On Jan. 1, Galaxy coach Greg Vanney sent a text to his best player, wishing him a happy new year. The next day Riqui Puig responded, but his answer didn’t alter the resolutions Vanney had made for 2026.
Puig, who missed all of 2025 because of a torn ACL in his left knee, told his coach he needed another surgery, one that will sideline him this season as well. Yet after the shock wore off, Vanney and general manager Will Kuntz decided to stick with the plans they took into the offseason rather than blowing them up because Puig would again be sidelined.
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“We wanted to reinforce the back line. We needed to look for a [striker]. We’ve done both of those things successfully,” Vanney said. “The difference is that we don’t have Riqui’s qualities, which I think over the course of last year we learned a little bit about ourselves and how to deal with it.”
Indeed, after going winless in their first 16 games — the worst start ever for a reigning MLS champion — the Galaxy figured out how to play without their playmaker in the second half, going 7-6-5 in MLS and beating three of Mexico’s top teams in the Leagues Cup.
They carried that momentum into the preseason this year, going 3-1-1 against MLS teams with two shutouts, 15 goals scored and seven allowed.
The Galaxy will start playing for keeps Thursday when it opens CONCACAF Champions Cup in Panama against Sporting San Miguelito. They start their MLS season three days later against New York City FC at Dignity Health Sports Park, part of a sprint that will see them play four times in two countries in just nine days.
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Read more: Can the Galaxy successfully navigate another season without Riqui Puig?
It will be something of a new-look Galaxy with three new starters in center back Jakob Glesnes, midfielder/center back Justin Haak and striker Joao Klauss. The team gave up 66 goals last season, one off the franchise record, and the addition of Glesnes, a former league defender of the year, and Haak, give the Galaxy both depth and bite at the back.
Klauss, who came over from St. Louis City two weeks into training camp in exchange for $2.375 million, will take Puig’s designated player spot on the roster and, perhaps, his focal spot in the team’s offense.
“He’s a guy with confidence. And you can tell he’s so good,” said defender John Nelson, who played with Klauss in St. Louis. “He’s a beast in the air. Has good feet for a big man too. So the fans should be really excited.”
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Klauss joins a team at an important crossroads. In 2024, the Galaxy won a record sixth MLS Cup, tied a modern-day franchise record with 19 wins and were undefeated at Dignity Health Sports Park. Last season they won a franchise-low seven games, were winless on the road and missed the playoffs.
So which team will show up this year? The loss of Puig, who might be the most irreplaceable player in MLS, will certainly sting. But the Galaxy have already learned how to deal with that. Now they have to do it again.
“We’re not going to be the exact same team that we would be if Riqui was roaming the midfield,” Vanney said. “We’re stronger in a lot of other positions. That’s going to help this team because in the second half of [last] year we were competitive with everybody.
Joao Klauss, who played for St. Louis City last year, will be one of three new starters for the Galaxy this season. (Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)
“So if we get stronger in our defending, get more goals from our nine position, we [can] make progress.”
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Only two players — defender Julian Aude and goalkeeper Novak Micovic — remain from the roster Kuntz inherited when he joined the team as the senior vice president of player personnel in April 2023. And the latest additions add to the depth Vanney will need to weather a withering schedule.
If the Galaxy make it through to the second round of the CONCACAF tournament, they will play nine games in the season’s first four weeks, traveling through four time zones to three states and three countries.
As a result, Vanney probably will play the early MLS games with one lineup and the CONCACAF games with another.
“The games are going to happen so fast, it’s something we’ve definitely been pondering,” he said.
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The vagaries of the schedule are something that figures to hamper MLS teams all season. The league will play the first 15 games of its 34-game schedule by late May, then pause seven weeks for the World Cup. When play resumes in mid-July, teams will play their final 19 games in 3½ months.
“The schedule, we can’t control. We have to manage it,” defender Maya Yoshida said. “It’s not easy but this is part of MLS and we already know how to deal with it.”
As the end of last season showed, the Galaxy have learned how to play without Puig as well. Now they just have to do that again.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
