Los Angeles Galaxy: Three hopes, one fear
By Sean Maslin
The Los Angeles Galaxy are looking for cup title number six. Will 2016 be the lucky year?
Tell me if you have heard this before: the Los Angeles Galaxy do just enough to earn a relatively high seed in the MLS Cup Playoffs and coast through the regular season. The club then thanks to their manager and top quality players push through the playoffs, win the MLS Cup, and maintain their dominance in the league.
They do this all while somehow maintaining a low profile, garnering little public attention other than the occasional “How can this club get all of these amazing players?” piece. It is a remarkable strategy that has somehow worked time and time again.
But there seems to be a bit of a misnomer with the Galaxy: they aren’t lucky nor are they fortunate. They are just an exceptional club. Take 2016 for example. Their 14-9-11 record indicates that they are a good club, but a flawed club. They have earned a three seed in the Western Conference playoffs, no easy feat, but they have only won three matches in the past two months, all of which were against clubs who will not be playing in the playoffs.
By all indications they should be considered a contender but a fringe contender for the Cup. Yet, why is it that supporters from the rest of the league walk on egg shells around them? It is because what they fear is that the regular season was a formality for the Galaxy and now the club is going to show their true selves.
Can this Galaxy side turn it on in the playoffs? Will they live up to the hype? Let’s take a look at the three hopes and one fear of the Galaxy and find out!