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It was just 11 weeks ago that the Galaxy raised the MLS Cup for a record sixth time, an occasion the team celebrated Sunday with a relay of supporters and first responders carrying the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy back to midfield at Dignity Health Sports Park.
A triumphant video played on the stadium’s huge video screens, fireworks filled the air and a dark blue championship banner was unfurled above the southwest grandstands of the newly refurbished stadium.
Then the new season kicked off and all of that suddenly seemed like a distant memory with San Diego FC, an expansion team playing its first MLS game, crashing the Galaxy’s party by riding two second-half goals from Anders Dreyer and a clean sheet from goalkeeper CJ dos Santos to a stunning 2-0 upset before a sellout crowd of 25,244.
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The loss was the Galaxy’s first in 22 games at home, dating to the final game of 2023.
“This can’t happen,” coach Greg Vanney said. “This is where we get points, this is where we win. We established that as something that was very important to us, and something we did last year. We don’t lose at home.
“So is it a rallying cry? It’s a wake-up call, I guess. We’ve got to be more prepared and we’ve got to be better, especially at home.”
The Galaxy were missing four of the players who led them to the title last year, including MLS Cup MVP Gastón Brugman and Dejan Joveljic, who scored the winning goal in the final. Both were traded, sacrificed to the league’s salary cap.
“There’s no excuse,” captain Maya Yoshida said. “We missed a couple of important players, experienced players, who can change the game. We have the base of the team since last season.
“We should have done better.”
But if that wasn’t an excuse for Sunday’s loss, it was at least part of the explanation. Joveljic was one of four Galaxy players to reach double digits in goals and assists last season; no MLS team had done that before. Yet, just one of the four, winger Gabriel Pec, was in uniform since Joveljic was traded last month, and Joseph Paintsil and Riqui Puig are out with injuries.
The pieces Vanney used to puzzle together a lineup in those absences didn’t fit. Christian Ramírez, the replacement for Joveljic up front, was ineffective in his 63 minutes while German veteran Marco Reus was unable to provide either the pace or the passing of Puig in the midfield. That left Pec isolated — and frustrated — for most of the afternoon.
“We weren’t very dynamic in the front half of the field,” Vanney said. “When we were getting forward and getting into forward positions, we weren’t really turning possessions into attacks.
“We just looked a little disjointed. Maybe we weren’t prepared for where we needed to be with the new additions. We didn’t look like a team that just won the championship.”
Dreyer, a Danish international who last month was playing in Belgium with Anderlecht, scored the first goal in franchise history seven minutes into the second half. It was set up by a massive Galaxy error with keeper Novak Micovic, making just his fifth MLS start, taking a backpass from Miki Yamane in front of his goal and flipping a poor waist-high outlet ball to center back Emiro Garcés deep in the Galaxy penalty area.
Garcés lifted a boot but was unable to control the pass, which bounced to San Diego’s Chucky Lozano. He then sent it into the center of the box for Dreyer, whose left-footed shot beat Micovic cleanly.
“Ultimately, the game turns on a mistake,” Vanney said.
“It was almost more self-defense than it was trying to actually do something with it. He was just trying to bring it down,” he said of Garcés’ mishandling of the Micovic pass. “The whole thing just felt a little bit rushed, and it didn’t really need to be.”
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The score opened the game up as the Galaxy pushed for the equalizer, nearly getting it in the 79th minute when a Yamane cross found a sliding Miguel Berry at the edge of the six-yard. But Berry’s left-footed deflection was smothered by Dos Santos. A minute later Dos Santos made another save, one of three on the day, on a try from the center of the box by Ruben Ramos Jr.
Dreyer then made all that moot with his second goal three minutes into stoppage time, with former LAFC forward Tomás Ángel got the assist on the play.
For the Galaxy, it was a bitter end to a day that began with a joyous celebration.
“This is very obvious,” Yoshida repeated. “We have to be better.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.