LA Galaxy next play host to San Jose Earthquakes at Dignity Health Sports Park on Wednesday, May 28 at 7:00 p.m. PT on MLS Season Pass and FS1
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Saturday, May 24, 2025) – Continuing their 2025 MLS Regular Season campaign, the LA Galaxy fell 2-1 on the road to San Diego FC before 30,114 fans at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Next up, the LA Galaxy play host to the San Jose Earthquakes in the 103rd edition across all competitions of the California Clásico at Dignity Health Sports Park on Wednesday, May 28 (7:00 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass, FS1).
LA Galaxy Against San Diego FC
Saturday’s match between the Galaxy and San Diego FC marked the second-ever meeting between the two teams, with the Galaxy holding a 0-2-0 record in the two contests played against SDFC during the 2025 campaign. In 44 matches played against MLS clubs in their expansion year dating back to 1998, the LA Galaxy hold a record of 24-12-8.
Goal-Scoring Plays
LA – Diego Fagundez (Marco Reus), 40th minute: Marco Reus fed the ball to Diego Fagundez at the top of the 18-yard box. Fagundez feinted before curling his right-footed shot into the top right corner of the goal.
SD – Luca De La Torre (Jeppe Tverskov), 41st minute: Luca De La Torre received a pass down the right side of the penalty area and drilled his shot in at the near post.
SD – Hirving Lozano (Anders Dreyer), 90+5th minute: Anders Dryer's cross into the box was headed in from close range by Hirving Lozano.
Postgame Notes
- Saturday’s match between the Galaxy and San Diego FC marked the second-ever meeting between the two teams, with the Galaxy holding a 0-2-0 record in the two contests played against SDFC during the 2025 campaign.
- In 44 matches played against MLS clubs in their expansion year dating back to 1998, the LA Galaxy hold a record of 24-12-8.
- Marco Reus recorded his team-leading fourth assist in his 10th appearance (7th start) during the 2025 MLS Regular Season.
- In his last six matches played dating back to April 27, Reus has totaled seven goal contributions (3 goals, 4 assists).
- Reus has recorded a goal contribution (2 goals, 3 assists) in three consecutive matches played dating back to May 14.
- In his last two road matches played dating back to May 14, Diego Fagundez has recorded two goals.
- Novak Mićović made his first start for LA since logging 90 minutes against St. Louis CITY SC on March 9.
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy play host to the San Jose Earthquakes in the 103rd edition across all competitions of the California Clásico at Dignity Health Sports Park on Wednesday, May 28 (7:00 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass, FS1).
2025 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (0-11-4; 4 pts) at San Diego FC (8-4-3; 27 pts)
Saturday, May 24, 2025 – Snapdragon Stadium (San Diego, Calif.)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 1 0 1
San Diego FC 1 1 2
Scoring Summary:
LA: Fagundez (Reus), 40
SD: De La Torre (Tverskov), 41
SD: Lozano (Dreyer), 90+5
Misconduct Summary:
SD: Lozano (caution), 30
LA: Cerrillo (caution), 37
LA: Pec (caution), 45+3
LA: Yamane (caution), 62
LA: Reus (caution), 84
Lineups:
LA: GK Novak Mićović; D Miki Yamane, D Emiro Garcés, D Maya Yoshida (C), D John Nelson; M Edwin Cerrillo, M Marco Reus, M Lucas Sanabria (Isaiah Parente, 73), M Diego Fagundez (Christian Ramirez, 73), M Gabriel Pec, F Joseph Paintsil
Substitutes Not Used: GK John McCarthy; D Julián Aude, D Mauricio Cuevas, D Zanka, M Tucker Lepley, M Elijah Wynder, F Matheus Nascimento
TOTAL SHOTS: 9 (Joseph Paintsil, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 1 (Diego Fagundez, 1); FOULS: 15 (Gabriel Pec, Miki Yamane, 3); OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 0
SD: GK CJ Dos Santos; D Willy Kumado, D Paddy McNair, D Luca Bombino, D Christopher McVey; M Jeppe Tverskov, M Luca De La Torre, M Anibal Godoy (Onni Valakari, 88), F Hirvin Lozano, F Alex Mighten (Milan Ilioski, 77), F Anders Dreyer
Substitutes Not Used: GK Pablo Sisniega, D Franco Negri, D Ian Pilcher, D Oscar Verhoeven; M Jasper Loffelsend, M Alejandro Alvarado, F Tomas Angel
TOTAL SHOTS: 13 (Hirving Lozano, 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Luca De La Torre, Hirving Lozano, 1); FOULS: 11 (Anibal Godoy, 4); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: 0
Referee: Jon Freemon
Assistant Referees: Kyle Atkins, Corey Parker
Fourth Official: Elijio Arreguin
VAR: Sorin Stoica
Weather: Clear, 68 degrees
Attendance: 30,114
*
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial*
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On how disappointing it was to have that mistake at the end cost the team everything:
“Yeah, it's brutal. Look, they are a good team in possession. They have been against everybody. In this particular game, they played with a false nine who is dropping in and overloading the midfield. So for us, we knew there were going to be challenges in terms of getting at their center backs to try to really get after them. So we were comfortable to try to sit in a little bit lower position, crowding up the midfield, taking away some of that stuff through the middle of the field, try to make the game a little bit more predictable. I thought by and large we managed, outside of a few situations, in particular, the first goal where they run off the back side of us while we are dealing with a ball wide, and they get in and score. But I thought, by and large I thought we did a pretty good job of managing most of those through the course of the game, which is their strength. I think like you said, we got out 1-0, we gave it back right away, which is a bit of a gut punch to just how quickly we gave it back. The goal there was fight to halftime and get it. Second half I felt like we came back. We were pretty solid. We adjusted slightly how we defended and we got some opportunities, as well. Didn't finish them. And you know, now then it comes down to seeing out the game at the end, you know, when you're in extra time and it's 1-1 you're on the road against, again, a solid team and you've got to make smart decisions. The first bad decision is Isaiah trying to hit a switching pass when he's carrying out into space winding the clock down, they have got numbers behind the ball, we need to drive as deep as we can and spin out and keep possession and get ourselves into their half of the field and see the game out smart. Instead we try to hit a switching pass with our left foot to Gabe on the other side, which is -- it's a low percentage pass and in a priority moment of the game.
While that's taking place, Emiro is sauntering up trying to catch his breath, I don't know but he wasn't engaged and focused on the play and the switched pass, it just becomes just a series of events of just bad decisions, not prepared, bad decision, and then the snowball just rolls down and builds momentum and finding the back of the net. We have to be over that part. Like it's a maturity thing and it's an engagement thing for today. Because they had done so much work for 92, 93 minutes, to allow that situation to be the one that costs us what would have been a solid result on the road with two home games in front of us. Instead, we give it away at the end and suffer from what could have been a solid road performance on the end. It's disappointing.”
On if the team not taking advantage of the moments when they play well:
“I think the frustration hit again at the end. The guys have been resilient. They bounced back. We know we have two home games for the first time in the season. We've got to bounce back. We've got to back up our partners here that at the end of the game made a couple tough decisions and a couple plays. We've got to back them up and try to come out on Wednesday fighting and defending our home turf. But as you said, after El Tráfico draw, coming down on the road in San Diego, a draw. Given the way the whole day played out probably wouldn't have been the worst thing. They had chances, we had chances, and it would have been a nice build near two home games. Now we have to show some resilience and come back and battle again.”
On his first conversation with Emiro following that play:
“It starts with no matter how tired you are, when you know there are two or three minutes left in the game, you have to stay focused on the game. You can't let your fatigue or whatever is going through his mind overcome him in that moment. Like you don't get to relax with a minute and a half or two minutes to go. In two minutes, you can relax. You don't get to relax in that moment. Because he relaxes, and he's tired and his head goes down and he's kind of walking forward, the whole thing catches him by surprise; and then when it catches him by surprise, he just flails at it with his left foot. I think if he's prepared, he probably heads it and he probably does something that's a little more secure than swinging at it with his off foot and trying to deal with it that way. For me, the whole thing starts we put him in crisis because we play ridiculous ball across the field and then we're not prepared to deal with the situation when it comes to us. But these are moments that we have to learn from by this point. We don't get to take anything for granted on the field for 90 minutes and this is one of those situations where you know we have to see it out.”
On the decision to put Nova, Mićović back in the lineup:
“I thought he had a solid day. I thought his decisions with the ball were smart in terms of when to go long, when to try to play through the lines. I thought he made quality decisions. I thought he took some balls out of the air, a couple set pieces, things like that, that were nice for us to clean some things up. I think probably the one that made a little bit of a mystery of was the one that went really high in the air that ended up misjudging it but bounced but I thought everything else was relatively clean over the course of the game.
What led to the decision? We had gone a bunch of games without a result, and at the start of the season, he got three games. Of course, he made a couple mistakes but we have also not been perfect. I think normally I get the goalkeepers a second, so whatever games when we go Eastern Conference, but I didn't in this particular trip. So when he came back, I wanted him to have a proper chance to prepare for the match, which he had this week to prepare and give him a chance to see again where he's at. I thought he had a good outing.”
On how the team moves forward with this frustration and what is the mood in the locker room after an individual mistake like today:
“The lost points on errors and mistakes, it's high, too high for us to be in the mix. When you get to this point, one of the keys for all of us, players, former players, is the consistency getting through games without, okay, you don't have to be perfect but you can't make big mistakes. There's a big difference between mistakes and costly mistakes. I think for us, we've had too many of the version where we have compounded mistakes, is really what I get to. Because, again, the first ball that puts us into a bit of a crisis situation becomes sort of the start of it.
I think we have compounded too many mistakes on ourselves over the course of the season and haven't cut them off, where if one guy makes a mistake, then the next one. So if Isaiah plays a bad ball, but Emiro is engaged, he probably heads it out, and we can start yelling at Isaiah for playing a bad ball, but we live to fight another day. Instead, we compound the mistake by not being prepared or whatever the case may be. It's frustrating for the group because you get a lot of guys, everybody, put in a big shift today and when you drop points on little errors like that, it's frustrating, because it's hard to look back and go, okay, here are all the collective things that were going wrong that we really need to fix. It really comes down to us fixing our decision individually, or a couple of us fixing a play that shouldn't happen. The frustrating part is it's tough to have a direct way of fixing it when you're saying, for example, it just becomes an individual error. We are always trying to seek the solution inside of that. The guys are frustrated, because again, any time you go out there and you put a big shift out and you don't really have a great explanation for how just lost the game because it doesn't really process, that series of events that just took place. That's just something that you have to process a little bit and that's what guys will go through over the next 28 hours or 48 hours, and then we have to turn our focus to a home match against San Jose.”
On Novak Mićović’s evolution this season and in training:
“It's been a tough road for him to be honest. Because when you come out from making a couple mistakes at the beginning of the season, you feel like a couple mistakes at the beginning are just a couple mistakes in the beginning. But when you look at 14 games in a row, not every game, but there's a lot of mistakes happening inside of that. And for him, I know because we talked about it, he starts to feel a little bit like, I made a couple mistakes and I'm not there, and there are a lot of mistakes. For him it's been locking down, focusing, working on himself, his game, biding his time for his opportunity, and being ready when his opportunity came. And so sometimes that's the challenge of a second goalkeeper or if you've been displaced at some point, it's just finding your way and battling your way in. It's one of the toughest positions to fight back into because you don't switch keepers a lot. I have to give him credit for staying in and being able to show up today and being ready to play. I thought he showed up and looked like he had been playing games, not like he hadn't played a game in two months. So I have to give him credit.”
On his performance in training:
“I would say he probably went through a two-week period where he was frustrated. But you know, a little chat and he also recognized it and he bounced right book and he got right back into it. In general, he believes in himself and he's been working for this opportunity.”
On positives from today:
“I think, again, a team that's good in possession. They have a lot of good players that are very comfortable in their roles. They really overload the midfield, which is something you have to deal with, especially with Dreyer who was playing at a nine but really dropping into midfield positions where they are boxing it up. Each of their guys is competent on the ball and aware of their surroundings and their connections on the field, and then they have Lozano and others who will take off for the depth and guys who are clever about how they move. For us, we knew it was midday. You can't get out and start pressing all over the field on a day like this and going man on man, which is when we disrupt a good possession team you have to be a little more calculated. I thought the guys did a good job staying connected and talking through the positioning of some of their players and movements. Again, it wasn't perfect, they had a fair amount of the ball but by and large, I thought we did a good job of dealing with those types of situations. I thought at times when we started to get some of our movements and actions right, when we were able to secure the ball, I thought we were able to pull them apart a few times, and we had a couple moments in transition where we were dangerous. I think we managed the game from a defensive standpoint pretty well through it for a team that is very good at certain things for sure. And so that gives you a chance to be in the game if you can be solid on the defensive side and so -- and I thought we were. We let a couple chances probably go that we thought we would have done something a little better with.
Sometimes we were setting up to play a little more in the transition, and that's why Joe was in the nine position was to see if we could spring Joe in some of the transitions. So I thought we were able to get a couple chances out of that, as well. But by and large, I thought, again, great effort. I thought our defensive awareness and connectivity was solid and I thought that led to us being -- and even though we didn't have the ball I thought we were in reasonable control of the game, which is not something I would always say is we're comfortable without the ball for large stretches. But I thought we were fairly comfortable without the ball today.”
On dealing with players who make mistakes on the field:
“For me, it's always been, one, is improvement because sometimes it's younger players. Like, how do you get them to improve so that they aren't making mistakes. And two, there's accountability, which is playing time, things like that. For me, those are the two ways that you attack these types of things. When you take guys off the field, other guys have to step up and fill the roles and also can't make mistakes and things like that. For us, it's got to be about account ability, which is training field stuff and playing time.
If guys are out there putting in the shift and working and things like that, I don't know if financial penalties are the answer. I just never have been like that. But I do think everybody cares and everybody wants to be on the field. So playing time probably hurts as much as anything.”
On Sanabria’s opportunity early in the game:
“Yeah, again, you see he's evolving. You see his dueling, his winning challenges, his capacity to run. All of those things that we see in him that are his qualities that we want to continue to grow are there. His combativeness in our midfield and we win duels and sometimes that's led to transitions and led to goals last week. You know, he's a guy who closes fast and hard, and that's a nice piece to have. Again, I thought solid game. I think sometimes just when he's between the lines and the spaces are tight, it's about tidiness on the ball, speed of thinking, knowing where his solutions are, being aware of his surroundings a little bit more sometimes. But you see when he has focus and he's locked in and he sees a duel, he's excellent. I think of other games where the game is moving fast and there was a ball that was played in between the lines to him and I think he still had a fair amount of time, he lost the ball in front of our goal and we kind of dealt with it. Again, moments of awareness inside the field, especially the way we want to play and being able to play through our midfield sometimes, getting him to continue to grow in that, but that's something he's absolutely going to learn. It's just a process. It's just a little bit different than what he was asked to do before. But you see those qualities that he has, which makes him a special player.”
On Gabe and the difficulty he’s having this season:
“I think today was a situation where especially through the course of the first half, the left back was really aggressive to release and get to him. So it's important for us, a couple things, as a collective group to help Gabe out when a guy is that comfortable releasing and staying so close to Gab is making them pay for that guy releasing from the back line so soon. Being able to threaten the space behind where that player is releasing, giving Gabe some ways to help him get unmarked. Bringing him inside the gap but when he comes into the gap, he tends to stay too high, which makes it easier for the center back to defend him. If he will come lower, which he kind of fights, coming lower and works under the midfielders, he'll actually find a better pocket to receive it, and he'll be more open.
So some of it is on Gabe and his detail and his positioning in some of these situations. And some of it is collectively in the second half we try to get Miki closer to him to create an overload on the fullback, but the overload where the fullback didn't feel so free to come releasing out to him all the time. There's different ways. But again for Gabe, he's got to keep his intensity level up and do the things that he has to do inside of that to give himself the best chance to be successful and not get frustrated because things aren't coming so easily sometimes. I feel like at times today he got a little bit frustrated because he couldn't necessarily -- whether it was shake the left back, or he wasn't getting the ball at exactly the moment he wanted, I could see some frustration building. So we tried to help him out through some of that positional stuff.”
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER NOVAK MIĆOVIĆ
On the game and his performance:
“You know, it hurt when you lose like this, especially in the last second of the game. We put all work, all game, and we lose, unlucky. But this game now is past and we keep going for the next two games at home, and we do everything to get six points in the next two games.”
On his confidence and getting back to a starting position:
“Last two months, it's difficult months for me. I put hard work for everything, and I feel confidence on the field. That's it.”
On how it felt being back on the field:
“I feel great. When you play especially this club, I feel amazing.”
On if he had to re-find his confidence after some mistakes in the first three games this season:
“No, I have confidence every day and every time when I go to the field and the training and everything, and it's nothing for me.”
On what he learned from watching on the sidelines:
“I know every guy here and we know how hard it is to win, we are champions, and everybody wants to play against us so hard. We need to step up.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DIEGO FAGUNDEZ
On if he feels like the team is losing momentum:
“I think we need to be better at the end of games. I think taking a point out of here would have been huge for us, especially like you said, you come from El Tráfico, huge game, you could in here, take the lead, you lose it a minute later. It's another big thing that we're missing always. But at the end of the day, last 15 minutes need to be better from all of us. Our mindset needs to be better. Saying, you know what, from here, we are not losing. We are just taking a point and then we go home, and we just have to win games. And today just wasn't good enough. I think everybody is frustrated. That one play decided the outcome, and at the end of the day, we know that we're better than that.”
On the mental load of the team:
“It's frustrating. But at the end of the day we have to still stay strong. I want to say it's a long season but it's really not at this point. It's the only way, sticking together, trying to get as much as we can out of people and at the end of the day, our mentality needs to be better. Like I said, when we go on away trips, a point is not that bad. We just need to learn how to finish out games. Just frustrating and not good enough today.”
On the highs and lows from last year to this year:
“I've never been with something like this. Yeah, you lose three or four games but not winless in this many. I think it takes a little toll on you, and you try -- when you go up, you get a little excited and sometimes they take it away from you right away. It's tough. The one thing, we still battle. We still fight. And that's something that we can be proud of. But at the same time, fighting and all this at the end of the day, we want points. We want to win games. That's what counts in this league.”
On what's not happening when the team is getting leads:
“I think if we had the answers, we would be doing it now. But at the same time, I think it's mentally we need to be engaged. After we score, the first five minutes of the game, the last five minutes of the half, first five minutes of the second half, last five minutes of the game, after goals, I think we need to be better. I think this year, we haven't been that strong. We have taken the lead in the last three games now, and we're losing it too quick. I think that's tough for us. Today, I thought we had a couple more chances, and the game is different. The last 30 seconds, minute and a half of the game left, one mistake and we get punished.”
On overpaying for mistakes:
“I think we pay for every single one.”
On if the expectation is that bad things will happen:
“We talk about we need to be better about mistakes. If you have a perfect game maybe things like that don't happen. But it's hard in soccer to have a perfect game or not have mistakes. I think everybody has mistakes. I think we are just getting punished. Right now, on the other side right now, other teams are making mistakes and we're punishing them and that's unfortunate. Mentally we need to be better. We need to be stronger and we need to be prepared for things and making sure that if someone makes a mistake we have to be there to cover them. At the end of the day I know everybody is frustrated and we're frustrated and we want a win. I keep saying, we can keep going back and forth on things that we say and stuff but at the end of the day, we need points and we need wins.”
On Novak getting back into the lineup today:
“I thought he did well. At the end of the day, there's a lot of competition on the team, and whoever is in there, J-Mac or Novak. I know they are going to be fighting for each other and supporting each other, whoever is on there. And for us on the field, it's the same thing. There are players that come and go, and at the end of the day we just need to be prepared and make sure that they are ready for every game and support them as much as we can.”
