2024-04-27 05:29:59
The LA Galaxy went from struggling in 13th place to atop the Western Conference for two consecutive weeks. What has changed?
2023 was a recovery year for the Los Angeles Galaxy. A supporters’ group-organized boycott led to changes at the club’s top level of leadership, ushering in the Will Kuntz era.
2024 was the first full year under Kuntz’s leadership and early results paint an encouraging picture. Kuntz’s Galaxy currently sit in first place in the MLS Western Conference following nine games in which they have won five and scored 21 goals while conceding 15.
At the same time last year, the Galaxy had a 1-3-5 record while giving up 14 goals while scoring just seven goals. It is clear that there has been a monumental change from the club that started in 2023 and the one that flew in 2024.
What is behind the LA Galaxy’s renaissance? It’s all in the details.
Will Kuntz came into the offices at Dignity Health Sports Park and breathed new life into them. A big part of this renovation was a special attention to the details that make winners.
Kuntz has made an effort to make a winning attitude part of the team’s culture. He had repeated messages to make sure the entire organization was rowing in the same direction.
When you talk to Hercules Gomez for ESPN FC Kuntz said, “Winning is not just a result on the field, it’s a mindset, right? This is how we go regarding our business every day. It’s carrying ourselves with pride, being hungry, being competitive, and making sure that we try to get better every day.”
Will Kuntz wants the people who work on this team to feel like winners, especially the players. Under his leadership, the LA Galaxy began looking at a player’s mindset from the start to ensure there were no negative influences to derail the winning mindset he was trying to instill in the locker room.
The market is full of skilled football players, but not all of them have the intangibles that Kuntz believes are fundamental to building a winning team. This includes a player’s personality, environment and character.
When he spoke regarding the qualities that attracted him to new right back Miki Yamane Kuntz said, “ the most important things are the experience, the character and the commitment. So it ticks all the boxes for us.” It’s not just regarding adding the right players for the Galaxy, but the right personalities.
The days of agents sending the LA Galaxy their surplus superstars are over. It’s a good thing, too, since many of them may have struggled with the other small but important details that have recently changed in Carson.
After the 3-3 tie once morest Seattle, Mark Delgado revealed how the team practiced some unique and perhaps uncomfortable drills designed to foster a sense of unity.
When asked regarding what it meant to the team to lead the league, Delgado said: “It means a lot, it means everything we did in the preseason, you know, all the things they make us do have to trust each other, like Navy Seal stuff, right? All those things that were kind of annoying at the beginning are paying off, aren’t they? Because now we’re on the field and we’re trusting each other for each other.”
These military-inspired exercises often involve players forcing themselves into difficult or uncomfortable situations with their teammates, people who are practically strangers before the activity. Being in vulnerable positions around others can be extremely uncomfortable, but causes those who overcome it to put their ego aside to achieve a common goal.
So, while uncomfortable and sometimes painful to go through, the Galaxy’s Navy Seal-style training has given them the tools to selflessly play for each other on the field. After a season where the likes of Douglas Costa and often Riqui Puig were criticized for playing for themselves, these exercises in humility gave Galaxy players the team-first mentality that can be so crucial to winning titles.
With an entire roster ready to give of themselves in support of their teammates, the LA Galaxy have built an entire team of killers.
Small changes in the way the club focused their attention, namely in recruitment and training, fundamentally changed the Galaxy and the scoreline proves it.
Tomorrow’s game once morest Austin FC may offer the team the best chance yet to truly demonstrate how far they have come by accomplishing something they have never done before.
After racking up back-to-back wins once morest Vancouver Whitecaps and San Jose EarthquakesThe Galaxy now have a chance to win three games in a row for the first time since Greg Vanney took over as head coach in 2021.
Tomorrow’s game will reveal whether all the small changes have produced enough change to finally erase one of the darkest marks once morest Vanney’s tenure. Regardless of what happens, rest assured that the Galaxy will keep changing and keep looking to improve, even in ways we can’t always see.
PHOTO: LA Galaxy
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