San Diego FC spoils Galaxy’s opening night celebration

CARSON, Calif. — The afternoon kickoff that began Los Angeles Galaxy’s 2025 MLS season started with Galaxy star Riqui Puig lifting the MLS Cup in front of a jubilant home crowd, who would later leave Sunday’s game disappointed in a 2-0 loss.

Hosting MLS’ newest club, the expansion side San Diego FC, the Galaxy would have wanted to mark the season debut with a performance affirming the team’s ability to compete for another championship. Despite the unpredictability of an expansion team’s quality in MLS’ recent history, the Galaxy still entered the season looking like a strong side on paper, more than capable of beating a new Southern California rival. Alas, that did not happen.

“We didn’t look like a team that just won the championship,” head coach Greg Vanney said in his postgame press conference. “We looked like a team that’s fitting some things together still.”

Yet, San Diego gave the reigning champs trouble from the opening to the final whistle. Under head coach Mikey Varas, who American soccer fans will know from his stint as interim manager of the US men’s national team, San Diego looked well-drilled in possession and patient with the ball, not forcing any passes due to overeagerness.

“To be honest, it’s much better than I thought,” Galaxy captain and center back Maya Yoshida said, referencing San Diego’s preparedness for Sunday’s game. “Because they just trained, I’d say, six weeks to build up the team and club, it’s [a] surprise for me… overall, I would praise them that they prepared well for only [a] short period.”

The first half didn’t see either side create a single solid chance in open play, with each team only registering one shot aside from a Marco Reus free kick that the German attacking midfielder lofted over the crossbar. Yet, the half went largely as San Diego would’ve wanted it. Varas’ side had 59% possession to the Galaxy’s 41%, as LA looked disjointed on the ball and rarely threatened San Diego’s defense except for the occasional counterattack. In particular, the Galaxy’s new striker, Christian Ramirez, seemed out of sync with his fellow attackers.

Ramirez had a tall task in replacing Dejan Joveljić, who scored 21 MLS goals for LA last season. Ramirez had 17 total goal contributions in 2024 with the Columbus Crew, but wasn’t a full time No. 9, often playing as an attacking midfielder. As proven by his quiet Sunday evening, it may take some time for him to adjust to playing as a dedicated striker in LA’s system. Vanney brought him off in the 64th minute after Ramirez failed to register a single touch in San Diego’s box.

But Ramirez could only work with what his wingers and midfielders were giving him, which wasn’t all that much. In Puig’s absence due to an ACL tear suffered in last year’s postseason, Reus played in the No. 10 role and didn’t make many mistakes on the ball, completing 22 of his 25 passes and creating one shot for a teammate, but he didn’t put San Diego’s defense under much pressure either. The Bundesliga legend went missing for large stretches, mostly because of LA’s inability to retain the ball.

Frustratingly for the Galaxy, though, San Diego’s first goal didn’t come from a long, intricate passing sequence but rather a mistake trying to play out from the back. With San Diego’s high press breathing down his neck, Galaxy goalkeeper Novak Mićović played a slightly elevated pass to his center back Carlos Garcés, who struggled to control the waist-high ball in the air then slipped, allowing Mexican star Hirving Lozano to slide the ball across LA’s box for Danish right winger Anders Dreyer to hit home.

Lozano, known for his reasonably successful spell in Serie A with Napoli, is San Diego’s most high-profile player and will certainly command both the media and opposing defenders’ attention this season. He nearly marked his MLS debut with a goal, trying to chip Mićović on a one-on-one, but the Serbian keeper reached his right glove high and temporarily prevented a second San Diego goal.

With a host of substitutes brought on for both teams, LA tried to ramp up the pressure and equalize as the second half wore on, and while striker Miguel Berry and midfielders Elijah Wynder and Ruben Ramos brought some energy to LA’s sluggish attack, the Galaxy couldn’t quite find a break through. The Galaxy will need to sort out its midfield balance as the season continues, as Edwin Cerrillo looked dynamic as a deep-lying playmaker — to use some Football Manager terminology — and completed the most passes on his team of any non-defender, but often found himself too swarmed by San Diego to play anything other than a safe sideways or backwards pass.

His partner in the double pivot, Lucas Sanabria, making his Galaxy debut, struggled to complement Cerrillo’s play and overlapped positionally with Miki Yamane when the right back characteristically tucked inside. Yamane and Sanabria’s proximity on the right side of midfield frequently left Cerrillo and the rest of the defense with uninspiring forward passing options. Vanney will need to reassess his team’s in-possession approach, as Sanabria and Yamane legitimately seemed to get in each other’s way. Vanney agreed.

“Most of the night, [we were] a little disconnected in terms of our positions, specifically in our midfield and where we needed to be and when we needed to be there,” Vanney said.

But San Diego will have left Dignity Health Park thinking they have not just one, but potentially two candidates for the MLS Newcomer of the Year award that LA’s Gabriel Pec won last season, or even a dark horse MVP run. Given his status, Lozano could be set for a big season after his debut assist, but Dreyer finished the night with not just one, but two goals after banging in a decisive left-footed shot on a San Diego counterattack in the 93rd minute, killing the Galaxy’s dreams of an equalizer.

It doesn’t feel like an opening night overreaction to say that the Galaxy might struggle to play with the target on the team’s back that comes from being a champion. After all, LA didn’t lose a single match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson for the duration of the 2024 MLS season, but dropped a home game at the first possible opportunity to begin 2025.

Remember, fates are fickle in MLS.