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

Jokes aside, what has happened? A few people have mentioned the team taking the ball to the corner in this game and some of the recent wins - that sort of game management has been almost entirely absent from Vanney-led Galaxy teams (seriously go back and watch the last 15 minutes or so of the 2024 MLS Cup Final).

The same tactics were used game after game regardless of opponent. Certain more glamorous players were given more time over other more pedestrian players despite the latter performing better or at least more consistently.

I don’t want to say it’s a complete 180, but this is a very different Galaxy team than the one from a few weeks ago.

Glesnes and Marcenkowski are certainly a factor as are Paintsil returning from injury and Pec finding his form. I’ll also say a couple of results benefitted from some favorable officiating decisions.

I don’t think I’m seeing things or too biased because of the positive results. 2024 was far more positive in terms of results and I remember how frustrating the team was only playing for 15 to 20 minutes.

So has something changed, and if so why? Is there a new assistant manager? Did Kunz take Vanney aside and tell him he needs to adapt. Is Greg lurking on the boards (Galaxy FO has done so in the past)? I know no one knows for sure, just curious if anyone has thoughts.

 

I think Glesnes’ availability is the #1 factor in our 3-1-1 last 5 mls games performance. he really makes a good pairing with Garces or Haak.

We were 1w 3L 2 D in the six MLS matches he missed.

Also, I think playing youth over veterans consistently (miller and Cuevas regularly starting over vets) adds some legs and makes our bench better.

I think we’ve used Reus much better (not perfect see SKC match)

Sanabria and Pec raised their respective games.

 

I agree with this completely. I don't think that the Galaxy are a deep team that can overcome schedule congestion, injuries and the occasional red card. Paintsil missed several of those matches. Pec had the red card against Colorado.

 

I speculate that Kuntz has given Vanney some type of metric to meet if he wants to keep his job and this has forced Vanney to be a little more pragmatic. Pure guessing on my part.

 

I don’t know what goes on in practice. I’m guessing based on indirect evidence. His repeated post game summaries of we need to play faster, avoid mental mistakes, push our edge, blah blah blah. Alll empty jargon. Just once I would love to see evidence that he actually knows why we keep losing. If he actually is aware that we have been incredibly susceptible to counters because as a team we get pushed up too flat why doesn’t he a) ever say it (he got specific when he called out Cerrillo, why not all it out when our tactics fail?) and b) if he is talking about it in training why does it never get better? Last week was the first game where, because of the weakness of our opponent, we were able as a team to push up for extended periods and guess what - got killed on the counter like we have since Vanney took over the team. If Vanney were addressing specifics we would see consistent improvement.

But you are right I have no proof. He may be a great coach, paying attention to details in practice, but who has inherited 40 or so blockheads over his Galaxy years who are just too dumb to learn from him. But I’m going with Occam’s Razor and assuming it’s actually the coach that is the problem.

 

I’ve given my theory several times but no one seems to agree. You build a good team defense first. With our normal lineup of Pec and Joe on wings and often Reus in the middle our back 4 got little help. Game after game opponents came down and found oodles of space in and around our box and they picked us apart like ducks at a shooting range. Then a few games ago injuries forced Joe out of the midfield and we brought in actual 2-way midfielders in the form of Harbour or Thommy or whoever. This game we pushed Reus up top and that further strengthened the defensive presence of our midfielders.

If you watch recent games we’ve often had 8 or 9 players back, sometimes 8 in the box. Teams like the Sounders can’t find the openings they found earlier in the season. Not only does this increased focus on D help us prevent goals it also a) helps set up quick counters and b) keeps us much more connected as a team.

Now it is possible that this improved D just coincidentally coincided with pushing Paintsil up and bringing in hard working 2-way midfielders and is actually the brainchild of Greg finally training the team to get back on D. But given Greg’s track record on D over 6 years, well color me dubious.

tl;dr - injuries caused us to move Paintsil up and put in middies who actually get back and play D. Voila, we play better! Glesnes back there also helps.

 

Sorry guys/gals - after posting the above I realize I’m just repeating myself for the upteenth time. I see something that seems clear to me and then don’t understand why others don’t see it, so I explain again and again. But proof by repetition is not sound logic so I’ll try to refrain. No promises though, it’s my nature.

 

all good, man. It’s a soccer board - write to your hearts content. I love that we all have a voice here.

 

Fantastic win, I hope it represents a replicable shift in tactics from Vanney and within the team that can power us to a home playoff finish, or at least just making the playoffs .

​

 

Paintsil getting racially abused by his so called " supporters" ******** these racists pieces of shit, they need to be named and shamed, cowards

 

Matt Doyle:


5. The Sounders were playing their third straight home game and had no excuse for their dead legs and overall mien on Saturday. Yet there they were, very much not locked-in. It cost them their first home loss in nearly a year – the last one was the Club World Cup – a 2-0 to the Galaxy, which snapped a 22-game home unbeaten run.

“Tonight wasn’t the night the streak should have ended,” head coach Brian Schmetzer said afterward. “I felt like Galaxy won more duels than we did. They’ve been on road for a week and looked like they had fresher legs.

“There were too many guys who didn’t play up to their potential. There's no positives here.”

The Galaxy, coming off that bad midweek loss to Sporting, did a good job of absorbing deep (Justin Haak played probably his best game in Galaxy colors) and hitting the Sounders when gaps appeared. As so:

Just an incredible ball from Marco Reus here. I made a Ray Hudson-esque sound.

[image or embed]

— Matthew Doyle (@mattdoyle.bsky.social) May 16, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Jackson Ragen can not be three yards deeper than the rest of his backline. That’s on him.

But even so, that’s a brilliant bit of work from Marco Reus, and I'm calling it our Pass of the Week

 

Lifetime ban.

 

Hi guys - watched our last 3 games but missed coming on here to comment.

It was worth watching us play Seattle just to see that Reus pass. Any soccer game is worth the two hours to see that kind of magic. Freaking amazing, and Pec made it count with a great finish.

I was a tougher on Paintsil than I see in the comments. He is important to our offense at times, but this game he frustrated me - he virtually always finds a way to lose the ball. He's a freaking turnover machine. So relieved that Vanney subbed him - good decision that maybe should have come sooner.

Pec's stamina, strength and speed late in the game - I mean I don't really have words. He is quite the athlete, with desire to match.

Great win against a tough opponent. We should do this more often.

 

My speculation is that Vanney always had it in his locker to get the team playing like this, but he's sort of an Amorim like figure and truly wants to play the way he wants to play.

What changed is most likely him fearing for his job after that SKC loss.

Less speculation, but this is the first time Glesnes and Haak have started together as our CB duo yeah? I thought they were immense and if we are going to play this way I think they need to be the starting duo with Garces coming in as a sub or only getting minutes when one of those two are unavailable.

 

But sometimes Speculation is fun

Remember the end of last season when we actually started seeing different playstyles and shocker we actually didn't win the wooden spoon?

 

Yes, the total disappearance of all that momentum and chemistry built up between basically the same group of players at the start of 2026 was one of the most baffling parts of this season for me lol.

 

I think a few things happened:

1. The team won in the past believing “we are better than this—we should be winning—I just need a chance to show it if people can get healthy (3 Ps), I can get playing time (Joveljic, Nelson), and we stay away from mental mistakes (Aude, Garces)”. Who does that sound like? So I guess with 3 P’s, Joveljic, an energized Garces and younger Yoshida and shot stopper GK—it was true enough. I think we tried that last year and the start of this year too. It did NOT work. I think I see an attitude change. Other teams are good, maybe better, we have to go out and WORK HARD, or we are the crap performances.

2. Playing an actual midfield with good defenders behind them. Two way midfield performances by Sanabria, Wynder, Cerrillo, Thommy, Miller, and Pec and Paintsill. They all have their respective flaws (some need to play cleaner, some need to man mark better or handle transition defense tactically or with more bite, or some just need to actually get back and play defense for 90 minutes) that they have been unable to overcome some of the time. And Glesnes and Haak (at CB) add physical and athletic presence that we had only from Garces in defense.

Now maybe #1 us because Kuntz told Vanney he’s got to get his sh*t together, or maybe it came from a locker room leader or leaders (Glesnes? Haak? Klaus? Reus? Paintsill? For all I know it was Marcinkowski). Or maybe multiple sources, but it seems to have happened.

Now #2 could be some smart player management, growth of young players, dumb luck from injuries (forcing fewer/the right minutes from Yoshida & Reus, getting a box to box mid in with Paintsill high). I’m more inclined to think the last one, but maybe it’s a combination.

And then I also think there’s a little luck in getting some calls and maybe it’s nice to be the team that other teams are overlooking instead of getting pumped to play for a change.

 

Pec named to the Team of the Matchday and Vanney named Coach of the Matchday

TOTM G’s 🔵⚪️🟡

Head Coach Greg Vanney and Forward Gabriel Pec have been named to the @MLS Team of Matchday!

📰: https://t.co/1A7UeF0ApO pic.twitter.com/dpAGO9mk8I

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) May 18, 2026

 

The big question is, what will he do on Saturday?

Will he stick with what worked in our best result of the year or will he be the tinker man he usually is.

Not that I’m a 100% sure what the right move would be.

 

If he sticks with an unusual lineup because it works it will be the first time with us. Sooo many times last few seasons we would have a rare shockingly great game with a new lineup or formation (like say a 3-2-2-2) and he always dropped it immediately.

 

He absolutely deserves it. Even the most staunch “Vanney Out” (cough*cough) BS poster would have a hard time making the case winning in Seattle, winning in Atlanta and taking points from high flyers RSL and Vancouver wasn’t worthy.