The Galaxy head into the halfway point of the MLS season Saturday with Real Salt Lake visiting Dignity Health Sports Park.
To say that it has been a strange first half would be an understatement. The Galaxy, who in December won their league-record sixth MLS Cup, remain winless to start the campaign.
“The momentum, it’s going the wrong way,” defender John Nelson said. “It’s hard to change the momentum of something when it’s going in the complete wrong direction and that’s where we’re going.
“But the belief is still there. The effort is still there. Like I said, just can we find one game, something to build momentum on. That’s what I would say.”
Sixteen games have gone by. The Galaxy (0-12-4) have tied the longest winless streak to start a season in MLS history.
“I never had this kind of experience, even the difficult times in Schalke or in Holland, most of the time of the season, bottom of the league. Still, better than that,” defender and captain Maya Yoshida said. “It’s easy to be pointing, making the clips, this is bad, this is bad, this is not enough, this is worse or this shouldn’t be like that. It’s easy to be pointing or blaming the people, someone, my teammates, the action.
“So regardless of fatigue or three games a week, midweek, injury, whoever missing, we have to play with a strong mentality and determination for Saturday.”
The Galaxy have definitely proved in recent years that each season in MLS is different than the other. In 2023, they were near the bottom of the league, but bounced back last year and defeated the New York Red Bulls for the MLS Cup.
“Of course there’s changes and all the salary-cap issues,” Nelson said. “But no one should be making excuses at this point, whatever, 15 games into the season it’s just not good enough. Of course, some changes, maybe some injuries. Of course, missing Riqui (Puig).”
Not having Puig is a big problem. There is no one in the league capable of driving Vanney’s possession-based attack better. In MLS, you go as your Designated Players go and the Galaxy have been stuck in neutral. Without their star midfielder, the other two DP’s (Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil) have seen their production fall off dramatically. Pec, last year’s MLS Newcomer of the Year, has gone from 19 goals and 15 assists in MLS competition to just one goal in 13 games.
Paintsil turned in 14 goals and eight assists in his first year, but he has failed to score in nine games.
Aside from that, the Galaxy have struggled all over the field. No one has picked up the production of Dejan Joveljić and the midfield lost its heart and spine with the trade of Mark Delgado to LAFC. The salary-cap issues forced the Galaxy to also trade away Jalen Neal and Gaston Brugman.
Joveljić (Sporting Kansas City), Delgado (LAFC) and Neal (CF Montreal) all earned new contracts at their new destinations. Meanwhile, their former club has been fighting uphill.
“We are not getting many things to fall our way,” coach Greg Vanney said. “We’re not getting some of these things that might be a little more 50-50 or we need something to deflect off somebody and then go in the goal. Just something. We’re not getting those types of things. Like everything for us is a battle and a war.
“But I subscribe to the things that you can control as much as possible, which is our performances, our efforts, our execution, ideally, and the things that we can get better at on the training field and things that we can do better. And you hope inside of being more proactive and being the aggressors in certain situations that you get things to go your way, you know.”
The playoff line is nowhere in sight for the Galaxy.
They’re currently 16 points behind the ninth and final spot in the Western Conference. Since MLS went to a 34-game schedule, the fewest points recorded was 16 by D.C. United in 2013.
“Everybody feels that frustration and they want to perform for the fans,” Vanney said. “We are going to get this moving in the right direction. It’s not a lack of effort. … We haven’t been able to turn the margins and execute on the victory. That’s one of the things that I think that’s very important about putting on this jersey is that every time you come out, you fight for it every single time and then we have to execute and be better and in key moments of the game and then we can get the good emotions.
“As I said to the guys in the locker room, this is not about an effort thing. This is about an execution thing. We need to be better in moments of the game that determine outcomes of games, and that’s how you are reward yourself with victories.”
REAL SALT LAKE at GALAXY
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Dignity Health Sports Park
How to watch: Apple TV (MLS Season Pass)
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