To get back to the MLS playoffs, the Galaxy had to weather a mess of a 2023 season.

The Galaxy finished in 13th place in the Western Conference, dealt with a Supporters’ Group boycott and never found their way into playoff contention, recording one of the worst seasons in club history.

The best thing about last season was that it ended.

“Coming off of a year last year that had so many challenges, the first (message to the players) was, ‘Guys, you’re never going to encounter a season that had that many challenges, you’re just not,’” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “It was unique and I’ve been in this league now for 28 or whatever the years are, you’re never going to see a year that had that many challenges.

“So, let’s leave that behind us and now it’s just a process of growing this group together, maturing together, the new pieces that we brought in, how they’re going to complement one another because we knew on paper that they would. And then let’s just stick to the process of trying to get better each and every day and with every game try to take a step forward and understanding who we are and how we’re going to be successful for the moments that are in front of us.”

The new year brought calm, stability and results. The Galaxy, which was moments away from the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, returns to the playoff as the No. 2 seed. The Galaxy finished tied with LAFC, but fell to second on the goal differential tiebreaker.

The Galaxy will kick off the opening-round best-of-3 series against seventh-seeded Colorado on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park. The second game will be Nov. 1 in Colorado and the third, if necessary, would be Nov. 9 back at Dignity Health Sports Park.

“We didn’t want to let what happened last year happen this year,” Galaxy midfielder Mark Delgado said. “That pretty much sums it up. We came out with a chip on our shoulder and that’s always in the mind and we’ve gone through it and we didn’t want to go through it again.”

This season ended with the Galaxy’s highest finish in the Western Conference since 2016, when the Galaxy finished third. That team advanced to the quarterfinals, losing to Colorado. Since then, the Galaxy had just two playoff appearances, in 2019 and 2022, until this season.

“When you’re winning, it makes everything better,” Vanney said. “When you’re winning, everything is better than when you’re not, but things with this group, it’s nice. It’s nice to work with these guys. They are hungry and want to be successful.

“You’ve got to be a mature team and you’ve got to compete with maturity in the playoffs to lay down the number of wins that you need to get to where you want to get to. This group has been really committed to that over the course of the year and here we are.”

The Galaxy won both regular-season meetings against the Rapids – 3-2 on July 17 at Dignity Health Sports Park and 3-1 on Oct. 2 in Colorado.

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Despite the wins, Vanney knows the challenges that the Rapids will present.

“They’re a hard team to play against, they’re very organized defensively, they like to press, they like to get into your space and make things difficult, minimize your time to set up attacks,” Vanney said. “When you get into playoffs, everybody has to try to figure out at this point, what approach they think is going to be the best for them to win games, to win a road game, so we have to be prepared for different scenarios.”

COLORADO RAPIDS at GALAXY

When: 8:10 p.m. Saturday

Where: Dignity Health Sports Park

How to watch: Apple TV+