LOS ANGELES (Saturday, Sept 20, 2025) – Despite a hard fight, the LA Galaxy fell 3-2 against FC Cincinnati tonight at Dignity Health Sports Park. The team will continue their 2025 MLS Regular Season campaign next Saturday, September 27 against Sporting Kansas City (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass), also at Dignity Health Sports Park.
LA Galaxy Against FC Cincinnati: The match on September 20 marked just the second meeting across all competitions between the LA Galaxy and FC Cincinnati, with the series now tied at 1-1-0. The lone prior matchup came on June 22, 2019, when LA earned a 2-0 win on the road at TQL Stadium behind goals from Emmanuel Boateng and Favio Álvarez. Saturday night’s match was the club’s first-ever home meeting against Cincinnati at Dignity Health Sports Park. LA was unbeaten in its last three matches (1-0-2) and has leaned on the attacking play of Gabriel Pec (5 goals, 6 assists) and Joseph Paintsil (now at 6 goals, 4 assists), along with veteran midfielder Marco Reus (5 goals), who leads the team with nine assists.
Goal-Scoring Plays
CIN – Ender Echenique (Evander Da Silva Ferreira), 10th minute: Echenique slotted a right-footed shot into the bottom right corner after being set up by Ferreira from the center of the box.
CIN – Brenner Souza (Evander Da Silva Ferreirz, Kévin Denkey), 22nd minute: Brenner buried a right-footed strike from the center of the box into the upper right side of goal following combination play with Denkey and Ferreira.
LA – Joseph Paintsil (Diego Fagundez), 38th minute: Paintsil headed the ball into the bottom left corner after it was lofted long by Fagundez from the right side of the box.
CIN – Brenner Souza (Evander Da Silva Ferreirz) 88th minute: Brenner curled a left-footed shot from the center of the box into the top right corner after a feed from Ferreira.
LA – Mauricio Cuevas (Joseph Paintsil), 90th minute +1: Cuevas finished with a left-footed shot from the right side of the box into the bottom left corner off Paintsil’s assist.
Postgame Notes
- The match marked only the second meeting across all competitions between the two teams, with the record now tied. The lone prior matchup came on June 22, 2019, when LA earned a 2-0 win on the road at TQL Stadium behind goals from Emmanuel Boateng and Favio Álvarez.
- Tonight’s match was the club’s first-ever home meeting against Cincinnati at Dignity Health Sports Park.
- Midfielder Diego Fagundez notched his 78th assist on Saturday night, continuing his march toward the 80/80 club for MLS.
- Through today's game, Diego Fagundez now has 77 goals and 78 assists in 420 career regular season MLS matches.
- Joseph Paintsil recorded his 15th career assist across all competitions with LA. He has been directly involved in 10 goal contributions (7 goals, 3 assists) in his last 11 matches at Dignity Health Sports Park.
- Paintsil has either scored or assisted in five of his last six home appearances.
- Mauricio Cuevas scored his second goal of the 2025 season – and the third of his MLS career – in second-half stoppage time.
2025 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (4-17-9, 21 pts) vs. FC Cincinnati (18-9-4, 58 pts)
Goals by Half
1
2
F
LA Galaxy
1
1
2
FC Cincinnati
2
1
3
Scoring Summary:
CIN: Echenique (Evander), 10
CIN: Souza (Evander, Denkey), 22
LA: Paintsil (Fagundez), 38
CIN: Souza (Evander), 88
LA: Cuevas (Paintsil), 90 +1
Misconduct Summary:
LA: Fagundez (caution), 43
LA: Parente (caution), 45 + 4
LA: Parente (caution/red), 51
LA: Vanney (caution), 53
CIN: Hagglund (caution), 59
Lineups:
LA Galaxy Starting XI: GK Novak Mićović, D Miki Yamane (F Miguel Berry, 75), D Chris Rindov, D Maya Yoshida(c), D John Nelson (Julian Aude, 62), M Edwin Cerillo, M Isaiah Parente, M Diego Fagundez, F Harbor Miller (Mauricio Cuevas, 62), F Gabriel Pec, F Joseph Paintsil
Substitutes Not Used: GK JT Marcinkowski, D Zanka, D Eriq Zavaleta, M Ruben Ramos Jr., F Tucker Lepley, F Nicklaus Sullivan
Referee: Malik Badawi
Assistant Referees: Kyle Atkins, Eduardo Jeff
Fourth Official: Calin Radosav
VAR: David Barrie
AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert
Weather: Clear, 72 degrees
Attendance: 18,518
Additional Time at the Half: 2 minutes
Additional Time: 5 minutes
Total Added Time: 7 minutes
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy will continue their 2025 Regular Season campaign against Sporting Kansas City (7-18-6) at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, September 27 (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass).
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY On today's match: “A lot of chances had gone missing. A lot of adversity inside of it. Goals we give up are, they're good actions by them, but we just get pulled apart and lose track of guys running off us. Lose a ball in the midfield and we tried to slide it into midfield. I thought we did a very good job of pulling them apart, playing through them, getting ourselves into some really dangerous situations. It comes down to executing in the moments, and obviously more difficult when you go down a man. Even when we went down a man, the guys were just fighting and battling and doing the things that they needed to do to try to get themselves back into the game. We were gassing, especially in the midfield, Eddie and Diego were having to cover so much ground and do so much work at the end. I was super proud of the guys' effort and the work. We played some pretty good stuff, but we got ourselves behind two goals, and that makes it difficult to claw back. To lose a guy early in the second half, that makes it more difficult. Proud of the effort. Wish we would've made some better decisions in some of the final actions. Felt like we settled for some shots. Maybe one more pass would've really given us a better chance or better look. When we lined up some shots we just didn't put them away."
On Joseph Paintsil: “ I think we went with Joe as a 9 because we felt like they would try to over-press us and try to leave him one-on-one at the top. We felt like, 'good luck with that.' And he was in. He was in quite a bit. He was in some good positions. He was able to track some things down. Got him into some dangerous positions and he was able to get us into some dangerous positions. That was one of the reasons for putting him at the 9. I think he gets frustrated because he doesn't get some calls that maybe he should get. I think unfortunately what happens is you get a reputation and it's hard to shake sometimes. I think that becomes the difference in some of those situations really in my opinion."
On referee not awarding a foul in a 1-on-1 situation involving Paintsil:
“From where I look, Hagglund (FC Cincinnati defender Nick Hagglund) was using a lot of arms and a lot of different things to try to keep him from running away. Multiple times where he's just trying to grab at him and get any piece to slow Joe down. Then one where he kind of does both hands on both shoulders and certainly looked from where I was like he impeded Joe's ability to keep going in on a goal, and obviously Joe goes down. I haven't seen it close enough, but I felt like Joe was in it. If he doesn't get a lot of them I would like to see Joe keep going. If he does pull him back, it makes a little sense that he goes down."
On Harbor Miller and Chris Rindov: “For Chris specifically, just playing against two forwards is very different. A lot of these games before it's been one forward and they were rotating through it. Tonight was just playing against two forwards, two forwards who are strong, dynamic. Each individually are a handful. Then they have this guy underneath who is one the best players in the league and he is distributing and getting on the ball. And by the way, you've got to make sure he doesn't get to line up shots from distance. You've got to be organized in who is stepping out and how you are getting to it. There are a lot of just individual duels in there and decision making inside of it, because you just have the numbers you have up on you all the time is a different scenario. He managed things well. We will look back at all the specific moments. It's not an easy task and I thought he did a nice job.
As far as Harbor, I think he plays with a lot of maturity and confidence, especially on the attacking side. He got us out of situations. He's confident on the dribble and moving with the ball, not just standing and passing. He's playing this hybrid role for us, which is at times like a winger and at times he's defending low like a fullback. We added a layer tonight where he was coming inside a little bit more and he was adding the overload into the middle of the field, which I felt like he handled pretty well. He is a good soccer player and he's played different positions coming through the academy so he is comfortable around the field and comfortable with both feet. He is a kid with a lot of confidence. I thought he was handling the situation well. This is a team with a lot of mature players and a lot of quality out on the field. They're set up a little bit different than some of the teams we've seen lately. Sometimes the tasks and references are a little different, but I thought both of them handled the game well."
On Isaiah Parente's second yellow card: “Both of them were difficult ones because the first one, on the entry pass, wasn't so easy to deal with. Ends up lunging to deal with it. Now he's off balance and he feels like he has to try to make a play. He takes the first yellow. The second one, it's a tough one. I think the player sells it a little bit. I don't think he really goes, doesn't slide. He kind of goes in and doesn't really stomp him. I do think as you're seeing that, if you know you're on a yellow, probably want to hold your ground a little bit more and not end up in it. He was in two different situations and came out on the wrong side of each of them."
On playing down a man in the second half: “The mobility of our group and the ability for guys to move through different spaces, I thought was really good. They have a couple guys who don't love to defend through large stretches of the defending aspect. They give an initial effort but not the second or third effort. If you can get beyond those players and players can remain available after that, then you can deal with being down a number. The problem is when you do get beyond it, they'll leave guys high who are hanging out for the transition, which is something we had to deal with all game. They were comfortable trying to leave three, four guys out of the defending effort at times, and seeing if we could hurt them, and if not, seeing if they could catch us going the other way. The mobility of our guys. Miki being able to go inside, outside. Gabe inside, outside. Joe's ability to run away. Because of the fluidity of our group and also everybody is comfortable on the ball. The guys did a good job finding spaces and moving for each other. Getting the ball to Gabe, to Joe in positions and driving us forward. I think that took care of the man down. Defensively, it's a tougher task. Any time we stepped out to press they pretty much broke through it and then it's a recovery. In the second half, we dealt with a lot of things around the top of our box. Once we got down into that lower block, we did a pretty good job blocking some things and digging some balls out. We were able to get out of that and get into some attacking situations. A ton of effort by the guys to remain available and work for each other through the second half was a big part of it."
On Novak Mićović:
“I thought he made some huge saves, some really big saves to keep the score in a position where we could keep chasing and going for it. Some of his kicking through the course of the game wasn't where we talked about trying to find. We were hitting balls all over the shop. He's better than that with his feet. So I think him being more targeted about where we were trying to play the longer balls would've been part of it. I have to see the first goal again to have a real opinion on some of that. I think in some of these games he grows into the game as the game goes. I think he needs to start strong and finish the whole game. Maybe that's part of the maturity for him. If we get behind, he makes big saves. We also need to do that when we are even or up or those things. Those become big moments for goalkeepers."
LA GALAXY FORWARD JOSEPH PAINTSIL
On his performance overall, especially contributing a goal and an assist in the match:
“I would say first off it was really like an open game, but unfortunately, we conceded easy goals, which we decided to just come back especially in the first half when we score the first goal. But it's sometimes a disappointing result for us, especially like this when we are playing [at] home. We don't just need to just give things away just like that, but mistakes are always in football and we just need to take it and just focus on the next game. Just work towards what's really important ahead of us, especially now I think we are out of the race now no matter what.
Now the focus is to win the next of the games and focus on the last -- first month, which is October, to give everything, because now the only thing we are fighting for is to get some points and also to win the [Campeones] Cup, especially for the fans. At least when we win the [Campeones] Cup it will ease some pressure. So I think we just need to focus on the rest of the game and the most important thing, the game on 1st of October.”
On if he feels he’s officiated differently:
“I don't know the plans of the referees, but whenever they are coming to a game there is always a player that they always single out. I don't know if it's me or the other players, but unfortunately you cannot just tell me this is not a red card and you cannot go and see. I really respect that ref a lot, but today he showed me the kind of referee he is, especially with these opponents also. He made the game really difficult for us. I think when he goes home and just watches the game, I think he's going to be really disappointed with the decision that he makes.”
On the swing from winning the MLS Cup last year to the team’s standings now:
“Winning the [MLS] Cup last year we did everything and we give everything. That doesn't mean that this season we didn't give everything. We are giving everything; just we don't have the results. As you can see at the beginning of this season also there was a lot of ups and downs with injuries and everything, with also new players. I'm not going to say it's because of new players or this kind of things. We are players and we need to stand and fight for each other. Unfortunately, this is football and as everybody that's really into football, they should know it's not always that you need to always win the game. Even if you are a champion that doesn't mean you need to be another champion in the next season. All you need to do is just fight and fight and fight and just be in the playoffs. That's the most important thing. When you're in the playoffs anything can happen. Last season we don't know where Red Bull came out from, but they came with the final. So this is football. We just need to take our time and focus on what is ahead of us, even though everything is really not feeling good for us. I still have trust and believe in the officials and with the players and everything. But just that we are unlucky this season is not really going good for us. We are just eager to just keep going, raise our head up, focus on the next season as we have our playmaker also back, which is going to determine a lot of things for us, especially when Riqui is really healthy. I think, yeah, everybody is giving everything. It's not like everybody doesn't want to give everything. But, you know, it's just the mistakes and all these kind of things. Football without mistakes is not football. We just need to focus and just work towards it. Every now and then, every day we keep learning. So this is a learning process. This is jot a failure for me. Not at all. We just need to keep going and do what we have to do. If everybody goes to it's work and every season he doesn't get promoted, that doesn't mean he's a failure or he hasn't done what he needs to do. He did what he needs to do. It's just not that time for him or her to have that promotion. This is also prevalent also to football. It's just like that. We just need to focus. There will always be backlash. We accept it. But as we were really happy last season in terms of blood and tears, they need to still support us no matter what. That's really what a fan need to do and that's really what a father needs to do, just to believe in his children no matter what.”
On how he processes the ups and downs of the season:
“Yeah, ups and downs is part of life. I accept it with the ups and downs. That doesn't mean that we are not doing what we need to do. Like I said, this is a game of passion, a game of sweat and blood, a game of everybody giving his heart to the badge. If things go south we need to try to sort the solution, and we are trying everything to sort that solution. This season didn't favor us. That doesn't mean that everybody is not doing his job. I assure that we are going to come back really strong next season. Let's not even talk about next season. We going to come back really strong on [the] 1st of October. That's really important. I'm going to give everything. The players are going to give everything no matter what, because this is how I feel and this is the last game of our life. This is a final for us. We play against Red Bull, so we need to just do everything to win this Campeones Cup. That's really our goal now. We have a green light, which is the championship next year. So we have something that we are playing for and now 1st of October we have something heavy that we need to carry. So I think the guys, my friends, my teammates, are willing to give up everything and I assure you first of October we will all sit here and be smiling together.”
On if he found more freedom in the striker position:
“Yeah, I felt a lot there was a lot of space, because I think they know exactly what -- if I'm on the striking role they know exactly what I'm about to do. I think we did what we have to do, the runs and everything. Unfortunately, not everything went through it, but I think my team also need to try to also play according to my strength, especially when they have the ball it's not always just to put the ball on the ground and just play, play. Especially sometimes if there is the space, just kick the ball to the space because you know I have speed. You don't need to always put the ball at my feet because sometimes it's really difficult for me. The most important thing is put the ball in the space for me to have one against one, and we have to keep learning. Like I said, it's a learning process. Yeah, I just hope and pray that I just have my Riqui back and I think things will really fall into place.”
On Diego Fagundez’s performance:
“He's a fantastic player. Diego is someone that also has the eye to give those kind of balls. Kudos to Diego for giving me the assist. As you can see, he's also someone who's really important in the club. I really respect him a lot. I think he's someone who also decide things for us. I think he's also doing whatever he needs to do, working hard to try to find the results for us. So we just, you know, have to do what we have to do. Big respect to Diego for his great performance today, and I know we going to do more. I just think Diego is a fantastic player and we just need to give him -- what we have to do as a team, [as] players, to give him more the balls to make that decision for us. Like I said, we just need to keep learning and find a way throughout the offensive and just look for Gabriel also to do what he needs to do. So we just work together. Win or lose, we just work together and find a solution. No matter how long we have to find a solution. Definitely as time goes on we will find a solution.”
On his assist in the second goal of the match:
“I was about to take the shot. I was about to take the shot when [Julian] Aude shouted and just told me to give the ball. Normally I would've shot. I had no other option, so I just need to listen to the voice that comes to me. So I just turn and put the ball -- I didn't know he was there. I just put it there, and what a fantastic strike from Mauri [Mauricio Cuevas]. Kudos to him for giving us even the hope in the second half. There was no more time for us to come back. Yeah, like I said, everybody has task. Even if push in the bench you are really important for us. Everybody needs to raise his head up. It's never a failure for us. We just need to keep concentration and just keep focus and just keep forward and just do what we have to do and enjoy football.
That's what we are built and born to do. So we just do it with all heart and making our family proud and supporters and everybody. Yeah, see what will happen on the 1st of October.”
On if playing for Ghana serves as motivation:
“Yeah, it's always a motivation for a player to be called for his national team because it's a whole lot of millions of players in the country, and you being called up, it's a massive opportunity for you. I've been out from the national team I think almost getting to a year because based on injuries and all these things. Now I'm really healthy, so I just need to represent my country no matter what. At this moment it's much more important to represent my country and club in the World Cup. The most important thing now for me is sometimes difficult to travel long distance to Ghana, especially going to Ghana with almost 16, 17 hours, and after 17 hours going to Morocco. It's a long flight for me and really tiring and hard for me. But this is the job I choose, so I just need to keep doing it and try to do whatever I need to do for my national team and for my club. Now even if I really -- we really qualify for the World Cup it's not just for my club [in Ghana] it's also for the LA Galaxy.
