CARSON, Calif. – A veteran defender gets a tryout with an MLS team, makes the club in training camp, becomes a starter and is on the verge of playing in his first MLS Cup.
It’s an unlikely story, to be sure, but a true one involving the Galaxy’s Dan Gargan. The Philadelphia native was indeed out of the game when the Galaxy brought him in as a candidate to replace right back Sean Franklin, who had left for D.C. United during the offseason.
Gargan, who turns 32 a week after Sunday’s MLS Cup final against the New England Revolution at StubHub Center (noon, ESPN, UniMas), signed with the Galaxy in March and went on to play in 29 games, including 27 starts, with five assists.
If someone had told Gargan at the start of the year this was how things would pan out, he gladly would have taken it.
“That’s the idea,” he said with a smile after training Friday. “When I came to this organization I knew the possibility of being in a Cup final and the excellence this organization demands every year. That’s why I came here.
“I demand that same kind of effort and accountability out of myself every year. I figured they would kind of go hand in hand, and I feel like this team and this coaching staff have pushed me to be accountable and at the top of my game day in and day out. It’s what I bring; it’s my daily approach. Being here among great players you have to be.”
The former fourth-round draft pick of the Colorado Rapids in 2005 played just eight games with the San Jose Earthquakes, including six starts, in 2013 before being let loose. He does have a marketing and arts degree from Georgetown University, but as far as he was concerned he wasn’t ready to hang up his boots.
He made his first appearance for the Galaxy in the second week of the season when James Riley, another free agent who made the club in training camp, went down with a leg injury, and Gargan has proven to be a dependable figure on a back line that has employed a number of combinations.
“He’s been huge,” veteran left back Todd Dunivant said. “We’ve had so many injuries in our back line and he’s been one of the constants that’s been there for most of the season. Without him it’s a different story I think this year.
“He’s done his job and he hasn’t complained. He’s one of those guys you need on a Galaxy team. We’ve got a lot of big names and guys that get a lot of recognition, but not everyone can. You need guys to be able to do jobs, do roles and be OK with being a little bit out of the spotlight. That’s a huge part of why this team has thrived over the years. We’ve had players that have done their jobs and haven’t been recognized for it, and that’s why we continue to win championships.”
Gargan said he’s been too busy to think about his good fortune this season.
“We’re still going and I’m still going,” he said. “That’s the approach. I’ll have a couple of days in the offseason to look back on what the year was, what we were able to accomplish and what I was able to do and refocus for next year.
“You can’t sit on what you do. Every day there’s a new challenge, there’s another player that wants the same thing you do. You can’t spend too much time patting yourself on the back.”
