AUSTIN, Texas (Saturday, April 19, 2025) – The LA Galaxy fell 1-0 on the road to Austin FC before 20,738 fans at Q2 Stadium on Saturday aftermoon.
LA Galaxy Against Austin FC
Saturday’s match marked the ninth MLS regular season meeting between the Galaxy and Austin FC, with LA leading the all-time series 5-3-1. In four all-time matches played on the road against Austin FC at Q2 Stadium, LA holds a 1-3-1 record. (4 GF, 8 GA).
LA Galaxy Milestones
Notably, the match against Austin FC marked LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney's 400th match across all competitions as a member of the LA Galaxy (player and head coach). Additionally, Vanney managed his 348th career MLS Regular Season game in the match against Austin, which ranks ninth all-time in MLS history. John Nelson played in his 100th MLS Regular Season match in the win over Austin FC.
Goal-Scoring Plays
ATX – Brandon Vazquez, 81st minute: A cross into the box was deflected by Emiro Garcés into the path of Brandon Vazquez, who knocked the ball in from close range.
Postgame Notes
- Saturday’s match marked the ninth MLS regular season meeting between the Galaxy and Austin FC, with LA leading the all-time series 5-3-1.
- In four all-time matches played on the road against Austin FC at Q2 Stadium, LA holds a 1-3-1 record. (4 GF, 8 GA).
- The match against Austin FC marked LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney's 400th match across all competitions as a member of the LA Galaxy (player and head coach).
- John Nelson played in his 100th MLS Regular Season match in the loss to Austin FC.
- Eriq Zavaleta made his first start for the Galaxy during the 2025 campaign in the match against Austin.
- It marked Zavaleta's first start for LA in league play since last doing so in a 3-2 win over Sporting KC on March 23, 2024.
- It marked the fifth time across all competitions that the LA Galaxy wore the Rizon Kit.
- Gabriel Pec, who finished the match with seven shots, three shots on target and hit the post, made his 50th career start across all competitions for the Galaxy.
- Mauricio Cuevas made his first appearance of the 2025 campaign, logging seven minutes off the benh in the match against Austin.
- Marco Reus made his first appearance for the Galaxy dating back to March 9.
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy play host to the Portland Timbers at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday, April 27 (6:00 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass).
2025 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (0-6-3; 3 pts) vs. Austin FC (5-3-1; 16 pts)
Saturday, April 19, 2025 – Q2 Stadium (Austin, Texas)
Goals by Half           1     2     F
LA Galaxy              0     0     0
Austin FC    0     1     1
Scoring Summary:
ATX: Vazquez, 81
Misconduct Summary:
LA: Parente (caution), 53
LA: Cerrillo (caution, 58
LA: Garcés (caution), 90+1
ATX: Hines-Ike (second caution, ejection), 90+3
Lineups:
LA: GK John McCarthy; D Miki Yamane, D Emiro Garcés, D Eriq Zavaleta (Matheus Nascimento, 83), D John Nelson (Mauricio Cuevas, 84); M Edwin Cerrillo, M Isaiah Parente (Lucas Sanabria, 76), M Diego Fagundez (C) (Julián Aude, 76), F Joseph Paintsil, F Gabriel Pec, F Christian Ramirez (Marco Reus, 62)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Novak Mićović; M Tucker Lepley, M Elijah Wynder, F Miguel Berry
TOTAL SHOTS: 14 (Gabriel Pec, 7); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (Gabriel Pec, 3); FOULS: 7 (Emiro Garcés, Isaiah Parente, 2); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 4
ATX: GK Brad Stuver; D Brendan Hines-Ike (C), D Oleksandr Svatok, D Jon Gallagher, D Guilherme Biro (Zan Kolmanic, 76), M Dani Pereira, M Besard Sabovic (Ilie Sanchez, 84), M Owen Wolff, F Jader Obrian (Osman Bukari, 61), F Myrto Uzuni, F Brandon Vazquez (CJ Fodrey, 83)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Stefan Cleveland, D Julio Cascante, D Riley Dean Thomas; M Nicolas Dubersarsky, F Diego Rubin
TOTAL SHOTS: 16 (Brandon Vazquez, 8); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (Brandon Vazquez, 2); FOULS: 11 (Jon Gallagher, 3); OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 8; SAVES: 4
Referee: Rosendo Mendoza
Assistant Referees: Nick Uranga, Justin Howard
Fourth Official: Jair Marrufo
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero
Weather: Cloudy, 83 degrees
Attendance: 20,738
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On his thoughts on the match and his message to the team:
" I thought when you kind of aggregate the 90 minutes, we have probably as good of chances, as many good chances as we've had all season. Gabe is into some great spots and has some good looks. I think Joe had one. So I think you know, on the attacking side, again, not all things perfect on the build. I think we lost some balls in some situations that we shouldn't. But I felt like in terms of chance creation, it was a good night for us on that side. We just didn't take anything out of it. We didn't execute on the final action. But they fell to guys we wanted them to fall to, and we would like to bury one or two of those. On the defensive side, I thought we were a little bit stretched throughout the course of the game. I think that at times, we were a little bit low in the back line, which was stretching us out a little bit from front to back, which created little problems in terms of controlling them and managing it. A little bit too much space in the midfield. But again, it came down to a few moments, and a few moments that we should have and could have dealt with better. The one that's a penalty, fortunately we save it, but it's actually two of our defenders against one of theirs. And there just needs to be communication that Eddie has the inside and John can take the outside and take the line. And it doesn't seem like there's a communication that's happening there because then he beats John and we end up with a foul. So we've got the numbers and the situation to deal with it, and we don't deal with it. The second goal that ends up being the game, we deal with the play. We lose possession, get caught into it, caught from behind in possession, transitions. We still have numbers between the ball. We guess on the wrong side, which allows the player on the ball to face forward, and then that allows him to play the wide player into the space. And then it deflects on the cross and it redirects in front of the goal. But, again, we have enough numbers before. We kind of compound a couple mistakes with mistakes, and then we give away. So again, playing on the road is a challenge and I thought we created the chances and we held our own in most situations defensively, and -- but we didn't come away with anything. So that's -- you know, there's plenty of that inside of that that we can improve upon to improve our margins and there's plenty of things to talk about in terms of the overall game. But again, the game sort of comes down to key moments and chances, and who executes in terms of results. And we didn't execute, and they were able to punish us on a couple mistakes, but really one mistake."
On the postgame scuffle between the two teams:
"I think there's a little bit of history between the two teams now over the past couple of years. You know, we came here, Riqui got tackled from behind and he got hurt and there was a tackle on Riqui on the sideline a year ago at our place. You know, even in preseason, there's a lot of guys getting pieces of Gab and others. So I think just the tensions between the group have risen over the last several meetings. I think in the end, frustrations boil over a little bit. I don't think there was too much in it other than just a lot of, you know, chirping back-and-forth."*
On whether or not the current team has been able to grasp his concepts:
*"No. I think we all have a reasonable idea and vision of what we want things to look like. I think, again, executing is a big part of it for us. You know, today, we had a slightly different look just in the back line with Eriq. We've had a little bit of instability there, and with Eriq there, a little bit different. We went back to find of a midfield. So we're making a lot of changes through this process, and having guys settle into roles and responsibilities while settling into things like that; again, I think it's a work-in-progress in the way we want to play the game. And I don't think we are going to do a 180 on the way we want to play the game which is to be ball-oriented and to use the ball well and to create our opportunities. That's not to say we are not trying to create opportunities in transition as well because we had those tonight. A couple of Gab's great opportunities came through transition moments. We know Joe is going to get some through transition moments. But until we got Joe back, we rarely had any transition moments. So we're adding that layer to our game, inside of some of the possession stuff; the efficiency through the midfield is really important. I thought -- there are pieces here that still need to come together. I think everybody understands that the vision for how we won a championship is still a vision for how we want to play. It's about some guys coming along. Some guys who haven't played a ton or haven't played a lot in MLS are needing to learn and come along, and obviously the stress level builds when you're not getting results right away. But there's been a lot of guys kind of in and out or guys out and coming in into the lineup. I don't sense -- oh, from the whole group there's a belief in what we're doing because everybody is here because they want to be involved in a ball-oriented team and what we are trying to do to create and set up opportunities. So I think there's a process here in which everybody has got to get connected and find their level and be in sync, and you know, through various changes and guys stepping up levels, it's just something that is still a work-in-progress. Again, it's really not completely surprising when you lose three of your top midfielders that you have some disconnect in your midfield. It's not as smooth and clean as it was before. That's a part of the process here is we've got to bring guys along to bring them to where we need to get them too."
On John McCarthy's performance:
"Yeah, I think John, again, had some good saves today and that's kind of what he was for us last year in those one or two moments where you need your keeper to come up big. He was there. Collectively, this year, I think we've compounded more errors in moments, you know, whether -- whether those are -- those are starting ahead of John or, you know, or he's been involved in a couple, as have plenty of guys. I feel like we've just -- you are always going to make errors in the game of soccer. It's going to ham. It's a matter of not compounding them and when an error happens, we've got to close off whatever exposure we have in that moment. And right now, we, in too many situations in the game, when we make one error we compound it with a second error or a third error, and those are some of the moments we're getting exposed. Those are things we've got to shut down and that's work to be done. But John was there to save us on a couple of those moments where things broke down for us."
On Eriq Zavaleta, Marco Reus and Mauricio Cuevas' performances:
"I thought Eriq got through the game pretty well. I think Eriq did what he does, which is he generally makes good decisions in defensive moments. I felt like our line was a little bit lower than normally it would otherwise because I think Eriq is a little bit more used to, at times, being in a three and used to not necessarily being so active in produce -- in getting the team higher and lower. I think he's a little bit more comfortable at setting a line and working from that particular position, if you will. And so I think at times, we were a little lower in the back than I would like us to be, which led us to be a little spread out. And I think Emiro together and all that group can probably work through that a little sharper over the course of the game. But it's also, like you said, he has not had a ton of minutes over the last, whatever, year, year or so. I thought Marco came in and he gave us some quality on the ball, and he helped to get things sort of moving. We created some good moments when he came on. We initially put him on as a bit of a false nine. We felt like we could roll him into positions that we could establish some more control of the ball in the attacking half, and allow him the opportunity to slip Joe or Gab or some of the guys through or get our wide players more involved in the game. And then he dropped into the midfield and then he helped us to kind of dictate things from there. So I thought from a possession and control period, all those kinds of things, I thought he was fine. Ultimately we would like to get him, you know, more goal dangerous, whether that's setting guys up for final actions or for himself getting some more looks on goal. I know there was a corner kick that dropped on and he chose to pass back instead of maybe looking to shoot it. You know, things of that nature. But we need Marco as he comes along to be a guy who is really contributing to the final action and goals, goal production. As far as Mauricio, it was about to see Mauricio come on because he gives us a guy who really can get into great crossing positions, and he played some great balls across the back line into some really dangerous areas. And so now we've got to be committed to making the runs and beating our guys to get to those spots to see if we can redirect it. But I thought Mauricio did a good job of doing what we asked him to do when he came on, which is get himself as high as he could and get into positions where he could whip some balls into the box."
LA GALAXY DEFENDER ERIQ ZAVALETA
On the mood in the locker room following the loss to Austin:
"As you can imagine, this is a group that's expected to win and expects to win every week. And so we're frustrated. We're disappointed, and motivated to turn this thing around as quickly as possible. So you know, our margins are a lot thinner than last year, and so every mistake is magnified, and we've seen that over the course of eight, ten games, whatever it may be. And so the message is, we need to continue to improve, continue to put ourselves in situations to get a result. I felt like we did that tonight, and finish the job. Tonight we unfortunately didn't do that. So we'll have to continue on and try to get better."
On whether or not the deflected goal that Austin scored is a reflection of the Galaxy's season to date:
"Yes and no. I don't know. I don't want to sum it up in one play. I understand what you're saying. It's an incredibly unfortunate play. I think it's very easily covered in it's not deflected in the exact manner in which it deflected. That happens. That's what I'm talking about with margins. But I think the more that we can do a better job to control games, to keep the ball out of our box, the less chances of those kind of things happening happen. We're frustrated that it happened. J-Mac made a wonderful save to keep us in the game. We felt like we had the chances to punish them on the other end, and we didn't do it. That's football. That's the business of results. And so we'll come out of this game and no one will care, and no one will know or remember that. They will remember we lost 1-0. We have got a week to prepare and go get things and win a game at home.
On how his back is feeling and why the team hasn't been able to put together back-to-back performances: "First of all, my back is okay. It's fine. It's something I deal with every day. Certainly not getting younger but it felt good to be back out there. Felt good to contribute to the team. In terms of the back-to-back stuff, I don't think there's any merit to it to be honest with you. I think we put a performance out there that was worthy to get a result today, again, and we didn't. So whether or not that's because we had another gritty result right before, I don't put any stock in that. Kudos to the guys out there last week playing with ten men and playing with the kind of effort that they did to be able to get a result at home. I felt like for stretches we did that today and for stretches we didn't. I don't find any correlation. I think we need to understand that that kind of effort is required for 90 minutes every single game for team to get results this year. I think we understand that. I think we understand where we are better than anybody else. We're motivated more than ever to continue to try to dig ourselves out of this hole, and we know that this is a long season. But it's time to start putting results together. So we're motivated to comeback home with 11 men and put that kind of performance in to get a result that ends with a W and three points."
On the vibes in the locker room:
"I don't think it has anything to do with vibes. We lost very good players who were very important to us. We lost our starting striker. We lost a starting midfielder. Like we lost our best player to injury. Those aren't vibes. Those are credibly important players who we relied on last year. We have had to turn around and find a new identity and a new way to play this year with different players for the most part, and that's something that will take time. But at the same time we have good enough players in this locker room. We are set up in a good enough way by the coaching staff to get results, and we haven't done it. That's on us. We know that. It's everybody's job in the locker room to look ourselves in the mirror and ask, Am I doing enough? Have I been doing enough? What can I do to be better? That's what champions do. We believe in ourselves more than anybody else. Doesn't matter what anybody thinks. We believe in ourselves, and we are going to continue to push on and prove that we're worthy of three points on a weekly basis and continuing to push on."
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER JOHN MCCARTHY
On if there's frustration in the locker room:
"Yeah, it's frustrating. You want to win. I want to win. I don't like losing. But I want to win at everything I do. I know a lot of people on the team do. We just have to have that killer mentality. There's two or three moments in games that we just f--- ourselves throughout the season I've been -- no problem putting my hand up; I messed up at some points. I think it's just little details and focus, and it comes down to how we act on the training field and putting effort into the game So it's super frustrating. We've had moments where we should win games, and obviously you can't win every game, and moments where we should lose games. But I think this is one where, especially coming off of last week, I think we all believed that we could have won that game, and I think easily we could have won this game as well. It's a tough place to be in. But you can't f---ing pout about it. You just have to move on and have that killer mentality, and then get a win at home."
On if he can find a silver lining in a loss:
"Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, as a group, like I said, we are not in a good spot. We're an inch away from winning and an inch away from losing. Those are tough moments and we've to deal with it right now. We have to figure it out as a group, and like I said, not one of us is going to win it. But I've not go problem being an underdog. I've been an underdog my whole life. People doubted me, still doubt me. I don't really give a rat' s ass about that stuff. And as a group, if we are an underdog group, that's the way you've got to find the little dog in you and show up and really f---ing play and be a killer. That's what I've been saying, there needs to be that mentality. And I know as a person, I have that. I know I have that off the field; I have that on the field, and I try to instill it in a lot of guys because I only care about winning. I don't care about anything else. I don't care how we do it. I'll win every game 10-9, doesn't matter. Winning is winning. So I think there needs to be that edge and fire that we had last year. It needs to come back. It needs to be there. You can't mope. You can't pout. And if teams count us out, great. Count us out. We're good enough to bounce back. At some point, we will."
On if he feels one win can put this team on a run:
"Yeah, of course. I think it's not a single individual is going to win us a game and not a single individual is going to lose us a game. And I've said that before. It's got to be a total team effort for 90 minutes, locked in, dialed in, focused. Yeah, one win could change our whole season around. I've been part of teams where you start slow and you catch fire and you go on great runs, or you start great, slow down in the middle third. And kind of like last year, we slowed down a little bit towards the end of season and had the first place in our grasp and things worked out. So there's going to be ups and downs through the season and obviously we're down now. So we just have to find a way to get out of it. You can't mope and pout and you can't f---ing dwell on things. The game is over. Yeah, it sucks. But we have to win at home. We've got find that killer mentality again."
