The Galaxy are back.
After a decade-long slump in which it lost almost as many games as it won, the team capped an improbable rise from near-worst to first Saturday, capturing a record sixth MLS Cup with a 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls at Dignity Health Sports Park.
With playmaker Riqui Puig, who tore the ACL in his left knee in last week’s Western Conference final, watching from the sideline the Galaxy won behind early goals from Joseph Paintsil and Dejan Joveljic and a stout performance from a defense that was tested all afternoon. The team then mounted a hastily erected stage at midfield to accept the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, named for the team’s founding owner.
“Let me just say thanks to all the fans who continued to have faith in the Galaxy,” Anschutz said during the trophy presentation. “Last year we were at the bottom of the league. This year we won the Cup.”
At the final whistle, Puig was carried from his seat onto the field where he joined in a party that quickly decamped for a champagne-soaked locker room, which Puig toured with a victory cigar in hand.
A year ago the Galaxy won only eight games and finished 13th in a 14-team conference. With Saturday’s victory, which came 10 years to the day after their last MLS Cup win on the same field, the Galaxy became the first team in 23 years to go from eight or fewer wins to a league title in one season.
A public victory celebration is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Dignity Health Sports Park.
“After 10 years to win the trophy again, it’s a very special feeling. We deserve it,” Joveljic said. “I really don’t know what to say. I trust in my guys. I was patiently waiting for this moment.”
Paintsil and Joveljic were both playing youth soccer, Paintsil in Ghana and Joveljic in Serbia, when the Galaxy won their last title in 2014. The team began a quick decline after that, a slide that bottomed out last season when the Galaxy fired longtime president Chris Klein amid an embarrassing fan boycott that saw the club’s most loyal supporters refuse to attend matches.
Yet that begat one of the greatest turnarounds in league history,…