P/I/P Season 31 Game 14 - LA Galaxy at Seattle, 5/16/26, 6:15 p.m. PDT - Apple TV, FS1

Pec Was Like, I Will Not Let The Galaxy Fall or Our Fans FAIL!!!

 

Pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered...

 

I said I’d be happy with 6 out of 12 points in our last 4 games. We have 6 out of 9 with a tough home game still to go.

Got to be ok with this stretch of the season.

 

Wow. We went almost 2 years without a road clean sheet?! I knew our D was bad but that still surprises me. Opponents have off days so you expect the occasional one by luck.

 

you have to say "hell of a" in front of save to trigger Skydog

 

I forgot dude was on the team!

 

I looked it up. He’s only 31 but he’s been a regular for the Sounders for 11 years. Sure seems longer, in part because he played for the USMNT in 2014, two years before he played in MLS! How did that happen? Was he one of Klinsmann surprise/controversial additions? I think he was.

Btw, his dad was the team physician. Not sure if he still is.

 

A draw against Houston and we’d go in to the break perfectly balanced. 5-5-5 and a 0 GD.

 

Did that happen?! Yay!

Also, whomever taught our team to finally take it to the corner or cycle the ball to see the game out? Bless you.

 

Even Pec passed up an opportunity to shoot in the waning moments to kill time. Color me impressed- I thought I would never see that happen!

 

From Fotmob, Pec gets it
https://www.fotmob.com/matches/la-galaxy-vs-seattle-sounders-fc/4b9v1wp#5071193


Also, thanks Fotmob for reminding me of the last point

 

From Sofascore
Also Pec
https://www.sofascore.com/football/match/seattle-sounders-fc-la-galaxy/nabsjPi#id:15171564

 

Whoscored
Also Pec
https://www.whoscored.com/matches/1...gue-soccer-2026-seattle-sounders-fc-la-galaxy


Whoscored Match Report

 

LA Galaxy Postgame Top Quotes

LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney

On bouncing back with a good performance:

“I think guys were really disappointed about how it went in Kansas City, and, hopefully we can remember what the standard is for a day like today, and carry that with us all the time, because in this league every game is difficult, and every team is capable. I think the guys came out and they were possessed, they were committed. They knew that they were going to have to defend hard today and defend well. Everybody put in a huge shift physically. 
It's been a tough three games on the road, lots of travel. I think guys just knuckled down, and everybody did a ton of work out there. I thought we were better with the ball tonight than we were the other night. I feel like we just were conceding momentum the other night against Kansas City, and tonight, I felt like we were better with the ball. We were better getting out of the defensive half of the field and getting into attacks. We had some moments, some stretches of possession that I think are important when you want to manage games. 
And there was a really good intensity and a really good focus today, and we adapted a little bit as the game went but remained steady and solid. JT makes a huge save. And then the guys were able to build off and get the second goal and put the game away. 
So just the mentality was really strong tonight. I’m super proud of these guys for bouncing back like that.”

On this being one of the best defensive performances of the season:

“I think it was, I think it was a really, really well-done defensive job by the guys. I think the way that [Seattle] has been playing, and the team that they have, I think it's one of the best teams in the league, and I think playing here in Seattle is never easy. 
They had the fortune of playing three games at home this week. We played three on the road, so when you look at the circumstances, too, I mean, what a huge, huge effort by the group on the defensive side, the commitment by everybody, Gabe working back, you know, Joe working back. Marco working back at times when those guys are helping, and the other guys were just really steady. I think it was one of our one of our best defensive efforts in a long time.”

On the performance from JT Marcinkowski:

“He was excellent today. He was great. I mean, the save he makes is huge. Some of the crosses that he was able to get to, some of the other moments that he had, his decisions, I thought with the ball, were really big. We did a video meeting the morning after the game in Kansas City, and a lot of it was about our decisions and our lack of taking care of the ball in our defensive half of the field, and guys did a good job of taking responsibility tonight and doing a much nicer job of getting out of our half of the field and getting into the other half of the field. Not putting ourselves in situations where the opposition was able to build momentum. I think he made some great saves, but I also think he did a really good job of managing the game with his feet over the course of the night, which is big as well.”

LA Galaxy Goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski

On the team responding tonight after last game:

“There was a lot of frustration after Wednesday night. I don't think that we put together a performance that we can kind of hang our hat on and be proud of. 
I think there was a lot of things, a lot of details that were just missing. Top to bottom, there wasn't a lot that we could take from it positive. I think the biggest point tonight is just the resilience and the rebound. I think it shows the character that this team has and how tight knit this locker room is, that we don't let one result dictate the next one. I think we have to start building on these results versus trying to always rebound after a rough result and try to string a few together. Obviously, we have one more before the break, but it's a huge one on Saturday.”

On how this road trip has brought the team together:

“I think we just spent a lot of time together. It's a lot of time in hotels, flights, meals, and you getting to know about each other even more than being at home. I think that's when things get tough on the road, and you're at a tough game, a tough environment, whether you're getting pressured and sitting back a bit, those are the things that you can rely on. You can look to your left and your right, or for me, in front of me, and be like ‘I know that guy has my back. I know that he's going to do everything possible to make sure that we get out of here with a win’, and I think when there's 11 guys, when there's 20 guys doing that, and I think we're a really dangerous team.”

On coming into the game as underdogs:

“I can't say that I look at the odds at all. I think we have the confidence in this locker room that, no matter who we're playing or where we're playing, that we're going to go out there and fight for three points. I think that our mentality is a starting point for us. The intensity, making sure that we're in every single game, and we're competing with each other and for each other, and just doing all the little details is the most important. I don't think underdog or whoever's favored really matters when I think you're playing as a team, and you're playing as 11 guys out there. The team who's more united and fights harder and is a little bit better on the day, is going to win. So, I don't really look at the odds of anything like that.”

 

To be honest I didn’t notice Cerrillo last night except that he was careful to avoid mistakes. But the ratings sites all agree that he had a very good game, ranking 3rd, 5th and 3rd on the ones Bilgediver posted. Or 2nd,4th and 2nd among the field players (since JT had great ratings). Good bounce back Edwin!

 

thats the sign of a mid tier team, never good enough to be upper tier, never bad enough to be bottom of the barrel

on another note and I don't have an answer for, do MLS teams have an incentive to tank seasons, the same can be said for LigaMX after they froze relegation? personally I don't think they have a reason too, unless its financial

Other soccer leagues have relegation, so they have no reason to tank, its seems only North American based sports give most of their teams reason to tank and it feels like MLS is the outlier of a league that has no reason for its team to be utter disasters, unless the owner wants to try to milk profits and if he is, what are they even doing owning a MLS team

I know MLB teams tank because they get money from the elite clubs, so they have incentive to tank because they probably make more profit tanking then they would taking a chance on winning

NBA, NHL, NFL get a chance at a franchise altering player so they tank, just thinking out loud

 

A view from the Sounders side. Can't really argue with any of it, but nice to see the other guys fail to take advantage of their opportunities.

https://www.sounderatheart.com/2026/05/streak-snapped-sounders-fall-flat-in-loss-to-galaxy/

 

I tend to agree. My feeling is that MLS now provides more incentive and a financial incentive for teams to win rather than tank. For example, teams get more games of higher fan interest (e.g. playoffs, CCL and Leagues Cup) with their home attendance opportunities (and more opportunities to hide revenue like parking fees and concessions) while losing teams only get a few relatively low interest USL games for the most part, a better college draft position and a very limited amount of GAM for not making the playoffs.

 

This bothers me a lot. The problem Vanney mentions is nothing new, they must have had this meeting a dozen times. When good teams learn something, the learning sticks, and they can build on it. We seem to have to learn things over and over.

 

It’s because we are learning very little. From what I can tell Vanney is a big fan of the oh-so-helpful instruction of “you need to play better.”’ The good coaches are drilling in principle of positioning/holding shape, reading game states, specifically how to receive a pass safely when crowded, and other such “actionable” instructions. From what I’ve read managers work on these detailed, hands-on instructions even at the Barcas and Man City’s of the world. According to all evidence Vanney instead spouts platitudes. Hence we don’t get better as much as just have good games and bad games.

 

I agree that Vanney often spouts platitudes at press conferences or other media sessions. Most coaches in all sports do. But that doesn't speak to how his practices are conducted.

So I am curious about your "evidence". Have you attended one or more Galaxy practice sessions? Do you know someone (perhaps a former player or trialist) who has and has given you their feedback? Was it based upon a reporters comments who may have attended some practices (most of which are reported as being closed) or who has reported the feedback they got about practices from players? FWIW, I don't consider internet content posted by fans (no matter how knowledgeable) who have not watched practices as evidence of what occurs during practice sessions.

Nor do I think that player conduct during games speaks to what happens or doesn't happen in practices. IIRC, you have mentioned several times, that some of the Galaxy players have low soccer IQs, I agree with this. I believe that one of the ways a low soccer IQ manifests itself is not doing the things that the coaching staff has drilled you on during practices in the game. In effect that for those players, instinct can override training. As a side note, it may still be in the teams best interest to start a low soccer IQ player, who doesn't follow instructions, if the player's other attributes (e.g raw speed) make him a better choice than the available alternatives.