P/I/P Season 31 Game 9 - LA Galaxy at Columbus, 4/22/26, 4:30 p.m. PDT - Apple TV

I think you meant to say a decent start time

and with this start time on a week day, I suspect we may only have 3 posters, if any commentating for most of the game

 

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-player-status-report-matchday-9-wednesday-april-22

LA Galaxy
João Klauss - Foot (Out)
Matheus Nascimento - Thigh (Out)
Erik Thommy - Thigh (Out)
Jakob Glesnes - Calf (Questionable)

Columbus Crew
Wessam Abou Ali - Knee (Out)
Mohamed Farsi - Sports Hernia (Out)
Andre Gomes - Lower Leg (Questionable)

 

Could use Christian Ramirez…
Oh wait.

 

Yep.
My lineup prediction,...

Paintsil-------Reus------------Pec
-----Sanabria-----Cerrillo
-------------------Haak
Aude--Yoshida--Garces--Yamane
-------------Marcinkowski

 

Arsenal too please!!!

 

I believe so, unless are midwest/central folks join in too, which I hope they do

 

didn't you also curse Gremio too?

 

Looks like they won tonight, so I guess your curse doesn't translate to portugués

 

Here is a write up on our opponent tonight in the context of how they lost this past weekend against New England. Interesting insight in their struggles. Unfortunately, without Riqui I don't think we have the roster player to have the impact that Gil does.


Sporting on a record pace (derogatory), Gil still running the Revs & more | Matchday 8

Pass It By
The Revs came back from 1-0 down by doing what everyone does against Columbus these days: punish the Crew for playing a deep block. That's how they turned a bad first half and a one-goal deficit into a 2-1 win in Foxborough.

The Crew are not good at defending in their own box, which makes the deep block kind of suicidal. And true to form, New England’s equalizer came via a set piece that Dor Turgeman headed home, while the winner came after Turgeman got inside Rudy Camacho and earned a penalty that Carles Gil converted.

Box defending. Every single week it's the same thing.

Gil, meanwhile, is still the alpha and omega of everything the Revs do. There’s a lot of ways to illustrate that. For now I’m going to choose New England’s season-long progressive pass heat map:


See that dark patch in the right halfspace? That’s Gil’s office.

There's been an evolution this year, though, as Gil has become more of a pass-before-the-pass kind of guy rather than a pure chance creator. I assume that head coach Marko Mitrović has come to the conclusion that a pure heliocentric attack – which is what the Revs have been for most of the past decade – is inherently more predictable, and thus easier to stop. As such we’re seeing two changes here:

1. Gil’s usage rate in the final third is 20%. That’s still pretty high, but is actually the lowest of his Revs career (outside of 2020, during which he played only 400 minutes due to injury).
2. His average passing distance is 19.6 yards, which is the shortest of his MLS career and a full three yards shorter than last year.

He hasn’t excised those big right-to-left switches entirely – he still probably hits more of those than anybody in the league – but there’s more combo play around the box, and especially more combining with the right fullback on the overlap.

Here’s another graphic that shows as much. Pay special attention to the sonar, and how many of Gil’s passes are now hit towards the right side of the pitch:


That’s new. And different from 2025:


The results have been mixed, as both Gil’s and the team’s chance creation numbers are down, while the wins and points are up. Gil, for what it’s worth, has bought in.

"I’ve spent many, many years here, and I am very happy. Obviously, coming from two difficult years, I want to win,” Gil said in the postgame. “Winning games is the way that everyone is happy every day. We are coming from difficult years, and I am very proud of what we are doing right now. It’s the beginning of the season, and we need to be better and better. We have many things to improve but we are on the way.”

The Crew also have many things to improve, but it does not feel like they are on their way, as they once again struggled to create quality chances. And now, without the injured Wessam Abou Ali, they have one less elite attacking talent who can conjure a goal out of a half-chance.

“You sit after and like, ‘[Expletive], we could have changed the momentum in the game with a couple of more brave actions,’” head coach Henrik Rydström said in the postgame. “They wanted the ball more in the second half. Their players wanted the ball and tried to take us on more than we did with them.

“In that sense, you can say that they deserved the victory. We need to do that to win more games.”

 

Galaxy calling up Troy Elgersma from VCFC on a short-term loan for this game.

We have signed midfielder Troy Elgersma to a Short-Term Agreement from MLS NEXT Pro affiliate Ventura County FC (VCFC).

📰: https://t.co/5uTCkPc6KU pic.twitter.com/hPwKt9csbs

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) April 22, 2026

This is an interesting call-up. He and other VCFC players have been called up for the CCC games where call-ups are unlimited and it seemed more like a reward for players who are a bit above MLS Next Pro level and a chance for them to spend some time practicing with the first team on a road trip. Here, however, we're bringing him in the middle of a road trip (he was not in Dallas because he played that day with VCFC), which suggests we need him to bolster our depth. If it was Placias, I could see him as a Klauss/Nascimento replacement to provide the possibility of a big body up front. Elgersma is a big body at 6'3" who does have the ability to score goals (he has 2 goals and 1 assist with VCFC in 7 games), but he's typically a midfielder. On the other hand, he can play basically anywhere on the left side of the field. With VCFC this season, he's played 3 times at LM, 3 times at LW, and 1 at LB.

Chances are, he never sees the pitch, but I wonder whether it indicates someone like Paintsil might not be available on short recovery or will be on limited minutes and they want more coverage with Thommy also out. Alternatively, maybe Paintsil is being used as striker and we need Elgersma as coverage for the LW opening.

 

I'm looking forward to see Ruben Ramos Jr. play. If he doesn't get minutes at his best position with our two strikers out, his career will never lift off.

 

Weather issues at the stadium! Not opening the stadium until just before 6PM local time! https://t.co/AZ8Tnfgu0u

— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) April 22, 2026

 

Boo! I hate these (almost) summer thunderstorm delays. They are so unpredictable and occasionally go on for hours.

 

And LEM-LAG gets his wish with respect to Ramos Jr

 

Tonight's match is delayed due to inclement weather. Updates will be communicated when available. pic.twitter.com/sTErPksSql

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) April 22, 2026