Maybe it is a Jinx. Or a curse. Or merely unlucky.
However you describe it, it’s clear that profitable the MLS Cup has not dropped at the galaxy the momentum they’d hoped for as a result of they haven’t gained an MLS match since then.
With three factors in eight video games, the Galaxy (0-5-3) started within the worst begin within the historical past of franchise and the worst begin of all the time by a MLS pattern in workplace, based on Elias Sports Bureau.
They solely led as soon as this season, have the worst Goal differential within the championship and are already eight factors from a playoff level. Leaving from a gold season, all the pieces they contact turns in bronze. On Saturday the staff tried to have a good time its title by giving replicas of their MLS championship rings, but additionally that gesture was Jinxed: the staff had solely 10,000 rings for a crowd of just about 24,000.
As it was predictable, the followers weren’t glad.
Things didn’t go a lot better when the sport began, with the galaxy that made a objective within the 14th minute and down for a person within the twenty eighth minute when Zanka designed a effectively -deserved purple card. In the tip they gathered to earn a 1-1 draw with Houston’s unlucky Dinamo.
“No excuse,” mentioned coach Greg Vanney. “We need to cease placing ourselves within the holes after which attempting to grasp. It should be cleaned up. It should be repaired.”
But even with out victories, Vanney’s staff has cause to hope. The solely different MLS champion in workplace to go with out victories by eight video games, the 2003 Galaxy, gained his ninth sport and continued to play the playoffs.
Alexi Lalas, who performed in that 2003 staff, mentioned that this yr’s galaxy has to place behind them final season.
“Obviously there’s an inevitable hangover after a season of the championship. You end up attempting to regain the magic, however the dynamic has inevitably modified,” he mentioned. “Trades, gross sales, accidents can all contribute to the brand new and unreliable actuality.
“This Galaxy staff should cease worrying about being one other model of what they had been and be one of the best model of what they’re.”
All the elements talked about by Lalas have actually influenced the horrible begin of the staff. During the winter the staff bought Dejan Joveljic, his prime scorer within the playoffs, and exchanged the midfielders Mark Delgado and Gastón Brugman, MLS Cup MVP. It began with out the midfielder Riqui Puig, a very powerful participant of the staff, who torn his entrance crusader ligament within the postseason, then he misplaced six different appetizers for a number of video games as an accident.
None of this can be utilized as an excuse, since different groups have confronted comparable setbacks with out implying.
Winning additionally brings additional challenges by way of bonuses and different funds that compelled the staff to reconstruct a listing that doesn’t should be reconstructed solely to squeeze it underneath the league wage restrict. But others have additionally managed to beat this: three groups within the final eight seasons have gained the MLS Cup a season and returned to the ultimate of the next yr.
“The narrative accountable the foundations of the League and to border it as inevitable, one thing that the galaxy generally appears to advertise itself, can develop into a prophecy that self -virgin”, mentioned Lalas, who was president of the galaxy earlier than changing into a soccer analyst for Fox Sports. “There is sort of expertise and expertise on this Galaxy staff to be a minimum of aggressive.
“They could not win again the magic of final yr, however they should not be so dangerous.”
The galaxy confirmed it in Champions Cup ConcacafBeating the champion of the coast Ricano Herediano earlier than dropping just a little to Tigres Uanl, the second labeled of the Liga MX. And they did it regardless of industrial operations, gross sales, accidents and wage issues.
Diego Fagúndez, who led the galaxy towards Houston and scored the one objective of the staff on Saturday in his four-hundredth MLS look, agrees that the staff should cease searching for kids and begin searching for options.
“I believe they’re particulars,” he mentioned. “I mentioned it now within the final two weeks: take note of element. Because these are what’s killing us.”
The season shouldn’t be over for the galaxy. In 2009 the Columbus crew went with out victories by seven video games, however would find yourself ending up on the prime of the Eastern Conference. The yr earlier than Houston was with out victories by six video games and gathered to win the Western Conference. Such a climb might be just a little too steep for the galaxy however with 18 of the 30 MLS groups that make the playoffs, a put up -stale place shouldn’t be out of the query.
And Fagúndez says that there’s a straightforward means for the galaxy to additionally attain that modest objective.
“We have to begin profitable the video games.”
⚽ You learn the final episode of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column brings you behind the scenes and illuminates the distinctive tales. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode “Podcast of the Galaxy angle “.
