With the roster almost completely rebuilt, the results quickly improved for the Galaxy.
“That changed when we brought in experienced and quality guys then things changed really quickly.” “The culture that I saw in the locker room when I first came here was not a culture that was ever going to work,” Arena recalls. The final addition was experienced USMNT defender and European journeyman Gregg Berhalter. DeLaGarza with the club’s first two picks in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft. When the draft rolled around even more reinforcements arrived as Arena added the future spine of his team by selecting Maryland center backs Omar Gonzalez and A.J. The moves hardly stopped there, however, as Arena signed Jamaican goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to further shore up LA’s backline. internationals Jovan Kirovski and Tony Sanneh were added to the squad and were quickly joined by experienced MLS players Dema Kovalenko, Mike Magee and Todd Dunivant. The first to arrive were Eddie Lewis and Josh Saunders in the first few months of Arena’s tenure. Out went players like Alvaro Pires, Ante Jazic and Eduardo Dominguez to be replaced by experienced professionals familiar to Arena and his staff. Once the offseason began, the changes came-rapidly.
It was very apparent that we had to make radical changes.” I benefited from the fact that I had a couple of months to witness those players every day in training and in games. But in reality, the team had no chance,” Arena told. “I came in the middle of August in 2008 and we still had aspirations of making the playoffs and gave it a pretty good shot, just missing out in the last two weeks. Once Arena arrived, the Galaxy’s fortunes improved slightly in his first half season in charge as the club went 2-5-3, falling just short of making the postseason. Much of the blame for the Galaxy’s dysfunction was placed at the feet of former head coach Ruud Gullit and club president and general manager Alexi Lalas who were both dismissed after the club started the 2008 season with a 6-8-5 record.
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