On the L.A. Galaxy season turnaround, credit where it’s due: big center back Omar Gonzalez

CARSON, Calif. – You have heard the names David Beckham and Landon Donovan circling fiercely around the domestic soccer media whirlwind over the last few days.

Robbie Keane has gotten his Irish due, and rightly so. Bruce Arena is reaching ever higher on the legend scale.

All well and good, but this point absolutely cannot be overstated: The Los Angeles Galaxy absolutely would not be MLS Cup repeat champions today without commanding center back Omar Gonzalez.

It wasn’t just what the Galaxy’s center back and his ever growing shadow on this team meant to Saturday’s 90 minutes at the Home Depot Center – although Gonzalez surely put his big paw prints on the match like no one else.

Gonzalez rescued the entire L.A. Galaxy season. There’s a fairly high probability the Galaxy would not even had qualified for the playoffs without the high-value contributions of the fourth-year man.

Think about that. No Beckham farewell coronation. No Donovan to get his fifth MLS Cup. No Arena to get his fourth.

Just a bunch of pricey stars left to explain how things went so pear shaped.

(MORE: Gonzalez’s Man of the Match performance)

Remember the low point? When Bruce’s boys fell to the … wait for it … Carolina RailHawks back in late May, going down the U.S. Open Cup drain that night. At that point the Galaxy had won just three of 13 MLS matches and had crashed out of the Open Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League.

The club was awful. The defending champs were awful.

Players have explained away the stunning reversal that followed by talking about better attitudes. They found the hunger and the inner drive that had been so horribly misplaced. The players hand Arena a lot of the credit, and rightfully so.

Donovan has banged on about Beckham’s role, about the former England captain’s rising refusal to accept lesser; I’m sure Donovan is right.

But who are we kidding here? None of that would matter with the back line, one pounded into such an inferior state relative to the fierce product on rear guard patrol during the 2011 championship campaign, had not improved so substantially. And that’s all about Gonzalez.

The simplest explanation for the early misfiring was never a mystery: the defense wasn’t very good. Plain as that.

Gonzalez helped the Galaxy regain their defensive footing, and the long march toward reclamation of glory was officially “on.”

Said Beckham: “Omar isn’t just a special player, he’s a special person as well. He works hard, he listens. He’s a young player with a lot of talent. I hope someday that he will play for the U.S. national team more regularly because he deserves it. He’s been dancing around in there [locker room] naked, so he definitely deserves it after that. He deserved the MVP today and are very lucky to have a young player with his talent on this team.”