The Galaxy are enduring one of the worst starts to a title defense ever. Photograph: Javier Rojas/PI/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Defending champions in a rut
The LA Galaxy know how to win. Or at least, they knew how to win. While last season ended with the Carson club clinching a league-record sixth MLS Cup, they’re now making a different sort of history. Winless through their first six games of the season, Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Orlando City means the Galaxy have made the worst start to a campaign of any defending MLS champion ever. They don’t put a star above the crest for that.
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At first, the injuries to Riqui Puig and Joseph Paintsil were used as explanation. The departure of striker Dejan Joveljić, Gaston Brugman and Mark Delgado were also seen as factors. This talent deficit has undeniably contributed to the sudden downfall of the MLS Cup winners, but increasingly it feels as if other things are at play.
Related: Fifa considering LAFC v Club América playoff to replace León at Club World Cup
For one thing, the attacking balance is off. Despite making 21 more passes into the final third than Orlando on Saturday, the Galaxy had six fewer shots and just 1.03 in expected goals (xG) compared to the visitors’ 1.58. Paintsil made his first appearance of the season off the bench, but the Ghanian is still lacking sharpness. His 28 minutes on the pitch coincided with Orlando’s comeback from 1-0 down to win 2-1.
Defensively, the Galaxy were never the most resolute of teams, even at their best. Their defensive record was only the eighth best in the West last season. Previously, though, they created enough in attack to mask this. That is no longer the case and it certainly isn’t helping that goalkeepers John McCarthy and Novak Micovic are taking turns to throwing one in their own net, with both committing terrible errors in recent weeks.
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Marco Reus has been unable to replicate Puig’s natural creativity. His work ethic has been a problem too. Gabriel Pec is cutting inside on to his left foot too often. Christian Ramírez is struggling for service. Emiro Garcés hasn’t been the same player this season. The Galaxy could hardly be handing over a longer list of issues for Puig to fix when he’s back. GR
Lionel Messi: super sub?
We have seen Lionel Messi do all sorts of incredible things in his time with Inter Miami, but Saturday saw the Argentine fill a role he hasn’t often been asked to play in his career. He was a substitute.
Messi has been dealing with what Inter Miami called a “low-grade” adductor strain and an issue with his left thigh. The injury kept him from traveling to South America for Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Uruguay, and it also kept him on the bench for Inter Miami’s Saturday game against Philadelphia Union.
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Any hopes that all that time on the sidelines would reduce Messi’s effectiveness were, of course, sorely mistaken. The World Cup winner scored within two minutes of entering the match, finishing off what would turn out to be the winning goal off a feed from Luis Suárez.
The notion of using Messi as a super-sub is patently ridiculous, even as he rockets ever closer to 40 years old … Or is it? Opta noted after the game that Messi averages about 1.6 goals per 90 minutes across all of his 113 appearances as a sub for club and country.
If you’re like me, you probably found both numbers to be eye-popping. Not only is that a ridiculous goals-per-90 ratio, but he’s been a star for so long it’s a bit difficult to imagine Messi coming off the bench that many times. I guess that’s how it goes when you play over 1,000 games. AA
San Diego, please forgive us
It’s time for MLS experts to stop underrating expansion teams. Plenty of pundits (ourselves included) felt San Diego FC would struggle in their debut campaign. After all, they had brought in few players proven in MLS and hired an inexperienced manager (Mikey Varas) to lead the way.
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Instead, SDFC is enjoying a charmed start, leaning on new faces to earn results even with big names like Hirving Lozano and Marcus Ingvartsen missing time because of injuries.
Saturday was a dream day for the club, with its debut home victory lifting it to third in the Western Conference standings. Not only did San Diego win at home, it did so over LAFC, a team that everyone expects will become a rival. Plus, Lozano, the face of the franchise and a key part of the team’s structure, returned from injury with a late cameo.
San Diego was up 3-0 after 40 minutes with goals from Christopher McVey, Onni Valakari and Alex Mighten – three players off the radar of most North American soccer fans prior to the season but who all have played a part of the club’s successful on-field launch. Two goals conceded just before the half-time break made for a much more nervous finish than needed, but there were many bright spots in the opening 40 minutes.
“I hope everybody takes notice in San Diego of the effort of the guys, the quality of the guys. I thought they were absolutely lights out. I had goosebumps,” Varas said afterward.
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You would’ve thought after great debut seasons from LAFC and St. Louis City, MLS watchers would’ve learned their lesson. SDFC might be one of the last MLS expansion teams, but they’re already showing they don’t need to be graded on a curve. JA
CF Montréal’s identity gets even murkier
All it took was a 49-word press release to signal that CF Montréal’s organizational progress had come to a screeching halt, again. Published last Monday morning, that release announced the club’s decision to fire manager Laurent Courtois just five games into his second season on the sidelines. Courtois, whose hiring from the Columbus Crew setup pointed to Montreal’s desire to return to the possession-heavy days of Wilfried Nancy, was fired before he even had a chance to coach in front of the home crowd in 2025 thanks to the club’s seven-game, weather-induced road trip to start the season.
And now? The intentions of owner Joey Saputo’s club are harder to read than ever.
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With the league’s lowest level of spending on the first team roster, CF Montréal can’t win by amassing high-level talent. They more or less hit their ceiling in the East’s wildcard round last year. Now on their sixth manager since 2019 in interim coach Marco Donadel, CF Montréal can’t win by establishing a consistent tactical approach either, because that consistency doesn’t exist. Changing coaches didn’t magically fix them, as Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Chicago illustrated. They’re simply not a trophy threat, regardless of who’s managing them.
Saputo’s club is playing a different game than all 29 other clubs in MLS – and it’s not a winning one.
At least Saputo has Bologna to fall back on, a club where “people appreciate our work … here [in Montreal] they don’t appreciate our work,” he said in a bizarre interview days after firing Courtois.
People in Montreal might appreciate CF Montreal’s top brass more if they started taking the club seriously, but it seems that’s too much to ask. JL
