By The White House
East Room
2:00 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! (Applause.) Welcome to the White House. And welcome back to the back-to-back MLS champion, the L.A. Galaxy. (Applause.) I was telling these guys, they’re starting to get a little comfortable around here because they just keep on coming back.
But this time they brought some company — the Stanley Cup champion, L.A. Kings. (Applause.)
Now, it is great to have both teams here not just because they share a hometown. I’m a little resentful coming from Chicago that L.A. seems to be getting all these championships. But they don’t just share a hometown, they also share a pretty good comeback story.
When it comes to the Galaxy, a team with Landon Donovan on it is rarely the underdog. But when the Galaxy was here last year, their chances of repeating as champions didn’t look all that good. The injury bug plagued the team. It seemed like it might be a rebuilding year. But right after that visit, they turned things around. And you can call it a coincidence, but I just want to point out that right after they visited with me — (laughter) — the Galaxy built the best record in the league.
In the MLS Cup Final, the Galaxy trailed at halftime, and it stayed that way until Omar Gonzalez, who is with the national team today, scored the equalizer in the 60th minute. A few minutes after that, Landon did what he does best and scored the go-ahead goal. And pretty soon, they were up 3-1, and then midfielder Juninho was probably dancing the samba — (laughter) — the MLS Cup belonged to L.A. for the second straight year, and that was the fourth in Galaxy history.
Now, the Kings’ story is a little bit different. These guys were not defending champions. In fact, before last year, L.A. had never won the Stanley Cup. And after switching head coaches midseason — a coach, I should add, who got good training from the Chicago Blackhawks — (laughter) — squeaking into the playoffs as a number eight seed, it looked like the streak of not winning was going to continue. No eight seed had ever won a championship in any of our professional sports.
But something happened during the playoffs — timing is everything. And as center Jarret Stoll says, “We all came together at the right time, and we all peaked at the right time.” With playoff MVP Jonathan Quick playing lights out in goal, these guys just kept winning game after game after game. And eventually, the rest of the league started to take notice.
Captain Dustin Brown put it best before the final game. He said, “I don’t know what 45 years of energy sounds like. But if we play our game, maybe we’ll find out.” And that night at the Staples Center, they found out. …read more
Source: White House Press Office
