MLS

Donald Trump, Steph Curry, Lamine Yamal: The world the last time LA Galaxy won MLS Cup

They may be MLS' most successful team but a lot has changed since the Galaxy last won a championship.

Gary A. VasquezUSA Today Sports

For many observers, LA Galaxy remain the biggest and most illustrious MLS team. One of the league’s ten founding clubs, the Galaxy can claim many of the most celebrated players in MLS history and have won a record five MLS Cup titles.

However, it’s been a long time since they last lifted the ultimate prize. The Galaxy were the defining force for the first two decades of MLS, winning five MLS Cups, four Supporters' Shields, two US Open Cups and the CONCACAF Champions Cup in that period. Since then, however, the Galaxy have won nothing. In 2021 former player Greg Vanney has named the new head coach and he outlined the road back.

“It’s a big project and it’s a club-wide project, because the goal is to continue to push the league forward and be the standard,” Vanney told The Athletic. “If you do that, then you’re going to be in the hunt for championships.”

This year’s MLS Cup will be held on Saturday, 7 December, exactly ten years on from the Galaxy’s 2014 championship. Here’s a look at what was going on in the world when the LA Galaxy last lifted MLS Cup...

TV personality Donald Trump considers switch to politics

A Donald Trump presidency seemed a long way off in 2014.ANDREW KELLYREUTERS

Real estate mogul-turned-entertainer Donald Trump had been linked to politics since 1988 when his name was first forwarded as a potential presidential candidate. There were a number of false dawns - including a declaration for the Reform Party in 1999 - but by late 2014 there were rumblings that a genuine run for the White House was in the pipeline.

Trump had been a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2013 and had reportedly spent $1 million on research into a potential run for president in 2016. In December 2014, however, he was still under contract with his TV show ‘The Apprentice’. His reluctance to renew the deal raised speculation that he would formally declare as a candidate.

The announcement came in June 2015 when he gave a speech at Trump Tower in New York City, appearing in front of supporters on the now-famous golden escalator. A decade on Trump has won a second term of office, elevating his impact on the United States even greater and establishing him, if he wasn’t already, as one of the defining figures of the 21st century.

Steph Curry’s Warriors close in on first NBA championship

The three-point shooting of Steph Curry has been credited with changing the game.Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The Golden State Warriors had been growing in previous years but the arrival of Steve Kerr as head coach for the 2014/15 season transformed the team into contenders. Kerr introduced a faster play style and gave greater freedom to his star player, who would go on to change the game of basketball forever. In December 2014 Steph Curry’s three-point shooting looked like a dangerous weapon, a decade on it looks historic.

Powered by the incredible performance of Curry, the Warriors finished the regular season with 67 victories and Curry was named NBA Most Valuable Player. The Warriors were crowned NBA champions in 2015, as they were in 2017, 2018 and 2022. Curry added another MVP award the following season and has now led the lead for three-point shooting in eight different seasons.

Back in December 2014, however, it wasn’t clear that basketball was witnessing the start of ‘The Steph Effect’.

Six-year-old Lamine Yamal joins Barcelona

A 15-year-old Lamine Yamal would go on to become Barcelona's youngest player in a century.Rodolfo MolinaDiarioAS

In 2014 Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy received word of a talented young player who had recently joined C.F. La Torreta. He was very young, in fact, only six years old. Yet even at that age, Lamine Yamal stood out.

“When he was six, we received a report from a scout in Mataro,” former academy director Jordi Roura told ESPN. “He told us about this kid who was different to everyone else in his age group and recommended we followed him.”

In December 2014 a young Lamine Yamal was making his first tentative steps through Barcelona’s youth system and was soon moved to live on-site in La Masia, allowing him to train more regularly with the team.

Fast-tracked through the age groups Yamal was training with the first team by September 2022, just months after his 15th birthday. He made his debut later that season and became the youngest player to appear for the Barcelona first team in more than a century, aged 15 years, nine months and 16 days old.

Yamal recently finished eighth in the voting for the 2024 Ballon d’Or. Ten years on from joining the Barcelona academy as a six-year-old, Yamal has developed into one of the finest soccer players on the planet.

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