LOS ANGELES (Saturday, October 18, 2025) – The reigning MLS Cup Champion LA Galaxy ended their 2025 regular season campaign with 2-1 victory over Minnesota United FC on Fan Appreciation Night. An early goal by Matheus Nascimento in the 12th minute and a second half strike by Joseph Paintsil extended the lead and set the tone for the match. Although Minnesota pulled one back late in stoppage time, the Galaxy held firm to close out the campaign with a hard-earned victory. The team will continue to train postseason and is playing a friendly against Club America on Saturday, November 15 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
LA Galaxy Against Minnesota United FC:
Saturday’s match marked the 19th meeting across all competitions between the LA Galaxy and Minnesota United FC, with the Galaxy leading the all-time series 10-6-3. Against Minnesota, LA holds a 8-3-6 record in league play and a 2-0-0 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs. The two teams last met on March 22, 2025, playing to a 2-2 draw at Allianz Field. In nine all-time regular season matches played at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy hold a 6-0-4 record against Minnesota.
Postseason Friendly: LA Galaxy vs Club America on November 15: The LA Galaxy’s post-season training program will continue with an international friendly against Club América, as the team ramps up preparations for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup. The November 15 match brings together two of North America’s most storied clubs. The Mexico City side selected Los Angeles, its second home, as the base for its Liga MX post-season preparations, while the Galaxy look to build momentum ahead of the new year. Ahead of the match, the LA Galaxy and Club América will partner on community initiatives and host a Fan Fest outside the stadium beginning at 2:30 p.m., featuring live music, food, team mascots, club legends, championship trophies, and more.
Goal-Scoring Plays:
LA – Matheus Nascimento, 12th minute: Elijah Wynder played a cross into the box that was deflected by a Minnesota defender. Nascimento got on the end of it with a first-touch volley that bounced past the keeper.
LA – Joseph Paintsil, 52nd minute: Elijah Wynder played a through ball in front of Joseph Paintsil from half field. Paintsil streaked towards the goal with his first shot hitting the right goalpost before following up and putting it away.
MN – Joaquín Pereyra, 95*th\* minute: Pereyra used his body to push the ball into the front post from a corner kick service.
Postgame Notes:
- Tonight’s goal marked Joseph Paintsil’s 10th goal of the MLS regular season and 15th goal contribution, earning him the Golden Boot for the LA Galaxy.
- Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil lead the club with 15 goal contributions each in the 2025 regular season.
- Matheus Nascimento scored his 4th MLS career goal tonight.
- The LA Galaxy held 60% of the possession in tonight’s match.
2025 MLS Regular Season
Goals by Half 1 | 2 | F
LA Galaxy 1 | 1 | 2
Minnesota United FC 0 | 1 | 1
Scoring Summary:
LA: Nascimento, 12
LA: Paintsil, 52
MN: Pereyra, 90+5
Misconduct Summary:
MN: Triantis (Caution), 61
LA: Cerrillo (Caution), 67
LA: Vanney (Caution), 76
MN: Romero (Caution), 79
LA: Cerrillo (Ejection), 90 + 7
Lineups:
Starting XI: GK Novak Mićovic, D John Nelson, D Maya Yoshida(c), D Emiro Garces, D Mauricio Cuevas (Eriq Zavaleta, 81), M Diego Fagundez, M Edwin Cerrillo, M Elijah Wynder (Miguel Berry, 82), F Joseph Paintsil (Tucker Lepley, 89), F Gabriel Pec, F Matheus Nascimento (Miki Yamane, 74)
Substitutes Not Used: GK JT Marcinkowski, F Christian Ramirez, D Zanka
Referee: Rosendo Mendoza
Assistant Referees: Chris Wattam, Diego Blas
Fourth Official: Matt Thompson
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez
AVAR: Craig Lowry
Weather: Sunny 76 degrees
Attendance: 17,765
Additional Time at the Half: 6 minutes
Additional Time: 6 minutes
Total Added Time: 12 minutes
POSTGAME QUOTES:
LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney
On finishing out the season:
“Look, I'm proud of these guys. The start of the season was like nothing any of us wanted. But literally at the turn, the halfway point, we started to put some things together, started to find a little bit more cohesion, started to get some results along the way. Better finish. Everybody stuck together all the way until the last game. And we beat two playoff teams down the stretch, which is a nice statement for where we are. We finished third in Leagues Cup which makes a
statement. I think we're probably one of the better teams that didn't make the playoffs when it's all said and done. But it is what it is. We are where we deserve to be because of how we all started out. We learned a lot of lessons about ourselves, and we brought some guys along. And we'll be in a better spot at the beginning of this year, also because we finished strong and we finished the right way. And getting a couple of wins down the stretch will make us all feel a little better as we go into the next three weeks of training camp. Don't tell everybody yet. But as we move into the next little phase of things, everyone will feel a lot better. Really positive. But I'm happy. The guys battled today against a team that had a lot to play for. And we felt we had something to play for, too, for a couple of different reasons.”
On the start of the season:
“It was a reflection all during it, just trying to think about what can you do different, how can you help impact the team, how can you put guys in better positions to play, how can we get more out of guys, how do we get guys healthy? There was a lot of things, that fitting pieces together, trying to figure out different things along the way. It was challenging for everybody emotionally, as we all know, because when you're not getting results, it's a gut punch. The guys stayed together. We felt like we had had some better performances than our results had probably warranted. But we were conceding goals in bad ways and unable to finish chances. And that's not a winning formula. But we felt that through stretches we had some solid performances that we couldn't get anything out of. So we just tried to stay focused on that, the process, trying to improve, trying to work on some details. And sometimes when big things aren't working, it's hard to get to little things. And the little things were making the difference for us through a lot of games. But yeah, we found some stability and then we were able to, I think, get into a rhythm, start to see more of our principles, the speed of our game started to pick up a little bit more.
When we're a good attacking team, we're a better defending team, too. I think those things were fitting together, because oppositions were now having to deal with us. We found a transition game again. We had no transition game at the beginning of the year Joe out and Gabe in and out. So it was a process, but we learned a lot about ourselves, we learned a lot about the necessary pieces that we need to function how we want to. We had a good sense, but just where we are, we've learned a lot. We have to take that. We've got to do some good offseason work with it. And we've got to come in ready to fire from the beginning because we may be into it really quick, but we'll see.”
On Elijah Wynder and John Nelson:
“Yeah, I really think he was in his head a lot of the early first part of the season. It's not abnormal. And I think he was just trying to process a little bit how our system functions, what his role was going to look like, the speed of the game in MLS. We weren't winning games which always puts a little bit of weight on things. So I think actually by taking a step back, him taking a little bit of time to work in training and to watch some games where we actually played well and some things functioned and talking to him as the season progressed, he said I feel a lot more comfortable with what we're doing now and what I need to do. Then it just became repetition. He has great power, he can really cover ground. He has soft feet for a big man. One of the things he did tonight was his running through the line created more space in front of Gabe to be able to attack. For me we saw Gabe less standing on the ball but more especially in the first half driving the ball, getting moving forward which is where Gabe is at his best. He had a couple shots trailing in the space behind Elijah. They were able to play Elijah in a few times. I felt he did a great job creating forward momentum on that side of the field. And I felt it helped Gabe which is something he's been missing over the course of the season. He's been trying to change the speed of the game. And I think he's best when the game, when the speed of the game has been changed for him and now he just needs to keep up with it. I think he had an impact on others, not just himself and the team. Again, I think he's learning. I think you see a lot of confidence in him now. I think a lot of clarity in his mind. And that gives, I think, him and all of us comfort when you're on the field and now his natural qualities are starting to come out. I was really pleased with him. John is a machine again today. He had a couple different roles. In the first half he was getting higher up the left side. In the second half we held him a little closer in the build. Then we switched from building a three to building in a four so his roles changed in there. But defensively he has such a good instinct and feel for things, and sometimes he just puts out fires and he reads some things that are unique to John because he has that -- probably his tendency is a little shifted toward the defending side and a little less on the attacking side, which I thought he was excellent in that regard tonight. I was proud of him. I saw his dad. I told him he was outstanding tonight. We all saw the same thing."
On any significance of Eric Zavaleta getting minutes:
“Maybe but not necessarily. I think it's kind of still to be determined. But it leaves it in a position where anything can be considered here as we go into the offseason.”
On Gabriel Pec not getting back into the game and Yamane not subbing in:
“Those are the rules we have to abide by. This one I don't understand. Their guys run into each other. One of them gets up and fine, and the other one is down and he has to get help. He gets to come off and go right back on. Their guy puts a forearm shiver into our guy, goes down, no foul called, he needs help. And he has to stay out for two minutes. That one I don't understand. I understand the rule but I don't understand how it doesn't get applied in one situation but applies in the other. I understand the nuance of their two guys running into each other, but he needed assistance, right? And through no fault of theirs or ours. I didn't get it. That's why Gabe got treatment on the field and it wasn't a yellow card. It wasn't a head injury, and so therefore he had to sit out. So we're trying to prevent time wasting. Sometimes there's logical situations that aren't time wasting, but anyways that's the rule. With Miki, Nasci, evidently took too long to get off the field. So then Miki has to stay off the field for a minute. But then a minute could become five minutes. It all depends on when the next stoppage of play is. Anyways, I showed my frustration in the rules, that's all. Yeah, there's a lot of different logics. I can tell you, in some ways I understand it later in games when guys like to go down with cramps and hang around and it slows down the game, it does stuff. It has taken a lot of that away to be fair to the rule.
I just think there's other times, especially when you have (indiscernible) and they're more logical, and you can go, hey, he took it in the ribs, or it's a logical moment, not moment where people aren't wasting time. That's when I have a hard time. It is what it is.”
On finishing 26th overall:
“Not celebrating. I'm not celebrating it. There's nothing great to celebrate about that. We remain focused on our process. I think we've had improvements through the course of the year. I think we finished with two wins. We learned a lot about -- we saw players come forward who are young and are going to really benefit from MLS this last stretch and the group really fought to the end. The group took a Champions League spot got out of a tough tournament. There's a lot of positives, but our standing is not one of them.”
On team adjustments and Diego Fagundez in midfield:
“Maybe. That coincided with Marco getting healthier and coincided with Joe getting healthy, who missed the first part of it. As Joe came onto the wing that afforded us a little more moving Diego into the middle. As Marco gets healthier, gives us the chance to maybe drop Diego back. But also Nasci got healthy and came along, which gave us a little more speed and athleticism at the top end sometimes because I was trying to find the balance between, what I call, space creators and space users -- guys who run for the depth and guys who want the ball at their feet. At times, I felt like we had too many guys that are looking for the ball at their feet and not enough guys that are threatening the opposition. And the opposition was just pressing us in and we weren't getting behind. And that's when you don't have a Joe and Gabe running through the lines. For me it was a little bit of timing on each of these things that allowed us to get there. And then you're trying to bring, obviously, Lucas, trying to settle him into the league, and Elijah trying to settle into the league. As we got healthier I think things started to, again, healthier and a couple of guys settled in, things start to piece together. And it helped us helped me to find better solutions as well. I don't put that on everybody else. Again, the balance of things on the field started to look a little more appropriate for how we want to play the game. It also brought a transition game into us. And if you think about the team last year, we would get on top of teams 1-0 or whatever, and then our transition was as good as anyone in the league. So when teams had to come out and play against us, they had Joe, Gabe, Ricky, Dan, these guys running and breaking lines and then putting the game away. We couldn't get on top of games. And then we didn't have that ability to break away if we were. So it was just timeline and things piecing together and guys coming together.”
On beginning of season and optimism going into 2026:
“I think the beginning of the season it was frustrating. I don't know if it can get any more frustrating. But it is. The hard part was I've always felt, like even at the beginning of the season, if we could get a little more healthy, get a little more of our pieces, the balance of things would work out for us and maybe that would translate into results. We couldn't find those plays inside of games where we could get results. And I always said the margins were just really fine for us and things had to go well and we had to be really clean in execution, and we just didn't. As we got to the second half of the season, I thought we found probably what more of our level should be, as we kind of came together and got a bit healthier and things started to fit together. If we would have had more of that stretch, I think we would be in a different position, for sure. But the season is the season and you go through the ups and downs that it brings to you and the timeline of which things played out, they did. But I was really, as I said, I was happy with the group and the way they battled through the Leagues Cup and the way that we finished off the season. There's a few games inside the league we lost in the second half where we kind of rotated. We were playing Leagues Cup and we weren't necessarily focused on the result of the league either. So we maybe lost a couple potential opportunities inside of that because we were really playing Leagues Cup. There were some games in the second half of the season where I felt like, I think of St. Louis and the goal we give up late there, and San Diego we gave up a really late goal there. And I'm sure there's others along we won recently. But there's some others where we just missed out opportunities to, I felt in the middle of the season, to put ourselves back in the race with a few of those games that I brought up there where we might have got ourselves back in the race if we would have taken a couple more points in the middle section.”
On Joseph Paintsil’s Golden Boot:
“I think especially in the second half of the season, I thought Joe, again, we were finding him on the run. He was doing more things in dynamic, direct types of situations. We were finding him behind the back line. Today he found that ball out on the wing, driving into the box to finish on his right foot. He made a great pass off the post back to himself to finish. He got a goal and an assist on that, I think. But I think for Joe, he's at his best when we can, again when we can pick up the speed of the game or find him where he can now just keep the speed of the game, he's at his best. When he has to try to figure out how to take a play that's kind of slow and in possession and turn it into an attack, I feel that's not when he's at his best. Having a guy like Ricky who changes the tempo and the speed of the game will bring new life into Gabe and Joe, no question, because Ricky changes the speed of the game. And those guys take advantage of those moments. Joe is going to be fine. In the second half of the season, he had some great moments as forward for us. Then he did some really good things on the wing where he's slightly more comfortable. But I thought he really got going sort of midseason when we were able to start playing more forward passes finding him in more dynamic situations. I thought he got himself going. Those two guys are going to benefit a lot from having a guy like Ricky back, who just the way he plays ball through the lines and changes the tempo and attracts attention to him, they're going to see a whole new set of situations that they didn't get as many of this year that they'll get again next year.”
On the development of young players like Wynder, Miller, and Cuevas, and if that means the roster is fairly ready for next season:
“Potentially. I think it's worth talking to. There's work to do, for sure. But when you see guys like Harbor emerging and Elijah emerging, next year I'll say we need to be good and we need to be deep because with the break that's going to come for however many six, seven weeks, whatever it is, in the middle of the season for the World Cup, things are just going to get pushed together on either side, which means you'll have to play more games more frequently and we're going to have to rotate and you're going to want to keep your level high. So having those guys emerge, it definitely helps us to look at and go, okay, we're seeing our depth and we're seeing quality kind of emerging in our roster. And now we have to be very specific about what pieces we need to try to raise our level. And some of that is in the starting group and some of that is going to be in the depth of things as well. But certainly anybody who grew up this year is a positive thing for what the future will look like.”
On Maya Yoshida’s presence and contributions to the team:
“Maya is a consummate professional. He's a guy who works so hard. He's disciplined. He's routine and detail-oriented in things he does. He's a great example for guys. You don't play as many years as you said because you do things lax. You play that long because you are on it and you're super professional, and that's Maya. I think his presence, leadership in that type of way helps a group, especially when you have some young guys around that are developing and are coming along, it helps to have a professional like Maya around, no question. This was probably one of the first years in his career where he had some soft-tissue stuff that he had to deal with. So start and stop. We had to rely on him. Whenever he was healthy we were relying on him at 37 and that's a lot for him. But he wouldn't have it any other way. I could tell you if he was even kind of injured, he was fighting to be ready to play. That's another thing, a guy who wants to be on the field and would give anything to be on the field is a great example for the next guys that are going to be taking on those types of mentality and those types of roles.”
DEFENDER MAYA YOSHIDA
On finishing the season with two wins against two playoff teams:
“The second half of the season wasn't too bad, to be honest. But the first part is horrible. That's very clear. That's killing us, killing our season. And it was too late -- it was too difficult to come back. Even when we come back okay, still wasn't enough. This is our season. As you know, we had too many mistakes, including today. We were missing a lot of the details to look at today and the beginning of the season. That kind of part we need to improve. To be honest, many things we have to change, we have to improve. But the season's a big lesson for us, a huge lesson, for myself as well. To be honest, my performance wasn't the same as last season. I wasn't satisfied with my level as well. To make sure everybody comes back in really good condition and start well, because the season started really fast. And (indiscernible) CONCACAF. It's very important during the offseason what we do and how we prepared and the team as well, individually and as a team, as a club. We shouldn't be where we are. And, again, next season is a big challenge. And we need (lost audio) to be where we should be.”
On the difficulty of this season compared to the others of his career:
"It was really difficult, but because of different relegation, it's even more sometimes frustrated, probably like when I was at Schalke we were fighting relegation. It's more stress. The stadium has more than 60,000 every game. And the expectation is more and more pressure.
Schalke is a big club. The same stress we have now. But there is relegation. That's totally different and more mentally, physically tough. But you can see us today or even the last game, we can dominate most of the teams from especially from the distribution. No one can press us, and we can dominate every time. But the other side, on the other hand, we consider so many goals, we're giving so many goals. Like last minute to Luka (phonetic) today. Also it's very unacceptable for me. We need to improve this.”
On if finishing ahead of Sporting Kansas City in the Western Conference means anything to the team:
“At least we didn't finish at the bottom. As I say, we are the LA Galaxy. We shouldn't be here. So still not great result, totally agree. But after we are already eliminated, my target is finish all of them probably (indiscernible) as well but at least above Kansas. We played them twice in Kansas. Totally we're a much better team. And probably second half of the season I would say maybe half of the league, we play better than them. But this is the punishment that we have done beginning of the season. Again, this is a huge lesson, painful lesson, but we have to learn from this. I don't think this is a fail. If we stop and give up, it's a fail. But until we stop, this is not fail. This is still challenging and this continues for our next season.”
On if there are any positives coming out of the 2025 Regular Season:
“Uh-huh. First beginning of the season also CONCACAF is first experience for me. To be honest it was really tough, tougher than I thought. Go to Costa Rica and different countries and mid-week playing, flights, different -- it's a huge difference. So fortunately we have CONCACAF next season, this ensures the positive side for even a difficult season this year. We want to challenge again. We want to accomplish something. But if we want to accomplish something, we have to work hard and many sacrifices. Like today we show a lot of positive performance, positive vibes that we have to -- this has to be our standard or even more. This is where we should be and we start again.”
On if there’s any optimism and early preparations for the 2026 season:
“Generally, I'm very optimistic. But in this results, overall, I can't be. We shouldn't be. And we have to think how we can improve ourselves, how we can change. And we have to focus on more details, the pieces, the defensive line, transition. Very simple basic things, what basic things do -- I saw the Japan-Brazil national team game. Brazil, it's a big success. But the transition is unbelievable quick. This we need to -- we shouldn't copy someone, but we have to have our standard, not one game good, second game really bad, that up and down, too many up and down. We need consistency. That's why we have to keep our fitness very well from the beginning of the season, not second part of the season. This is the target for next season. That's why we practice extra three weeks from now on and also play against the Mexican team for the training game to maintain our fitness.”
On his over 20 seasons playing soccer and if he faced any unique challenges this year:
“This season, first of all, I didn't realize it was so many years. This season is my first season to play as a champion. Probably Greg mentioned a couple games ago we eliminated already and we played not great and we had a difficult season. But until the end, we are still MLS former champion of the season. So I wanted to fight as a champion. I wanted to play as a champion until the end. The last two games we showed that part a little bit, and that was okay for me. Of course, the overall result wasn't good, and this is challenging. I could learn many things through the difficult season. Also CONCACAF new experience and everybody want to beat us and it was really tough, really difficult. And we couldn't make it better midseason. It's really difficult probably May, June. But after that we get better slower and slower and some players can see -- you can see some of the players are improving a lot. If you want to try something more high standard and we cannot wait to play, the young players improve. We have to have a standard, better standard and a high level standard as a team, as individuals for next season, if that makes sense.”
FORWARD JOSEPH PAINTSIL
On what this season meant to him:
“I think this season was a lesson for us and this is also a wake-up call for us as a team. It hasn't been the way we wanted it to be. Unfortunately, we gave out a lot of points, a lot of unnecessary goals, a lot of mistakes. We get punished and we're here now not even playing for the playoff. It's really a sad moment for a champion team last season and not playing in the playoffs. We should have at least been in the playoffs even for us to test ourselves and see how far we would go. But in everything, you just need to give thanks to God. He knows the best. So I would just be calm and just look forward to the next season. That's the most important thing. We have some Cup games that's ahead of us. We just need to come back, work harder and not to repeat the start of the season, how we started the season, and just to work on something so that we can be better during the season.”
On how important the offseason is for him:
“It's really important for me now because there shouldn't be a -- there should be a little break for me, but not everything because I still need to work myself out and just be ready for the season and also for the World Cup. That's the most important thing. So for me the offseason is a little bit -- it's good for us to go, I think, be with the family, with everyone, everyone that we feel happy being around with as the most important thing, to release stress and everything and just focused on what is ahead of us next season. I think for me it's really important for this offseason so that I can go prepare and work harder and just come back and just continue what we used to do last season and what I did also this season, even though it wasn't a good performance for the whole team. But I can (indiscernible) least at the end of the season I had 10 goals out of it. I'm really glad that, on my part, I did what I had to do to help the players and the staff. And I think the players are really willing to come back stronger next season and just give everything for the supporters.”
On the loss of Riqui this year:
“We lost a lot. We miss him. He's a key master player on the ball. He makes the decision for us, especially me and Ricky, me and Pec and also with Dian (phonetic), and now if Ricky was starting, there would be a little bit changes, because now it's just me and Pec, and if they know what we're capable of doing and they stop us, it's really easy and difficult for us to do whatever we have to do. But if we have Ricky on the board, he's always a guy who always makes a great decision by giving us assists and going solo and scoring. And so we really miss him this season. I think we just can't wait to be with him and just start the season with him and just feel the energy again.”
On if there’s positives from this season:
“I think it's positive. I think we had ourselves a tie place in the Indy Cup (phonetic). I think we had something, even though we wanted to win the cup, but it wasn't possible. The starting of the season was really bad, but at the end of the season I think we did what we have to do but it was really too late for us to do whatever we have to do to be in the playoff. Like I said, it's a lesson and wake-up call for us not make this thing happen again because it's a really disappointing thing for the club and for the players also, especially sometimes when I look in the mirror and sometimes when I look at the table where we are, I feel a little bit disappointed. But in all, you just need to be focused and just do your best and leave everything to God and we'll see how next season goes.”
On what he can add to his game for next year:
"You mean what's the next step for me next year? It's the same thing. It's the same energy. I just need to come back with a full focused mentality, just do what I love to do, just playing and enjoy scoring. I'm really going to prepare for the next season and just do extra work for where I need to land more and what I need to do also, because when I go to Ghana, I have to really, like, do everything, put in more effort because next season is going to be not easy as we all would think, but the most important thing is the start of the league is the most important thing for us to win the games and then we will see how it goes. So I think it's going to be the same season. I think the coaches are going to prepare some things and some changes and maybe some things that we need to do to also improve more in terms of defense and attacking, I think they're going to do a good job next season, and we're all going to put our energy and help each other to be a success in this league.”
On what Galaxy needs to do to climb back up to the top of the MLS:
“We just have to just focus and just don't let what happened at the beginning of the season happen. At least if we are going through the season, we have to make our mind really strong and just go all out especially winning all our home games and winning some games also. In a way, I think it's going to be something really important. Like last year, what we did, we win all our home games and did extremely great also away, scoring and everything, and that leads us to play in the playoff and play in all of our home games, all the games in our home games. I think we as a team as a whole just need to prepare mentally, physically, come face each other and face the reality. This is a league that's it's really a strong league and competitive. And as you can see, we just don't need to just be sitting down just be thinking we were champions last season and, you know, just keep on being a champion. But if the champion you were last season is not a champion you are this season. You need to focus and just try to win more cups. I'm just here to win cups, and I'm here to make history in this club, and that's what my mentality is. And that's what my mentality is going to be next season to also score more, use my energy, my abilities to help the club and to have a success at the end of the day.”