What MLS commissioner Don Garber envisioned when he insisted on having two teams in Southern California was seeing both of them enter the final stretch of the season atop the conference table and fighting for the Supporters’ Shield.
It was a nice idea. But until this summer, that vision has been little more than a mirage.
The last time the Galaxy led the conference entering September was in 2015, a year after Chivas USA folded and three years before LAFC played its first game. Yet that’s exactly where the Galaxy (15-5-7) are now, leading second-place LAFC (14-5-5) with seven weeks to play.
And the Galaxy trail only Inter Miami in the Supporters’ Shield standings, where LAFC is fourth. So while the MLS Cup may not be played in Southern California this fall, whichever Western Conference team goes to the final will have to come through Los Angeles to get there.
Despite the standings, it’s hard to argue that LAFC isn’t the best team in the West. It hasn’t lost to an MLS team not named the Columbus Crew since May 4, going 14-0-3. It has played in the last two MLS Cup finals, won the Supporters’ Shield in two of the last five seasons and reached the CONCACAF Champions League final in two of the last four seasons.
Though the Galaxy have been mostly MIA of late, since entering the league in 2018 LAFC has won more games, amassed more points and scored more goals than any team in MLS. And it’s not even close. Yet somehow the team keeps getting better.
Last winter general manager John Thorrington added goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who started the last two World Cup finals for France; he’s rewarded the team with a league-leading nine shutouts and a conference-low 30 goals allowed.
This month, Thorrington added Olivier Giroud, France’s all-time leading scorer, and he rewarded the team by scoring LAFC’s only goal in his first start in last Sunday’s League Cup final.
Five seasons ago LAFC had the second-youngest team in MLS, but with Lloris, 37, Giroud, 37, and Kei Kamara, 39, all appearing in the League’s Cup final, the players used in that game averaged more than 30 of age, making it the oldest in the league this season.
(Speaking of the Leagues Cup final, for all of LAFC’s success, the 3-1 loss in Columbus was the team’s fourth straight setback in a Cup final. So while wins have been plentiful, the hardware hasn’t necessarily followed.)
The reason the Galaxy lead in the standings, however, is because their general manager, Will Kuntz, has had an even better year than Thorrington, rebuilding a once-proud franchise that had fallen on hard times. Dignity Health Sports Park had become a place players were fleeing rather than a team they wanted to join. Kuntz has changed all that.
Over the winter he signed Brazilian winger Gabriel Pec, who has arguably been the most impactful signing in MLS this season. He also added free-agent goalkeeper John McCarthy, who is second in the league in saves.
“It’s a great testament to the project that we’re building,” Kuntz said of the addition of Reus, whom he called a “special” acquisition. “Think back to about a year, 18 months ago. That we have somebody like Marco reaching out to us is really special.”
So is the heightened LAFC-Galaxy derby. For all the excitement it has generated in six seasons, El Tráfico was rarely about more than local bragging rights. Now league supremacy may be on the line.
The league first tried to create a local rivalry between the established Galaxy, an original MLS team, and Chivas USA, which began play in 2005. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup that season but quickly floundered while Chivas USA never did catch on. That forced MLS to eventually buy, then fold, the team, selling the franchise rights to LAFC’s ambitious ownership group in 2014, the season in which the Galaxy won the last of their record five MLS Cups.
But by the time LAFC played its first game, the Galaxy had entered the deepest slump in their history, a seven-year stretch in which they lost more games than they won and missed the playoffs five times. With Kuntz, they’ve not only regained their success and their swagger, they’ve climbed back to the top of the table.
The Galaxy and LAFC will meet once more in the regular season, on Sept. 14 at Dignity Health Sports Park, and they appear on a collision course to meet again in the playoffs, where a spot in the MLS Cup final could await the winner.
And that’s just the way Don Garber always hoped it would be.
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
