Of all of the groups in Main League Soccer, none has had a wilder two-season run than the L.A. Galaxy. In 2024, the Galaxy gained the MLS Cup in grand model; in 2025, it went on a historic 16-match winless streak and completed effectively exterior the playoffs.
How, then, does one choose the Galaxy in 2026? Is it affordable to carry it to the excessive requirements of 2024 or the low requirements of 2025? Or is there a greater approach to consider its progress than these admittedly excessive goalposts?
Galaxy coach Greg Vanney thinks there may be. In his preseason information convention, Vanney laid out three clear ideas of play that he goals to grasp along with his 2026 Galaxy crew.
However what are they? Why do they matter? And the way did the Galaxy carry out them in its season-opening 1-1 draw with NYCFC?
“Entrance to again” defending
The Galaxy conceded a whopping 66 targets all through the 2025 season, greater than each different crew in MLS bar Sporting Kansas Metropolis. It is a sobering statistic and one which led the Galaxy towards a full defensive rebuild within the offseason — each by way of personnel and mindset.
“For me, the defending a part of it’s from entrance to again,” Vanney stated. “It is ensuring that in each scenario we have now all people related and dealing collectively inside the defensive effort.”
The Galaxy did effectively bringing this mindset to its opening recreation in opposition to NYCFC. Its attacking trio wasn’t shy about settling deeper to help its defensive companions. The gambit labored — the Galaxy held onto its one-goal benefit for a lot of the match and did not falter after conceding a controversial penalty — however Vanney was fast to level out that it had unfavorable repercussions on his crew’s assault.
“Gabe [Pec] was within the again line so much,” he admitted. “Which implies it was very arduous for them to penetrate us, however it was additionally very arduous for us to get stress to the ball generally.”
The Galaxy continues to be working to search out the appropriate stability of defensive rigidity and offensive fluidity. Sunday’s 1-1 draw with NYCFC was an attention-grabbing begin, however the crew has much more to study switching between phases of play.
Ending assaults on the transfer; much less playmaking from standing stops
When the targets dried up for the Galaxy in 2025, it was a scarcity of service to winger Gabriel Pec that induced it. The crew struggled to search out him whereas on the transfer, and Pec struggled to transform possibilities given to him from standing stops. Vanney entered the 2026 season determined to flip that script.
“It is about us discovering Gabe and ending actions,” he stated. “Not standing in stationary positions and making an attempt to play-make from standing positions. If we try this, it should be a protracted one for Gabe and for us.”
The Galaxy kicked off its 2026 season effectively on this regard: It scored within the opening two minutes of its debut recreation due to a fluid, on-the-move sequence involving Pec, Joseph Paintsil, Marco Reus and new striker Joao Klauss.
