Carson, CA – The LA Galaxy announced today that the team has released Dan Gargan and Ignacio (Nacho) Maganto. Dan Gargan joined the LA Galaxy just prior to the MLS Cup winning 2014 season. Nacho Maganto joined the team as a 2015 MLS SuperDraft selection.
This is probably the biggest blow to Dan Gargan who’s been in the league for 10 years. Gargan played for Colorado, Chivas USA, Toronto FC, Chicago Fire, San Jose and finally the LA Galaxy. Gargan has played in over 180 games and has amassed a total of 13,634 minutes as a defender. In 2014 he was stellar at right back for the LA Galaxy throughout the season after the Galaxy had to part ways with Sean Franklin and saw their likely replacement, James Riley, get injured early in preseason.
Last year, Gargan played in 25 games, starting 20, and totaled 1,784 minutes in a season that saw the Galaxy get bounced out of the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs.
Ignacio Maganto, 24, is a different story all together. Maganto was the sole 2015 draft pick for the LA Galaxy. Out of Iona College he was scouted as highly skilled with a good technical ability. In 2015 Maganto played in 13 games, starting 6, and playing 524 minutes while scoring a single goal. Maganto showed some promise at times, but always seemed to be moving too quickly for his feet or not 100% in control of what he was doing. He was a good energy guy off the bench but it seems like the Coaching Staff was never really a believer in what he could do.
Ultimately this really shouldn’t come as a big surprise. The LA Galaxy have strengthened their depth in both the middle of field and on defense. And while there was a roster spot for each of them, it was unlikely that they would see any significant playing time. Gargan was behind Robbie Rogers and AJ DeLaGarza and Maganto was buried behind almost every other midfielder on the team.
This means that the LA Galaxy have gone from a fully filled out roster of 28 players, to a roster of 26 players and a 2016 draft pick, Josh Turnley. Does this mean that the LA Galaxy are going to be moving some players from their USL Side? A likely candidate is Ariel Lassiter, who had an outstanding initial season with LA Galaxy II last year. Another player that might fill a need is former LA Galaxy Homegrown player, Jack McBean. McBean has been working extremely hard as a target forward down in USL and has seen some good results. He’s someone that could replace an injured or aging Alan Gordon.
The other side to this is that the LA Galaxy have opened up an International Spot by releasing Maganto. Do they have an international target in their sites? One that could come in and plug whatever remaining hole the Galaxy see? Or was this simply a matter of balancing all the international spots and making the LA Galaxy roster compliant. We’ve reached out to the team to ask about the current number of spots and we will update you when we’ve received a response.
The LA Galaxy will face off against Santos Laguna on Tuesday night in the 2nd leg of the CONCACAF Champions League. They will need an outright win, or a draw of more than 0-0 to advance. These moves will have no effect on that game, but it will be interesting to see how the Galaxy fill out their remaining two roster spots ahead of the start of the MLS Season on March 6th against DC United.