Why wins & losses this preseason shouldn't mean much to the LA Galaxy

Now that the preseason is over for the Los Angeles Galaxy, as well as the other 29 teams in Major League Soccer, it's time to focus on the 30th regular season. This weekend, the reigning MLS Cup winners will defend the title for the first time in a decade.

Prior to last year, the last time the LA Galaxy won the league championship was in 2014. Head coach Greg Vanney, who has won two titles, saw his team go 1-1-2 in four games at the Coachella Valley Invitational (CVI).

Will Kuntz, the general manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy, was even more active this winter than in 2024. He sent a number of players who were not only regulars on the field but fan favorites packing with cap space in mind.

Gaston Brugman, Jalen Neal, Marky Delgado, and Dejan Joveljic are now with other teams. Incoming are Sean Davis, Matheus Jorgensen, Elijah Wynder, Ascel Essengue, Christian Ramirez and goalie JT Marcinkowski.

Does a dismal showing in the preseason doom the LA Galaxy's season?

Exhibition games should not carry too much weight. Of course, if a team does well in the preseason, it shows the strong potential to have a favorable regular season.

Of the last three preseasons, the worst one for the Los Angeles Galaxy was last year. Yet, they strong together 19 regular season wins and won the 2024 MLS Cup. In fact, despite winning just once in the preseason n 2024, the Galaxy had a historic season.

In 2023, the LA Galaxy went 2-2-1 in the preseason. Yet, the team struggled to pull together eight wins and finishd second-worst in the MLS Western Conference.

The season before, the Los Angeles Galaxy had the most preseason wins out of the last three years. Even though they qualified for the postseason, in 2022, their season ended before the MLS Finals took place.

To put into perspective...

To further illustrate our point on how the preseason offers little to no correlation with the regular season, look at the previous two defending champions. The Columbus Crew won the title in 2023 and LAFC won it in 2022.

A year ago, Columbus had a pair of friendlies in addition to going 1-0-1 in two other preseason games. LAFC went 1-2-1 in 2022 defending their title and still managed to be among the elite in the Western Conference.

Thus, the 1-1-2 record for the LA Galaxy at the Coachella Valley Invitational is nothing to overreact to. Gabriel Pec, Miki Yamane and Miguel Berry all scored once this preseason. Forward Tucker Lepley added the other two goals from the Galaxy's five total at the CVI.

The roster saw a number of additions during the four-game stretch in Indio, California. As was the case last year, Kuntz added more international talent.

With Essengue and Zanka added to the fold along with Davis, Ramirez and Wynder, the LA Galaxy certainly have a chance to do well in 2025. After all, they are the last franchise to repeat as champions, back in 2012.