What’s next for the LA Galaxy?

Shortly before the Galaxy kicked off against Real Salt Lake, I predicted the Galaxy would win their first match of the season.

I was right. Not that I’m some sort of Nostradamus, the bet makers also favored LA taking all three points.

Simply put, this team is too good, too talented, too tight-knit to have gone 16 (!) matches without a win.

“It’s been hard to come by the first one. Again, I don't think we've played horribly through much of the season; just not been able to turn things into wins,” said a relieved Greg Vanney afterwards. I've seen teams play worse and get results and that's been hard to take. Proud of these guys because they stuck with it, and today they battled and it was a commitment for 90 minutes.”

Embarking on a record breaking losing of 16 matches? Disappointment is an understatement.

But you’ve got to look at the facts, and more importantly, process them.

To win an MLS Cup, you need a lot of things to go right.

One of those things is luck. You need luck. Luck isn’t something you can acquire for TAM and a SuperDraft pick, nor a quantity you can conjure up with superstitious mojo. Either you got it or you don’t, and this year, the Galaxy haven’t had it. Losing the heartbeat of the team in Riqui Puig was devastating. Lucas Sanabria spent a month out with a broken collarbone. Joseph Paintsil missed time at the beginning of the year.

Combine the player absences, the offseason departures of key personnel like Dejan Joveljic, Gaston Brugman, Mark Delgado and Jalen Neal, and the integration of new faces? 2025 was always going to be a slog, even if the first half of the season went sideways in a way few could have imagined.

The question is, what’s the second half going to look like?

To be successful in this league, you also need to develop players. It’s an essential component of roster building

I have to admit I was surprised to observe the hostility Novak Micovic faced during his first three starts. Replacing a cup-winner goalkeeper in John McCarthy is no easy task, but it’s as perfection was expected from the young goalkeeper, and that’s just not how it works. Even the prodigies make a few mistakes as they settle into the position.

”He's very shy boy and very quiet, so not communicating a lot in the team,” captain Maya Yoshida clarified. “But once he played and he's showing great performance then he get different reputation. So he need to keep working hard.”

Novak Micovic communicating with the back line

The good news is, developing young talent and winning aren’t mutually exclusive, which we saw Saturday night as a healthy crowd of 23,210 cheered LA to victory.

You can’t buy luck nor wish it into existence, but you can make your own luck which we saw with the opening strike: With his back towards the net, Nascimento’s dummy was stabbed at by center back Philip Quinton, slowing the ball down and giving Nasci just enough time to slide a pass to Lucas Sanabria for his first MLS goal. Novak Micovic made four saves en route to his first league shutout. Nascimento gave the RSL backline fits and was influential throughout the match.

“I just kind of look at each of our guys and what we're trying to do and how we try to continue to build and stick true to the process. How our young guys, whether it's Nasci or Lucas, how they need to come along, because they're going to play a big part in what we're trying to do to get back to what we’ve been doing in the past. So it's really just trying to be solution oriented as much as possible.”

Play the kids, and by the time Riqui Puig returns the squad will be in a stronger position to compete.

Are the playoffs a realistic possibility? The Galaxy can certainly play their way into contention should they round their way into form. (To be candid, that’s a big IF) If Vanney’s group can emerge from a three-game road swing at St. Louis, Colorado and San Jose with favorable results, a three-game home stand could provide the Galaxy with the momentum required to go on a late-season tear. If not, the priority should shift to Leagues Cup and taking home a Campeones Cup trophy.

Faint as it may be, there is light at end of the tunnel.