Galaxy perfect in role as villains
MLS needs the arrogant, obnoxious swells from L.A. who flaunt their wealth
Before we launch into the meat of today’s dissertation, consider, for a moment, the success of professional wrestling.
Wrasslin’ is a staged piece of choreography that even the dimmest of followers understand is as phoney as a banker’s smile. Everything about it is fake, from the rivalries to the violence to the outcome, but for the better part of a century, they’ve packed ’em in all over the world because the industry has always grasped the most basic principle of marketing.
People needs heroes and villains. They need heels and baby faces. They need good guys and bad guys. And the more sharply drawn these heroes and villains are the better, because fans aren’t big on subtleties. They went to see black and white. They want to see the conflict that goes back to the Old Testament; a story that has always sold and always will sell which, of course, brings us around to the L.A. Galaxy and Saturday night’s game at B.C. Place.
In the largely dull, monochromatic world of MLS, the Galaxy are perfectly cast as the league’s heels. They’re arrogant, obnoxious swells who flaunt their wealth and influence, and don’t care that they’re arrogant obnoxious swells who flaunt their wealth and influence. There’s a suspicion they’ve always operated by their own set of rules and even if that suspicion is a case of perception over reality, it’s part of the Galaxy persona.
In short, if they were a politician, they’d be Donald Trump and, like the Donald, they will draw a crowd. Saturday night, 27,038 showed up to watch the confrontation between good and evil and say this for the Angelenos, they play their part well.
The 0-0 final score suggests a dull, uneventful affair, but this one — through the eyes of Whitecaps’ supporters, at least — really was Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan. In the first 24 minutes, the Galaxy’s Daniel Steres and Jelle Van Damme earned yellow cards, one for a foreign object in his trunks, the other for eye-gouging — or something like that.
It should also be noted Van Dam me plays internationally for Belgium and his partner in the back four, Nigel de Jong, plays for the Netherlands. The Galaxy lineup also included former England international Ashley Cole, but did not include Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard or Robbie Keane.
Did we mention there’s a belief in MLS circles the Galaxy haven’t always been strict adherents to the salary-cap regulations?
At any rate, that was just the first 24 minutes. In the 28th minute, the Whitecaps’ Matias Laba was issued a red card for a tackle on the Galaxy’s Mike Magee which, depending on your point of view, didn’t look any more malevolent than the incidents involving Steres and Van Damme, but did draw howls.
The Whitecaps also lost captain Pedro Morales and Kekuta Manneh in the first half, which meant they played more than half the game without their best defensive midfielder, their captain and midfield general and one of their most dangerous forwards. Technically, the Galaxy didn’t have anything to do with those injuries but they did add to the central narrative and made for riveting drama in the second half.
The Caps, particularly Tim Parker and Kendall Waston, defended like rabid badgers. Goalie David Ousted supplied the game’s defining moment with a five-alarm save off Gyasi Zardes. It seemed impossible the Caps would shut down that lineup, but they did, adding a heroic quality to the final score.
Now ask yourself this: Is there another team in MLS that could provide that level of theatre to a 0-0 draw? If this was Columbus or Salt Lake, this contest would be forgotten by the next morning but, because it was the Galaxy, it took on another dimension and became memorable.
The plain fact is MLS needs the Galaxy and everything it represents. It needs the star power. It needs the sexiness. It needs the team from L.A., to stand out against there st of the league, to give the working stiffs something to measure themselves against and the fans something to hate.
The Whitecaps, after all, added just more than 5,000 seats to accommodate the demand for this one, and everyone there will remember the night the Galaxy came to town. Are they liked? No. Are they needed? Definitely.