I feel like the only defender of the Front Office and coaching staff on this board. First, the Galaxy didn't "lose Puig". May be you didn't intend it, but it reads like you were saying the Galaxy were somehow culpable for his injury. I don't see how they can be blamed for him tearing his ACL helping the Galaxy get to MLS cup. If they were guilty of something, it was being overly optimistic on the speed of his recovery. Certainly, they could have put him on injured reserve list for the season before the start of 2025 (whether they had the budget to do this is open to question). Meanwhile, Pec hasn't even missed a game yet so his leaving doesn't have anything to do with the past loss of goodwill. Also, it seems likely from Paintsil's post that Pec wanted to go back to Brazil. If they did anything wrong, it was catering to Pec's wishes over that of the fans. As for LAFC's Korean Supporters group, CoPilot estimates it has about 100 members. My guess it that translates to maybe 1000 fans attending games tops (not a trivial amount, in stadium of 22,000). But I doubt it amounts to them owning Koreatown "for generations". Hong Myung-Bo played more games for the Galaxy than Son has for LAFC and was a Korean hero for captaining them to the semi-final of the 2002 world cup the year before he signed with the Galaxy. And I recall posts about Korean fans flocking to Galaxy Games. Now maybe it was the Front Offices fault, but I don't think his influence was noticeable when I became a season ticket holder in 2007.
It's good you are expressing your opinion, it's why I keep coming to this board, to hear different viewpoints. I'm certainly wrong a lot - please don't look back at my history...lol In my circles, LAFC is hugely popular compared to the Galaxy. Most people know who Son is, even some of the non soccer crowd know of him. We don't have that profile of a player, or a National team player, in fact we haven't even had a player make the all star team this year or last year - crazy. I just think the FO squandered 2025, they knew Puig was hurt before the season and they decided to ride the year out with no replacement. It turned out to be a horrible decision. 2026 they put him on the injured list and made some good pick ups with Glesnes, Hauss and Tommy - but Vanney can't get them above 9th place. I hope they are bringing in a game changing DP, because the Western Conference has passed us by, and ultimately our record doesn't lie. All of this is exacerbated by the last 10 years of ineptitude, bar one magical season. But I'm still a STH
My conclusion is that (in the grand scheme of things) neither LA Galaxy or LAFC are popular at all. I went to 3 World Cup games at SoFi and at one all I noticed was Galaxy gear, at another it was much more LAFC gear, and the last was really neither. I spent all day today at LACMA (the new D line is amazing) and also downtown and other than my Galaxy hat there was no sign of either soccer team. the Dodgers, on the other hand, holy shit they are popular.
Only about 200k or so watch most televised MLS games. So about 3X the live fans at a typical SEC football game. Those numbers are sad.
just to add to this, its the little things, apparently this LAFC Son Bobblehead was given out at a Dodger game and the pictures below are from the Tottenham reddit and it seems to be a set where the second one will be given out at the LAFC game on the 22nd. that is plenty enough incentive for a causal fan to go to a LAFC game and they might even become fans of soccer after that. and what are the Galaxy doing? sure in the grand scheme of things soccer in LA is so microscopic that most people don't care but it sucks when the other team is running laps around your marketing and winning casuals while you sit back and say but 2024 was magical while being so inconsistent the rest of the years, that you fail to capture the short attention spanned and what have you done for me lately societal culture
I think we spend too much time worried about these things, and I won’t lie; I have too. There are swings and shifts in these types of rivalries, and we will have points where we clearly feel on top. To be quite honest, I see more Messi Miami shirts than I do Galaxy or LAFC gear anywhere I go. I try my best to wear my Galaxy hat everywhere. My kids wear their jerseys. I can’t count how many times someone has stopped them and said “I love your jersey.” Galaxy fans are out there.
I'm in BFE Alabama and all the little southern kids are walking around in Argentina shirts, a few walk around in Mexico shirts (thanks to my family) and you rarely if ever see a MLS shirt or anything that is not a global club. a few weeks ago I was at Walmart (insert joke here) and an elderly gentleman pointed at my shirt and hat and gave me a thumbs up, I was wearing a Galaxy hat and Spurs T-shirt but by the time it clicked what he was gesturing at, he had scooted away, it was nice at least seeing others acknowledge your fandom, even way out here.
UPDATE: The international roster slot #AustinFC traded to #LAGalaxy back in February has officially returned to the club today, July 13th, as outlined in the original trade agreement. Austin received $240k #GAM in exchange for the temporary use of the roster slot until the… pic.twitter.com/976wpWYykN— Verde Nation (@VerdeNationATX) July 13, 2026
Does anyone recall is we actually used this? Was Pec leaving a known quantity and we leased this international spot until now to keep the roster we had?
Thanks world, we’ll take it from here. 🌎MLS returns July 16 on @AppleTV. pic.twitter.com/IHYqSGi11b— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 13, 2026 New at @SBJ: @MLS Is launching a new post-World Cup marketing campaign today titled, “Thanks World. We’ll Take It From Here.” It aims to build on club-level efforts to reach new fans with watch parties during the tournament and new ticket offers. https://t.co/W6Hr1gl5Qg— Alex M. Silverman🏒⚽️ (@AlexMSilverman) July 13, 2026 ^on the note of the discussions above. Finally. It’s the right thing to do. Good on the league and wondering if you guys will see it in your market. SJ usually cheap so I shall see. EDIT: it is also beyond weird not to have an LA Galaxy player in that triangle. EDITx2: also feels a bit late. But better late than never. Also wondering if they have a Spanish version.
I’m realizing as I rewatch it..LAFC will promote it. As we have not a single image…we will probably not. Sigh.
MLS Launches Largest Coordinated Campaign in League History Ahead of Season Returnhttps://t.co/YFUD4YiTYC— MLS Communications (@MLS_PR) July 13, 2026 Full list of players included in the attached. Note who is missing. Like whose fail was this? EDIT: only us and San Diego are the two teams not featured. Ironically Paintsil is staring at me from the MLS home page in an ad for the spot.
I thought that we had several half season international slots. IIRC, the belief was that some players were getting green cards like Yoshida just did. I can't answer your question if Pec's desire to return to Brazil was known in advance and if they had made an agreement to sell him to a Brazilian club by the midseason break. I suspect that you are probably correct. Seems like a pretty player friendly thing to do; very Bruce Arena like.
I definitely see more Argentina gear, but then my daughters have several friends who are Argentinean or dual citizenship. I was in Buenos Aires for the last WC and it was wild.
With the three half-year int'l slots returned, Pec gone, Nasicmento gone, and Yoshida getting a green card, we'll have buy more slots to acquire other internationals or we can sign only domestic players (either from abroad or within MLS/USL). INTL SLOTS: The LA Galaxy have seen 3 of their half-season INTL slots return to the clubs with whom they rented them. - SJ Slot- ATX Slot- NSH Slot#LAgalaxy #MLS— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) July 13, 2026
1. Seems the half season international spots were a gamble to get to the World Cup knowing we’d need to sign — well according to Vanney between 3 and 5 players. I’d say as far as gambles go it was break even or below. Nasci never came good and Pec took a while. It also seems reasonable that those 3–5 players they should be a very shortlist. 2. Not having a single Galaxy player probably doesn’t mean that much in the grand scheme of things, but it does make me a bit sad. There was a time it might have been 3 Galaxy players alone being promoted by the league.
I wasn't trying to make a statement about the Galaxy v. LAFC overall really; I was just speaking to the specific point that our 2024 Cup feels like "ancient history". Now that my daughter plays, I talk to a lot of parents about soccer and their interest / knowledge in both teams is pretty fleeting. Like they can barely sort of tell the teams apart. Most are willing to take free tickets to a Galaxy game, if I have them to offer, but I feel lots of people are pretty indifferent about either team until something sparks their interest, like a big signing. Like people remember that Beckham and Zlatan played for us.
I'm not trying to pile on the FO; I said a couple pages back that Kuntz has done pretty well on DP signings so the fact that they're moving quickly makes me optimistic. I was only speaking directly to the comment about the 2024 Cup feeling like ancient history -- all of the swagger of that team is gone, including 3 of the key players that helped win that Championship. Yes, there are a variety of reasons for that, but I think LAFC has done a better job of staying in the public consciousness as an elite team over the same time period. Also, I think you are downplaying the Son signing; regardless of what the LA Galaxy do it's just a very good signing for this market. I will add to the general Galaxy v LAFC discourse -- I've been very impressed by the Galaxy's soccer celebrations during the World Cup. If you didn't know, the Galaxy organized several celebrations around the city, in Long Beach, Carson (at DHSP) and this week Hermosa Beach. Particularly the scenes from the Galaxy park watch parties were amazing, hosting 100s of fans. I made it out to the one on Long Beach for the 3rd US Group Game -- great vibes. But most of all, I was super proud of the team for putting this on. LAFC's offerings were comparatively paltry, only hosting 3 group games. The Galaxy really moved like the premier soccer team in this city and I'm super proud of that. Also -- you just can't buy history. How about having Galaxy legends Donovan, Chicharito and Zlatan all over the Fox broadcast (and Lalas)? At every watch party I went to if they showed one of of those personalities I'd lean over to someone and put "former Galaxy player" before their introduction.
Another anecdote, I went to the FIFA Fan Fest at Whittier Narrows over the weekend and saw way more Galaxy gear than LAFC. I definitely gave every one I saw a "Go / Vamos Galaxy". It made me really nostalgic to see an '08 Beckham shirt in the wild. History!
Cool to hear about the watch parties—missed that one. My go to phrase is always “former Galaxy great…”
River sigue buscando un lateral izquierdo ante la salida de Viña. Pancho Ortega el ex Vélez, hoy en Olympiakos de Grecia es una opción fuerte; y Julián Aude, hoy en LA Galaxy, ex Lanús, es la otra opción. No saldría de ellos.— Hernán Castillo (@HernanSCastillo) July 14, 2026 🚨Julián Aude, en la mira de #River.📍El club 🇦🇷 trabaja con #LAGalaxy de manera activa en una operación que oscila los US$3M📌El lateral izquierdo de 23 años ingresa en sus últimos 18 meses de contrato con el equipo 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/fFTEyjmcCh— Germán García Grova (@GerGarciaGrova) July 14, 2026 River Plate (again) interested in Julian Aude, with a possible transfer incoming for a $3,000,000 fee.