The LA Galaxy win a league game for the first time all year and reach the halfway mark of the MLS season with seven points and a 1-4-12 record.
Is it too late for the LA Galaxy to dream of a dramatic playoff push?
Star Wars night at Dignity Health Sports Park brought the LA Galaxy a new hope.
Lucas Sanabria’s first goal as a G and Joseph Paintsil’s first goal of the year helped the Galaxy add three points to their tally for the first time this season. Botafogo loanee Matheus Nascimento also joined in on the fun on a night of firsts, securing his first assist as a Galaxy player in impressive style.
The 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake was the first win for the Galaxy since they lifted the MLS Cup on December 7th, 2024, 175 days ago.
Unfortunately, any momentum earned from that win will dissipate by the time the league returns from international play in two weeks time. It’ll be an especially harsh return to action for the Angelenos as they face three road games on the bounce.
It’s been a season of tough breaks for the LA Galaxy so far, but the win against RSL was packed full of lucky bounces.
Diego Luna got off to a hot start, putting Zavier Gozo in through on goal in just the third minute, but Novak Micovic started a good performance with a great kick save.
Maya Yoshida misplaced another dangerous pass across the middle of the pitch in the 24th minute, much like he did to gift LAFC their first goal in the recent derby, but got lucky as Gozo produced a much more savable shot.
Gozo made it a hat-trick of close calls in the 42nd minute as he beat Micovic but struck the post. Salt Lake should have finally had their first goal right after the restart but Sam Junqua missed a sitter to give the Galaxy another lucky break. Dominik Marczuk’s volley then flew just over Micovic’s crossbar in the 47th minute, forgiving the Galaxy once again.
The Galaxy got let off the hook for their defensive mistakes far too many times in the match, but luck was on their side in the attack.
Sanabria’s goal was well-earned, a product of a great bit of skill from Nascimento to turn away from his defender and set up the Uruguayan for his first goal. Both Sanabria and Nascimento are enjoying some fine form in recent matches, giving the Galaxy a much needed boost on both sides of the ball.
Paintsil needed a much larger dose of luck to finally break through and get his name on the scoresheet for the first time this season. His dribbling has been dangerous in recent games but the end product just wasn’t there until the 55th minute against RSL. Gabriel Pec released Paintsil into Salt Lake’s final third with a great ball from his own half, which Paintsil received well until facing defender Noel Caliskan. Caliskan did well to read Paintsil’s movement and anticipate his cut inside, but luck was on the Galaxy’s side as the bounce fell right to Paintsil for him to smash into the top-right corner.
The LA Galaxy are going to need many more of these lucky breaks if they hope to make a late run for the playoffs.
They currently sit 13 points off of the Houston Dynamo for the 9th place play-in spot. It doesn’t seem like an impossible gap with 17 games and 51 points remaining, but the Galaxy will need pretty much everything to go their way from here on out.
Taking inspiration from Oraymw, a member of the Corner of the Galaxy discord, one can forecast a hypothetical playoff line by assuming that the Dynamo do exactly as well in the second half of the season as they did in the first. This would have Houston end the season with 40 points, meaning the Galaxy would need 41 to earn a chance to play for the final playoff spot.
By that logic, the LA Galaxy would need 34 of the remaining 51 points, or two points per game. Winning all of their 9 home games would give them 27 points, leaving them with eight games on the road to come up with seven more points.
Even if the Galaxy do manage to go undefeated or win at least 12 of the remaining 17 games, they’ll still need their Western Conference rivals to continue underperforming.
While not quite impossible, it’s clear that the LA Galaxy will need to play out of their minds for the next four months if they’ve any hopes of earning the chance to win a seventh MLS Cup. Riqui Puig could be back to help at some point, but Greg Vanney will have to continue getting his current crop to play well and get results.
It’s about as likely as firing a proton torpedo in the exhaust port of a planet-sized death machine, but there is still hope for the Galaxy’s empire to strike back.
PHOTO: Andre Bannis Photography//LAXSportsNation
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