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Galaxy 2009 Season Recap
Landon Donovan's 2009 MLS season was arguably the best of his career -- and possibly also his last. Photo by R. Mora/Getty Images
Night-and-day is the simplest way of describing the contrast between the 2009 and 2008 seasons. General Manager and Head Coach Bruce Arena stepped into his current role in August of last year, but with insufficient time and resources to prevent the team from missing the playoffs for a third year in a row. Arena understood the challenge before him quite well and set out to correct the situation the moment the 2008 campaign closed for the Galaxy.
Arena began his work by first rebuilding the woeful defense via a series of smart draft picks and acquisitions. University of Maryland's defensive partners Omar Gonzalez and A.J. Delagarza were picked by Arena and his staff during the 2009 MLS SuperDraft and both became integral parts of the rebuilding process that helped half the total goals allowed on the year when compared to 2008. Although both performed well throughout the year, Gonzalez's performance would stand out a tad bit more. He was the only player to start all matches for the blue-and-gold, continually improving throughout the year and topped it off by earning the 2009 MLS Rookie of the Year award. It is the second time the award has gone to a Galaxy player following Sean Franklin's win last year.
Gonzalez, Delagarza, Franklin, Todd Dunivant and Gregg Berhalter, with occasional help from Tony Sanneh and Leonard Griffin created a formidable defensive line throughout the year. Jamaican National Team 'keeper and MLS newcomer Donovan Ricketts was brought in by Arena to complement the new defense and the combination could not have been any better. Ricketts put in a stellar year, registering numerous spectacular saves throughout the year which helped the blue-and-gold preserve numerous victories. Had it not been for the rebirth of Chivas USA 'keeper Zach Thornton, he would have run away with this year's Goalkeeper of the Year honors.
Other important changes happened in the midfield. Arena brought in Stefani Miglioranzi and Dema Kovalenko, injecting some character and fight into central holding midfielder position that had lacked it for the last few seasons.
The retooled team set out to correct the wrongs of years past, but things started a bit slow. The Galaxy didn't register its first win until May, well over a month after the season started and another month would lapse afterwards before the next win would be registered. Fans started to wonder if things would actually change this year, but the silver lining during that stretch of matches was that despite the lack of victories, the team wasn't losing. A long stretch of draws in between those victories had the team near the bottom of the Western Conference table, but not far from the leaders. More important, many of the ties were coming in matches where one or two plays could have easily turned the result in favor of the Galaxy. Eventually the team would start getting those plays and the victories would start stacking up as the season headed into its second half.
They quickly started moving up in the standings and would later find themselves in the unlikely position of being within striking distance of the top spot in the conference and later, the league as whole. On both occasions, the Galaxy were unable to claim the top spot, but the blue-and-gold did secure a spot in the playoffs for the first time in four years and the talk around the league was about their form and the dramatic change noticeable in the team's play.
As fate would have it, the top spot in the conference would eventually be secured on the final week of regular season play after a very tight race between the Galaxy, Houston, Chivas USA and Seattle and entered the playoffs as the top seed. Star forward Landon Donovan was instrumental in getting them to to the playoffs and through what was arguably the toughest playoff run in club history. L.A. started out by facing in-stadium rivals Chivas USA for the first time in a playoff series and it was a memorable pairing of matches. The Galaxy prevailed through the scrappy and hard fought series to battle the Houston Dynamo for the Western Conference Title and a ticket to the MLS Cup Final.
The blue-and-gold defeated the Dynamo to claim its 6th Western Conference title and ticket to the MLS Cup Final. Only days before the Final, Donovan would earn his first MLS MVP award, but the shootout loss in the Final to Real Salt Lake spoiled the party. Ironically, this is the first time the star forward earns MLS MVP honors despite a stellar career and it coincided with the first occasion on which he made a trip the MLS Cup Final but did not return as a winner.
For the Galaxy, their turn around and strong performance in the playoffs validated Arena's approach, so much so that he earned Coach of the Year honors. It also highlighted the importance of solid 'keeping, defense and Donovan. Next year will present new challenges, including the possibility of Donovan leaving the team, but many valuable pieces remain. If Donovan leaves, Arena will once again have a very busy offseason.