The Worst Start Ever From A Reigning MLS Champion

LA Galaxy are four games into their 2025 season and have so far lost all four fixtures. The Western Conference club were shock winners of the 2024 MLS Cup to some, but not many expected them to begin their title defending campaign in such poor form. The Galaxy sit bottom of the Western Conference with zero points after three games, and lost to Costa Rican club CS Herediano in the CONCACAF Champions Cup round of 16 first leg. Eight goals conceded, one goal scored, it already looks like it will be a turbulent season in Los Angeles, but why has this happened?

STATS: The 2025 LA Galaxy have tied with the worst start in club history (1997 also 0-3 to start)

It's the worst Galaxy start in the modern era.

Galaxy need an MLS win in Portland to avoid having the worst start through 1st 4 games in club history outright. #LAGalaxy #MLS pic.twitter.com/E0MSIVT6DR

— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) March 10, 2025

Vital Players Missing

After forming a squad that brought success last year, Greg Vanney has been without many key members, leading to his side looking a shadow of their 2024 selves. Riqui Puig and Joseph Paintsil are both sidelined by injury, which has left the Galaxy without a creative edge. At times their off the ball movement has been non-existent, an aspect that Paintsil brought to the side last year, making constant runs in behind. In a salary-capped league like the MLS, you are only as good as your Designated Players take you, and missing two of their three DP’s is costing the Galaxy heavily.

Dejan Joveljic was LA’s leading MLS goalscorer in their title-winning season and many were surprised to see the Serbian sold to fellow Western rivals Sporting Kansas City. Joveljic has struggled at SKC in their opening few matches this season, but that does not change how powerful of a forward Joveljic was under Vanney in 2024, especially alongside Paintsil, Puig and Gabriel Pec.

Puig. Pec. Joveljic. Paintsil.@LAGalaxy are the first team in MLS history to have four players score 10+ goals in the same season. pic.twitter.com/4aQwvBCkns

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 22, 2024

Current Starters Not Stepping Up

Joveljic was a player transformed last season and scored numerous vital goals especially in the playoffs. His replacement was Christian Ramirez, a veteran striker who has now played at five MLS clubs. The forward was a cheap and proven option, but so far has appeared in all four of LA’s games, starting three of them, and is yet to score.

Ramirez is not the only player Galaxy should be relying on right now that does not look up to scratch, Marco Reus is proof that the club do not have the players for what they’re trying to do. The seasoned German has gone missing at times, often stuck in a big gap between the defensive backline and offensive frontline. It does not help that the Galaxy’s midfield balance is off, but Reus’ best years are past him and his physical ability does not look up to standard, similar to how Olivier Giroud’s career at LAFC has gone so far.

Loss of More Players and Mentality

When a sporting outfit reaches the summit and achieves greatness, the following season can only go two ways, they either replicate it again or don’t. Performing to the same standard after achieving your main goal isn’t easy and is another reason why the Galaxy have lacked sharpness these last few weeks. Gabriel Pec cannot carry the team on his own, the Brazilian had nine shots against St. Louis City last weekend, but six of those came from outside the box, proving that last year’s MLS Newcomer of the Year is being forced into creating goal efforts on his own.

Pec is an outstanding player, his 36 goal 2024 campaign proved that, but cannot be as effective without the likes of Puig and Paintsil around him. Another player Los Angelinos are ruing over the sale of is Mark Delgado. The midfielder started almost every game he was available for and ranked eighth in the league in passing last season, completing more than 91% of the nearly 2,000 passes he attempted. It is worth noting that Galaxy didn’t necessarily want to sell the midfielder (who has spent his whole 13-year career in the MLS) but instead were left no choice in order to help fit under the salary cap.

The greatest loss for LA Galaxy is losing Mark Delgado, the true engine of the team #LAGalaxy pic.twitter.com/3ZZvGM3A1l

— #CAM6EONES 🏆 🇧🇷 (@LAGa1axy) March 10, 2025

No Way Of Improving Squad Depth

The start to this year has proven that LA lacks squad depth, but there isn’t much they can do about that. There is still well over a month of the transfer window left, but the Galaxy face a triple blow of zero DP spots left, no cap space left and not a single penny of general allocation money left to spend. These three factors leave the club with no real choice but to stick with the squad they have, because even if they had the salary allowance and transfer fee funds, they still wouldn’t be able to go and sign a big name star to come in and save their season.

MLS Released Updated GAM totals for all clubs.

And the LA Galaxy have $0.00 GAM available to them. That ranks them 30 out 30 or dead last in available GAM.

Our estimates put the Galaxy's GAM in hand at about $3.9M. That was an estimate. So they've used all of that to pay down… pic.twitter.com/YMcnCeqBTE

— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) March 7, 2025

Looking Forward

To give LA Galaxy some excuse, they have faced three of the strongest looking teams in the Western Conference so far in the shape of Vancouver, San Diego and St. Louis. Next up is a slightly more favourable fixture away at Portland who are 1-2 in their opening three games, if they cannot show up in Oregon this weekend, then Galaxy’s fans could be set for a long season ahead.

LA Galaxy will not want a repeat of their 2023 campaign, when they placed second to last in the Western Conference. Luckily for them, the top nine of each division will earn a postseason spot, meaning that there is room to have slumps in form throughout the year. If they can get everyone back to full fitness by the postseason, then they still have a shot of retaining their glory. Nonetheless, finishing in the top nine is easier said than done, Galaxy need to start getting points on the board as soon as possible.