The veteran coach’s return to southern California seemed like a Hollywood script. But now Galaxy are struggling to qualify for the playoffs

As juicy narratives go, Sigi Schmid’s return to the LA Galaxy could have been scripted 20 or miles or so due north from the StubHub Center, up in the Hollywood Hills.

When Schmid took over from deposed first-year coach Curt Onalfo late last month, the opportunity offered the 64-year-old redemption on multiple levels.

Schmid still hasn’t totally gotten over the unhappy ending to his first spell in charge of his hometown club, when the Galaxy let him go midway through the 2005 season despite the team being in first place.

He was also consumed by the what-ifs of his firing by the Sounders last July. His departure so neatly overlapped with the arrival of transformative playmaker Nicolas Lodeiro that he was still waiting for his ride away from the team facility when the player showed up to finalize his transfer.

Was the coaching change the spark that inspired Seattle’s dramatic surge to their first MLS Cup title, or was it the addition of Lodeiro and the rehabilitation of influential defender Roman Torres from injury? It was impossible to know for sure, and that uncertainty ate at Schmid.

Taking over a Galaxy team in a similarly perilous position to where Seattle stood at this point last year offered Schmid a chance to simulate the alternate universe in which the Sounders had stuck with him. It also provided the opportunity for the winningest coach in MLS history to go out on his own terms.

This is where the story breaks from the Hollywood screenplay, serving instead as a reminder that reality is rarely as tidy as it is in the movies.

Los Angeles are 0-2-1 since Schmid took over and are now nine points out of the playoff places with only 11 games left to bridge the gap. Saturday night brought another body blow, as visiting New York City FC left the nationally televised match-up as 2-0 winners.

LA are now a staggeringly poor 1-7-4 at home this season. The sight of a hobbled Jermaine Jones getting crossed up onto the seat of his pants by NYC FC’s Jonathan Lewis in the lead-up to the rookie’s wonder-strike felt like a convenient few-second summary of much that currently ails a team lacking in collective identity.

The book hasn’t been closed completely, of course. Following a midweek trip to Columbus, another of Schmid’s former clubs, LA host a pair of crucial, winnable games against rival San Jose and fellow struggler Colorado. Schmid’s contract runs through 2018, and given the mess he inherited, he might be given the time to lead a turnaround even if the Galaxy fail to qualify for this postseason.

Yet it is also increasingly apparent that this Galaxy team has some serious flaws, and that the coach has already burned through some valuable time trying to find solutions.

Throughout his year-long exile from the game, Schmid clung to the idea that he might earn one last chance with which to burnish his legacy. He could have moved on in an ambassadorial role, or taken a front-office job someplace that valued his expertise but was unwilling to take the risk of handing him a sideline gig. Instead, he stubbornly stood pat.

“If I had finished up this season with the Sounders and we came in and said, ‘Look, maybe it’s time to move on,’ I probably would have said, ‘You know what, I’m probably ready to be a GM,’” Schmid told me last fall, a few months after the Sounders cut him loose. “But now, with it ending the way it did, I’m really not ready to give it up.

“When you talk to all good players, as soon as they step on the field, even though they’ve proven it before, they want to prove it again. For me as a coach, it’s the same thing when you have something like that happen. The drive now is really strong to prove that the last half-year in Seattle is not who Sigi Schmid is as a coach. I don’t want my coaching career to end on a losing season. I haven’t had many losing seasons in my 30-some years as a coach.”

With the Galaxy currently 6-12-5 and with fewer than a dozen games to go, Schmid has some serious work to do if he is to avoid a similar fate in 2017.

The veteran coach was adamant that all he wanted was one more chance to prove his worth, and no matter how that went, that he would accept the chips as they fell. With a disjointed roster and the playoff spots moving ever further away, what could have been the uplifting narrative of the stretch run has instead thus far been a parable about being careful what one wishes for.

Elsewhere in the league

-- Tim Howard must have suffered through some unsettling flashbacks to his famous performance against Belgium at the 2014 World Cup during Saturday’s scoreless draw against FC Dallas.

FCD peppered the Rapids goal with 28 shots, eight of which were on target and all of which the Colorado ‘keeper was able to bat away. As peeved as Howard often looked at his team-mates for not closing down space, credit is also due to their willingness to put bodies on the line and rack up eight blocked shots.

Dallas are now winless in three – with all three games, ominously, coming against teams not currently in the playoff spots – and suddenly look less than a clear-cut frontrunner in the Western Conference.

-- Seattle’s 1-0 win over Kansas City on Saturday afternoon wasn’t quite the statement victory it might have appeared. Sporting entered the weekend in first place in the West, sure, but they were coming off a 120-minute war of Open Cup attrition versus San Jose, and coach Peter Vermes opted to rest a number of key starters.

Still, it was an encouraging performance by the Sounders. This felt like a heat-check game for a team that is now unbeaten in eight.

Seattle have struggled to break down disciplined back lines, and SKC’s is the stingiest in the league. Clint Dempsey and Nicolas Lodeiro seem to have reached a tenuous understanding in the attack, and if Jordan Morris can provide the consistent threat on the wing he did on Saturday, the Sounders will have a real go at defending their MLS Cup title.

–– Disrespectful skill move of the week: Alberth Elis, Houston Dynamo.

Nutmeg? Check. Pinpoint cross that led to the game-clinching goal? Check. Defender so demoralized that he didn’t track back as much as he shuffled dazedly through a fog of his own humiliation? Oh yeah.

Houston now lead the West, followed by Seattle, Kansas City and Dallas.

- Goal of the week: Justin Morrow, Toronto FC.

TFC were styling on Portland at this point, up 2-0 in the 75th minute and looking for more, and build-up was a blur of flicks and overlapping runs. Sebastian Giovinco dummied over a pass to free up space for Victor Vasquez, who back-heeled the ball for Jozy Altidore, who played another give-and-go with Giovinco. The final ball was lucky, honestly, a deflection taking it away from Altidore, who would have been offside, and into Morrow’s path for a snap finish.

It was far from the most spectacular strike of the weekend – honorable mention to Lewis – but as team goals go, there will be few with more panache all season.

TFC had slumped a bit prior to the Portland match, but will now head into next Saturday’s showdown with Chicago with a cushion atop the Supporters’ Shield standings.