A brilliant night for the club wasn’t as noisy as usual as supporter groups engaged in a silent protest against the Galaxy’s silence and the government’s actions.
Joseph Paintsil scored a brace and Marco Reus provided another assist to earn the Galaxy their second win against the second place Vancouver Whitecaps.
The LA Galaxy flipped the script on the table-topping Vancouver Whitecaps in an impressive display on the Fourth of July.
Matheus Nascimento opened the scoring early to give the Galaxy control and a 1-0 lead from the second minute.
He’s shown some fantastic ability since taking a starting spot and seems to fit right into Greg Vanney’s team. Nascimento commented after that match that Vanney’s possession-heavy play style suits him as a nine who enjoys dropping back to join the buildup.
He got plenty of chances to do just that as Vancouver decided to keep their shape and not to press the Galaxy, allowing the home side to take total control of the ball.
LA were proficient in possession through the first 35 minutes, avoiding killing themselves with mistakes as was common earlier on in the season and doing well to progress through Marco Reus and the designated players.
Both Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil enjoyed some of their best performances this year.
Pec was especially electric in the first half, carrying the ball forward with confidence and putting in a sensational defensive shift. His efforts off the ball were often crucial at stopping Vancouver’s attacks as they managed to get in behind the attack-minded Miki Yamane a number of times.
Across the pitch, Joseph Paintsil might have wanted a better start to his game. He received a brilliant backheel from Marco Reus not long after Nascimento’s goal but wasn’t able to produce the finish.
Paintsil’s breakthrough finally came in the 60th minute. Gabriel Pec found some space in Vancouver’s half and took advantage of it by playing a brilliant lofted pass in between the defenders and straight to Marco Reus in a great position. Reus replied with his own bit of magic, cutting a great first-time pass across to the wide-open Joseph Paintsil.
Paintsil took a pair of touches and almost seemed to hesitate like he might overthink and let another great opportunity pass him by. Instead he centered himself and produced a classy finish into the side netting to double the Galaxy’s lead and his personal goal tally. Marco Reus kept up his brilliant form with his 11th assist in 11 games
The goal gave LA even more confidence and they started playing with the sort of panache that the 2024 team played with, a sight that hasn’t truly been seen at Dignity Health Sports Park since last year’s final.
Reus, Yamane, Pec, and Diego Fagundez were flexing on Vancouver by stringing some fantastic passes around and through their defense. It was much more than passing for passing’s sake as they continuously crept behind the backline and retained possession with some beautiful interplay.
Eventually they let themselves in to the face of Takoaka’s goal where Maya Yoshida was chopped down from behind and earned the Galaxy a penalty in the 74th minute.
Joseph Paintsil stepped up and kept his composure through a two-minute long VAR check before slotting home the Galaxy’s third goal of the night and his third goal of the year.
The LA Galaxy pulled off their best result of the year against the best defensive team in the league and the current second-best team in the West, validating Vanney’s claims that his side haven’t been far off the league’s best teams despite their results.
After the match he said, “Even though this process has been very difficult I think you see a lot of things, pieces, starting to come together… now it’s about what kind of momentum can we build and how many points can we take as we continue to push forward”.
It was definitely a positive step from the team on the pitch, but one that the supporters didn’t witness as they held a silent protest, walking out of the stadium after the 12th minute of play.
They didn’t chant from the first whistle as usual, spending their limited time in the stands hoisting various banners and tifos protesting the club’s silence on ICE raids in their communities and the federal government’s anti-immigrant and anti-working-class policies.
PHOTO: Andrew Hernandez//LAXSportsNation
To the club’s credit, they did not prevent fans from protesting and did not remove any banners before and during the match as has happened in other stadiums across the league. They have also started posting on their Spanish-language social media accounts again, which had been inactive since February. Club President of Business Operations and Chief Operating Officer Tom Braun was making rounds and speaking with supporters during tailgates before the match, an action that proves the club cares about their supporter’s thoughts more than words could.
Whether these actions will curb further protests is unclear, but it is a positive sign to see the club beginning to show they care with actions and decisions like these.
The LA Galaxy may be starting to course-correct on and off the pitch. They’ll need to keep it up as the homestand continues on July 12th against DC United.
PHOTO: Andre Bannis//LAXSportsNation
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