Three days ago Marco Reus was uncertain when he would be cleared to play for the Galaxy. He had a contract and a uniform but he didn’t have a work permit.
And until he had one he would have watch from the stands.
It took the efforts of nearly a dozen people, from lawyers and front-office employees to a congresswoman, to end that stalemate, cutting through enough government red tape to get Reus a visa just in time to get him on the field against Atlanta United. And he made all that work pay off, coming off the bench Saturday to assist on one goal and score the other in a 2-0 victory that extended the Galaxy’s modest MLS win streak to three games and extended their lead in the Western Conference standings to five points over LAFC.
The win made the Galaxy the first club to win 400 regular-season games in MLS history. The franchise also became the first MLS team to pass the 10-million mark in all-time home attendance.
Reus, who arrived on a free transfer 10 days ago, came on for Marco Delgado in the 62nd minute and picked up his first MLS assist 14 minutes later, setting up Riqui Puig for the only goal the Galaxy would need. The sequence started with Reus taking a pass from Gabriel Pec at the top of the penalty area, patiently dribbling across the front of the goal to buy time, then passing back to a onrushing Puig, who buried a right-footed shot from 18 yards out.
Nine minutes later he added his first MLS goal, banging in the rebound of his own shot to double the lead.
But none of that happens without a visa.
“We got really lucky,” Galaxy president Will Kuntz said.
The good fortune was needed because simply signing Reus to a contract wasn’t enough to make him eligible to play. The Galaxy have eight international players on their current roster and have had hundreds for foreign-born players over the team’s history. And all of them have required some type of immigration paperwork, so none of this was new.
What made Reus’ situation unique was the timing. Although Kuntz had been working on getting Reus signed for weeks, he couldn’t do anything about the visa until the contract was signed. And with less than two months left in the regular season, the Galaxy had hours to complete a procedure that can take as long as eight weeks.
“You sort of tap whoever you can,” Kuntz said. “We reached out to the congresswoman. We had our friends at the consulate on standby. Something like this, that’s really important in a time rush, you’d rather have as many bites in the apple as you can.
“You have to schedule for an appointment, then you have to schedule for an expedite[d] one,” he continued. “Then when you go into your expedited meeting, you have to request a prompt processing of the visa, which is something that requires a little extra special push.”
That’s where the lawyers and the office of Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Los Angeles) came in.
But there was still one more catch: all this has to be done at a U.S. Embassy or consular office outside the country. So when the Galaxy learned late Wednesday afternoon that the consulate in Vancouver, Canada, had an opening at 8 a.m. Thursday, Reus and Oliver Curry, the team’s player personnel specialist, went straight to the airport.
Once he had the visa in hand, Reus then had to reenter the country — and he had to do that Thursday night in order to participate in the Galaxy’s final training session before Saturday’s game.
Given the drama, Reus, who hasn’t played since going 19 minutes for Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final loss to Real Madrid, was only supposed to play 10 to 15 minutes Saturday. But with the game lagging, Galaxy coach Greg Vanney sent him on for Delgado with 28 minutes left in a scoreless game.
And he made his presence felt immediately, with his first touch in the penalty area leading to a handball call on Atlanta defender Derrick Williams. But goalkeeper Brad Guzan stuffed Samuel Grandsir’s penalty try to keep the game even for another nine minutes.
