Galaxy trending upward for 2026? So it seems

Coach Vanney likes to remind fans that after an abysmal start, the team made big strides.

- BY KEVIN BAXTER

THE GALAXY'S Diego Fagúndez (7) hugs teammate Eriq Zavaleta after a match against Minnesota United.

Coach Greg Vanney is fond of reminding fans that the Galaxy's 2025 season wasn't just a long, dismal fall into a historically deep abyss.

It was actually two seasons with wildly different results.

In the first, the Galaxy were winless in their first 16 MLS games, the poorest start ever for a reigning MLS champion. That was the "fall into the abyss" part. But in the second, the team lost just eight of 25 games in all competition, going 7-6-5 in league play.

Add the two records together and the Galaxy finished 7-18-9 in MLS, the worst season in franchise history. Yet it also played well enough in August's Leagues Cup to qualify for next year's CONCACAF Champions Cup, a significant achievement. So it's no surprise Vanney wants to talk about the way things ended rather than how they started.

"By the end of the year we were beating MLS playoff teams and we beat the top teams in Mexico," he said. "We became a team that found our way."

However, that act of self discovery came far too late to keep the Galaxy from breaking franchise records for futility: Their seven league wins and 30 points were both the fewest ever in a full season while the 66 goals allowed and minus-20 goal differential were second-worst all-time.