Carson, CA – Something happened in the collective Galaxy mindset between the 4-2 loss in Portland and the 4-2 victory at Dignity Health Sports Park over Vancouver.
As Galaxy coach Greg Vanney put it, “A lot of the discussion is trying to set a championship type of behavior, making championship decisions. We need to be thinking about it that way now.”
The Timber’s creative attacking midfielder Evander dominated the game in the Galaxy loss. In the eighteenth minute, with both teams trying to grab hold of the game, LA goalkeeper John McCarthy punted long, attempting to find the streaking left winger Joseph Paintsil. Portland keeper Maxime Crepeau charged out of his penalty box to head the ball upfield into the middle of the park.
LA midfielder Gaston Brugman and both center-backs Jalen Neal and Maya Yoshida clustered around Portland striker Philipe Mora, with left-back John Nelson supporting. Inexplicably, Mora won the header, glancing it to DP winger Jonathan Rodríguez, who pinged it out to the Timbers’ number ten Evander, stationed in space on the left sideline. Nelson closed on Rodriguez and tried to transfer marking responsibility to Neal, Yoshida, or Brugman so he could return to his defensive responsibilities on the left.
With midfield partner Mark Delgado attending to Portland midfielder David Ayala, Brugman seemed lost, covering inconsequential space with Rodriguez sprinting toward the penalty area behind him.
Right-back Miki Yamane chose the wrong moment to neglect the fundamentals of ball pressure against an elite passer like Evander. With time to lift his head and space to step into his delivery, he whipped a pinpoint cross to completely unmarked Rodriguez, who emphatically headed past McCarthy, 1-0 Portland.
Sequences like that can occur during a long, congested regular season but rarely on a Shield-winner or championship team. The backline’s failure to body up Mora on the header, Brugman’s confusion, Nelson’s futile attempt to pass marking responsibility to nobody, and Yamane’s failure to close space all contributed to the Rodriguez goal. Each error resulted from neglecting fundamental principles that should be routine for any professional team.
If you don’t limit Evander, you don’t beat Portland. Not once during the entire game did the Galaxy force Evander away from his preferred attacking positions. He did whatever he wanted, left unmarked in both scoring and passing situations. He and Rodriguez together contributed to three goals, with Evander involved in all four.
The loss of Cerrillo to yellow card accumulation disrupted the balance in midfield, compromising the transitions between attack and defense. Meanwhile, Portland’s elite holding midfielder, Diego Chara, and his partner, youngster David Ayala, set up a no-trespassing sign in the center channel. They dared Galaxy talisman Riqui Puig to enter.
Throughout the first half, Puig obliged, rushing attacks with hero passes, hopeless dribbles, and botched combinations—Chara squarely stationed at the center of every mishap. Unlike the Galaxy, Portland prevented LA’s greatest chance creator from operating in his preferred spots on the field.
Not many teams in the MLS feature a dominant playmaker anymore. The Galaxy fell prey to another elite number ten in their dismal defeat to Austin. Sebastian Driusi played Puig off the park with a monster two-way defensive and offensive display in the heat and humidity of Texas. LAFC just resigned Carlos Vela, setting up a playoff clash for the Galaxy against a proven chance creator.
Players naturally gravitate toward the things they do best, especially world-class attackers. Evander wants to find space in the offensive third. Driusi favors getting the ball on the move in transition moments. Puig likes to find a cluster of defenders to beat off the dribble and slice open with a killer pass.
Coaches at every level tend to relieve them of defensive responsibilities to maximize offensive output. Elite players can ignore defensive vulnerability when sensing an attacking opportunity, a bad habit not found on championship teams.
When Vanney talks about championship behaviors, he means every player in the game playing within the collective scheme, sometimes at the expense of offensive opportunity. “We create our problems with how we lose the ball by rushing and forcing attacks. Impatience is our biggest enemy. That’s ourselves undoing ourselves.”
Offensive players can become frustrated with the defense behind them, even when they create the problem by rushing attacks. “We look back and wonder where the guys are and why they’re not closer and more aggressive. The reality is they’re shell-shocked, and now they’re conceding territory. We have to make sure that we are mindful of these situations, or else we start to lose trust in our positioning.”
In a league with a strict salary budget designed to ensure parity, every game presents matchup problems for the defense on both teams. Getting a result usually depends on game plans that limit defensive vulnerability while leaving room for an attack that can score goals. That often means isolating overmatched players.
Most pundits consider Galaxy left-back Miki Yamane to be one of the best in MLS. However, he could not win a single aerial duel with the Timbers DP winger Jonathan Rodriguez. When the Galaxy rushed an attack and turned the ball over, Portland played a long pass in the direction of Rodriguez. Rodriguez contributed to three of four Portland goals by winning those headers against Yamane. Not until after the third goal did Yamane body up on Rodriguez so Yoshida could intervene.
Rushing the attack before the defense could support it and account for Portland’s attackers behind the play resulted in isolating Yamane on Rodriguez. More importantly, the Galaxy repress could not close down the Portland midfielders and defenders to prevent a long pass.
To apply good ball pressure, players must first get to the fight. That means anticipating where the ball might go so they can arrive by the time the ball gets there. Then, they can position themselves to close off a passing lane and prevent a long pass.
Only an elite few players in the world can play a pass more than thirty yards without taking a long step into the strike. Step-close defensive positioning prevents the long pass, forcing the attacker to take an extra touch or play short while disrupting the timing of offensive movement. Even Lionel Messi requires a long step for a long pass. But he never makes a long pass because he is the best that ever played at making every pass a short one.
High press and repress strategies depend on step-close positioning. Defensive players must have time to get to the fight, or the entire scheme breaks down. That’s what happened to the Galaxy in Portland most of the night. They rushed their attacks before their teammates could get into position to support them with a repress.
In the fifty-first minute, Paintsil took a long pass from Puig that pulled Chara out of the middle for the first time all night. Rather than recognize the opportunity to get the ball back to the middle, Paintsil fell prey to Chara’s dark arts, losing the ball, fouling Chara, and complaining as the Timbers set up their free kick in their own defensive third.
A championship team would eliminate the danger of a quick free kick by scrambling back into shape. The Galaxy never fully organized, even while Portland tarried over the kick. The long ball found Rodriguez isolated on Yamane, with only Neal available as cover. Yoshida trailed the play in the middle, apparently expecting Yamane to deal with Rodriguez. The Timbers’ winger beat Yamane in the air for the umpteenth time, heading to Mora and running toward the penalty area.
Mora held off Neal and played the return pass to Rodriguez. Midfielder Mark Delgado tracked back on the shoulder of Evander until he saw Yoshida exposed on Rodriguez and left Evander to help out. With midfield partner Brugman still upfield, Evander surveyed the situation until the ball popped loose. Brugman watched from the top of the box as Evander slotted it home, 3-1 Portland, game over.
Championship teams don’t check out on questionable calls. They concentrate on their game responsibilities while chirping at the ref as the opportunity arises. They sprint back into a defensive position on every restart.
The Galaxy possess the best collection of attacking players in MLS—yes, better than Miami. But against Portland, as they have so often in 2024, they seemed to figure they could outscore their opponent. When they didn’t manage to do that on the plastic carpet in an unfamiliar stadium, they seemed to close up shop and wait for the next game in the comfortable confines of the Digs in Carson.
Longtime Galaxy fans know what championship behavior looks like. The 2024 Galaxy feature four players with ten or more goals for the first time in MLS history. Their points total and wins compare favorably with the five MLS Cup-winning teams of the past. But haunting doubts linger. They do not yet display the championship qualities of those winning teams.
The victory over Vancouver at home in Carson may offer some hope. Holding midfielder Edwin Cerrillo returned to the lineup after sitting out the Portland game due to yellow card accumulation. With a true defensive midfielder behind him, Marco Reus resumed his attacking midfield position next to Puig. The Whitecaps’ size and strength up front prompted Vanney to grant young Columbian center-back Emiro Garces his debut start, sending Neal to the bench.
The first signs of championship behavior occurred in the fifth minute. After rushing an attack, the Galaxy gave Vancouver possession with an opportunity to attack the Galaxy left. Paintsil sprinted back, releasing left-back John Nelson to close space on Vancouver’s right-back Mathias Laborda, clearing the ball out for a corner kick. Without support from the Ghanaian winger, Nelson would not be free to prevent a cross into the box.
Like Portland, the Whitecaps depend upon compact team defense and counter-attacks. Unlike the Timbers, they play a 3-5-2 formation with wide midfielders providing service to the box. In the Galaxy 4-3-3, wingers Paintsil on the left and Gabriel Pec on the right must recover to prevent Vancouver wingbacks from crossing the ball into the box, where they typically enjoy an aerial advantage.
Cerrillo simplifies the Galaxy midfield by patrolling the central channel to stifle attacks, cycle the ball, and deliver quick passes to Galaxy playmakers and attackers. However, he must receive help from Reus and Puig to defend Vancouver’s three central midfielders.
In the twentieth minute, both Reus and Puig played behind the ball during a spell of Whitecaps possession, Reus as a typical box-to-box midfielder and Piug pushing the play toward his defenders. When the Galaxy recovered the ball, they easily maintained possession because the positioning of Reus and Puig created multiple passing outlets. Vancouver called off their own repress, due to the balance in the Galaxy shape.
When Puig dropped to receive the ball from his back line, he carried the ball to the left sideline, perhaps for the first time all year. Combining with striker Dejan Jovelic, they broke the Whitecaps pressure, sending Paintsil behind the defense. Jovelic fumbled his cutback pass at the top of the box in prime shooting position.
The sequence featured a series of new principles. First, the 4-3-3 shape functioned more like a 4-2-3-1 defensively, with Reus joining Cerrillo in the back of midfield. Paintsil and Pec played wider in attack, opening up the middle for Reus and Puig to create overloads, pass, and move. Puig pushed the ball wide when playing from deep positions, actually hugging the left sideline in the buildup. Garces and Yoshida matched up aggressively against the two Whitecaps strikers.
With a much more stable shape and clearly defined roles, the Galaxy seemed in reasonable control of the game after the first twenty minutes. They still rushed their attacks with Puig trying hero passes and wild shots from twenty-five yards out, but rarely did the team lose its shape for the first half hour.
Vancouver gradually found themselves defending their own box while LA continued to probe the flanks, working toward the penalty box. Recycling the ball through Puig and Reus. In the thirty-first minute, Jovelic darted toward the penalty area. Piug threaded a beauty through to Jovelic. Vancouver defender Ranko Veselinović could only poke the ball away. Pec pounced on the clearance and slotted it into the bottom left corner of the net. 1-0 Galaxy.
Vanney explained the difference, “As we started to get a little closer together, the ball started to move a little faster. They started to want to close us down. And then spaces that we wanted to attack, and it started to open up a little bit more.”
The entire sequence illustrated the principles Vanney champions: probing the flanks, playing closer together, patient passing and moving, running behind the defense, quick passes in the final action, and maintaining team shape throughout. Garces’ pace and physicality at the back allowed Yoshida to set the defensive line at least six to seven yards higher up the field, knowing that Garces could physically handle the Whitecaps top scorer Brian White.
After that first goal through the fortieth minute, the packed house at the Digs witnessed something they hadn’t seen since the Miami game to start the season. Riqui Puig contributed meaningful defense. In the thirty-seventh minute, Puig tracked back into his own penalty box to break up a Vancouver play, championship behavior from arguably the Galaxy’s best player.
Maya Yoshida marveled, “But I would say we are improving, especially on the defensive side. Like today, in the first half, Riqui just broke up a shot in the box. I’ve never seen it before.”
At halftime, Vancouver coach Vanni Sartini inserted attacking midfielders Ryan Gauld and Pedro Vite. The Whitecaps pushed the defense higher, forcing LA to start possession fifteen yards deeper than in the first half. The more robust Galaxy shape managed Vancouver’s pressure. Every Galaxy player, including Jovelic, Reus, and Puig, moved together within the defensive team shape.
In the fiftieth minute, John Nelson collected the ball just left of center. He noticed that the Whitecaps had vacated the left flank with Pec in plenty of space. Nelson unleashed a Puig-esque beauty that split past five Vancouver players and sent Pec sprinting with the ball up the right flank.
Rather than try to attack the goal himself, Pec slowed just a bit to combine with Puig. He continued his run to get the ball back in the perfect position to cross in front of the goal. Jovelic crashed the near post, forcing Sebastian Berhalter to bundle the ball into his own goal. 2-0 Galaxy.
The vaunted Galaxy counter-attack matured into a measured transition against a good transition defense. Pec did not attempt to outrun the defense. He pushed the play wide, so Puig provided a give-and-go option. Jovelic crashed the box against a pile of Vancouver defenders—the patient kind of attack Vanney preaches.
LA weathered a sustained period of Vancouver pressure in the sixty-third minute, conceding two corner kicks. Garces showed his value in dead-ball situations, overpowering Vancouver’s forwards in the air and freeing up Yoshida to patrol the front of the goal. Unfortunately, he displayed his inexperience again when a deflected cross popped into the air.
Clearing the ball straight up the middle always invites trouble. Gauld collected the wayward header and engineered a cross from the right that found Berhalter at the back post. He nodded it into the goal mouth, where White shinned it past McCarthy to halve the lead. 2-1 Galaxy.
LA restored order in the sixty-ninth minute. This time, Puig provided the line splitter to Pec, who crossed it to Paintsil for a tap-in. 3-1 Galaxy, game over. As the two coaches emptied the benches, the sides exchanged goals for the 4-2 Galaxy victory.
Vanney summed up the meaning of the victory, “I think the measure for our group is going to be, you know, the capacity to compete in the playoffs, to show that maturity, and to keep trying to build that legacy for this group. It’s not just the regular season.”
Until garbage time, Galaxy displayed a similar kind of defensive cohesion against Vancouver as they displayed on offense in El Traffico against LAFC. With Reus and Piug contributing to the defense, the Galaxy not only limited Vancouver’s chances, but they created organized patient attacks, scoring goals against a well-organized defense, Undressing the best road team in the West.
The scoreline bothered Vanney, “We’re talking about closing out games with a goal lead or two-goal lead, making sure that we’re making championship decisions. We’ve got a lot of attacking quality in the group, which makes the games entertaining, but too many of them are 4-2. I’d prefer if they were 4-0.”
The 2024 Galaxy want to leave a legacy comparable to championship teams of the past. They have yet to display the behaviors Vanney describes for ninety straight minutes. Ironically, the very first game against Miami may be the closest they’ve come so far.
With the recent introduction of Reus and defending with two attacking midfielders still a work in progress, Galaxy must figure it out in only three regular season games. Road trips to Colorado and Houston sandwich a home game against Austin in Carson. A win at home and at least one result on the road should secure them home-field advantage until the MLS Cup final. None of that matters unless they can cultivate the mentality of a champion.
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