RECAP: LA Galaxy Find New Ways to Shoot Themselves in the Foot
The LA Galaxy suffered another red card and threw away another 60 minutes of good football as they earned a 4-1 loss away to the Colorado Rapids.
Greg Vanney’s players keep on finding new ways to shoot themselves in the foot and new ways of undoing his defense-first system.
2025 has already been a wild rollercoaster for fans of the most trophied team in MLS.
Just five games into the season and Galaxy fans have gone from fearing a repeat of 2025, to proclaiming that they’re back, to calling for the heads of Greg Vanney and some players after a disappointing 4-1 loss in Commerce City, Colorado.
Marco Reus for Lucas Sanabria in an advanced midfield role was the only change from the previous week’s big win. One would think that Reus would offer more to the team than a still-learning Sanabria, but Vanney’s application of the German legend might be limiting his impact.
Misusing Marco Reus
Vanney has mentioned multiple times that he believes Reus is most impactful when on the ball in the attacking third, and as a result has asked Reus to stay put high up the pitch. The idea makes sense in theory, (why would you want one of your best attacking weapons away from the goal?) but theory doesn’t always translate in practice. Vanney’s instructions end up leaving Marco Reus on an island, away from the play and unable to contribute and drive the LA Galaxy forward.
Without Reus there to advance the play, the vast majority of the Galaxy’s possession comes in their own defensive third.
Maya Yoshida led the team in touches with 118 and Jakob Glesnes wasn’t far behind with 83. Of the midfielders, defense-minded Edwin Cerillo held the bulk of possession with 75 touches. Julian Aude, Miki Yamane, and Elijah Wynder (who had a better game than social media pundits gave him credit for) each had about 58 touches on average.
Way behind all of them is Marco Reus, who got on the ball just 28 times before getting subbed off in the 71st minute.
Vanney’s application of Marco Reus prevents the German from getting involved in the play and leaves him with less time on the ball to actually help the team with his brilliant passing, vision, and IQ. Whenever Reus isn’t on the ball, his impact on the game is negligible if not negative as he is not expected to provide many defensive contributions.
The result is a Galaxy side that is constantly either trying to attack without being able to involve their most creative and talented midfielder or defending with just 10 men.
In other words, Vanney is limiting the positive impact Marco Reus has while maximizing his weaknesses.
New System Still Works
Despite getting less than he possibly could from players like Reus, Vanney’s patient, defense-first system still created lots of things to like in the first half.
Colorado were much more efficient with their chances, scoring off their first real chance from open play, but the Galaxy had them beat in terms of quantity of chances.
Glesnes found Joseph Paintsil in space with one of his trademark classy long-passes in the 25th minute but Rapids goalkeeper Nicholas Defreitas-Hansen keeper had a great night and pulled off his first of five saves to prevent Paintsil from having a chance to shoot.
Paintsil put on his creative cap shortly after in the 32nd minute when he pulled off a clever backheel to find Marco Reus in some space behind the back line. Reus capitalized on one of his limited opportunities on the ball in the attacking third by playing a great pass across the box that found Gabriel Pec at the top of the box. Pec unleashed his best shot of the night but it wasn’t close enough to the top corner to prevent Defreitas-Hansen from pulling off another great save.
Just as the half was ending Reus found another moment on the ball in attack and played Pec in behind, but the Brazilian’s touch let him down and led him to crashing into Colorado’s keeper. The incident resulted in an unusual yellow card for Pec, which would later have massive repercussions on the result.
One Step Forward…
The Galaxy were losing by the first break but they didn’t seem far from turning the game around. A sudden non-contact injury to Joseph Paintsil (most likely reaggravating a hamstring injury that kept him out of games in 2025) in the 50th minute threatened to stall the momentum but Maurcio Cuevas brought the attacking drive and energy to keep the Galaxy pushing.
All that good work finally led to the breakthrough.
Gabriel Pec showed his class by bringing down a looping ball under pressure before quickly getting a shot off and chasing down his own rebound. He then lifted a ball over the keeper and onto the rising head of Joao Klauss, who headed it home to score his fourth goal and fifth goal contribution in five games as a Galaxy player.
The Galaxy were finally level and feeling good when hardly after the restart Pec followed up his moment of brilliance with a massive blunder, needlessly sliding into Rafael Navarro. The Galaxy had just finished an attack and were out of position when Navarro was driving down the wing in his own half, looking to start a counter attack.
…Two Steps Backwards
Pec showed great workrate to chase him down the wing, allowing Glesnes, Yoshida, and Aude to get into position. Pec must not have noticed that all of his teammates had already joined the play and that none of Navarro’s teammates were anywhere near close enough to help when he threw himself from behind at Navarro’s feet, catching all of the player and none of the ball.
It was a much clearer yellow card than the first, but unfortunately for Pec they both counted the same and he was sent off and suspended for next week’s match against Sporting Kansas City.
Just like had happened during the home opener vs New York City FC, the Galaxy looked to be on their way to earning big points before one of their players blew up the game plan with a senseless expulsion, killing any chance of a positive result.
Changing (Not) For The Better
Greg Vanney didn’t do his team any favors by trying to chase the game. His first changes after the sending off were to bring on two attackers: Erik Thommy (making his Galaxy debut) and Matheus Nascimento for Marco Reus and Joao Klauss, trading a midfielder for another attacker.
Basically what happened was that the Galaxy were tied, a man down, away from home, and had half an hour to hold on for at least a point with defensive talents like Lucas Sanabria and John Nelson on the bench when Greg Vanney decided to bring on on a player who has never played with the group before and a young striker still trying to fit in.
The result was getting outscored 3-0 in the second half, losing 4-1, and adding zero points to their tally. Not to mention that Joseph Paintsil is now unavailable for who knows how long and Gabriel Pec is suspended for their next league game.
What Now?
A poor moment of judgement from Gabriel Pec undid not only the personal joy of earning his second goal contribution, but momentum the team had earned from the 3-0 win and another 50 minutes of good football.
Greg Vanney’s new defense-first system works. It works so well that it even covers some of his mistakes (like dropping Sanabria after a stellar performance or playing Reus in a way that limits his contributions). Unfortunately, there isn’t a system or a coach on Earth that can lead their team to victory when they play 30 minutes of every match with less men than their opponents.
Don’t call me a genius for saying this, but if the LA Galaxy can figure out how to stop getting red cards and shooting themselves in the foot, I think they will win more games.
PHOTO: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
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