As they have done prior to previous Major League Soccer seasons, the L.A. Galaxy launched into a new year by highlighting their undeniable success on the field and the team’s connection to its supporters.

Billboards, nearly 150 of them, first appeared around the city in February. Blue, green and yellow streaks swirled around blue text against a white background.

“UNITING LOS ANGELES SINCE ’96.”

“LIFTING TROPHIES SINCE ’96.”

“SETTING THE STANDARD SINCE ’96.”

“PLAYING FOR LA SINCE ’96.”

This time, however, the messaging felt more like a reminder than a boast.

Winners of five MLS Cups, four Supporters’ Shields and two Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups, the Galaxy have little need to brag. Among the eight MLS charter members, the Galaxy exist as one of America’s most decorated professional soccer franchises, having earned a global footprint thanks in part to signing international stars such as Landon Donovan, David Beckham and, most recently, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The emergence of the Los Angeles Football Club, which fielded an MLS team for the first time in 2018, represents a bold attempt to establish a second vital soccer entity in the city, one that could reshape what it means for residents of Los Angeles to care about the game.

With a new stadium in the heart of the sprawling urban jungle — 12 miles from the suburbs of Carson, which may as well be another world — LAFC aims to make its home, the Banc of California Stadium, the hub of the city’s soccer power.

“I think the success that the Galaxy have had over the 20 something odd years they’ve had in MLS allowed us to be where we are in this first year,” said LAFC midfielder Benny Feilhaber, who played his college soccer at UCLA. “We knew what kind of success has been in this city, and you need to be successful in this city to really have the fan base on your side. The owners knew that. The coaches knew that. And obviously as players we know that once we’re brought in and feel the environment. That’s been a big thing. L.A. wants winners and that’s something we’ve tried to live up to.”

For the MLS, its teams, their players, academies, front offices and fans, a boiling rivalry holds the potential to elevate professional soccer in a city bejeweled with sporting greatness.

“These are the games you get triggered by,” said Ibrahimovic, whose incredible 40-yard volley against LAFC on March 31 stands out as the lightning bolt that altered the topography of their initial MLS match.

Having participated in several of the most important rivalry matches soccer can produce, Ibrahimovic said the play on the field should determine the scale of the Galaxy-LAFC showdowns.

Ibrahimovic’s favorite derby experiences took place in front of 80,000 crazed Italians who created a special atmosphere inside the famous San Siro, which housed his team, AC Milan, and their rivals Inter.

“You come out one time the whole stadium is blue,” the Swedish striker said. “You come out another time the whole stadium is red. That is what you play for.”

On Thursday, LAFC asked its supporters to show up wearing all black.

Galaxy supporters will attempt to match the effort of LAFC’s “3252” who showed up 700 deep to the StubHub Center in March. The team was allocated 130 seats for the Banc of California rematch, and expect a significant number of their Angel City Brigade to find seats on the secondary market.

“I want our traveling fans to be loud,” said Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid.

Fans packed inside the StubHub Center witnessed magical moments from Vela, LAFC’s Mexican star, and Ibrahimovic, who made his MLS debut during a wild affair in which the newcomers blew a 3-0 second half lead.

“The first derby had everything you could want in a game like that,” Schmid said. “It had intrigue. It had disappointment. It had ecstasy. I think our team went through every emotion from being down and not playing well to winning the game. I think their team went through every emotion from playing well, having a lead and losing the game. So those are things that make games special at the end of the day, and I think we’ll see another special game.”

For neutral observers, like soccer luminary Ray Hudson, the emergence of a heated L.A. derby pitting fans from across the city represents “what we want.”

Pointing to the famed “Superclasico” between Buenos Aires sides River Plate and Boca Juniors, or the Manchester derby pitting United and City, or the global spectacle of Spain’s “El Clasico” featuring Real Madrid and Barcelona, Hudson said all great derbies come down to the passion of the supporters who “need to be entertained, need to be invigorated, and need to have the quality on the football field. And then one hand will wash the other.”

“I think with the Galaxy, who are regarded as the watermark of MLS, they are on a high perch and LAFC wants to knock them off,” Hudson said. “It’s wonderful.”

The Galaxy’s 4-3 triumph in March remains the first official result between the teams, yet Sept. 3, 2016 marks the first time the sides dueled in competition. It’s at the academy level where the earliest strains of the derby took root.

“The Galaxy are the worst,” said 14-year-old LAFC prospect Antonio Leone, who is being groomed to one day appear on the pitch at Banc of California Stadium. “They have nothing on us.”

Academy kids on both sides said they felt tension, an important piece in determining which players can handle the stress of competition at an elite level.

That feeling was compounded when LAFC visited Carson in March for the first “El Trafico” — the name supporters have embraced as the moniker for their local derby — and is once expected inside the the loud and energetic Banc of California Stadium on Thursday.

Interest in the first match, which aired on FOX, attracted the largest market rating for an MLS game in L.A. history.

“Two teams are important,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said. “There are multiple teams in in cities in Mexico. There are multiple teams in London. Multiple teams in Madrid. Why shouldn’t we have multiple teams? Rivalries matter.

“I think we will be owning more and more of this city because we’re going to have two teams that have different fan bases, competitive fan bases and great players like Carlos Vela and Zlatan slugging it out.”