LA Galaxy Decade in Review (2010 - 2019) Since there's little else to do this off-season, let's take some time to reflect on the last 10 LA Galaxy seasons. What were your best moments? Worst moments? Weirdest moments? Celebrate them here (pics and video welcome) Just some idea to get things going: Player of the Decade Goal of the Decade Save of the Decade Galaxy Team of the Decade Achievement of the Decade Game of the Decade Coach of the Decade Schmuck of the Decade Best Signing of the Decade Worst Signing of the Decade
Off the top of my head: Player of the Decade Donovan Goal of the Decade Zlatan. You know which one. Save of the Decade That one time Penedo made like 4 saves in a row. I forget the details but it was amazing. Galaxy Team of the Decade Galaxy 2011 - only team in MLS history to win the balanced Shield and MLS Cup in the same season. Achievement of the Decade Flipping an absolutely-done Juan Pablo Angel for an in-his-prime Robbie Keane. Which made that balanced-shield/Cup double possible. Game of the Decade Most entertaining - El Trafico Numero Uno Most important - MLS Cup 2011 Coach of the Decade Bruce Schmuck of the Decade I can only pick one? Best Signing of the Decade Keane Worst Signing of the Decade Gio (Honorable Mention to Gerrard)
Trickhog:. You absolutely nailed this list! My only question is which goal of Zlatan did you like best? My favorite was the first goal against LAFC this year.
So much in that video. I was sitting behind that goal, and watching it still gives me chills. Loudest I've ever heard our stadium. Did Steres get an assist? Seeing Sigi in the video makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy Holidays G's!
Just some idea to get things going: Player of the Decade: Landon Goal of the Decade: 1) Zlatan's golazo against LAFC. 2) Edson's wonder goal against Keller Save of the Decade: All of Magic Mike's saves agaisnt the Smurfs Galaxy Team of the Decade: Tiki taco team. That's probably the most beautifully played footie in the MLS that still hasn't been matched since. Achievement of the Decade: 2011 Real SS winner and MLS Cup champs. Game of the Decade: Coach of the Decade: The Bruce of course Schmuck of the Decade: Jorgen Best Signing of the Decade: Keano Worst Signing of the Decade: Gio Favorite G: Magic Mike and Marcelo
I agree that @TrickHog nailed this one right out of the gate. Over the last month I've found myself going back and watching highlights of that TikiTako team. As @hav77 said above, that team really hasn't been matched as far as the beauty of their attacking play. Keane and Donovan not only seemed to be communicating psychically, but the rest of the players on the team seemd to magically be on the same page as well. In addition, those teams in the early part of the decade had a comitment to winning that was really the difference. If you watch the highlights of playoff games, guys were making lung-busting runs to cover for each other. It was a great TEAM to watch.
A lot of these were tougher than I thought. It makes me realize how inconsistent this decade has been for us; after being one the best teams in MLS history during the first half, we fell of a cliff in the 2nd. Really a tale of two decades. Player of the Decade This is tough for the reasons I stated; no one was really good for the WHOLE decade, or even most of half a decade. Landon and Robbie are the two obvious choices, but both were here for less than half the decade, which says a lot. Ultimately, I went with Robbie Keane. Even though I think LD achieved greater heights, (particularly between 2010-2011) it felt more like Robbie's team during this decade just because he was around until 2016 probably. Goal of the Decade Has to be Zlatan's first against LAFC. For the moment and the difficulty, my gosh what a legendary goal. Galaxy Team of the Decade While I like the 2014 team more and felt it was more fun to watch, the 2011 team was pretty amazing. Yes, they won the balanced SS and MLS Cup, but they also finished on top of their CCL group and outplayed Morelia in Morelia. Does anyone remember that game? We were winning 1-0 until the 90th minute when they got one very questionable goal (would not survive VAR today) then called back one of ours when we equalized a few minutes later (which would've survived VAR). We lost 2-1, but were better on the night, IMO. Worst Signing of the Decade Has to be Giovani dos Santos. This feels less bad because we got his brother out of it, but ideally he would've been that player of the decade, picking up for LD and Keane. Obviously, he was far from that.
Another thing I realize looking back, the 2014 Galaxy team was a rarity in that it was really balanced, mostly because we weren't having to fit in a big name into the team, which we've done since the arrival of Beckham. Beckham wasn't an old fart, but he was a specialist (70 yard passes to Adam Cristman?) that somewhat unbalanced the team.
While Zlatan 's first goal of 2018 was probably more impactful, I think that his 2019 against LAFC was much more difficult. He controlled a lob pass from Araujo, despite being covered by 2 LAFC defenders and then put a rocket passed their keeper. Interestingly, FIFA picked his 500th goal as it's candidate for goal of the year.
If we are going with best technical goal of the decade and not beat out-of-your-seat-What-did-I-just-see goal, then I nominate that one 2014 Tiki-Taco goal where every field player touched the ball and the goal was scored after 29 touches or something like that.
Great memory! Scored by Baggio Husidic vs. DC United (assisted by AJ and Landon). A couple things to note: DC United were very good that year. They were first in the East and this was touted as a big match-up at the time. We steamrolled them 4-1, and that was with Alan Gordon starting for Robbie Keane! Full passing sequence starts around 3:20
Remember when we had one of the best DMids in the world? Until he murdered Darlington Nagbe in cold blood and MLS made fun of him?
I actually wrote a long boring article about that at the time. https://www.lagconfidential.com/201...-the-pitchforks-is-de-jong-as-bad-as-all-that
Player of the Decade: Robbie Keane Goal of the Decade: Zlatan's debut goal at the Honda Superclasico Save of the Decade: All I can think of is Mike Magee... sorry, what was the question? Galaxy Team of the Decade: torn between 2011 & 2014 but going with the latter due to style of play Achievement of the Decade: becoming the most successful team in MLS history Game of the Decade: The first... and I hate this name... "El Trafico" Coach of the Decade: Bruce Arena Schmuck of the Decade: Anyone on the Galaxy end that was remotely connected to giving Jorgen Skjelvik that contract Best Signing of the Decade: Robbie Keane (Juninho a close second) Worst Signing of the Decade: Several candidates: Jermaine Jones for wrecking the locker room. Gerrard for being largely irrelevant and along with Gio, causing us to make poor roster moves to accommodate his signing. Sklajauhafha for his dollar-to-ineptitude ratio. But ultimately, I'm going to join the chorus and pick Gio, because despite actually having a couple of spurts of form, he repaid our faith in him by dogging it, caused all kinds of drama and his DP status put a millstone around our neck for years.
Also it astounds me that a) DeJong had a total of one direct red in his 345 club matches in 14 years of play prior to MLS and b) this amazing stat never gets mentioned in the media blathering about this "brutal, dirty player." To be fair he deserved a second one in the Howard Webb reffed 2010 WC match. But even so, that is a remarkable record for a hard nosed, highly competitive and undeniably physical defensive midfielder.
I lost a lot of respect got Stu Holden who joined in in the over reaction, or rather, the biased reaction over Nigel's tackle. Was it deserving of red, yes, yes it was. However, what was never mentioned was Borchers' tackle on Gyasi and Grababoy's flying knee also on Gyasi in the same game. Not a peep from Stu or the other commentators or media in general. The Borchers tackle was IMO worse than Nigel's. However, there wasn't a story there so complete silence. Gyasi was really fortunate Borchers didn't fully make contact. Also remember around that time in a different game, Grabavoy had a particularly nasty tackle against Cruezo and not a peep from Stu or anyone else who were lambasting Nigel. I believe Grabavoy has gotten multiple reds and caused one broken leg, but he's a nobody and doesn't sell stories.
Stu Holden was against De Jong being in MLS from the start due to the guy injuring him in England. I get the resentment but if you can't put your personal animosity aside, you shouldn't be a pundit, especially when you don't level the same vitriol at every player that commits a bad foul. I know I'm in the minority these days but punditry doesn't much interest me. I couldn't tell you the last time I sat through pre- or post-match analysis and if I'm watching a game on DVR, I fast-forward through halftime too. Why in the world would I care what journeyman midfielders Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe have to say about anything, let alone Kyle Martino?
That's true regarding Stu, but agree that he needs to put it aside. Seems like you can sense the slight animosity he and Taylor has against the Gs in general also likely because they both were denied MLS Cups.