MLS Footnotes: Winless LA Galaxy not sweating historically slow start

By Doug McIntyre
Updated Apr. 1, 2023 4:51 p.m. ET

Editor's Note: MLS Footnotes takes you inside the major talking points around the league and across American soccer.

If the winless LA Galaxy need a reminder that a team that struggles early in the year can still recover and go on to hoist MLS Cup, they need only look at the foe they'll host this weekend. 

"The Seattle teams that won trophies, they were terrible at the beginning of the season," Galaxy coach Greg Vanney told FOX Sports ahead of Saturday's meeting with the Sounders (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX and FOX Deportes). "In MLS, winning championships is about being at your best in the playoffs."

So while the five-time MLS Cup champs Galaxy are off to their worst start to a new campaign ever, Vanney isn't panicking. He knows that his side has been without its two marquee attackers, designated players Douglas Costa and Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, for all four of their games so far, and that his side will be far more dangerous when they return. (Costa will be available against Seattle, while Chicharito is expected back next week.)

Even shorthanded, Vanney doesn't believe his squad has performed poorly. Three of the four matches have been away from Dignity Health Sports Park. And while the lack of goals — LA has scored just two — stands out, defensively the Galaxy have been sound, conceding just once in their last three games, all ties.

"We controlled the game in Portland, hit post twice," Vanney said of last week's scoreless draw in the Rose City, widely regarded as the most difficult road trip in MLS. "To me there are a lot of positives to our start, even if it doesn't show in the point total."

Vanney left Toronto FC three years ago after a wildly successful spell north of the border to resurrect the club at which he began and ended his 12-year playing career. He's got a winning record (27W-24L-21L) and returned the Galaxy to the postseason for the first time since 2019 last year, where they narrowly lost to eventual champ and chief rival LAFC. It was a disappointing end to a promising year, but the once feared club appeared to be heading in the right direction.

It still does — although the victories have to come at some point.

Taking all three points won't be easy against a Sounders team on a mission to prove that missing the MLS playoffs last year for the first time in 14 seasons was an outlier. Seattle has gone 3W-1L-1T to kick off 2023 and drubbed Sporting Kansas City 4-1 last Saturday behind four Jordan Morris goals. On the other hand, it's an opportunity for the home team, and beating the reigning CONCACAF Champions could be exactly what the Galaxy need to kickstart their season. 

"It's a measuring stick for us," said Vanney, who took TFC to three finals against the Sounders, winning one.

Whatever the outcome Saturday, the season won't be won or lost. Vanney does feel Galaxy fans' frustration, however. After all, he's long been one himself. "I understand that they want to see this club back on top and competing at the highest level," he said.

Unlike among rank and file supporters, Vanney insists there's been no handwringing within the locker room.

"We have a mature group that recognizes that the season is a process," he said. "MLS is different from other leagues. Every team at some point goes through a challenge during the season, it's just a matter of when. LAFC were the champions last year but they struggled a little bit at the end of the regular season.

"So for me there's only optimism," he added.  "In this league, you can't get caught up in the moment."

MLS FOOTNOTES

1. Sounding the alarm 

Morris' seven goals on the season lead the league; he now has two more than St. Louis' João Klauss and is three up on Atlanta United's Thiago Almada, who on Thursday was named the MLS Player of the Month for February/March. The trio have emerged as the early MVP front-runners.

Asked how his defenders would stop Morris, Vanney didn't mince words. "We have to know where he is in the box," he said. "The goals he scored last week, nobody was really close to him."

2. All things being equal  

The Galaxy are struggling to score this season, but both of their meetings with Seattle last year were barnburners. The clubs played to a 3-3 tie last August, while the Sounders beat Vanney's side 3-2 in March of 2022.

That win evened the all-time regular season series record between the clubs. Both now have 15 wins against the other, with 13 draws.

3. The joy of six? 

Expansion St. Louis City will go for its unprecedented sixth consecutive win to start life in MLS when they face Minnesota United on Saturday.

Besides St. Louis, the Loons (2W-0L-2T) are one of just three other undefeated teams left. LAFC and Cincinnati are the others.

Not bad for a club whose best player, Argentine maestro Emanuel Reynoso, refused to report for preseason and has subsequently been suspended without pay by MLS.

"I don't know how we get it resolved other than we keep trying to get messages to him and try to speak to him and hopefully some common sense prevails and he can get himself back here," Minnesota coach Adrian Heath told the Star Tribune about Reynoso this week. "At this moment in time, it obviously isn't helping nobody."

4. Don't bank on a Ream homecoming

A proud son of St. Louis, U.S. World Cup defender Tim Ream has been following City's incredible start closely. "I can't get away from it on my social media timelines with all the friends and people that that I know going to games and [posting] videos and photos," Ream told FOX Sports Monday after the USMNT's 1-0 win over El Salvador in Orlando.

The 35-year-old, who was one of just two outfield players (along with another former New York Red Bull, Tyler Adams) to log every minute for the Americans at Qatar 2022, added that he wants to play until he's 40 if his body cooperates. But that doesn't mean he's thinking about finishing his career in his hometown.

"I have things I still want to accomplish over in England," said Ream, who left MLS for the Premier League in 2013. "I have no plans to come back. I'm going to continue to push myself and play at the highest level that I possibly can…I've maintained that, if at all possible, I'll retire playing over there."

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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