After David Beckham limped off the field once again nearly a month and a half ago, L.A. Galaxy and league officials must have started looking towards next season: their publicity rainmaker would likely miss the rest of the season, and the Galaxy’s playoff hopes, already bad, looked even worse.
And so it is — or at least it was, for a while — until the Galaxy reeled off four wins in a row, and now, with the help of other results, the Galaxy players find themselves in control of their own playoff destiny: three wins and they’re in, regardless of what happens elsewhere. Oh and Beckham may be back, too, his injury having healed slightly ahead of schedule.
As Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald points out, of the five teams in contention for the final playoff spots, “there is little doubt of which two teams the league would love to see qualify.” That would be L.A. and Chicago, which has the league’s second most recognizable player in Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Indeed, MLS needs its marquee players in the playoffs, but unfortunately, it’s likely to be one or the other, given the points situation. But is L.A. actually good enough to pull it off? Says Galarcep: “Don’t bet against it. With matches against Toronto, current sporting the worst record in MLS, and the Red Bulls, who haven’t won in five matches, the Galaxy could very easily stroll into the Fire’s home stadium on a six-match winning streak with a healthy Beckham.” How about that for a storybook ending?