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Season Ticket Holder Rally

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On what has become usual in the past months in Los Angeles The Galaxy's Season Ticket Member Rally took place in the rain on February 26, 2017.

LAiOH scoured the grounds and tried to cover as much as we could. Once the Rally was over and the meet and greet began we headed down the bleachers to speak to the players one on one. 

Enjoy our Photo Collection of the Event!

LEGENDS

Keep the legends out of the rain and cold I say!

For full coverage of the STM Event listen in to our latest show Episode #059! We also cover in this episode Galaxy's Preseason loss to Portland & our 2017 MLS Season Predictions. 

Welcome to LAisOurHouse! The Unofficial Podcast of the LA Galaxy. Three life long friends and Galaxy fans discuss the Galaxy, MLS, U.S. Soccer, and other World Football We attended the Season Ticket Member Rally, the Galaxy's Preseason loss to Portland and we're going to preview the MLS Season with our predictions! Be sure to follow us on Twitter! @LAisOurHouse Instagram LA_is_Our_House Send us an email at LAisOurHouse@gmail.com Facebook www.facebook.com/LAisOurHouse/ and check out our website www.LAisOurHouse.com

The LA Galaxy 2017 Preview

by Luis Baron

The 2017 MLS season is upon us and the Galaxy are ready to begin their long journey towards the playoffs and MLS Cup.

After a turbulent offseason, which saw many veterans retire, fan favorites traded, fresh new talent being signed and young talent called up to the senior team, the Galaxy roster is now set for what should be a roller coaster season.  However, not everything has gone according to plan and the season has yet to start.  Let’s break down this year’s Galaxy team.

Let’s begin with the team’s depth.  There isn’t any.  Unlike last year’s team that had a solid bench filled with players that could start on other teams around the league, this year’s bench is filled with young players unproven at the MLS level.  Any sort of injury to a starter would handicap the team immensely.  Unfortunately, this has already happened and the effects are showing.  The team will start the season without Gyasi Zardes, who hasn’t played with the Galaxy since last August, Robbie Rogers, who is out for an undisclosed amount of time, and Ashley Cole, all of whom are injured.  

The backline was the Galaxy’s biggest strength last season.  They allowed the 2nd fewest goals in 2016 behind only Colorado.  The same starting back 4 would return this season making it the less of a focal pointin the offseason.  However, with 2 of those 4 injured to start the season, the defense is now the weakest part of this Galaxy squad.  Rafael Garcia will start the season at right back, a position he is still learning after playing defensive mid for most of his career.  Dave Romney will fill in for Cole at left back but he doesn’t have too much experience at this level.  This makes Jelle van Damme and Daniel Steres that much more important this season.  Daniel Steres will have to have a better season than he did last year and Van Damme needs to repeat his MVP-like performance of last year for the Galaxy to stay within striking distance in any given game.  Brian Rowe returns as goalie and will be the last line of defense.  With such an inexperienced and untested backline, he will have plenty of action this season and will be called upon to come up with big saves more often.

Going into the offseason, the midfield was the weakest part of the team, but after signing Jermaine Jones, Romain Alessandrini, and Joao Pedro, the midfield is now the strongest part with the most depth.  Alessandrini will provide some much needed spark in the offense, while Joao Pedro will act as the enforcer and holder in the back.  Jermaine Jones can do both as the box to box man.  The final starting midfielder is Sebastian Lletget who will play out wide and is expected to have a superb season.  Should any of these guys go down, Ema Boateng, Baggio Husidic, and Raul Mendiola are capable of picking up the slack.  With the exception of Jones, all the midfielders are young and athletic.

It’s a sharp contrast to what we had last season and expect a lot more quickness moving up and down the pitch.

Up front, Giovanni dos Santos will be expected to continue where he left off last season.  With Robbie Keane no longer on the team and Gyasi Zardes out with injury, Gio will be the primary target going forward.  He will need to prove this season that he is the go-to guy for goals and might bear the burden of having to carry the team on his back when the big moments arise.  Ariel Lassiter and Jack Mcbean will finally get their shots with the first team.  However, with so little experience at this level, expectations should be down to a minimum.  5-7 goals for either one should be considered a success and would take some of the pressure off Gio.  

At the end of the day, the one guy who is responsible for how the team performs is head coach Curt Onalfo.  His hiring was lackluster at best, and many fans are skeptical about how the team may perform with him at the helm. His 2 previous stints as an MLS head coach were mediocre at best and he was unable to win a championship in USL as a head coach for Galaxy II.   Sadly, Onalfo is already on the hot seat with many fans who will be looking for any reason to criticize him and ask for his firing.  The front office however, seems to have all the confidence in the world in Onalfo and are “all in” for the foreseeable future.  Onalfo is going to need to have a heck of a season to win the fans over. He certainly has his work cut out for him as the lack of depth and a list of injuries are already working against him.  Fans will need to be patient before they can truly judge his and the team’s performance.

The Galaxy and it’s fans are going to have a very turbulent roller coaster type ride this season.  It will surely have it’s highs and lows.

The key word this season will be patience, which unfortunately, fans have very little of as it is.  The MLS season is 7 months long and is more of a marathon rather than a sprint.  Starting off slow doesn’t hurt the Galaxy, who will need some time to regain some of their injured starters.  So what should we expect this team to do this year?  It may be very difficult to accept, that 2017 is a rebuilding year and accepting that and adjusting expectations is the first step.  Yes, the Galaxy are the premier team of the league, but every so often, a team overhaul is needed.  For the Galaxy, that time is now.  However, that’s not to say that the Galaxy are doomed to fail this season.  When healthy, the Galaxy have the talent to compete against any team in the league.  If all cylinders are firing come August, and if the injury bug decides to take a vacation, the Galaxy may surprise many of us.  If the last couple MLS seasons have showed us anything, it’s that peaking at the right time is vital to winning a championship.  Let’s hope the Galaxy can get their act together before it’s too late.  

Goals academy Pomona!

We Gotta say, Goals Academy in Pomona was pretty awesome!

With 10 Pro-Turf fields and a very nice Sports Lounge the location feels big. We were able to check out The Futboleros put on a entertaining show for the kids, roll around in Knockerballs and shoot around the ball in the provided fields. We also met German and the The Galaxy Star Squad!

All in all the day was a success. Check out our coverage of the days event in the video below! 

For info about the location follow their website here goals-soccer.com

 

 
 
 

My First Love 

Luis Baron

 

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      It was the summer of 1990.  I was a mere 9 years old.  I didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the summer when I would fall in love with and become an LA Galaxy fan. Yes, I became a fan 6 years before the Galaxy’s existence!  

    Italia ’90 was my introduction to soccer.  However, like most Americans, I rejected it for all the same reasons; it was boring, there was no action, and I didn’t know any of the players.  My short attention span didn’t help either.  I couldn’t sit through 5 minutes of a game without wanting to get up and do something else.  As the tournament went by I started to notice that my father was highly interested in it and had a good knowledge about the sport.  This was strange considering that my father had virtually no knowledge of sports to begin with.  Yet, there he was, watching every game with a passion unlike I had ever seen from him.  Even when his home country of Colombia wasn’t playing, he was glued to the television set.  How could the most boring sport be the one sport that piqued my dad’s interest so much?  At first I thought it was just my father, but I soon learned that my entire family had the same affection for the sport.  My grandfather and uncles were also fixated on the television watching this tournament that I was completely oblivious to.  At 9 years old I already had considered myself a sports fan and had already watched the Dodgers and the Lakers win a championship. How could I have not heard of the World Cup before?  What made this tournament and sport so special?  I felt like the odd person out for not knowing.  In fact, I felt outright foolish.  At that moment, I decided to learn about the sport of soccer, so that when World Cup 1994 comes around, I’d be ready.  

    At the time, there was no soccer anywhere on television and the internet was not available to me.  Any knowledge I would inherit would come directly from my father.  From him I would learn that there were other tournaments besides the World Cup.  This is where I would find out about the Copa America, the Copa Libertadores, and World Cup Qualifying.  My lessons in the sport would come from watching these games.  Having no soccer available on television meant that we would have to go to a local bar or restaurant and watch the games on closed circuit television for $10-$15 a person.  Those times were by far the best memories I have watching soccer, and I have to admit, I miss them.  The sport was so obscure at the time, yet I felt like I was part of something much bigger.  The few people who filled that small bar or deli had more passion than any bar that was packed to watch a Superbowl.  For those couple of hours we were brothers rather than strangers.  They welcomed me as one of their own and would also come to teach me about players and the sport.  For the first time I felt a part of that invisible circle everyone talks about.  

    As my knowledge of the sport expanded into more than just national teams, I started to wonder why the US did not have a soccer league.  It was discouraging that I could not watch the sport live at a stadium and instead had to watch every game on TV.  I also didn’t have a local team that I could call my own.  However, when my father told me that a league would start in 1996 I felt like I had hit the lottery.  I couldn’t wait to attend a game.  I couldn’t wait to feel what I felt in a bar of dozens inside a stadium filled with thousands.  I couldn’t wait to find out what team would be awarded to my city and what name would be given to them.  Well, that team would come to be the LA Galaxy and I became an instant fan.  Actually, to reiterate, I was a fan 6 years before their existence.

    I’m very proud to say that I have been a fan since the very beginning, and I’m even prouder to say that my motives for becoming a fan were not superficial.  They were based on an emotion that stemmed from this beautiful game.  I didn’t choose the Galaxy because of their success, which would make me a bandwagon fan.  It wasn’t my father’s team that he passed on to me.  I didn’t become a fan because it was the hip fad to do at the time.  No, I became a fan because I yearned to call a soccer team my own.  I was just lucky that it happened to be the Galaxy.  

This article is a part one of a two article series

Part two coming soon