Galaxy next begin 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup campaign by traveling to face C.S. Herediano in first leg of Round of 16 at Estadio Jose Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivankovich on Wednesday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m. PT
VANCOUVER, B.C. (Sunday, March 2, 2025) – Continuing their 2025 MLS Regular Season campaign, the LA Galaxy fell 2-1 on the road to Vancouver Whitecaps FC at BC Place on Sunday afternoon.
LA Galaxy Debuts
Two LA Galaxy players made their debut for the club in the match against Vancouver. Zanka started and played 90 minutes of action in the match against the Whitecaps. In his MLS and LA Galaxy debut, LA Galaxy Academy product Harbor Miller appeared as a second-half substitute in the loss to Whitecaps FC. Miller is the 19th LA Galaxy Academy product in club history to appear in an MLS Regular Season match for the Galaxy. Notably, the Fullerton, Calif., native is the fourth-youngest player in team history (17 years, 8 months, 11 days) to make their LA Galaxy and MLS debut.
LA Galaxy Against Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Sunday’s match marked the 38th meeting across all competitions between the Galaxy and Whitecaps FC, with LA leading the all-time series 17-13-7. Against Vancouver, the Galaxy hold a 16-12-7 record in league play, a 0-1-0 record in Leagues Cup action and a 1-0-0 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs. In 17 all-time regular-season matches played on the road against Vancouver, LA holds a 5-8-4 (23 GF, 29 GA) record.
Busy March
The LA Galaxy will play seven matches across all competitions (MLS Regular Season, Concacaf Champions Cup) during the month of March. The Galaxy will host three home matches at Dignity Heatlh Sports Park and will square off in four road matches in March. The LA Galaxy begin 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup action in the Round of 16 of the competition and will square off against Costa Rican Primera División side Club Sport Herediano. The first leg of the Round of 16 will take place at Estadio Jose Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivankovich on Wednesday, March 5 (5:30 p.m. PT), while the second leg of the Round of 16 will take place at Dignity Health Sports Park on Wednesday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. PT.
Goal-Scoring Plays
VAN – Samuel Adekugbe, 3rd minute: Pedro Vite was first to the end line and delivered a pass across the face of goal that LA Galaxy goalkeeper Novak Mićović parried. Samuel Adekugbe was first to the loose ball and placed his shot in from close range.
LA – Gabriel Pec (Miguel Berry), 39th minute: Miguel Berry was first to a pass near the end line and found Gabriel Pec in the middle of the penalty area. Pec took a touch and fired his shot in off the near post.
VAN – Brian White (Pedro Vite), 87th minute: Pedro Vite's in-swinging cross found Brian White, whose leaping header was knocked in at the back post.
Postgame Notes
- Sunday’s match marked the 38th meeting across all competitions between the Galaxy and Whitecaps FC, with LA leading the all-time series 17-13-7.
- Against Vancouver, the Galaxy hold a 16-12-7 record in league play, a 0-1-0 record in Leagues Cup action and a 1-0-0 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
- In 17 all-time regular-season matches played on the road against Vancouver, LA holds a 5-8-4 (23 GF, 29 GA) record.
- In his LA Galaxy and MLS debut, Zanka started and played 90 minutes.
- LA Galaxy Academy product Harbor Miller made his MLS and LA Galaxy debut, appearing as a second-half substitute in the match against Vancouver.
- Miller is the 19th LA Galaxy Academy product in club history to appear in an MLS Regular Season match for the Galaxy.
- Notably, the Fullerton, Calif., native is the fourth-youngest player in team history (17 years, 8 months, 11 days) to make their LA Galaxy and MLS debut.
- Gabriel Pec recorded his first goal of the 2025 MLS Regular Season.
- In 43 career appearances (40 starts) across all competitions with the LA Galaxy (2024 - Present), Gabriel Pec has totaled 39 goal contributions (22 goals, 17 assists).
- In his first start of the season, Miguel Berry recorded an assist in 71 minutes of action.
- Isaiah Parente made his first appearance of the 2025 campaign, logging 15 minutes as a second-half substitute.
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy begin 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup campaign by traveling to face C.S. Herediano in the first leg of the Round of 16 at Estadio Jose Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivankovich on Wednesday, March 5 (5:30 p.m. PT).
2025 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (0-2-0; 0 pts) at Vancouver Whitecaps FC (2-0-0; 6 pts)
Sunday, March 2, 2025 – BC Place (Vancouver, B.C.)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 1 0 1
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 1 1 2
Scoring Summary:
VAN: Adekugbe, 3
LA: Pec (Berry), 39
VAN: White (Vite), 87
Misconduct Summary:
LA: Pec (caution), 18
VAN: Berhalter (caution), 35
LA: Cerrillo (caution), 42
LA: Fagundez (caution), 52
VAN: Ocampo (caution), 78
VAN: White (caution), 88
Lineups:
LA: GK Novak Mićović; D Emiro Garces (Julián Aude, 45), D Zanka, D Maya Yoshida ©, D John Nelson (Harbor Miller, 90+3); M Edwin Cerrillo, M Lucas Sanabria (Isaiah Parente, 75), M Elijah Wynder (Marco Reus, 71), M Diego Fagundez, M Gabriel Pec, F Miguel Berry (Christian Ramirez, 71)
Substitutes Not Used: GK John McCarthy; D Eriq Zavaleta, M Tucker Lepley, F Ruben Ramos Jr.
TOTAL SHOTS: 6 (Gabriel Pec, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Gabriel Pec, 2); FOULS: 10 (Edwin Cerrillo, 3); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 1; SAVES: 2
VAN: GK Yohei Takaoka; D Mathias Laborda, D Tristan Blackmon, D Ranko Veselinovic, D Samuel Adekugbe (Edier Ocampo, 31); M Pedro Vite, M Andres Cubas, M Sebastian Berhalter (Jean Ngando, 62); F Jayden Nelson (Ali Ahmed, 62), F Ryan Gauld (Daniel Rios, 86), F Brian White
Substitutes Not Used: GK Isaac Boehmer; D Tate Johnson, D Belal Halbouni; M Ralph Priso, F Nicolas Chateau
TOTAL SHOTS: 15 (Edier Ocampo, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (Three players tied, 1); FOULS: 7 (Edier Ocampo, Andres Cuba, 2); OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: 1
Referee: Drew Fischer
Assistant Referees: Micheal Barwegen, Kathryn Nesbitt
Fourth Official: Malik Badawi
VAR: Younes Marrakchi
Weather: Clear, 46 degrees
Attendance: 21,124
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On the team’s performance and the early and late goals by the opposing team:
“I thought the early goal is, obviously, not something that we want to be doing, especially on the road, giving the home team 1-0. I feel like our line in the back with Maya and Zanka were pretty tight together. And so when the midfielder runs out through the space, I feel like we didn't manage. We couldn't manage the run that went off Elijah and into the space behind us, and that put us in a really difficult situation and them in a really good spot. We didn't slide across, and a strong side center back has to be able deal with that, help us deal with that space, and we weren't all the way there. And so that opened us up right off the bat. I felt like as the half progressed, we got a little bit more into our groove and got our setup a little bit clearer and cleaner. But I really felt like we were starting to find the right solutions to the game, and how to build through them and how to switch the play. And we were giving ourselves some good-looking attacks, obviously one of which leads to a goal. Then we get to halftime. They adjust. They adjust the defensive posture. They start dropping a winger with our fullback, who is going high. I felt like we didn't settle into the second half and solve the issues of how they were organizing their press against us. We just didn't manage time well and we didn't get into good spots for each other. As I said to the guys at the end, I think we need to recognize, we are on the road. We've had some tough circumstances with personnel. We need to do a little better job of just making game management decisions, shifting the field so that we are playing in their half of the field. We need to be more mindful when we do build the attacks and get to the other half of the field. I felt like we turned over the ball too easily when we did get to their half of the field, and then it just kept the momentum built in us. There are too many ways that we should be able to deal with that situation and we don't and now we are really chasing. But I feel like just, again, the context of the second game is we didn't find the right solution possession-wise, and we didn't use the ball well when we were able to. And then, you know, that put us into a lot of transition defending types of moments where we weren't really that organized because we were not using the ball well. I felt like that just led to us having to reestablish our connections which I felt like we were getting there, and then we gave up a goal off a situation that we shouldn't. So we have a lot of work to do, and we've got some more injuries stacking up a little bit on us that we've got to deal with.”
On player availability, namely Sanabria, Garces, and Yamane:
“I'll start with Miki. End of training yesterday, he was doing his minus two routine at the end of training, which he does a couple high-speed runs that he's done since he's been here, and after the first one, he started to feel [his] hamstring a little bit. And so he didn't come with us. It's nothing serious but it's enough that he'll miss this trip.
Let's see, and we have Emiro, the field was very slippery. There was not much footing, and Emiro, his calf on his right side was just tightening up and was rock-hard by the time we got to halftime. Again, the footing was just really a little bit sketchy, and I feel the guys were overworking to try to grab onto the turf to try to cut and change directions. Emiro certainly paid for that a little bit. Lucas, fortunately, didn't get his leg broken in the tackle; that was not a yellow card or red card because that was bad when you look at that on video. But he does have a fracture in his collarbone, so it seems like. We'll have to confirm that but he's certainly immobile because of the collarbone issue, and so we're going to have to manage that. That doesn't look good, short term, based on initial short of looks. So those are the three guys from today. I think everybody else more or less got through it okay.”
On the calls made by officials, and the tackle on Lucas Sanabria:
“I was baffled all day. On that particular one, he said he got the ball first. So evidently, as long as you get the ball first, you can go through a guy's shin and break his leg, I guess. I don't know. I don't understand the logic. Getting the ball is, I think, irrelevant when your studs are showing and you're going through an ankle of a guy, and I don't know how much of the ball gets. I don't know. That's what it was deemed on the field. I don't know what was -- I guess that was backed up on VAR. I spent too much energy trying to figure that out sometimes during the game because it was confusing to me. So I share in your astonishment, I guess, if that's the right word.”
On Gabriel Pec’s goal in the first half and performance in the second:
“I think less impact in the second half because most of our builds in our half of the field, were tending to trend over to our left-hand side; and so the connection between John, who is left-footed, also, who had to move over to right back, will tend to put the ball probably more on his inside, which is left foot. Not just saying John, but in general, we kept going. Even with Novak's decisions, it was left-footed, it felt like we just kept going to the left side and we were getting stuck on the left side, which meant Gabriel was more isolated in his touches, and we weren't finding great solutions in that direction. I thought we did a very poor job of being able to recognize where pressure was coming from and get behind the pressure. So if they are pressing us to the left, we need to get behind the pressure and over to the right and I just thought we just didn't do a good job of linking those actions up quickly enough and efficiently enough to get Gab on the ball, to get Lucas more on the ball on that side, and which I thought was a relationship in the first half which was benefiting us. I kept feeling like between ourselves and a little bit of how they were stepping their press, we were playing right into the pressure. We weren't sharp enough and reading it fast enough to organize the solutions to it because the solution was to get behind it and not go into it.”
On Elijah Wynder’s first start with the team:
"Elijah has some really good qualities and interesting qualities. He's a big, powerful kid, who has good soccer sense. The thing that he's going to have to continue to grow and adapt at is just inside, and in some of these interior positions of how tight the spaces are and how quick the game has to bounce off of his foot, and being a little bit quicker in some of those actions that he's learning. He's learning the speed of the game here, and teams are pressing quicker and releasing, and just how clean and how quick. Sometimes a little combination play is the way we want to play, have to get in and out of spaces really quickly. And so those are things that he's continuing to learn and develop. But in stretches when we are able to get into attacks, he shows you, again, his power and strength to help join into things and to drive into spaces. Defensively, I felt like he got caught in between sometimes two roles, and I felt like our back line needed to communicate to him a little bit more. The first half, he got very focused on kind of defending the player in the gap and at times he needed to stay more connected to Eddie and bring Diego a little closer to him to help that situation and have Maya defend a little bit more underneath him to help him work with Eddie a little bit more. Again, some of it is being able to adapt inside of games when teams are doing slightly different things, and reading situations, and just understanding how to apply the correct resolution to situations. But again, he's learning, and he has some wonderful physical qualities. And he is a cerebral kid. I think, again, he's trying to step up to a little bit faster level, and not the easiest field to play on today. He'll grow. He'll learn. He's got some things to build on.” LA GALAXY DEFENDER ZANKA
On the match:
"Obviously, a game where we didn't start great first half. We were just a step behind, it felt like most of the game, or most of that period, the first 20 minutes, came back into it a little bit better. But we didn't really figure out how to play here, road game, on turf. So second half became a game on the will of Vancouver. You know, at the end of the day, it hurts.”
On the last goal scored by the opposing team:
"When you get to a new team, everything is a little bit different. You have to get used to everybody. We had a lot of changes: Obviously players being hurt, Emiro getting hurt, Johnny having to come over. I kind of take that one. I feel like I should have been in a better position to clear that ball. And so it's definitely with a heavy heart sitting here because other than that, the game was all right from a personal standpoint. You know, a point here would have meant a lot.”
On the MLS and matchday experience in Vancouver:
“It seems like an exciting league. Definitely I'm still getting my bearings. Getting settled in L.A., on the team and everything. But you know, I'm very positive about my experiences so far. Obviously, turf isn't the surface that a football player wants to play at but that's how it is. It's equal for every team that has to come here and play. But if you're asking that, I prefer grass.”
On the difference in his play depending on the left and right sides:
"Yeah, I think all in all, when you're trying to get a few new guys integrated, and we are in some ways quite a new team. It's always going to be different, and right now we are trying to figure it out. First half was getting better, and better, and obviously us having to change a few things, and Vancouver changing their pressure made it difficult for us and we made it difficult for ourselves.”
On his confidence around the team’s performance:
"Obviously we hope that it's right around the corner. The only thing we can do is try to keep our confidence high and get out there on the field. We've got a lot of games, so we won't have that much time to do it on the practice field. We're just going to have to figure it out. That's on us, and that's on Greg to give us the opportunities; and then for the players to execute come game day. Right now, we're 0-2 and that's definitely not what we want to be and where we want to be, especially for a club and a team that we're champions. We're eager to get out there on Wednesday again, and obviously on the weekend.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DIEGO FAGUNDEZ
On coming up short and overall thoughts on the game:
“It's tough right now. I don't even have words to describe what we're feeling right now. There's a lot we can say, but there's a lot we can't at the same time, because we [could] get in trouble. But as a team we need to be better. I think today we could have left with a point for sure, but overall, I think we all know that it needs to be better. In three days, we have another game. So, we also need to put this one behind and make sure we are focusing on this. This league is tough. Especially when you lose two games. But everybody needs to just forget and move on, and make sure the next one is ours. We're going to Costa Rica now for the CONCACAF, and we have to get a result there. It's not maybe; it's a must. We need to make sure that we leave out of there with a positive, even if it's a 1-0 goal or whatever it is. We just need to leave with a positive and turn this whole thing around.”
On today’s injuries and how injuries weigh on the team:
“I think we are just getting unlucky. But this is a time where players need to step up and we need everybody. I think this is when everyone realizes that it's not just about 11 players, 12, 13 players. It's about the 24, 25 players that we have. Like I said, we have another game in three days, and then another game -- three games in ten days or whatever it is. It's going to be a grind, and at the end of the day it's going to be tough. This is where veterans really need to step up and make sure that we guide our team to success. But it all starts, again, in Costa Rica in three days.”
On how the game was called:
“We can't really say much. At the end of the day, everybody is going to be against us. We got a star last year and we got a ring, and we got a cup and now everybody is going to be against us. You know who I'm talking about, and the other team. At the end of the day, we can't say much. We have to just play our game. Maybe we need to be stronger and go harder on balls and hopefully calls go our way.”
On his confidence that the team can move forward and build momentum:
“Look, I've been on teams that it gets tough, when you lose one, when you lose two. But this is when a team becomes great is when you come together, you stick together, no matter the ups and downs, this is where we really need to focus on each other and make sure that, hey, you know what, things happen, we're going to learn from this. Last year, we didn't really have a lot of losses so it's hard to learn. There was so many wins, and this year, I guess we started it the wrong way, and this is where we need to really focus on what we're doing wrong and what we need to do. Like I said, we have a game in three days, and this is what we need to focus and turn everything around and get a result in Costa Rica, no matter what it takes.”
On some examples of advice that come to mind to say to the younger guys:
“I think at the end of the day we need to know how to finish a game out. I think there's ways that we can -- even if we want to take a point out of here, we need to be smarter on the way we want to play. That's including myself and everybody else. We know we should have left here at least with a point, and now we have to go to Costa Rica and learn from that. Like I said, in these games, it's going to be so hard. But when we're away and we're against everything, all we need to do is make sure we are staying together. If we get a goal early and stuff, we make sure we either finish it 1-0 or we get the second. But at the end of the day, we can't let other teams comeback into games, especially the way it happened today.”
