opened their inaugural\u00a0season in front of 69,255 fans.<\/a> The Galaxy fell in overtime to D.C. United in the first ever MLS Cup championship match.<\/p>\n1999: FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like the 1994 Men’s World Cup, the 1999 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup\u00a0was\u00a0held in high-capacity stadiums across the United States, with the Rose Bowl once again hosting the final. The United States\u00a0Women\u2019s\u00a0National\u00a0Team won its\u00a0second world title in a penalty shootout over China and set a new standard for women\u2019s soccer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2001: LA Galaxy win CCC\u00a0but MLS\u00a0nearly folds\u00a0<\/p>\n
The LA Galaxy were crowned 2000 CONCACAF Champions\u2019 Cup winners, beating Olimpia of Honduras 3-2 at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. No other MLS team would win the competition until 2022. That very year, the league was on the brink of folding until Phil Anschutz and the Hunt family, headed by Lamar Hunt, invested further to keep the league afloat. Anschutz, who owned the Galaxy, began operating six MLS franchises. Along with Robert Kraft owning the New England Revolution, the three owners ran the entirety of the league (Anschutz 6 clubs, Hunt 3, Kraft 1). This unique setup helped save the league during a difficult time. The two longstanding American soccer trophies are named in their honor: the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy (MLS Cup) and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
2002: USMNT\u2019s best modern World Cup, Galaxy win first MLS Cup\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2002, the USMNT made its deepest run in a World Cup since 1930, reaching the quarterfinals in the tournament hosted in South Korea and Japan. That same year, the LA Galaxy claimed their first\u00a0MLS Cup title, with Carlos Ruiz scoring the\u00a0winning goal in extra time.<\/p>\n
2003: Dignity Health Sports Park opens, hosts Women\u2019s World Cup\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2003, the LA Galaxy moved to Carson, California to what is now Dignity Health Sports Park. The complex has been the club\u2019s home ever since and in 2003 hosted FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup games after the\u00a0tournament\u00a0was moved to the U.S.\u00a0from China due to the spread of the\u00a0SARS virus.\u00a0The stadium hosted the final, in which Germany defeated Sweden 2-1 in extra time.\u00a0Dignity Health Sports Park will host 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games events.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
2007: David Beckham arrives\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2007,\u00a0the LA Galaxy signed David Beckham. The English midfielder was the first global superstar of such caliber to sign with the league,\u00a0dramatically raising the profile of MLS and strengthening confidence in its longevity. Beckham drew international\u00a0attention to the Galaxy. With him on the team, the club won two MLS Cups and appeared in three finals. His legacy is cemented in front of the stadium in the form of a statue, the first of three to be erected\u00a0so far\u00a0in Legends Plaza\u00a0along with Landon Donovan and Cobi Jones.<\/p>\n
2010: South Africa World Cup as Galaxy dominance begins\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2010 World Cup was another turning point for soccer in the U.S.\u00a0as the men\u2019s national team drew with England and advanced from the group stage thanks to a last-minute winner from the LA Galaxy\u2019s Landon Donovan against Algeria.\u00a0The\u00a0Galaxy, an MLS Cup finalist in 2009, went\u00a0on to win the 2011 and 2012 MLS Cups.<\/p>\n
2014: Brazil World Cup and Galaxy\u2019s fifth title\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following another men\u2019s World Cup in which the U.S.\u00a0advanced out of the group stage, the Galaxy became the first MLS club to win five titles.\u00a0The Galaxy\u2019s historic title\u00a0capped\u00a0off a four-year period in which the Galaxy were crowned champions of the league three times. In each of the occasions, the club won the final at home, with 2011\u2019s title being the lone \u201cneutral site\u201d game.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
2018: 2026 World Cup awarded to North America\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the 2018 World Cup kicked off in Russia, it was announced that North America\u00a0successfully\u00a0bid for the 2026 men\u2019s tournament, 32 years after the U.S. had last hosted the men\u2019s World Cup. Mexico had last hosted in\u00a01986,\u00a0and Canada had never hosted a men\u2019s World Cup.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
2023: The Galaxy return to the Rose Bowl\u00a0<\/p>\n
On July 4, 2023, the LA Galaxy hosted crosstown rivals LAFC at the Rose Bowl, the Galaxy\u2019s original home. The game, a 2-1 Galaxy win, drew a record MLS crowd of 82,110 that still stands to this day. The Galaxy hosted LAFC again at the iconic venue the following 4th of July. The attendance record is emblematic of how far the league has come that rivalry games have outgrown the soccer-specific stadiums built for MLS clubs.<\/p>\n
2024: LA chosen as host city, LA Galaxy win sixth MLS Cup\u00a0<\/p>\n
Los Angeles\u00a0was\u00a0announced as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with games to\u00a0be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.\u00a0The Galaxy\u00a0went\u00a0on to win their sixth MLS Cup, two more than any other club in MLS. The 2-1 win at Dignity Health Sports Park over the New York Red Bulls\u00a0in the championship match capped\u00a0off one of the club\u2019s best seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2026: World Cup and MLS calendar change announced\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the World Cup on the horizon, Major League Soccer announced\u00a0that\u00a0alignment with the global calendar will take effect in 2027,\u00a0positioning\u00a0the MLS schedule\u00a0to\u00a0run from fall to spring for the first time in the league\u2019s history.\u00a0During\u00a0the World Cup,\u00a0Dignity Health Sports Park\u00a0serves as\u00a0a training site for teams\u00a0participating\u00a0in games in LA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0FIFA World Cup first landed in the United States, and Los Angeles, in 1994. Thirty-two years later, the\u00a0men\u2019s\u00a0tournament\u2019s\u00a0return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[6594,49,48,44,561,82],"class_list":["post-770452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-articles","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}