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Training Day with Chris Pontius

Words By: Adam Serrano & Photography By: Stephanie Romero

By LA Galaxy

July 11^th, 2018

a homecoming and a move "outside the comfort zone"

Chris Pontius is a pretty selfless human being.

On the soccer field, Pontius is the type of player who will do anything that is asked of him and play any role that a head coach demands. When the bright lights of the stadium are off, Pontius’ demeanor doesn’t change whether it’s helping provide advice to a young teammate, signing autographs or making people smile at a community appearance.

It’s that type of behavior that makes him invaluable to Sigi Schmid’s team this season.

A veteran with 10 years of MLS experience, the Orange County native’s signing wasn’t heralded in many circles, but he’s proven crucial to the squad, scoring three goals with four assists. Perhaps no goal bigger than his brilliant diving header against LAFC that helped spark the team’s most dramatic victory of this season -- a result that left him in disbelief.

But at his core, he's just a Southern Californian overjoyed to return home.

"In my heart, I always knew that I wanted to come back and play in Los Angeles, so I could play before my family and friends."

"i'm a bit older, and hopefully a bit wiser."

"My job is to help the young guys along as well as much as it is my job to get ready for games. I want to help this young core of players come along. Whether it’s Academy players or the guys that we have on our team now.

"I enjoy that part of being a veteran as well. I had veterans help me along the way and those are things I never forget. I saw people go about it the right way and the wrong way as well. I’m trying to do things right to help these kids move further along in their career and help make the Galaxy a better organization.”

“I felt like I had something to prove this season. It’s a clean slate here in Los Angeles. For me, whether I’m starting or I’m coming off the bench, my job is to make the guys around me better and that’s their job as well. Their job is to make me better. I’m not going to judge my season based off numbers, I want to judge it off team success.

"We can sit down after the season and talk about if this year was a success or not."

“I think this organization has big aspirations and is always trying to achieve the ultimate which is winning a Cup. I haven’t won an MLS Cup yet, so I want to win.”

“I live in DTLA. When I left LA, I was only 21 and had spent most of my time in Orange County, so it wasn’t like I knew a lot about the city. Now, I’ve been able to really learn the area. It’s been great. I love the city, this is my home."

“I embraced the East Coast and I was ready to be there for the duration of my professional career if need be, but I was so excited to come home. I played my first professional game in this stadium. I had a 150 people at that game and I even scored a goal. To finally be back here is wonderful.”

WHERE CAN THIS GALAXY TEAM GO?

"This team can push for an MLS Cup. There's no team that I've been on that can compare to the talent that we have. But the talent on the training field, needs to reflect in games. That's what matters most.

"Fans don't care if we look good on training, it needs to be reflect on the field on Saturday nights when we're under the lights. Our training is good, but we need to produce and realize our promise."

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