditional pick in the 2003 MLS SuperDraft. The Galaxy
also selects Tyrone Marshall—whose previous club, the
Miami Fusion, had folded after the 2001 campaign—with
the ninth pick of the 2002MLS Allocation Draft.
MARCH 23 The Galaxy deals Califf to the Earthquakes for a better allocation position.
He is the third player to move from LA to San Jose in the opening months of 2005.
MARCH 30 Anticipating Donovan’s return to MLS, LA trades Ruiz to Dallas for the
top allocation spot.
MARCH 31 Donovan, 23, joins the Galaxy from Bayer Leverkusen for a $1.3 million
transfer fee. He tells the American press, “If we, as
Americans, can’t contribute to our league, it’s a bit of a
disservice in growing soccer here in the US and makingMLS as fierce as it can be.”
Donovan will score twicein his debut against Real Salt
Lake just over a week later.
SEPTEMBER 28 Newcomer Herculez Gomez’s fifth-minute goal turns out to be the winner as LA collects its second U.S. Open Cup title, beating Dallas 1–0 at the Home Depot Center
OCTOBER 23 Despite dropping three of four regular season
matches to the Earthquakes, LA stuns San Jose 3–1
(with two goals by Donovan against his former club) in
the first leg of the conference semifinal. Six days later, a 1–1 draw sees the Galaxy through
to its fifth MLS Cup.
NOVEMBER 13 The Galaxy edges the Revolution 1–0in Dallas to win its secondMLS Cup. Once again, LA’s
winning goal comes in extra time as Guillermo Ramirez volleys home from the top
of the box in the 105thminute. Ramirez, who
had scored just once during the regular season,
is named MLS Cup MVP.
The Galaxy abandonsthe two-toned sash for a
thicker, single-colored sash.White shorts and socksreturn to the away kit.
OCTOBER 24 LA fails todefend the US Open Cup,
falling to Columbus1–0 in the final
FEBRUARY 26 Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) breaks ground on a soccer-
specific stadium—the second such facility in the United
States—that eventually comes to be known as the Home
Depot Center. The stadium, located in Carson, California, on the campus of California State University, Dominguez
Hills, will seat 27,000.
MARCH 22 Carlos “El Pescadito” Ruiz, newly
acquired on a free transfer from CSD Municipal in his native
Guatemala, scores in the 85th and 92nd minutes to give LA a 2–1 opening-day win over D.C.
JULY 4 Ruiz scores twice, including an 87th-minute
winner, as the Galaxy edges the Earthquakes 2–1 in front of 55,000 fans at the Rose Bowl
AUGUST 22 The Galaxy beats the Chicago Fire 1–0 in the
US Open Cup semifinal thanks to a golden goal by Lalas, who celebrates by sprinting up the
steep hill behind the goal at Titan Stadium
SEPTEMBER 21 LA secures the Supporters’ Shield with a 1–0
win over San Jose on the final day of the campaign. Ruiz’s
game-winning goal—his 24th strike of the season—earns him the league’s goal-scoring title.
OCTOBER 20 In LA’s fourth MLS Cup appearance, league MVP
Ruiz notches the game-winner (and his eighth goal of the
playoffs) with seven minutes remaining in extra time, giving
the the Galaxy a 1–0 victory over New England at Gillette Stadium. With an additional
two assists, Ruiz finishes the postseason with 18 points, a
record that still stands.
2003
2004
2002
2005
SUPPORTERS’ SHIELDMLS CUP
US OPEN CUPMLS CUP
KEVIN HARTMANSTARTS A
RIOT
WRONG SIDEOF HISTORY
It was the end of the 2001 season, just days after
the Galaxy’s 2–1 defeat to archrival San Jose in the MLS
Cup, when Kevin Hartman issued a challenge to the
team’s fans: if they could form a supporters group of
at least 100 people for the team’s home opener in
2002—and every match thereafter— the Galaxy
goalkeeper would provide a keg of beer. The fans
met the challenge, forming the LA Riot Squad (LARS),
which took its name from the notorious Los Angeles
Riots of 1992. At the Galaxy’s 2002 home opener, more
than 100 LARS members showed up at the Rose Bowl
and soon after tapped Hartman’s promised keg. — a s
They call it the greatest comeback in MLS history, but for
the LA Galaxy, it was simply an historic heartbreak.
In the 2003 playoffs, the Galaxy jumped out to an 2–0
series lead in the home leg of the Western Conference
semifinals against the San Jose Earthquakes. In the
second leg at Spartan Stadium on November 9th, the
Galaxy scored twice in the opening 20 minutes to put the
Earthquakes down by four on aggregate. What happened
next has become MLS lore. Spearheaded by the play of
new signing Landon Donovan, the Earthquakes erased
LA’s lead, the equalizer coming just moments before
the final whistle. In extra time, San Jose needed just six
minutes to finish the series, as Rodrigo Faria beat Kevin
Hartman with a stunning golden goal. To make matters
worse, Donovan would lead the Earthquakes to their
second MLS Cup at LA’s own Home Depot Center. — a s
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
Mauricio Cienfuegos,
left, laughs with teammate Cobi Jones
at LA’s first ring ceremony
Steve Sampson2004—2006
Frank Yallop2006—2007
“I WILL NOT BE PLEASED IF WEGET POSITIVE
RESULTS THAT ARE NOT ENTERTAINING
FOR THE FANS.THAT WOULD BE
HARD TO STOMACH.”
One of many UCLA
Bruins to play for the Galaxy, Hartman spent
most of his career in LA and retired as the most decorated goalkeeper
in MLS history
132 0 1 4 S E A S O N
JANUARY 11 The Galaxy announces David Beckham will depart Real Madrid at the end
of the Spanish season and join LA with a five-year contract worth $32.5 million in total
AUGUST 15 Beckham earns his first start and captains the
Galaxy to a 2–0 victory over D.C. in the SuperLiga semifinal. The Englishman scores his first goal with a trademark free kick,
provides his first assist, and even receives his first yellow card.
OCTOBER 21 A 1–0 defeat to the Fire on the final day of the regular season eliminates the
Galaxy from playoff contention. Donovan finishes as the team’s leading scorer with eight goals and 13 assists on the year. The defeat is also Cobi Jones’ final professional soccer game. The
midfielder finishes his 12-season Galaxy career with 306 MLS
appearances, 70 league goals, and 91 league assists, and will become the first and, to date, only Galaxy player to have his
number (13) retired.
MAY 14 Portuguese defender Abel Xavier joins the Galaxy
from Middlesbrough on a free transfer. The 34-year-old World Cup veteran’s famous bleached hairstyle only adds
to his high profile.
JUNE 13 The Galaxy trades Marshall to Toronto for striker
Edson Buddle. Marshall makes 125 MLS appearances over six
seasons with LA.
JUNE 17 Buddle scores hisfirst Galaxy goal to help LA
top Salt Lake 3–2
JULY 11 The Galaxy unveils a new club crest to coincide with Beckham’s arrival. The badge features a quasar—a galactic radio source that generates a tremendous amount of light and energy—along with the
team’s new colors of collegiate navy, gold, and white.
JULY 13 LA unveils Beckham before a crowd of over 5,000
fans and about 700 media members gathered at the
Home Depot Center
JULY 21 In front of a national TV audience, a slew of
celebrities, and a sold-out Home Depot Center, Beckham
makes his Galaxy debut in the final 12 minutes of a 1–0
friendly loss to Chelsea
AUGUST 9 After missing LA’s next four competitive games due to injury, Beckham makes his MLS debut in a loss to D.C.
MARCH 26 Nutrition company Herbalife signs a five-year,
multimillion dollar deal to become the Galaxy’s presenting partner and primary jersey sponsor
2007
MARCH 9 As the team flies home from its CONCACAF
Champions Cup quarterfinal against Deportivo Saprissa,
Galaxy president and general manager Hamilton suffers
a fatal heart attack. The three-time MLS Executive of the Year was 43 years old. A month later, former defender Lalas assumes his responsibilities with the club.
JUNE 6 LA dismisses head coach Sampson. Frank
Yallop is announced as his replacement the following day
SEPTEMBER 27 LA reaches the final of the U.S. Open Cup but fails to defend its title, losing
3–1 to the Chicago Fire
DECEMBER 1 The Galaxytrades Gomez to the
Rapids for veterangoalkeeper Joe Cannon
DECEMBER 15 LA deals Hartman to Kansas City
for second-round picks in the 2007 and 2008 MLS
SuperDrafts. The goalkeeper ends his 10-year Galaxy
career with 903 saves in 243 appearances as well as two
MLS Cups and a US Open Cup.
Adidas replaces Nike as kit sponsor but keeps the
sash, simply adding pinstripes on either side. The outfitter’s
famous three stripes grace the shirt, shorts, and socks.
REMEMBERINGDOUG HAMILTON
No one embodied the Los Angeles Galaxy’s family spirit
quite like general manager Doug Hamilton, who led the
team from 2002 until his death from a heart attack while
flying back from a 2006 CONCACAF Champions Cup
match in Costa Rica. The architect of the Galaxy’s MLS
Cup-winning sides in 2002 and 2005 had been named
the league’s Executive of the Year for the three seasons
before his death. The news hit the Galaxy squad hard, and
the club began the 2006 season in poor form, eventually
failing to make the playoffs. Now, Hamilton’s final message
to the team before every match is emblazoned on
LA’s locker room doors: “And we move on.” — a s
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
NOVEMBER 5 After failing to make the playoffs, the Galaxy
fires head coach Sampson
NOVEMBER 9 LA unveils legendary Dutch international
Ruud Gullit as the club’snew head coach. Gullit signs
a deal for $2 millionper year, the highest salary ever given to an MLS coach
at the time.
The Galaxy unveilsall-new home and awaykits for the franchise’s
rebranding. The club adoptsan all-white home strip with
gold accents and navy stripes while an all-navy away kit
features gold stripes and a collar. Both shirts display
the club’s sponsor, Herbalife, across the chest.
Ruud Gullit2007—2008
Cobi Jones2008 (interim)
MAY 24 Beckham scores a stunning goal from 70 yards in
a 3–1 win over the Wizards
JULY 19 LA releases Xavier after the defender appears in just 21 regular-season games
AUGUST 11 In danger of missing the playoffs for a third-straight
season, Galaxy ownership fires president and general manager Lalas. Meanwhile, head coach Gullit resigns.
Jones, who had been serving as Gullit’s assistant, takes over
as interim head coach.
AUGUST 18 Former USMNTand D.C. coach Bruce Arena
arrives as head coach and GM
OCTOBER 26 Donovan scores his 20th goal of the
campaign in the Galaxy’sfinal match of the season, securing the MLS Golden
Boot. After the match, Vanney announces his retirement.
NOVEMBER 12 LA becomes the first club in MLS history to
sign a player directlyfrom its youth academy as forward Tristan Bowen, 17,
joins the senior team
NOVEMBER 13 DefenderSean Franklin earns Rookie of the Year honors despite LA’s
concession of a league-high 62 goals during the regular season
NOVEMBER 26 Seattle selects unprotected Galaxy veteran Peter Vagenas in the 2008
MLS Expansion Draft. Vagenas ends his nine seasons in LA with 183 MLS appearances
and 14 regular-season goals.
2008
Edson Buddle was
LA’s MVP and leading scorer
in 2010
California native Sean
Franklin was part of a defensive unit that helped
LA capture two Supporters’ Shields and two MLS Cups between 2010
and 2012
DONOVAN RETURNSTO (THE RIGHT PART
OF) CALIFORNIA
Fresh off a stint with Bayern Leverkusen, Donovan
declared that he was no longer interested in playing on
foreign shores—all the US national team star wanted was
a chance to return home, and he was allocated to LA
for the start of the 2005 season. Without the weight of
expectations that had burdened him in Germany, Donovan
notched 12 goals and 10 assists in his first season wearing
Galaxy colors. While the team sputtered in league play,
Donovan helped LA to win the 2005 U.S. Open Cup
with three goals in the tournament. But it was Donovan’s
performance in the postseason that truly endeared him to
his new fans, as his four-goal showing brought LA to the
MLS Cup. It was no surprise that Donovan was involved
in the game-winner, his cross falling perfectly to Pando
Ramirez, who tucked in the MLS Cup-winning goal. — a s
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
2006
14 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY
GOONIES SAY DIE
THE GALAXY’SFIRST GALACTICO
No year sticks out in the LA-SJ rivalry more than 2012,
when the Quakes threatened LA’s quest for consecutive
MLS Cups. San Jose’s Steven Lenhart referenced the
80s cult classic The Goonies after a 3–2 regular-season
win over LA when he said, “Goonies never say die.” The
quote, along with the post-game antics of San Jose,
further intensified a rivalry that reached its breaking
point in the playoffs. LA went down a goal on aggregate
in the first leg—after which Omar Gonzalez called San
Jose a “bunch of jokers”—and headed north, eager to
put the Goonies away for good. And they did, with a
brace by Robbie Keane and a goal by Mike Magee. — a s
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
AUGUST 8 Donovan curls a sensational left-footed volley into the top corner to help the Galaxy defeat the Revolution 2–1. The strike will be named
MLS Goal of the Year.
NOVEMBER 1 The Galaxy ties Chivas 2–2 in leg one the
Western Conference semifinal, the first-ever playoff edition of
the SuperClásico, on goals from Mike Magee and Donovan. After the final whistle, Beckham and Chivas defender Yamith Cuesta
exchange heated words on the way to the locker rooms. A week later, Donovan’s lone goal secures the win on aggregate.
NOVEMBER 12 Having started all 30 of LA’s regular-season
matches and forminga partnership with
Gregg Berhalter in central defense, Omar Gonzalez is
named MLS Rookie of the Year
NOVEMBER 13 After multiple power outages at the Home
Depot Center, LA scores twice in extra time to beat the Houston
Dynamo and claim its sixth Western Conference crown.
Berhalter opens the scoring in the 103rd before Donovan seals
the win with his 17th playoff strike, breaking Carlos Ruiz’s MLS record
for most career playoff goals.
NOVEMBER 19 Donovan, with 12 goals and six assists on the
season despite missing a month due to the FIFA Confederations
Cup, collects the MLS MVP award
NOVEMBER 22 In its sixth MLS Cup appearance, the Galaxy
loses to Salt Lake on penalties in Seattle. After seven rounds
of penalties, a miss from Buddle allows Robbie Russell to net the title-winning kick.
JANUARY 2 Donovan joins Everton for a two-and-a-half
month loan, during which the American registers two
goals and three assists while becoming a fan favorite
APRIL 17 With his brace in a 2–1 victory over Salt Lake, Buddle
becomes the first player in MLS history to score his club’s first seven goals to open a season
AUGUST 5 Gordon departs the Galaxy for rival Chivas with 96 regular-season appearances
and 16 league goals to his name
OCTOBER 24 A win on the final day of the season gives LA its
third Supporters’ Shield
NOVEMBER 3 Donovan Ricketts is named MLS Goalkeeper
of the Year after setting a new Galaxy record for
lowest goals-against-average (.90) and equaling Hartman’s
club record of 11regular-season shutouts
NOVEMBER 14 Dallas endsthe Galaxy’s season with
a 3–0 victory in theWestern Conference final
2010
SUPPORTERS’ SHIELD
JANURY 10 Buddle signswith lower-level German club
FC Ingolstadt 04
JUNE 22 The Galaxy hires former midfielder Mauricio
Cienfuegos, 43, as a technical coach for the club’s academy
JUNE 25 GoalkeeperJosh Saunders receives
a red card with 48 minutesleft, prompting Magee
to don the gloves for the rest of a match against the Earthquakes. The forward
makes three saves en routeto a scoreless draw.
SUPPORTERS’ SHIELDMLS CUP
Bruce Arena2008—PRESENT
“I TRIED TO SHAKE ONE
OF THE GUYS’ HANDS BUT HE DIDN’T WANT
ANY OF IT. THAT’S THEWAY IT IS.”
JANUARY 7 Beckham joinsAC Milan on loan in order
to retain match sharpnessfor England’s upcoming
World Cup qualifiers.The veteran confirms he’ll
return to the Galaxy in timefor the MLS season opener.
JULY 19 After missingthe first half of the MLS season and expressing
his desire to remain on-loanat Milan, Beckham returnsto Los Angeles and playsfor the Galaxy in a friendly
against the Rossoneri. Members of LA supporters clubs boo the Englishmanand display signs reading
“23: Repent” and “Go Home Fraud.” Following the match, Beckham attempts to climb
a barrier to confront fans but is held back by security
personnel. Meanwhile,a fan who rushes toward
the midfielder is restrained. Beckham tells reporters
after the game,
2009
The Galaxy adds theMLS Cup scudetto patch to
the home jersey’s right breast. The club also removes the collar from its away shirt.
AUGUST 15 LA agrees terms with Ireland internationalRobbie Keane, who joins Donovan and Beckham
as the club’s third Designated Player. Five days later,
Keane scores just over 20 minutes into his debut asLA blanks San Jose 2–0
OCTOBER 8 A Seattle loss gives LA its second-straight
Supporters’ Shield. The Galaxy is the third club in MLS
history to win the trophy in consecutive seasons.
NOVEMBER 9 Gonzalez is named MLS Defender of the Year as the Galaxy posts thethird-lowest goals-against average in league history.
LA’s 17 regular-season shutouts ties the MLS record set by Kansas City in 2000.
NOVEMBER 20 LA collects its third MLS Cup with a 1–0 victory over Houston at the
Home Depot Center, with Donovan scoring the winner—his 20th career playoff goal
2011
David Beckham, known for his free kicks, also scored
directly from a corner kick and from 70 yards out for LA
Landon Donovan wheels
away after scoring his record-breaking 135th
career MLS goal on May 25, 2014
Jamaican international Donovan
Ricketts was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in 2010, but was injured for
much of 2011 and replaced by Josh Saunders for
MLS Cup
Trumpeted as a player who could change the perception of an
entire league, David Beckham and the Galaxy sputtered in his
first two seasons. Add a series of injuries and an unforgettable
in-game confrontation with a member of the LA Riot Squad, and
the “Beckham experiment”—as Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl
coined it in his book—began to look like a costly mistake. But
Beckham returned and played like a man who was fueled by his
failures, leading the Galaxy to two MLS Cup trophies and three
appearances in the final in four years. Where once there were
boos, cheers echoed around the Home Depot Center when
Beckham stepped onto the field for the last time in 2012—a
victorious MLS Cup final on home ground. — a s
152 0 1 4 S E A S O N
LA re-introduces the sash—this time in navy—and
removes the gold accents from its home jersey. The club also adopts a lighter shade of
blue for its away strip.
AN ODE TO LANDON
GROWING UP IN THE GALAXY
JULY 4 Former Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman,
now playing for Dallas, becomes the first playerin MLS history to make
400 appearancesin a 1–1 tie with Toronto
JANUARY 31 Beckham signs a five-month deal with
Paris Saint-Germain. The Englishman ends his Galaxy career with 18 goals and 40 assists in 98 appearances.
JANUARY 29 LA becomesthe first MLS club to own
and operate a lower-division team with the unveiling of
LA Galaxy II. Former Galaxy defender Curt Onalfo
becomes the side’s firsthead coach, and LA Galaxy II
begins play in USL PRO.
MAY 25 Days after being cut from the US World Cup roster,
Donovan becomes MLS’sall-time leading scorer
with his 135th and 136th regular-season goals in LA’s
4–1 win over Philadelphia
AUGUST 6 Donovan nets the winning goal in the MLS All-
Stars’ 2–1 triumph over German champions Bayern Munich. Fellow All-Star selections
Keane and Gonzalez skip the game due to fitness concerns.
AUGUST 7 Donovan, easily the most decorated player in Galaxy, MLS, and USMNT
history, announces he will retire from professional soccer at the
end of the 2014 campaign
AUGUST 11 LA acquires Gordon from the Earthquakes in
exchange for allocation money
LA gives its sasha gradient effect and brings back gold trim on the home jersey’s collar and sleeves.
The club also unveils athird kit that features black,
green, gold, and red, the same colors that appeared on the club’s 1996 home uniform.
MARCH 4 StubHub signs a six-year deal with AEG for stadium naming rights. Three months later, LA’s home is officially known as StubHub Center.
APRIL 27 Gyasi Zardes, 21, a highly-touted Homegrown talent, makes his senior Galaxy debut in
a 2–0 victory over Salt Lake
MAY 24 LA trades Mageeto Chicago for the MLS rights
to Robbie Rogers. Magee finishes with 19 league
goals in 105 regular-season appearances—however, the
foward manages eight strikes in 15 playoff matches.
MAY 26 Two days after signing with LA, Rogers, 25, becomes
the first openly gay man to play in a top-level North
American professionalsports league as the Galaxy
routs the Sounders 4–0
JUNE 9 Ten-man San Jose stuns the Galaxy with two
goals in second-half stoppage time to win the Cali Clásico 3–2. Former Galaxy striker
Gordon, now starring for the Earthquakes, nets the 93rd-
minute game winner.
AUGUST 15 Gonzalezbecomes the first American
defender to sign aDesignated Player contract
NOVEMBER 7 DespiteFranklin’s stunning strike
in a first-leg victory,LA drops its conference
semifinal tie toSalt Lake, losing
2–0 in the return fixture
NOVEMBER 21 FormerGalaxy goalkeeper
Hartman announceshis retirement from professional soccer,finishing his 17-year
career as the all-timeMLS leader in appearances,
minutes played, saves,wins, and shutouts
OCTOBER 23 Guillermo Ramirez, who scored
the Galaxy’s game-winnerin the 2005 MLS Cup,is banned for life from
all soccer-related activitiesfor match-fixing.
FIFA’s ruling on theex-LA forward is based
on evidence fromthree games, including a CONCACAF Champions
League match withC.S.D. Municipal
and two internationalfixtures with Guatemala.
DECEMBER 1 The Galaxy repeats as MLS Cup champion with a 3–1 win over Houston at the
Home Depot Center. LA goes a goal down but responds
with second-half strikes from Donovan, Gonzalez, and Keane.
The fourth title equals D.C.’s previous record. For Donovan, who won two titles with San
Jose, it’s a fifth MLS Cup.
DECEMBER 14 Following a brief return to the Galaxy, Buddle
moves to the Rapids in exchange for allocation money and a
first-round pick in the 2013 MLS Supplemental Draft. He has 45
league goals in 106 appearances during two stints with LA.
2012
2013
2014
MLS CUP
Ever since the 2002 World Cup, we have been awed
by his exploits and celebrated (most of) his triumphs,
but the 2014 campaign will be Landon Donovan’s last.
His retirement signals the end of an amazing era for
soccer in this country. Donovan led the Galaxy to three
MLS Cups and appeared in three FIFA World Cups. He
has more goals and assists at the international level
than any other American man. This season, he became
Major League Soccer’s all-time leading scorer, and
with four games left in the regular season, he is a mere
four assists away from tying the career record in that
category as well. He is, simply, the most dominant
player in the history of American soccer. — a s
Ireland’s Robbie Keane
has scored more goals in international competition than any other active European
player, and is fifth all-time
Still only 25, Omar
Gonzalez has been named MLS Rookie of the Year, MLS Defender of the Year, MLS Cup MVP, and to
the league’s Best XI on three occasions
With four regular-
season matches left in 2014, Gyasi Zardes
has already broken the record for goals by a Homegrown Player
with 14
16 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY i l l u s t r a t i o n b y n i c k i l u z a d a
C A N
T H E
L A G A L A X Y
C A L L
I T S E L F
A
D Y N A S T Y ?
172 0 1 4 S E A S O N
I S T H E R E R O O M F O R D Y N A S T I E S
in Major League Soccer? Or is
that exactly what the league is
trying to avoid?
As MLS concludes its 19th sea-
son, there have been two dominant
teams: D.C. United in the early
years and recently the Los Angeles
Galaxy, both winning four champi-
onships to date.
As it happens, both teams have
been coached at times by the very
same person: Bruce Arena, who won
two titles with D.C. in 1996 and 1997,
and has won two more with the Gal-
axy in 2011 and 2012.
Like most coaches, Arena would
not mind presiding over a dynasty.
Some sports fans actually enjoy
über-teams that win champion-
ships on almost an annual basis.
Hordes of Japanese baseball fans
worship the Tokyo Giants; many
Italians seem to accept Juventus
and the mysterious 89th-minute
calls that referees have produced in
its favor over the decades; there are
the Lakers, the Bulls, the Cowboys,
the 49ers; and bless their masoch-
istic hearts, many baseball fans
have flocked to stadiums to watch
the Yankees brutalize the home
team. Go figure.
Major League Soccer began with
a collectivist single-entity owner-
ship, which has continued under
Commissioner Don Garber. The
fear of free spending is associated
with the Curse of the Cosmos, still
one of the great soccer brands in the
world, dating back to Pelé and other
international stars, most past their
prime, who dominated the North
American Soccer League in the late
1970s only to go belly up in 1985.
MLS would just as soon avoid that.
“I certainly subscribe more to the
NFL’s approach to parity than I do
perhaps to the structure of the En-
glish Premier League, where for the
most part only a handful of clubs re-
ally have a chance of winning each
year,” Garber, who once worked for
the NFL, said in 2010.
Still, two different MLS teams
have managed to win four titles, each
within a decade. Does that qualify
D.C. United and the current Galaxy
as dynasties?
“I think that’s a bit of a reach,”
said Arena, when I reached him on
the phone.
In the name of journalistic
integrity, I must note that I get a
kick out of Bruce Arena, having
covered his two older brothers, Paul
allowed David Beckham to perform
his missionary work in Southern
California, purely out of his love
of the game, and is now allowing
American stars like Clint Dempsey
and Michael Bradley to come back
from Europe for gigantic salaries
based on arcane exemptions.
When I spoke to Arena, his com-
ments sizzled on this topic. Later,
when I read Steven Goff ’s report
that Arena had been trying to sign
Sacha Kljestan from Anderlecht,
only to have the deal fall through
somewhere in the league hierarchy,
it made sense. Arena sizzled some
more when he saw Chicago try to
sign Jermaine Jones only to have
the German-American player allo-
cated to New England in something
called a blind draw. Arena said he
had never heard of that process.
The Galaxy’s ownership, AEG,
has spent considerable money on
star players, Arena said, but he
added that when he and Kevin
Payne were running D.C. United in
the early days of the league, “It was
a lot easier to put together a ros-
ter, a lot easier to get players.” The
message: dynasties are tough to build.
“The league is confused about
the direction it’s going,” Arena said.
“It’s a vicious cycle.” The league’s
desire for parity, he suggested,
came at the expense of clubs that
know how to spend their money
wisely. “Look at D.C. United,” he
says of his first team. “Last year it
had one of the worst records in the
history of the league, and this year
it’s doing well. We’re so focused on
competitive balance.”
And if you manage to engineer
a team that might be capable of
becoming a dynasty, there are other
forces ready to pull it apart, particu-
larly the financial appeal of the rich
European leagues, combined with
the insistence by national team
coach Jurgen Klinsmann that
emerging American internationals
fight their way onto Champions
League teams. The next young star
and Mike, when they were quar-
terbacks at Carey High in Frank-
lin Square, Long Island, back in
the day. Their kid brother became
a soccer keeper in the autumn, a
star lacrosse player in the spring.
I can interpret Arena’s Italo-
Brooklyn-Lawn Guyland accent
for my soccer-writer pals, and I
totally get his sarcastic approach
to the media. When Arena begins
to answer a question with the dag-
ger-word “Obviously…” I laugh out
loud. Sounds like home to me.
Was it good for MLS to have D.C.
United (with predominately Latino
stars) dominate the first wave of MLS,
and is it good for the Galaxy (with
predominantly Anglophone stars like
Beckham, Donovan, and Keane) to
win multiple titles recently?
“I think he is the defining fig-
ure in American soccer in the last
quarter of a century, if you include
his great success at UVA,” Doug
Logan, the first commissioner of
MLS, wrote in an e-mail, refer-
ring to Arena’s previous stint at the
University of Virginia.
Logan admires Arena even if he
sometimes needed to discipline or
muzzle him. They could laugh about
it later. The first commissioner said
Arena “intimidates theatrically.”
With LA, he has presided over the
most scrutinized locker room in
league history, and he “has shown
his dominance over all the slick
imports with fancy résumés.”
Arena downplays the concept
of dynasties partially because he
chafes at the ever-shifting payroll
rules of MLS. Still trying to avoid a
Cosmos-like reliance on high-paid
stars, MLS has come around to a
somewhat more competitive model
of ownership.
Having struggled in my career to
explain the infield fly rule in base-
ball, pass interference in football,
or salary caps in various leagues,
I will not even attempt to parse
the rules about signing players in
ML S. I will note that the league
byG E O R G EV E C S E Y
18 THE ANGELENO’S GUIDE TO THE GAL AXY
to transfer will be DeAndre Yedlin of
Seattle, who made an impression in
the recent World Cup and has been
signed for autumn delivery by Tot-
tenham Hotspur.
Arena thinks it’s a good move for
the player, but he does not agree with
Klinsmann’s dictate that players go
overseas. “We’d be stronger if we
built a base out of domestic players,”
he said, adding, “Also, I don’t agree
with foreign players becoming citi-
zens. We need to develop them here.”
This seems to be a criticism of Klins-
mann for using five German-born
players with an American parent in
the World Cup.
For all the measures designed to
check spending and keep any club
from dynastic dominance, teams have
begun to follow the Designated Player
model pioneered by LA. In addition
to Seattle and Toronto, New York
has signed a number of high-profile
players, including Thierry Henry,
Orlando will begin next season with
Kaka in the midfield, and even New
England, long one of the league’s
most frugal teams, recently wrote a
big check for Jermaine Jones. New
York City FC has already acquired
David Villa and Frank Lampard.
Speaking of NYCFC, what does
Arena think of a team owned by
Manchester City and the Yankees
joining MLS in 2015? “I think it
will create more chaos,” he said,
predicting that the use of Yankee
Stadium will be, in his words, a
disaster: “You’re talking about one
of the most famous sports stadi-
ums in the world. The Yankees just
lost most of their pitching staff to
injuries. Can you imagine what it
will be like if they have to rebuild
the pitching mound once a week?”
S O C C E R I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S
has always had to find space within a
larger sports landscape. The Galaxy
plays in its own stadium, the more
modest StubHub Center in Carson,
but that too comes with challenges.
“You have the Lakers and now they
are the weak sister,” said Arena.
“You’ve got the Dodgers with Yasiel
Puig and the best pitching staff in
baseball. Down the road you have
the Angels, another powerful team.
You’ve got USC and UCLA. The
Kings are Stanley Cup winners. This
is a city of champions.”
Going into September, the Galaxy
was drawing an average of 20,721
fans per home game, down 6 per-
cent from 2013, and down from the
franchise high of 26,009 in 2008,
during the Beckham years. That era
ended gloriously with two straight
MLS Cups in 2011 and 2012. Beck-
ham worked hard in the last final
before Arena paid him the tribute
of an 89th minute exit in front of
the home fans. Beckham drew fans
everywhere, appeared at clinics,
chatted up the media, and his tal-
ented right foot and his glamor
were good for the league. Robbie
Keane followed, and the Galaxy
will have another DP spot available
once Landon Donovan retires at
the end of 2014.
But Arena also wants to build
the Galaxy from the bottom up, by
accumulating young players bare-
ly out of high school. He counts
four home-grown players on the
30-player roster, including Gyasi
Zardes from nearby Hawthorne,
California, who has been a starter
for most of 2014, before turning
23. Arena is also high on Bradford
Jamieson IV, a willowy forward
from Los Angeles—not yet 18—
who plays mostly for the Galaxy II
squad but has already assisted on
a goal for the senior team. “He is
going to be a good one,” Arena said.
MLS has survived two seasons
longer than the old NASL did.
Jamieson was born two days
before the Galaxy lost to D.C. in
the first MLS Cup. The league’s
average attendance now ranks in
the top ten professional soccer
divisions worldwide, reaching a
peak average of 18,807 fans per
game in 2012, Beckham’s last year.
Going into September, the league
was averaging 18,948, partially
because of the 40,000-plus crowds
in Seattle, the great downtown
success story, which took a play
from LA’s book by signing Dempsey
and set a high bar of its own in the
form of record attendance figures.
The league was good enough for
Beckham to strut his brand, good
enough to keep Landon Donovan
home, good enough to keep Bruce
Arena busy agitating. Now Ameri-
can soccer tries to capitalize on the
booster rocket that was the highly
popular World Cup in Brazil.
Asked again if the Galaxy were a
dynasty, Arena said, “We want to be
one of the elite teams.” Obviously.
g e o r g e v e c s e y i s t h e a u t h o r o f e i g h t w o r l d
c u p s : m y j o u r n e y t h r o u g h t h e b e a u t y a n d d a r k
s i d e o f s o c c e r , p u b l i s h e d b y h o lt / t i m e s b o o k s
i n 2014. h e i s a c o n t r i b u t i n g s p o r t s c o l u m n i s t
f o r t h e n e w y o r k t i m e s a n d i s s u e s h i s o w n w e b
s i t e , g e o r g e v e c s e y . c o m .
Bruce Arena (left) and Landon Donovan
hoist the 2011 Western Conference trophy.
The Galaxy has played in a record eight
MLS Cups, three more than D.C. United.
The clubs are tied with a league-leading
four Supporters’ Shields apiece.
192 0 1 4 S E A S O N
1. Using a craft knife or scissors, cut out
sections A and B along the dashed lines.
2. Assemble section A by folding along
seams 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; inserting and attaching
tabs 6 and 7 into slits 8 and 9; and attaching
tabs 10 and 11 to the underside of the roof.
3. Assemble Section B by folding along
seams 12, 13, 14, 15 (the edges of the field) and
seams 16, 17, 18, 19 (the corners of the stands).
Attach tabs 20, 21, 22, 23 behind the
adjacent sections of stands.
4. Fold along Seam 24. Attach sections A and B by
inserting and attaching tabs 25 and 26 (on section B)
into slots 27 and 28 (on section A).
5. Attach tab 29 (on section A) under tab 30
(on section B). Fold along seams 31 and 32
to construct the scoreboard.
i l l u s t r a t i o n b y n o a h m a c m i l l a n
STUBHUB CENTERM A K E Y O U R O W N
20
22
21
23
2526
11
10
7
9
8
6
27
28 2
1
SECTION A
SECTION B
3
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5
12
14
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3031,32
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David Beckham (left) and Bruce Arena with
the MLS Cup in 2012
Abel Xavier during his stint in LALA Galaxy II, which finished thirdin its debut USL PRO regular season
Goalkeeper Josh Saunders
The Galaxy coaching staff, includinghead coach Bruce Arena (left)
Carlos “El Pescadito” Ruiz skips past D.C. United’s Bobby Convey
Omar Gonzalez and AJ DeLaGarza celebrate winning the 2011 MLS CUP
Greg Vanney became a coach with the Galaxy academy after retiring as a player
Matt Reis (left), Cobi Jones (13), Greg Vanney (3), and Mauricio Cienfuegos (10) celebrate winning the Galaxy’s first US Open Cup in 2001
Defender Todd Dunivant in 2014Sean Franklin (left) and Robbie Rogers in 2013
Jovan Kirovski dribblespast a Colorado defender
Late GM Doug Hamilton’s words on the locker room
door at StubHub Center
After scoring a goal on August 27th, Omar Gonzalez (left) revealed a shirt he wore to mark the birth, expected
the following day, of AJ DeLaGarza’s son, who had been diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.
Luca DeLaGarza passed away on September 5, 2014
Edson Buddle, backwith the Galaxy in 2012
Landon Donovan captained the Galaxy to the 2012 MLS Cup title
Donovan Ricketts attemptsa save against Seattle
The Galaxy coaching staff, includinghead coach Bruce Arena (left)
Kevin Hartman (right) andCobi Jones after winning
the MLS Cup in 2002
Coach Bruce Arena holds his grandson after LA’s 2012 MLS Cup triumph
Marcelo Sarvas (left)and Robbie Rogers in 2014
Pete Vagenas (left)and Cobi Jones duringa Galaxy alumni game
Sean Franklin during the SuperClásico against Chivas USA
Galaxy supporters greet Robbie Keane at the airport
#THANKSLD#THANKSLD
Herbalife would like tocongratulate LandonDonovan on a remarkablecareer and wish himthe best in the future
Herbalife would like tocongratulate LandonDonovan on a remarkablecareer and wish himthe best in the future