They had six wins through 20 games, were near the bottom of the MLS Western Conference standings and had shown little heart under Sigi Schmid, the only coach the franchise had never known. So they fired Schmid, signed midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro and went on to win the MLS Cup for the first time.
Now Schmid, 64, hopes to work the same magic with the struggling Galaxy, who picked him to replace Curt Onalfo, who was fired Thursday with the team in its longest losing streak in a decade.
The winningest coach in MLS history took over the Galaxy at Thursday’s morning training session and will be on the sideline Saturday when they play the Sounders at the StubHub Center.