LA Galaxy next play host to Real Salt Lake at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m. PT on MLS Season Pass
LOS ANGELES (Wednesday, May 28, 2025) – Continuing their 2025 MLS Regular Season campaign, the LA Galaxy fell 1-0 to the San Jose Earthquakes in the 103rd all-time edition of the California Clásico at Dignity Health Sports Park on Wednesday night.
LA Galaxy Against San Jose Earthquakes
Wednesday’s match marked the 103rd edition across all competitions of the California Clásico between the Galaxy and the San Jose Earthquakes, with LA leading the all-time series 50-34-19 (168 GF, 144 GA). Against San Jose, LA holds a 40-29-17 record in league play, a 4-1-1 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a 1-0-0 record in Leagues Cup and a 5-4-1 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs. In 41 all-time regular-season home matches played against the Earthquakes, the Galaxy hold a 24-11-6 record. The loss to San Jose snapped the Galaxy's eight-game unbeaten across all competitions against the Earthquakes (7-1-1; 22 GF; 13 GA) dating back to Sept. 24, 2022.
Goal-Scoring Plays
SJ – Ousseni Bouda (Preston Judd), 74th minute: Preston Judd squared a cross across the face of goal and Ousseni Bouda's sliding effort found the back of the net.
Postgame Notes
- Wednesday’s match marked the 103rd edition across all competitions of the California Clásico between the Galaxy and the San Jose Earthquakes, with LA leading the all-time series 50-34-19 (168 GF, 144 GA).
- Against San Jose, LA holds a 40-29-17 record in league play, a 4-1-1 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a 1-0-0 record in Leagues Cup and a 5-4-1 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
- In 41 all-time regular-season home matches played against the Earthquakes, the Galaxy hold a 24-11-6 record.
- The loss to San Jose snapped the Galaxy's eight-game unbeaten across all competitions against the Earthquakes (7-1-1; 22 GF; 13 GA) dating back to Sept. 24, 2022.
- Matheus Nascimento made his first career start for the LA Galaxy, logging 69 minutes of action and recording two shots on target.
- Novak Mićović made his second consecutive start, logging five saves in the match against the Earthquakes.
- Zanka made his first start for the Galaxy since last playing 71 minutes against Portland on April 27.
- Mauricio Cuevas made his second start of the 2025 MLS Regular Season, logging 69 minutes of action against San Jose.
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy play host to Real Salt Lake at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, May 31 (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass).
2025 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (0-12-4; 4 pts) vs. San Jose Earthquakes (6-6-4; 22 pts)
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 – Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 0 0 0
San Jose Earthquakes 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
SJ: Bouda (Judd), 74
Misconduct Summary:
SJ: Kikanovic (caution), 69
SJ: Costa (caution), 90+1
Lineups:
LA: GK Novak Mićović; D Mauricio Cuevas (Miki Yamane, 69), D Zanka, D Maya Yoshida (C), D John Nelson (Julián Aude, 82); M Edwin Cerrillo, M Lucas Sanabria (Elijah Wynder, 82), M Marco Reus, F Gabriel Pec, F Joseph Paintsil, F Matheus Nascimento (Christian Ramirez, 69)
Substitutes Not Used: GK John McCarthy; D Emiro Garcés, M Tucker Lepley, M Isaiah Parente
TOTAL SHOTS: 13 (Gabriel Pec, 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 6 (Matheus Nascimento, Gabriel Pec, 2); FOULS: 5 (Edwin Cerrillo, 2); OFFSIDES: 5; CORNER KICKS: 10; SAVES: 5
SJ: GK Earl Edwards Jr.; D Daniel Munie, D Dave Romney, D Rodrigues, M Ian Harkes, M Beau Leroux (Mark Anthony-Kaye, 65), M Benji Kikanovic (Nick Lima, 72), M Vitor Costa, M Cristian Espinoza (C) (Max Floriani, 87), M Amahl Pellegrino (Ousseni Bouda, 66), F Josef Martinez (Preston Judd, 66)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Luca Ulrich; D Paul Marie, D Reid Roberts, M Hernan
TOTAL SHOTS: 13 (Josef Martinez, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 6 (Josef Martinez, 3); FOULS: 13 (Mark Anthony-Kaye, Ian Harkes, 3); OFFSIDES:1; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 6
Referee: Alexis Da Silva
Assistant Referees: Jose Da Silva, Bruno Rizo
Fourth Official: Ricardo Fierro
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Weather: Clear, 63 degrees
Attendance: 15,345
*
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial*
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On what appears to be a pattern of a lively start, followed by a loss for the team:
“It's interesting because in each one of these games, there's some similarities to it and then there's some differences to it, right. The similarities, I think, are the guys come out and they fight and they work and they compete and inside of that, you look at the opposition, you go, they are not better than us. Not better than us. It comes down to execution. The amount of open three versus two, four versus threes, the breaks that we have with space with our best players in the actions that we -- that we squandered over the course of the night is tonight. That is tonight. Like there is, yes, we gave away a goal but it's the sheer number of man-up rushes, if you will, or transitions or attacks that we have that we squander over the course of the night that becomes the difference in the game. Now the opposition is staying around. It becomes, our guys want to win so bad, and we feel that, that we expose ourselves sometimes. Maybe we make choices -- our decisions were poor in those moments. Our execution wasn't great, and we let too many of those moments squander tonight. To be honest with you, I haven't looked back exactly on the goal because I think I was talking -- I don't know what I was mining at the second, but when I saw the ball get out to the right side and it get whipped in and cross the face of the goal, somehow we lose a runner in the box again, and they are getting a tap-in. In a situation that didn't look like it was going to be much of anything and somehow it becomes something. That is the same story in some ways. But for me tonight is the sheer amount of positive-looking attacks where we have the right guys on the right ball and moving in the right direction that we just, we don't get anything out of any of those. And then the margins become fine as the game continues, and it's just one mistake and that's that. It's not to say we made one mistake in each game. But when we make mistakes, we get punished and that happened again tonight. The frustrating part for me is we had more than enough opportunities to open that game up and be on top, I don't want to say comfortably but be on top and we just never got there. And that's -- yeah, that's disappointing tonight.”
On getting the players to open the game of play in tough attacking situations:
“We'll go back and we'll probably look at ten of those, and we'll analyze our decisions. But guys in these situations ultimately need to make the best decision for the team for the goal, to make the best chance. And sometimes we choose ourselves. Sometimes we lose. We just don't execute. We lose the pass. Maybe it's the right intention with the bad pass. But sometimes tonight we chose ourselves when we needed to choose our teammate, and if we choose our teammate I think we have a much better look at goal. Again, I think that comes down to guys wanting to win so bad. They want to take responsibility. I think we let ourselves a little bit down in those situations tonight.”
On Marco Reus coming out of the match with a potential injury:
"I don't know. It doesn't look good because it's a wide-open game where he made some really good runs through the back line that we can maybe slip him in and we don't, and I think he was on his fourth one of those over 40 or 50 yards and on the recovery, he looked like he was struggling. And I don't -- I don't know if it was hamstring related. I don't know if it was cramp related. I don't really know yet. We'll keep you posted but I don't know.”
On Joe Paintsil, Gabriel Pec, and the final third of the match:
“I think this game is ideal for those guys because the amount of space they had to run, to run with the ball, because the way San Jose plays, they try to get to a man-on-man press. They try to release. They try to get you stepping forward, and if you can break that press, there's lots of opportunity on the other side. We talked about that coming into the game, and we wanted to get Marco, Joe, Gabe, these guys on the ball facing forward, running and either behind or running at them. I think a lot of those scenarios came. And I think, yeah, I just think we didn't execute those actions the way we should have. Sometimes it was, like I said, sometimes we don't make the right decision. Sometimes we didn't execute on the decision, and we tried to flip-flop them, so maybe they would be running maybe on their strong foot to see if that could be changing some of the decisions and the thoughts and the ideas, maybe not a ton. But we got into some really good spots. I think that's the nature a little bit of how San Jose plays. Because there's a risk/reward with the way they want to press and step out, and we got what we wanted out of it with some of these breaks with the guys that we wanted in the breaks. And you know, I think Nasci [Matheus Nascimento] gave us some legs at the top and running into channels and spaces and some of those things. I thought we looked really dynamic in the front half of the field, and it's just about execution.”
On the confidence from new or fresh starters, including Nascimento and Mićović:
“I think first, with Nasci, he's been trying to settle in. And we've been trying to identify with him as he's settling in, what are those ways he's going to create opportunity -- not create but score goals, get on the end of things. The thing I like about him that I've gotten to know about him is it's not when he's hanging around midfield and coming off but it's when he's active and he keeps moving and he's testing channels and he's testing depth and he's busy. So that's the thing we've been kind of trying to adapt his game with because I think he's so used to coming off playing like a false nine and sitting between the lines. That's not something we need. We need him to be direct. Tonight, because the way the game I thought was going to shape up; that if we broke those initial lines of pressure, there was going to be space to run. I wanted a more athletic forward. I wanted somebody who could compete if we had to put balls in the air. Didn't have to win them, but if he could make them knock them down into areas that we could pick them up and run with them, that was going to be good. I wanted his active level, his capacity to threaten space, and I thought he did a nice job with those things. You know, for him, it's going to be us making good decisions, him getting to good spots, finishing opportunities when they come, things like that. But tonight set up for him - and he did a good job inside of his minutes. With Novak [Mićović], he looks more settled. Maybe coming into the season, the expectation of being the No. 1, some of the moments that -- tough moments that he had earlier. Maybe once you go through that, punches you in the mouth, and it settles you down. And I think we're starting to see the goalkeeper that we think can be a goalkeeper for us for a while. Again, his decisions, his capacity hit the ball deep and to do some things, to build, to pause the game at the right times and to play a nice entry pass, there's things I liked about his game tonight. He obviously made a couple good saves in a couple moments. All positive stuff.”
On if luck has played a factor in the team’s winless streak:
"Well, I'm not a big believer in luck. I'm a believer in, you do the work and you create those situations for yourself. It's execution. You put yourself in positions to get beneficial moments, if you will, things like that. So I'm not a big believer in luck. What I would say, though, is we are not getting many bounces. We are not getting many things to fall our way. We're not getting -- some of these things that might be a little more 50/50 or we need something to deflect off somebody and then go in the goal. Just something. We're not getting those types of things. Like everything for us is a battle and a war. But I subscribe to the things that you can control as much as possible, which is our performances, our efforts, our execution, ideally, and the things that we can get better at on the training field and things that we can do better. And you hope inside of being more proactive and being the aggressors in certain situations that you get things to go your way, you know. That wasn't tonight, and it hasn't been much of the season. Yeah, we haven't got many things to go our way. I don't know if we want to call that luck or not.”
On the supporters shouting ‘we are with you’ to the team postgame:
"The first thing I want to do is thank them for their support because, you know, the guys feeling their support helps them to battle and to fight and the guys are frustrated, too. Everybody feels that frustration and they want to perform for the fans. They know they are there. They want them to have the feeling of winning and all that kind of stuff. The first thing I want to do is say thank you. We are going to get this moving in the right direction. The conversation, and I think they see it, too. It's not a lack of effort. It's not the guys working hard, trying, battling. Like we haven't been able to turn the margins and execute on the victory. I'll speak for everybody in that locker room. We're eternally grateful for the support that they are giving us, and I mean that in a positive way; the positive support that also they are giving us, because, yeah, it's a grind right now. And I can understand being super frustrated with all of the results. But they are still there, and I think they hopefully see a team that's still fighting for everything. That's important. That's one of the things that I think that's very important about putting on this jersey is that every time you come out, you fight for it every single time. And then we have to execute and be better and in key moments of the game. And then we can get the good emotions. As I said to the guys in the locker room, this is not about an effort thing. This is about an execution thing. We need to be better in moments of the game that determine outcomes of games, and that's how you are he ward yourself with victories.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER MAYA YOSHIDA
On the match:
“I think we played not bad today. We created a lot of chances from the beginning and control the game. I think they have only a few opportunity to score, and the last one, probably they had the last chance they made, and they score. Instead, we had created a lot of chances then that we couldn't finish the action. We couldn't dominate it. So football, the soccer, is always about scoring. We didn't score, and we concede. But it's too much. I never had this kind of experience, even the difficult time in Schalke or the Holland, most of the time of the season, bottom of the league. Still, better than that. Better than this stretch now. In my career, I don't apologize to what I have done on the pitch normally. Like on goal, any individual errors. But in this moment, we must apologize to our fans. I feel really embarrassing -- I feel really miserable for the fans who supporting even midweek. Still we not winning the game, still they support us after the game, and I feel really embarrassing. So Saturday, we need to show different mentality.”
On if there is a reason things aren't going the teams way:
“It's easy to be pointing, making the clips, this is bad, this is bad, this is not enough, this is worse or this shouldn't be like that. It's easy to be pointing or blaming the people, someone, my teammates, the action. But I think in this moment it doesn't help the team. And I often speak with the senior players like Marco and we try to help and we try to make something better to -- to increase the opportunity, the possibility to win the game. So of course, everybody have to be better, including myself. But like today, Kansas also, San Diego last game, even though we control the game, we play well, still we're missing the points. This is small things, but small error, small things just continually happen and making huge difference. So regardless of fatigue or three games a week, midweek, injury, whoever missing, we have to play with a strong mentality and determination for Saturday. Like for example, Lozano from last game, 83 minutes, he spring back to defense to get the ball and Marco make a foul and then they get the ball. This kind of effort, we need from everybody from the team. Of course I don't like to talk about the mentality because I want to talk about the tactics and the organization and the project but this moment, we have to step back to the basic, basic level, which we shouldn't talk, but now we have to talk. I understand my explanation now can't convince anyone, any fans. So only way we can convince is winning. So we need one win. That's very sure.”
On opportunities in the final third:
“Again, I can't point to my missed shot, maybe ten times or 20 times, including myself. Again, it's no point to talk about this. We need to go, and if we cannot score with five shot, we try to make intention, 20 shot. And how we increase this kind of opportunity, we are going to prepare for the next two days. That's what we need. We are creating opportunities. We are not like hopeless. We are not playing like hopeless. I feel like I can create -- I still feel like from the distribution much better than them. Much better than Kansas. Much better than Philadelphia, for example.
And then this is part of soccer, but like not the better team always win. So we need to win. This is very simple."
On how the backline played today:
"Again, it's so difficult to explain what's happening. Even I can't -- I think with my -- the comment now, I cannot convince anyone probably. I want to -- instead I want to show my performance and make the result. I think today defensively, that overall, we play very calm and composure and organized and did well. But you know, still we conceding. Still keep conceding, conceding, conceding. You can see today was a little bit different from what's -- how we conceded last couple games in the individual areas. So like sloppy mistakes but today, I feel much better but still not good enough.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER JOHN NELSON
On what happened tonight and what the next couple weeks look like:
“Yeah, I mean, this is tough. Obviously for us and the fans, they are supporting us through this. It's just not good enough. Tonight we had our chances. We just couldn't finish, not clean enough in front of the goal. And then one play, we give them a chance and they punish us. That's kind of been the whole season. You look at these games, and we're right there. Like, it's just one play. Of course, besides the Red Bull game, we're right there. It's frustrating.
We are taking it one training at a time, one game at a time. And let's just get through Friday and tomorrow training and then we go again Saturday.
On the breakdown of the goal:
“One ball in behind. And he crosses it, and I have to watch it back again. I think there's two of us in the box, Zanka and Maya, or Zanka and Miki. I don't know, maybe we can do a little better there, just communication. But I need to watch it back. I honestly haven't really seen much of it. So I don't want to say too much. But yeah, it's just one play. It's one little breakdown.”
On Micovic differences in performance from earlier in the season to now:
“The goalie situation, obviously has been different than teams that I've been on, switching back-and-forth. Novack is a young player trying to get confidence going. He's good on his feet, and if he continues growing in that department, I think that can help us a lot.”
On how he handles this tough stretch as a competitor:
"No, never. None of us. Not me. It sucks. This is so tough. For me personally, it's keep your head down and keep grinding. That's all you can do. It's really not much to say. Like I said, it's so tough. It's just not a situation you want to be in. I think we are just waiting for that one game that, one spark, that one momentum and then we go from there.”
On the belief level of the team at the moment:
"The belief, it's still there. Like the effort is still there. That's what Vanney told you guys about and that's what he told us in the locker room; the effort's there. It's just the execution. It's just that one play. It's just can we find the back of the net; can we not have a break down in the back. It's just that one play. Once we have that, we can go from there. Really not much more to say. I'm just repeating myself."
On what the biggest difference is between this team and last year’s squad:
"I wouldn't say bad luck. Of course there's changes and all the salary cap issues. But no one should be making excuses at this point, whatever, 15 games into the season it's just not good enough. Of course, some changes, maybe some injuries. Of course, missing Riqui. At this point, the momentum. That's what I would say. The momentum, it's going the wrong way. It's hard to change the momentum of something when it's going in the complete wrong direction and that's where we're going. But the belief is still there. The effort is still there. Like I said, just can we find one game, something to build momentum on. That's what I would say."
