The Los Angeles Galaxy are bottom of the MLS 2025 table following a 3-goal defeat to a St. Louis City SC side who hadn’t scored at all up until this point.
Both young and experienced players showed improvements but questions remain among supporters as their team now prepares for a must-win game on Wednesday.
The energy was high at Dignity Health Sports Park for the first 43 minutes of their matchup against St. Louis City SC on Wednesday, March 9th. The supporters were loud despite a not-quite capacity crowd of 19,271 and the LA Galaxy were playing what seemed to be their best game so far this season.
Academy graduates Isaiah Parente and Harbor Miller both made their first MLS starts at 24 and 17 years old and both played like mainstays in the squad.
Parent played on the right side of the midfield alongside Edwin Cerillo where Greg Vanney was grateful to see his influence. “…The intricate speed and the tight play that is happening [in the middle of the park]… it’s not the easiest thing to ask somebody to do and I think Isaiah did a nice job of that today”.
His performance gave the Galaxy’s midfield a presence that they had been missing up until that point, which in turn allowed Marco Reus to show more of the attacking side of his game that supporters have been calling for.
Reus had one of his better Galaxy performances, especially in the first half. He had 91% pass accuracy, 5 key passes, and created 2 big chances, earning himself the highest Sofascore rating of anyone on the team by a wide margin.
While it’s easy to give Reus all the credit, Greg Vanney made it clear that the German superstar doesn’t get the chance to perform so well without the good work of a midfielder like Isaiah Parente.
The other youngster on the starting 11 for the first time was Harbor Miller, the fourth youngest player to ever start for the LA Galaxy. He took up Miki Yamane’s right back spot and “showed the ability not just to survive on the day but some character to actually make some things happen” according to Vanney.
Miller did so well that he actually engaged Vanney’s tactical creativity. After the match he said, “If he can do that it helps us to think about other things to do with Miki as well”.
Yamane is a swiss army knife and if someone like Miller can reliably fill-in at right back Vanney may get the chance to experiment with Yamane’s attacking qualities.
It’s amazing to see young players step up to the demands thrust upon them by the team’s injury crisis but even more exciting to think about how they could help the Galaxy become even more dangerous. Harbor Miller could unlock a killer version of Miki Yamane just like Isaiah Parente unlocked the best version of Marco Reus in this game.
Unfortunately, the youngsters couldn’t carry the team on their own as miscommunications and mistakes ended up costing the Galaxy three goals against a side that they were dominating who hadn’t scored all year.
Just before the goal the Apple TV broadcast showed that the LA Galaxy had an expected goals stat of 0.95, suggesting that they were looking more than twice as dangerous as City with their xG of 0.43.
What the stats could’t account for was Maya Yoshida not reacting to Novak Micovic’s delayed claim to the corner kick at the 44th minute, causing the Serbian keeper to drop the ball and gift St. Louis their first goal of the season.
That goal was one of the most deflating half-time goals ever. After going into the locker room 1-0 down the Galaxy conceded another just four minutes after the restart.
A giveaway from Cristian Ramirez in the middle of the Park unleashed Marcel Hartel who used a one-two to slice through the Galaxy’s midfield and defense before smashing it past Micovic via the underside of the crossbar.
LA managed to get a grip on the game and even looked like they would find a second with some more of the creative interplay seen in the first half but were unable to even halve the deficit.
Gabriel Pec received a great cut back from Reus inside the box in the 63rd minute in a similar-looking play to his goal in Vancouver the week prior. This time however he was unable to apply the finishing touch and dragged his shot wide of the post.
St. Louis City got their nightcap in the 84th minute as they recreated their second goal, this time through Simon Becher who made the Galaxy defense look confused as Zanka and Garces couldn’t figure out who was marking the striker.
It’s clear that the Galaxy have made improvements in some areas of the pitch but have regressed in others. They’ll need to sort any deficiencies before this coming Wednesday, March 12th when they’ll host the must-win return leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup round of 16 tie against C.S. Herediano.
They’ll need to keep their first clean sheet of the season and at least double their goal total for the season to be within a chance of progressing to the quarter finals. What they absolutely cannot do is fall for the fifth time in as many games.
It’s looking like a tall order but youngsters are responding. Could the Galaxy’s veterans do the same?
PHOTO: Andrew Hernandez/LAXSportsNation
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