{"id":2544,"date":"2025-09-13T23:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T23:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2025-09-13T23:55:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T23:55:18","slug":"once-we-were-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=2544","title":{"rendered":"Once we were rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n      Thinking back to the Sigi Schmid era of Seattle Sounders soccer there was one team, and one team only, that stood in the way of greatness \u2013 the LA Galaxy, his former team.<\/p>\n<p>The 2010, 2012, and 2014 playoffs stopped against LA. Galaxy were the better regular season team in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013. The West was owned by Beckham&#8217;s boys  and a set of roster rules that let them exceed cap structures while rewarding their horrific pre-Sounders seasons with two of the best defenders in league history.<\/p>\n<p>To win the West, Seattle had to beat LA. No season was that more apparent than in 2014 when Sounders v. Galaxy defined the Shield race and the quick rematch in the playoffs ended a quest for a treble.<\/p>\n<p>But now, the Galaxy drift happlessly.<\/p>\n<p>They are no longer the team targeted by Beat LA. They&#8217;ve become the Clippers to the Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>Occasionally relevant, in the Brian Schmetzer era the Galaxy are more likely to miss the playoffs than they are to be a threat. They don&#8217;t just miss the playoffs \u2013 they fail massively. Three times they&#8217;ve finished 20th or worse in the Shield standings with each of those being 10th or worse in the West.<\/p>\n<p>Facing the Galaxy three times in short order is familiar ground for Sounders fans.<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s not a rivalry any longer.<\/p>\n<p>The Carson team isn&#8217;t relevant. They aren&#8217;t perennial contenders. They aren&#8217;t threats to take the West, and most seasons they aren&#8217;t threats to make the playoffs. <\/p>\n<p>It took decade-long mismanagement for the Galaxy to crash out of relevance.  Tonight&#8217;s match is a sign of how irrelevant a holding MLS Cup champion can be \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/matchday-33-who-can-clinch-playoffs-or-be-eliminated-2025?ref=sounderatheart.com\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Galaxy can be eliminated<\/a> from playoff contention with six matches left in their season.<\/p>\n<p>Even their miraculous qualification for the Champions Cup shows how meaningless the team has become. They lost to Seattle, as is now typical. In MLS play the Sounders are undefeated in the last 10 home matches against LA. At home Galaxy are a bit more threatening, going 3-3-0, -3 in the last six competitive matches they&#8217;ve hosted.<\/p>\n<p>The rivalry is gone. Purged from the soul through utter dominance over the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>All that remains is Seattle Sounders, a team of champions.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sounderatheart.com\/merch-table\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Use our affiliate links<\/a><em>\u00a0<\/em>to support your bloggers when buying merch and tickets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"kg-card kg-signup-card kg-width-wide \" data-lexical-signup-form=\"\" style=\"display: none\">\n<div class=\"kg-signup-card-content\">\n<div class=\"kg-signup-card-text \">\n<h2 class=\"kg-signup-card-heading\" style=\"color: #FFFFFF\"><span>Enjoying this content? <\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"kg-signup-card-subheading\" style=\"color: #FFFFFF\"><span>Sign up to get it delivered to your inbox everyday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"kg-signup-card-disclaimer\" style=\"color: #FFFFFF\"><span>No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"catching-up-on-sounder-at-heart\">Catching up on Sounder at Heart<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>Here&#8217;s what you missed on the site this week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"sounders\">Sounders<\/h3>\n<p>Next match: Saturday, Aug. 13 vs. LA Galaxy | 5:30 pm PT | MLS Season Pass<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"reign\">Reign<\/h3>\n<p>Next match: Sunday, Sept. 14 vs. Racing Louisville | 5:00 pm PT | Paramount+<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"defiance\">Defiance<\/h3>\n<p>Next match: Wednesday, Sept. 17 at Houston Dynamo II | 5:00 pm PT | MLSNextPro.com and YouTube.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2 id=\"looking-back-at-the-news\">Looking back at the news<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>Everything else you need to know<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lookoutlanding.com\/good-news\/134080\/mariners-pursue-bill-to-curb-megaphone-preachers-at-t-mobile-park?ref=sounderatheart.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>Mariners pursue bill to curb megaphone preachers at T-Mobile Park<\/u><\/a> (Lookout Landing)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6618473\/2025\/09\/12\/liga-mx-atlas-sale-mls-matches-usa-world-cup\/?ref=sounderatheart.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>How &#8216;sleeping giant&#8217; Liga MX is poised to capitalize on 2026 World Cup bump<\/u><\/a> (New York Times)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/tacticsfreezone.substack.com\/p\/power-rankings-1-30-matchday-32?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=3084528&amp;post_id=173110071&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjY4MzEzLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNzMxMTAwNzEsImlhdCI6MTc1NzM2NDcxMCwiZXhwIjoxNzU5OTU2NzEwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzA4NDUyOCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.Qn-dDdJ_Um-82v786dHCkH_M-cfVyvz1zubXNXbw70E&amp;r=3qcnt&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>Power Rankings, 1-30 | Matchday 32<\/u><\/a> (Tactics Free Zone) Seattle is still 1. Galaxy are 19.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/carolinefitzgerald\/2025\/09\/10\/wpsl-pro-is-aiming-to-close-the-gap-between-college-and-professional-womens-soccer?ref=sounderatheart.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>WPSL Pro Is Aiming To Close The Gap Between College And Professional Women\u2019s Soccer<\/u><\/a> (Forbes)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/usmnt-whose-stock-rose-or-dropped-after-september-window?ref=sounderatheart.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>USMNT: Whose stock rose or dropped after September window?<\/u><\/a> (MLS Soccer)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6598746\/2025\/09\/09\/usmnt-goalkeeper-decline-world-cup\/?ref=sounderatheart.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>What happened to the American goalkeeper? How a USMNT constant became an uncertainty<\/u><\/a> (New York Times)<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sounderatheart.com\/2025\/09\/once-we-were-rivals\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking back to the Sigi Schmid era of Seattle Sounders soccer there was one team, and one team only, that stood in the way of greatness \u2013 the LA Galaxy, his former team. The 2010, 2012, and 2014 playoffs stopped against LA. Galaxy were the better regular season team in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013. &#8230; <a title=\"Once we were rivals\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=2544\" aria-label=\"Read more about Once we were rivals\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Once-we-were-rivals.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2546,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}