LA Galaxy next play host to LAFC in 25th all-time edition of El Tráfico at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday, May 18 at 6:00 p.m. PT on MLS Season Pass
CHESTER, Penn. (Wednesday, May 14, 2025) – Continuing their 2025 MLS Regular Season campaign, the LA Galaxy fell 3-2 to the Philadelphia Union on the road before 15,539 fans at Subaru Park on Wednesday night. Next up, the LA Galaxy play host to LAFC in the 25th all-time edition across all competitions of El Tráfico at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday, May 18 (6:00 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass).
Diego Fagundez's Historic Night
With his goal scored in the 37th minute of the match, Diego Fagundez became the eighth player in MLS history to record at least 75 goals and 75 assists in league play: (Landon Donovan; 145 G, 136 A), (Jaime Moreno; 133 G, 102 A), (Dwayne De Rosario; 104 G, 77 A), (Diego Valeri; 86 G, 91 A), (Preki; 79 G, 112 A), (Steve Ralston; 76 G, 135 A), (Luciano Acosta; 75 G, 97 A). Fagundez has tallied 75 goals and 76 assists in 405 career MLS regular season appearances (300 starts). Notably, Fagundez became the youngest player (30 years, 89 days) in MLS history to make 300 career regular season starts, surpassing Andrew Farrell's previous record (30 years, 182 days). Fagundez is also the 36th player in MLS history to start 300 regular season matches.
LA Galaxy Against Philadelphia Union
Wednesday’s road match at Subaru Park marked the 14th MLS regular-season meeting between the Galaxy and Philadelphia Union, with LA leading the all-time series 9-2-3 (27 GF, 14 GA). In six all-time matches played on the road against the Union, the Galaxy hold a record of 3-1-2.
Goal-Scoring Plays
LA – Mauricio Cuevas (Marco Reus, Lucas Sanabria), 31st minute: After Lucas Sanabria intercepted the ball in midfield, he quickly laid the ball off to Marco Reus. In transition, Reus laid the ball off to Mauricio Cuevas, who calmly placed his shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.
LA – Diego Fagundez (Marco Reus, Mauricio Cuevas), 37th minute: Mauricio Cuevas flicked a pass towards the top of the box to Marco Reus. The German midfielder controlled the ball and played a pass down the left side of the penalty area that Diego Fagundez fired past onrushing Philadelphia goalkeeper Andrew Rick.
PHI – Nathan Harriel (Jakob Glesnes), 48th minute: Jakob Glesnes headed down a corner-kick delivery into the box that Nathan Harriel was first to the ball and touched it past John McCarthy.
PHI – Tai Baribo (Danley Jean Jacques), 50th minute: Danley Jean Jacques delivered a cross into the box that Tai Baribo headed in at the near post.
PHI – Tai Baribo (Mikael Uhre), 90+6th minute: Mikael Uhre dribbled towards the endline and lofted a cross into the six-yard box to Tai Baribo, who headed his shot into the far corner.
Postgame Notes
- Wednesday’s road match at Subaru Park marked the 14th MLS regular-season meeting between the Galaxy and Philadelphia Union, with LA leading the all-time series 9-2-3 (27 GF, 14 GA).
- In six all-time matches played on the road against the Union, the Galaxy hold a record of 3-1-2.
- The loss to Philadelphia ended an eight-match unbeaten run against the Union dating back to May 15, 2013.
- The defeat marked the Galaxy's first-ever loss (3-1-2) to the Philadelphia Union in six all-time league matches played at Subaru Park.
- Diego Fagundez became the youngest player (30 years, 89 days) in MLS history to make 300 career regular season starts, surpassing Andrew Farrell's previous record (30 years, 182 days).
- Fagundez has tallied 75 goals and 76 assists in 405 career MLS regular-season games played (300 starts).
- Fagundez is also the 36th player in MLS history to start 300 regular season matches.
- In his first start of the 2025 campaign, Mauricio Cuevas tallied a goal and an assist.
- Marco Reus recorded two assists in the loss to the Union.
- It marks the second time in Reus' Galaxy career that he has recorded two assists in a single match.
- Lucas Sanabria, making his first start for LA since April 12, logged his first career assist in the match against the Union.
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy play host to LAFC in the 25th all-time edition of El Tráfico at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday, May 18 (6:00 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass).
2025 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (0-10-3; 3 pts) at Philadelphia Union (8-3-2; 26 pts)
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 – Subaru Park (Chester, Penn.)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 2 0 2
Philadelphia Union 0 3 3
Scoring Summary:
LA: Cuevas (Reus, Sanabria), 31
LA: Fagundez (Reus, Cuevas), 37
PHI: Harriel (Glesnes), 48
PHI: Baribo (Jean Jacques), 50
PHI: Baribo (Uhre), 90+6
Misconduct Summary:
PHI: Harriel (caution), 6
LA: Ramirez (caution), 90+8
LA: Nelson (caution), 90+9
Lineups:
LA: GK John McCarthy; D Mauricio Cuevas (Julián Aude, 71), D Miki Yamane, D Emiro Garcés (Eriq Zavaleta, 90+4), D Maya Yoshida (C), D John Nelson; M Isaiah Parente, M Elijah Wynder (Christian Ramirez, 61), M Lucas Sanabria (Tucker Lepley, 71), M Diego Fagundez, F Marco Reus
Substitutes Not Used: GK JT Marcinkowski, GK Novak Mićović; F Miguel Berry, F Matheus Nascimento
TOTAL SHOTS: 4 (Diego Fagundez, 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Mauricio Cuevas, Diego Fagundez, 1); FOULS: 11 (Marco Reus, 3); OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 6
PHI: GK Andrew Rick; D Jakob Glesnes (C), D Nathan Harriel, D Kai Wagner, D Francis Westfield (Olwethu Makhanya, 85); M Jovan Lukic, M Danley Jean Jacques, M Indiana Vassilev (Cavan Sullivan, 85), M Quinn Sullivan (Alejandro Bedoya, 58), F Tai Baribo, F Bruno Damiani (Mikael Uhre, 58)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Oliver Semmle, D Olivier Mbaizo, M Jesus Bueno, M Jeremy Rafanello, F Chris Donovan
TOTAL SHOTS: 24 (Bruno Damiani, 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 9 (Three players tied, 2); FOULS: 9 (Three players tied, 2); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 12; SAVES: 0
Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Assistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Diego Blas
Official: Sergii Demianchuk
VAR: Daniel Radford
Weather: Cloudy, 68 degrees
Attendance: 15,539
- All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial*
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On the team’s performance in the second half of the match:
"Well, first, I'm going to say I was super proud of the guys and their response in the first half. I think they came out and executed on the things we wanted to execute on. We got ourselves ahead, which has been a battle for us. We kept the game at zero. I thought the guys did a lot of good things. In the second half, I think at halftime, we knew they were going to come out with another level of pressure and more Philadelphia Union type of aggression, whipping balls in, running behind. And I think you know, I have to see the goals. The one on the corner kick, Emi's responsibility is Glesnes; I think he got picked. And off of that, then Elijah has to try to help him and pick up and we are late to getting to the pick. He wins it over our heads on the back side -- where they were targeting most of the game, and [the player] slips away from him. I have to look at the marks but he finds enough space to redirect it. So again, I just think the intensity picked up on us early at the beginning and we needed to manage the first ten, 15 minutes where we knew the intensity was going to be high. We needed to be calculated about how and where we lost the ball. Things we talked about is making sure we don't get pulled forward in situations that we need to make sure that our line is staying connected; that we are not getting pulled forward trying to step into guys and allow runners to get in behind us where they can whip in balls. And when they are getting behind and whipping things in and it was leading to, you know, all kinds of problems, whether it was things leading to corner kicks or things leading to second chances or us having to deal with things in front of our goal. We needed to keep the game from us better in the second half. They came out and were getting behind us and into dangerous positions too frequently. Yeah, I think that was the first part. The second goal was across from the outside. I think Maya was dealing with Tai Baribo, I think it was, in the box and on the cross got out -- got beat to the ball. But I felt like, again, we know they are going to cross. We talked about closing down crossing situations by making sure that we were connected. I'd have to see the play to understand how because it was on the opposite side of the field where I was and I didn't exactly see how they got to the crossing position. I'd have to look at it. So yeah, more of things that we saw in the first half of where they were getting positions where they could get crosses and get the things that they wanted out of it that we wanted to close down and I think we exposed ourselves a couple times early. It took them five minutes to take back a lead that we worked 45 minutes to get which was obviously a prescription drug. After that, again, they have momentum now. You know, on the road, I think some guys who haven't played a ton of minutes were starting to look like they were getting a little bit fatigued and tired on some of it. I thought our lines were getting a little farther apart, which is dangerous against a team that wants to play into strikers and play off of strikers. We were continuing to try to find ways to close down the spaces between our lines; so they couldn't play off the strikers and bounce out to wide guys and whip balls in. Just wanted to make sure we tried to stay as connected as we could. They were getting some things in front of the goal. We were managing situations and then we get to the third goal. Referees swap. The guy takes the throw-in from ten yards ahead of where the throw-in was. Maya has position on the forward to win it. I think he gets bumped from behind. For me it's an easy call. You make the call because the forward has no -- there's no repercussion for the forward to take that risk and see if he can get it. The worst-case scenario for him is they call the foul; the best case is they put the whistle in their pocket and it turns into a corner kick, and again, you know, the corner kick situation turns into a goal. Again, I have to see the corner kick to know what happened. But I was extremely frustrated and angry at where the throw-in was taken and the fact that Maya, in my opinion, was bumped from behind which takes him out of a position, and now we were dealing with the corner kick when we should have been having a foul going the other direction. But then my frustration, again, comes down to seeing the play out and seeing the rest of the half. Yeah, I went from incredibly proud of the group from the response to the other night to just really frustrated that we gave the lead back in five minutes. And then I felt like down the stretch, as we were in position to try to still take something out of it, I felt like the combination of not managing a situation but the combination of getting put in a situation I don't think we should have been in I think is frustrating to me. Very frustrating."
On the player formation in the first half:
“I thought it went to the plan that we wanted. We wanted to muscle up a little bit more in our midfield. You know, try to, I don't want to say lock up the midfield because it wasn't that specific. When we could step out and get pressure to the ball, guys had some responsibilities, and they had movements that they were responsible for. But we also wanted a sturdy midfield to try to protect their striker play. They bring their two strikers and their two outside midfielders in really tight and there's lots of action that come off the inside that you have to deal with and the fullbacks are trying to get into high positions to whip in crosses or play balls in behind your line. We tried to beef up the midfield a little bit to try to protect the space in front of our back four, and I thought, again, I thought we did a good job of that in the first half. One of the things that Philly does is they just hit so many balls in behind you, and they just change the field position so much. It's just direct, in, behind, even if they don't -- whether they connect it or not connect it they keep putting the ball in your deep half of the field, which forces you into build outs or forces you into what I think is a long field or defending a fair amount in your half. I thought we were able to catch them on the counter which is something we were looking for, playing off of Marco, having his link-up play bring our running midfield and our wingers into the game, I thought if all of that worked the way we wanted to; and then at 2-0, it becomes a game of being able be to be solid on defensive side and work for your transition moments, protect yourself and try to possess when you can but try not to possess in dangerous areas. Because obviously they are going to step on the gas and keep coming pretty heavy. We tried to evolve as the game progressed.”
On Sanabria’s level of play in the match:
"I thought he did a great job. It was a game where references were pretty clear. They don't do a lot of place changing and moving people around. I thought his reasons were pretty clear. I thought he was able to step in and win some challenges. One of those led to the transition that led to, I think it was the first goal. I think he was able to use his power and strength a couple times to get us out in from defending into transition and being able to ride tackles or step through some moments. Again, he showed a lot of the physical qualities that he's going to be bringing to our team. I think it was a perfect game for him because these duels and matchups, they are up his alley. I thought did he a nice job. He started to cramp and he was starting to suffer a little bit, and so that was the reason for the sub, not because of his performance. But he was gassed and cramping. It's been a long trip and guys are certainly feeling it a little bit in this stretch.”
On staying connected and the potential turnaround of the season:
“I think that's two questions. I think the group is connected. I know the group is connected. I'm with them. I'm with them in a physical way; I'm with them. So I know where they are at. They are frustrated as a group that we couldn't get tonight across the line. They were frustrated the other night. But they are open and seeking, again, both solutions and execution things that we each individually need to do better, collectively we do. The group, they are fighting. They are fighting. There's nobody in there that isn't fighting in the game. You know, it's a matter of the more contingency have been thin for us and the other night, the setup wasn't right for us. And I felt like guys were a little bit uncomfortable in the five and the decisions weren't great. I didn't feel like guys were making great decisions in it. I felt like trying to adapt inside with the players we had, trying to adapt inside of not having Joe and Gab and so on, we went for a different look to try to keep the Red Bulls in front of us. And I felt like the guys didn't settle into the change of system and the decisions to rotate and stuff like that. I think we got punished for some mistakes and being uncomfortable in a different shape. Tonight, I think we went back to a more traditional shape, being a false nine versus a regular nine. But it was a more traditional shape for us, and I feel like the matchups and the battle and everything was there. And the frustration is just not seeing out the game. You know, it's always going to be difficult coming to Philadelphia on the second game of an East Coast road trip. It's always going to be difficult. It's about suffering through the moments that are going to be hard and not giving up things in those moments, and tonight we got ourselves the 2-0 lead, and it has to be about seeing that out, trying to see that out in the best way possible. It's unfortunate, sure, in terms of staying together and keep fighting for the season, that's the goal. Everybody keeps fighting along the way and putting our best foot forward to try to do what we can do fight for every one of these games one at a time. That's what we're trying to do.”
On what might be missing from the team given the solid effort but poor result:
“Do I think it's a cerebral thing? I think the guys are fighting. I think sometimes, you know, sometimes we're fighting so hard to make a play that occasionally we overplay ourselves and we expose ourselves. Like I think there's so many factors, details, that go on inside of it. You know, there's so many details. What I know it isn't is a commitment and a battle and a fight and everybody out there trying to do their best to get a result, see a result, everything. I think inside of a game, there are thousands of decisions that get made, hundreds or thousands of decisions that get made by each player. Moments that we need to execute, things along those lines. And it's because I feel our margins are thin, you know if we get just a few of those wrong, we're paying. We're paying. And that's the frustration for the group. We're trying to pull together as a group. You know, there's a lot of goals that aren't on the field for us, and guys are just trying to step up and battle and fight and put their best foot forward. I think the effort, the scrap, the fight is all there. It's just, you know, we're trying to find ways to win inside of the group that we're working with and guys are balloting. I can't tell anybody, I would never say they were not. They are freaking fighting. It's just the game is tough and the game can be truly and we're -- guys are giving it. I have nothing to say about the guys' effort."
On missing all three of the team’s designated players:
“I appreciate you for noticing that because a lot of people don't seem to notice that. You take three DPs off of any team in this league and go on an opposite conference challenge, the margins are so thin. Like that's the reality of it. I'm not making excuses for our guys because they f-cking fought and battled. But thank you for noticing that because that's part of it, and these guys feel that. But everyone is trying to step up and do their best to get a result and I'm proud of them for that. We are not getting things to go our way and we make some mistakes. We do. But damn, the guys fought tonight and they bounced back. We didn't execute and we didn't close it out. I know people are going to take a shot but the reality is, we're missing a lot of guys. A lot of it guys.”
On if the first half is a good blueprint for Sunday's game:
“I do. I do. And part of it was the other night in New York, I tried something different with the group to see if based on the players and the qualities of the players and the positions that they normally play, I try to adapt them in a way that I was going to put them into positions where maybe they would be more comfortable, instead of staying with something that, you know, maybe some of the group is more comfortable with but other guys wouldn't. We trained it. We liked it in training. The guys felt confident with it. It didn't happen and we took an embarrassing beating for it. Tonight we went back to something that was a little closer to where guys were in their slightly more natural positions albeit Mauricio played a slightly different role. Obviously Marco has played a nine before in his career. It wasn't new for him. He's a very smart player and we put the physical midfielders in and we went for it. I think part of it was, again, to reestablish where we want to be to be able to move forward and not try to overly adapt with things that can confuse them or they are uncomfortable with. Part of it is just getting guys into comfortable positions. Giving them the green light to go out and duel and battle and see if we can get the margins to turn our favor; get a couple goals like we did tonight. But we weren't able to see it out.”
On if Pec and Paintsil will be available for Sunday:
"I suspect they will both be available for Sunday, barring we hear of a setback or anything. I think the trend is towards the weekend. So part of it is our expectation that those guys will be ready on the weekend and hopefully they can fit into some of our thoughts on what we're doing tonight as well.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DIEGO FAGUNDEZ
On the game:
"Where to even start. I think everybody sees how frustrating it is. You go up 2-0 in Philly which is a hard place to play, and I thought we were doing so well in the first half. Come into the break and in five minutes, the whole game changes for us and then we try to hold off as much as we can and we gave up a late goal and it's a hard one to swallow. Frustrating. Things are not going our way. We're trying so hard to give stuff back to our fans, to ourselves. It's just hard.”
On what he thinks was so successful in that first half and scoring first for the second time this year:
“Crazy. Because we said -- I've been saying if we score first, games change, and today I thought we did that really well in the first half. We score a goal, Mauricio scores a nice goal and we had a couple more chances to score another one. I was able to score one. It was feeling really good for us. It was one of those feelings that you're like, okay, maybe this is it. Maybe we break the ice now and at a hard place to play. Then you get punished in five minutes and it's tough. But the only thing that we can look at is the team responded really well from New York but now we need to learn how to play 90 minutes. We can't just play 45 minutes and think the game is over. Overall, this game is 90 minutes plus and today was not good enough for us to play 90 minutes. We only played 45, and it's just so frustrating. We want it as much as everybody else. We want to win. We want to give things back, and it's -- hard to swallow this one. But now we need to look into LAFC and the only thing we can do is look forward and make sure that we give that game everything and make sure that we put a statement out there in who we are. Even though we've been trying to do that. But now, it's more important, it's against our rivals. There is no other team now. It's us and them.”
On if there a mental block that has started to form:
“Mentally, I think as a team we're all together and that's the good thing about it. We haven't lost each other. We haven't lost the group. That's the huge part. But now we need to be mentally in games. Like when you're up 2-0, we know 2-0 is a dangerous lead in soccer. Someone scores one and all the momentum goes their way. For us, we need to be smarter in that. We were up 2-0. We don't really have to go find a third. We can play our game making sure that we keep it to zero in the back. In the end of the day, if we keep it to zero in the back we don't lose the game. Today was just not good enough for all of us. It's another punch to the face. It hurts really bad and we see it on people's faces, on our fans. We want it as much as they do, and there's not one player out here in this locker room that is happy about this. We are all frustrated. We see the comments and we notice that. Yeah, we smile and stuff when we're around each other. At the end of the day, you guys go to work, and it might not be your best day but you still have to put a smile on your face because if not, what are we doing, you don't think we know -- we know exactly what's happening. And that's not the way the Galaxy runs. The Galaxy are the best team in MLS, and right now we are not showing that. But at the end of the day, we need to do better.”
On if the season is salvageable:
“13 games, it's tough. But right now we're taking it a game at a time, and we have our rivals coming to town, and we need to make sure that that game is a win and we put ourselves ahead and we give it our all. We need to show fans the kind of courage and players we want to be. I think it's time for us to put some balls into the field and make sure that whoever is out there doesn't matter. We're not friends. We go to war and give it our all. Show them that we're actually passionate and show them how much we want to win. At the end of the day, don't get me wrong, we've been doing this for every game. We've been putting our heart and soul into it and our sweat and things have not gone our way. I think now it's time; we really need one and I want one as much as everybody else.”
On his confidence in the team's consistency in possession:
“In soccer, sometimes – a winnable game. Sometimes you don't always win. And I think we need to learn how to make sure that when we're in leads and things are not open, we can kick the ball out of bounds. We can kick the ball high. We need to learn those things. And people need to realize, it's part of soccer. There's teams that play against us, they don't keep the ball. They try to win second balls or win duels up front. They don't care about keeping the ball and they get chances and right now we need to learn how to do that, as well. But like I said, today we played a good 45 and we need to be better. Now we play LAFC. It's a 90-minute game that we need to play and everybody needs to be ready for it and prepare for it, and there is no more excuses. At the end of the day, it's a do-or-die right now. We need to freaking win and that's it. It's a win or a win. There is no tie. There is no loss. It's a win or a win. That's it.
On his 300th start and the 75-75 milestone:
"300 starts, games played but at the end of the day who cares about records and who cares about stats. When you're not winning, it goes down the drain. At the end of the day, I would take a win over 300 starts any day. I would take a win over scoring a goal. That's where this team is at. It doesn't matter. We just need that one win and it hurts. Like, as much as I am happy about the goal and being able to have 75 goals and 75 assists it just is not the same. I would take a win any day. But at the same time, it's something so cool to accomplish but like I said, I trade that for a win every day.”
On if the team still believes in Greg Vanney:
“Of course. At the end of the day, it's not just one person this comes down to. I said at the beginning of the year when people were blaming people, it's the whole group. We win and lose as a group and players, staff, organization, we all do it together. Do we want better? Of course we want better. If we didn't want better, then what are we doing? I said it the other day that if you don't want to win get out of the the locker room because that's not the kind of team we want to be. We want to be a winning team. Sure, we won it all but that was last year. This year we need to make sure we put points on the table because at the end of the day, all of our positions and every single player is fighting for something right now. And we need to show that.”
