AS LA GALAXY get ready to contest the 2024 MLS Cup final against the New York Red Bulls in an East Coast versus West Coast battle for the ages, the contribution of their fans to get their team to this point should not be forgotten.

Just over a year-and-a-half ago, LA Galaxy supporters were boycotting games in protest against the apparent indifference of Galaxy front office and owners Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) to what was happening, or rather not happening, on the pitch.

At the end of that season of discontent, their team finished second from bottom of the Western Conference and 26th out of 29 teams in the overall table.

One of the most storied and decorated teams in the league were treading water with no real sign that work was being done to change this.

LA Galaxy supporters took things into their own hands early on in that 2023 season and began to make their feelings known through protests at games and even boycotts.

Clubs may not always like to admit that fan action works, but since then there have been obvious changes at the Galaxy and a motivation to get their house in order. It seems obvious they listened to the fans and were driven by their concerns.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times this week, football writer Kevin Baxter noted that “some AEG officials admit privately that the boycott influenced their thinking and might have accelerated changes that were already being contemplated.”

Those tasked with taking the first steps towards improving the team on behalf of the fans produced a turnaround that saw the Galaxy go from 13th in the conference to level on points with local rivals LAFC at the top of the table in 2024, only losing out on top spot on goal difference. 

They then defeated Colorado Rapids and Minnesota United in the playoffs, before winning 1-0 against a tough Seattle Sounders side in the conference playoff final to take the Western Conference title and set up an MLS Cup final meeting with surprise winners from the east, New York Red Bulls.

The Galaxy’s impressive league finish is also the reason the MLS Cup final is being played at their home in Carson, as the highest-seeded team hosts the game rather than it being played at a neutral venue.

LA Galaxy fired its president, Chris Klein, midway through 2023 and made several changes ahead of the 2024 season, most notably appointing Will Kuntz as their general manager in December 2023.

In January, they also parted ways with technical director Jovan Kirovski who had been a subject of the fans’ ire in 2023 along with Klein and the ownership. Kirovski was replaced by Mikkel Dencher in July of this year.

When I spoke to Kuntz earlier in the year about the role big-name, older players like Lionel Messi have in MLS, he referenced the fanbase and the idea that rather than just wanting big-name players they’ve heard of, LA Galaxy fans, and US football fans in general, are now more interested in quality regardless of the name.

“One thing we've seen, and it’s something we at the Galaxy have bet on fairly heavily, is that the American football fan is at a point where they’re quite sophisticated about player quality, and team and match quality.

“I think it now matters less who you are and where you come from, and more: ‘How talented are you? What can you bring to the squad’?”

A great example of this is the Galaxy replacing Douglas Costa, the Brazilian who played in Europe for Bayern Munich and Juventus, with a more effective but relatively unheard-of Brazilian winger, Gabriel Pec, who joined from Vasco da Gama at the start of 2024.

Pec went on to be one of the best players in MLS in 2024 and won the league’s Newcomer of the Year award ahead of Inter Miami’s Luis Suarez.

Though signings such as Messi and Suarez, and Marco Reus at the Galaxy, still have a role to play in MLS, teams can also develop their own star players, as has been seen in recent years with the likes of Miguel Almiron (Atlanta), Aidan Morris (Columbus), Taty Castellanos (New York City), and Alphonso Davies (Vancouver).

Pec looks set to join this list, but one other challenge for MLS, as for most leagues in the Americas, might be to keep these players for longer into their prime and not feel the need to sell to Europe. 

Fans of Vasco Da Gama and other clubs in Brazil may view MLS in a similar light in this lopsided football world dominated by a handful of leagues in Europe and an unhealthy sporting ecosystem built solely around finding a path to them.

More responsibility will fall upon the 23-year-old Brazilian in the MLS Cup final, as the Galaxy’s midfield conductor, Riqui Puig, through whom pretty much all of the team’s football usually flows, is out of the game having picked up an ACL injury against Seattle.

It being a home game should help the Galaxy, and this aspect of the final is also part of the fans’ reward for holding their team’s leadership and front office to account and taking the difficult decision to boycott games in 2023. 

Now they get to witness the biggest game of the season in their own stadium, with their own team as favourites.