P/I/P Season 31 Game 13 - LA Galaxy at SKC, 5/13/26, 5:30 p.m. PDT - Apple TV

Matt Doyle on the two teams:

12. LA Galaxy (-): Unbeaten in three, only one loss in five, and they’ve got what should be a gimme on the schedule midweek.

30. Sporting KC (-): I’m running out of ways to say this is the worst MLS team we’ve ever seen.

His comments on last week's games:

Atlanta United 1-2 LA Galaxy
There were two games in this one:

• Game 1 was the first 65 minutes, in which the Galaxy played with three d-mids, a winger at center forward and a fullback on one wing, and created nothing (four shots for a combined 0.10 xG). Atlanta didn’t create much more than that. It was unwatchable.

• Game 2 was the final 25 minutes, after Marco Reus had subbed on for d-mid Justin Haak to play as a No. 10. All three goals came in that stretch. It was a lot of fun.

Reus obviously unlocked the game – a lot for his team, and a little bit for Atlanta. His presence out there meant one less body for the Five Stripes to deal with when they pushed forward, and Jay Fortune took good advantage of that on his golazo to make it 1-0. But on the flip side, Reus is the kind of inventive passer and off-ball mover who can connect all parts of a sputtering attack.

What Reus is particularly good at is collecting center backs with his off-ball movement towards the front line, then up into midfield. If they go with him, that creates a channel to run into, as so:

He’s been doing this in one form or another at very, very high levels for 20ish years, and yet opposing center backs are still caught out. It’s really quite something.

and

Portland Timbers 6-0 Sporting KC
Well done to the Timbers in pounding the shit out of a Sporting side that’s just asking for it every single week. Six mentality bombs in one outing!

“LAFC we win, we lose at Minnesota. San Diego we win, we lose at RSL, and the RSL performance was a disgrace. And we win tonight with a performance, so it's, it's ego,” head coach Phil Neville said in the postgame. “People have gotta drop their egos and then just keep, keep pushing forward.

“Super proud of the performance, and I've told them I want a nine-point week and nothing more, nothing less than that. And that means that every single one of them in there have gotta drop their egos. It's not about an individual. It's about the team, and I thought you saw a team tonight, a proper team.”

Neville’s been calling his team out all year, one way or another. Perhaps he’s finally gotten through, but I suspect this result had more to do with who the opponents were:

I’m going to borrow a line from Ben Wright here: Sporting Kansas City have already conceded 32 goals in just 11 matches, giving up nearly three goals a match. They're currently on pace to concede 97 goals this season, which would shatter the MLS single-season record of 78 goals allowed (set by San Jose in 2024).

This team is bad in ways we haven’t ever seen before in this league. Talent is probably the biggest part of it, but they do not yet look like they’ve been coached.

 

My lord, SKC is bad. I knew they were at bottom but -24 goal difference after only 11 games?!?
Soberingly their only win of the season was against us at our house. WTH?

 

Nascimento no longer on the injured list

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-player-status-report-matchday-13-wednesday-may-13

LA Galaxy

Julián Aude - Ankle (Out)
João Klauss - Foot (Out)

 

IIRC (and per ESPN's game summary), the Galaxy 18 in the first game against SKC did not include Paintsil, Pec, or Garces. Glesnes was in the 18 but did not make the field (I don't recall if he had a knock or if the was held out due to squad rotation and fixture congestion at that point. Micovic was also the keeper.

 

that was a bleak game. It was Micovic’s last appearance. Conceded stoppable goals.

in the end we won the xg battle 2.03 to 0.73 but much of that was probably game state as we chased a comeback down from just before halftime.

 

Our XI for #SKCvLA 📝

🔗: https://t.co/AjRouTcXze | @ModeloUSA pic.twitter.com/RuI4vSVeRN

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) May 13, 2026

more attacking from the start.

 

Still have Thommy to bring off the bench if we need some additional offense. He's probably still on a minutes restriction.

 

Pretty decent bench actually.

 

such an easy giveaway man. good defensive action then immediately passes it directly to Kansas City.
Are we trying to out-worst KC?

 

some excellent defensive work but we shouldn't have to depend on that great defensive work

 

Really struggling to not shoot ourselves in the foot again and again.

 

really good 1 - 2 counter between joe and Pec, just good defending stopped it

 

Nice thought by Pec

 

Pec coming out with the mindset to look for his teammates.

 

Forgot about the game. Here now to enjoy/endure the game, whichever it may be.

 

Cuevas makes the run but neither Reus or Paintsil go to goal.

 

We are definitely playing with more chemistry than earlier in the season

 

longer spell of possession.

 

lol Really Pec/Cuevas? You didn't see that he was offsides there? lol

 

of course we let them score first


0-1

 

Oof! Wth?