It was just 11 weeks ago that the Galaxy raised the MLS Cup for a record sixth time, an occasion the team celebrated Sunday with a relay of supporters and first responders carrying the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy back to midfield at Dignity Health Sports Park.
A triumphant video played on the stadium’s huge video screens, fireworks filled the air and a dark blue championship banner was unfurled above the southwest grandstands of the newly refurbished stadium.
Then the new season kicked off and all of that suddenly seemed like a distant memory with San Diego FC, an expansion team playing its first MLS game, crashing the Galaxy’s party by riding two second-half goals from Anders Dreyer and a clean sheet from goalkeeper CJ dos Santos to a stunning 2-0 upset before a sellout crowd of 25,244.
The loss was the Galaxy’s first in 22 games at home, dating to the final game of 2023.
“The challenges are going to be different,” coach Greg Vanney had said before the game. “It’s going to be a different road to success this year.”
Indeed. And with four of the players who led Vanney’s team to the title last year missing, that road was closed Sunday. Among the missing were MLS Cup MVP Gastón Brugman and Dejan Joveljic, who scored the winning goal in the final. Both were sacrificed to the league’s salary cap.
Joveljic was one of four Galaxy players to reach double digits in goals and assists last season; no MLS team had done that before. But just one of the four, winger Gabriel Pec, was in uniform since Joveljic was traded last month, and Joseph Paintsil and Riqui Puig are out with injuries.
“We start again,” Vanney said. “It’s all just about fitting these [new] pieces into our puzzle.”
The pieces didn’t fit against San Diego. Christian Ramírez, the replacement for Joveljic up front, was ineffective in his 63 minutes while German veteran Marco Reus was unable to provide either the pace or the passing of Puig in the midfield. That left Pec isolated — and frustrated — for most of the afternoon.
Bruce Arena’s Galaxy teams of 2011-12 were the last to win back-to-back MLS titles, a piece of history Vanney’s team will be chasing. But the league has changed a lot since then, growing from 19 to 30 teams while the addition of allocation money, U22 initiative signings and young designated players has changed the way teams are built, making MLS more competitive.
Yet history and a rebuilt roster aren’t the only things working against the Galaxy. They also have a huge target on their backs.
“Everyone’s going to come after us,” midfielder Diego Fagundez said.
Dreyer, a Danish international who last month was playing in Belgium with Anderlecht, scored the first goal in franchise history seven minutes into the second half. It was set up by a massive Galaxy error with keeper Novak Micovic, making just his fifth MLS start, taking a backpass from Miki Yamane in front of his goal and flipping a poor waist-high outlet ball to center back Emiro Garcés deep in the Galaxy penalty area.
Garcés lifted a boot but was unable to control the pass, which bounced to San Diego’s Chucky Lozano. He then sent it into the center of the box for Dreyer, whose left-footed shot beat Micovic cleanly.
The Galaxy, pushing for the equalizer, nearly got it in the 79th minute when a Yamane cross found a sliding Miguel Berry, but Berry’s left-footed deflection was smothered by Dos Santos. A minute later Dos Santos made another save, one of three on the day, on a try from the center of the box by Ruben Ramos Jr.
Dreyer then made all that moot with his second goal three minutes into stoppage time. Tomás Ángel, the son of former Galaxy player Juan Pablo Ángel, got the assist.
