LOS ANGELES (July 22, 2026) – The LA Galaxy (5-7-5, 20 points) fell 3-1 to St. Louis CITY SC (6-6-4, 22 points) at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. After a tightly contested opening half, St. Louis struck twice in quick succession just before the break. The visitors added a third goal in the second half after the Galaxy were reduced to 10 men, before Troy Elgersma scored his first career goal late in the match.
Goalscoring Plays
STL – Lukas MacNaughton (Marcel Hartel), 42nd minute: On their second consecutive corner, Hartel’s cross found MacNaughton, who flicked a header from the near post into the far corner to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
STL – Marcel Hartel (Tomas Totland), 45+1 minute: Hartel doubled St. Louis’ lead just before halftime when his shot from the top left edge of the box that found the back of the net.
STL – Simon Becher (Marcel Hartel), 68th minute: Hartel played a ball behind the Galaxy backline that Becher ran onto before beating the goalkeeper in a one-on-one to extend the visitor’s lead.
LA – Troy Elgersma, 86th minute: Harbor Miller drove forward from midfield into the box before finding Elgersma, who finished into the bottom-right corner to pull one back for the hosts.
Postgame Notes
- Troy Elgersma's 86th-minute goal marked the first of his professional career for the LA Galaxy.
- Midfielder Marco Reus made his third career appearance against former Borussia Dortmund teammate and current St. Louis CITY SC goalkeeper Roman Bürki. The pair played 142 matches together during their time with Dortmund.
- After a run of starts at center back, Justin Haak made his first start in midfield since the Galaxy's 2-1 comeback victory over Atlanta United on May 9.
- Defender Emiro Garcés made his first start since May 13 after returning from the injury he suffered during the Galaxy's road match against Sporting Kansas City. He appeared as a substitute in the club's previous match.
Next Up
The LA Galaxy will wrap up a stretch of three matches in nine days where they face the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday, July 25, at 7:30 p.m. PT at Stanford Stadium.
Match Information
Match: LA Galaxy vs St. Louis CITY SC
Date: July 22, 2026
Venue: Dignity Health Sports Park; Carson, California
Weather: Clear and 77°F
Scoring Summary
|
1
|
2
|
F
|
LA Galaxy
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
St. Louis CITY SC
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
STL: Lukas MacNaughton (Marcel Hartel) 42’
STL: Marcel Hartel (Tomas Totland) 45+1’
STL: Simon Becher (Marcel Hartel), 68’
LA: Troy Elgersma, 86’
Lineups
LA Galaxy: GK JT Marcinkowski, D John Nelson (Julián Aude, 64’), D Emiro Garcés, D Jakob Glesnes, D Miki Yamane, M Lucas Sanabria (Isaiah Parente, 64’), M Justin Haak, M Elijah Wynder (Maya Yoshida, 74’), Harbor Miller, F Joseph Paintsil (Troy Elgersma 74’), F Marco Reus (Robert Taylor, 59’)
Substitutes not used: Novak Mićović, Chris Rindov
St. Louis CITY SC: GK Roman Bürki; D Lukas MacNaughton (Jaziel Orozco, 62’), D Dante Polvara, D Timo Baumgartl; M Tomas Totland, M Chris Durkin, M Daniel Edelman (Miguel Perez, 86’), M Mykhi Joyner (Rafael Santos, 63’); F Marcel Hartel (Palmer Ault, 86’), F Simon Becher, F Eduard Lowen (Jeong Sang Bin, 62’)
Substitutes not used: Ben Lundt, Tomas Ostrak, Kyle Hiebert, Fallou Fall
Stats Summary
|
LA
|
STL
|
Shots
|
11
|
16
|
Shots on Goal
|
3
|
11
|
Saves
|
8
|
2
|
Corner Kicks
|
4
|
7
|
Fouls
|
11
|
17
|
Offsides
|
3
|
2
|
Possession
|
47.0%
|
53.0%
|
Misconduct Summary
LA: Emiro Garcés (caution) 45+2’
LA: Marco Reus (caution) 45+2
LA: Emiro Garcés (caution, dismissal) 49’
STL: Lukas MacNaughton (caution) 56’
LA: Jakob Glesnes (caution) 71’
Officials
Referee: Malik Badawi
Assistant Referees: Ian McKay, Felisha Mariscal
Fourth Official: Brandon Stevis
VAR: Lukasz Szpala
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
LA Galaxy Postgame Quotes
LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney
On how what the team needs heading into the next match on Saturday:
“Yeah, got to keep battling. We're going to be down to maybe 11 guys that are on our 20-man roster for the next game between guys who might be out with injuries, suspension, not here. Take your pick as to a reason why. We might be at 11. Tonight we were at 14. You know, this game probably I think I counted coming in, it was going to be 11 going into the next game. So, the guys that you see in there will have to battle and knuckle up. We're going to go to fight the same way we fought tonight, except we have to try to be as clean as we can. It was a game for me of moments. A couple moments that tipped the momentum in their favor and we give them ultimately the result.”
On Troy Elgersma getting his first goal in MLS:
“Yeah, he's a hard-working kid, blue collar kid. Runs hard. Works hard. He's got a ton of energy. I thought Harbor's effort over the course of the game, his desire to try to make things happen was just off the charts. He got himself into that, and Troy just stays with the play and the ball gets on his foot and he finishes it the way he should. He's a kid who has played like every position. Literally he's played nine, wing; growing up he's played full back, midfield, every position. So good athlete. Good sort of energy on the field. So tonight we used him as a nine and brings us a little bit of some running, some chasing, some tracking, and he gets himself into some good spots. He's a good soccer player, so he's going to grow with opportunity. We'll figure out what's the best place for him, but right now we are using him everywhere because that's where we're at.”
On what he’ll be looking to work on with the group tomorrow at training:
"Well, a big part of defending is communication, it's organization in those moments. There is a little bit of a sense for us as a group that we have to manufacture a little bit of offense through defense, which means finding moments to be aggressive and try to create transitions that we can then try to attack out of. So there is a combination of things as we continue to settle. It's finding the balance between being a pressing team and being a very controlled mid-block team and knowing how to defend your goal in lower blocks. For us, scoring goals has also been a challenge. When you look at the makeup of the group, that might be the case for this game, maybe for another game, so you try to find goals in different ways. One of those things that we were getting better at coming into the World Cup break, was using some of our defending to create transition moments to then turn those into attacking moments that led to some goals and opportunities. I don't know if they had many touches even in our box in the first 40 minutes. Maybe one or two. I think. I don't remember. Wasn't many. Felt like we were in control of things and we were recovering things in good areas. When you know that as a team you can create things out of possession and stuff like that, then sometimes you can be a little bit more calculated with how much you want to press. Right now we're trying to find the balance in that to try to instigate some attacking moments.”
LA Galaxy Forward Troy Elgersma
On which of the veterans on the team have stepped up to serve as mentors:
“Yeah, I mean, he's not much older than me, but Justin [Haak] for sure. He's helped me with a lot of things. Elijah [Wynder]. The whole group has been really helpful. I would say me and Justin have started to get along. Harbor [Miller], Ruben [Ramos Jr.], all these guys.”
On if getting his first goal will help with his confidence going forward:
“Yeah, it's a big confidence boost for sure. I mean, I'm always ready to step up, whether that's me pushing hard in training and making sure the guys that are going to be playing the 90 minutes are ready, or if it's like tonight where I'm ready to work hard for 20 minutes and hopefully get a goal like I did tonight. Yeah, whatever is needed I'm ready for it.”
On his relationship with Harbor Miller:
“Yeah, he has helped me so much. He's such a good guy. Works really hard. Yeah, he's given me a lot of pointers. I remember my debut when I was just going in. It was like the bench, everybody was like yelling, let's go Troy, but I can hear Harbor the loudest out of everybody rooting for me. Yeah, he's helped a lot. Such a good guy.”
LA Galaxy Defender Harbor Miller
On the mentality after the team went down to 10 men:
"First of all, I think that we all need to have that heart or that try from minute zero to minute 90. It doesn't matter who you are or what age you are. Obviously, I'm fighting for minutes and I'm a young guy. You can always get that out of me. But I think for all of us, that's the minimum. That's what's expected and should be our standard, especially representing this big of a club. That's a nonnegotiable. I think then once everyone brings that, then the quality will show. We get some chances in the second half where I can show my quality and make some plays happen where it's like, you know, it is frustrating because I'm -- I want to be able to show the quality more than just the hard work. I think that that requires a more collective understanding of what we need to do together, and the off-the-ball movement and the off-the-ball work that we all need to do as a team to then be able to shine in those moments. First half, it just seems like we just don't put each other in the best situations for us to succeed. Balls are getting played with pressure on their back. We need to play faster to get guys open to be able to attack and use their strengths rather than sometimes we are just playing into the strengths of the opponent and then we were can't use our strengths and show our quality. So I think as the game progresses and as we need to get out of this slump, I think that's going to be a big thing, is that when we have that heart and we have that effort, then we'll be able to show our quality more because we'll be in better situations.”
On seeing Troy Elgersma’s first goal and his role in it:
“Yeah, it was really cool. I actually met Troy before he came to the Galaxy. We trained in the offseason together with an offseason trainer and I met him there. He was telling me his goal was to get drafted. I was like, ‘dude, that's going to be amazing.’ Long story short, ends up going undrafted, and then one day I see him in the facility. ‘Hey, what's up? What are you doing here?’ He's like, ‘I'm on trial with the second team.’ I was like, ‘amazing,’ like that's great. Spoke with some of staff. They really liked him. He's one of those guys that will bring that effort and will bring that heart to fight for the badge, which when I grew up, that that is a nonnegotiable from my family and just the way I grew up, that that always needs to be there. So I have a lot of respect for him because I know that he always brings that every single day and I can see it on the training field. So, respect to him because he worked his way from barely joining Second Team and then now signing First Team and then look at him making his debut. It was an honor that one of my closest friends in the locker room as well, that I get to give a quote/unquote assist for him.”
On what the upcoming match against San Jose means to him:
“I think the first soccer game I ever went to was Galaxy versus San Jose at home, so I think that's in the back of my mind where San Jose have a lot young guys and they have a lot of talent, and also a lot of the grit. So, I think that game will come down to are we going to match the grit. That's what it's going to come down to. We all know that our team has quality, but we need to match every other aspect of the game. After these last two performances I think that there is no other option than to come out and show who we are and who the Galaxy are. I've been a part of the academy for ten years and I've seen us at our lows when we finished last place in
the league and I've seen us win the MLS Cup. I think being a part of that also has showed me that this club is more than just a club. We win, we lose, but we can get out of that and get back to our winning ways. We need to all fight like this is the most winning club in the MLS, like we are. I think going into another rivalry match, I think that will be more important than ever. That's going to be the biggest message, is we need to step out with the right mentality. The tactics, the talent, that will all come. We need to step out with the intensity that we're going to attack this team and do everything in our power to get the three points this weekend.”
