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Galaxy drop season opener against San Diego FC thanks to two second-half goals

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Galaxy forward Diego Fagúndez, right, moves the ball against San Diego FC defenders during the first half of an MLS soccer match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)

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CARSON — The Galaxy raised the championship banner, brought out the sixth MLS Cup for a walk through the supporters section and officially kicked off 2025 and the long journey to try to repeat.

As MLS has a way of proving, no two seasons are alike and the Galaxy learned that Sunday.

After going unbeaten at Dignity Health Sports Park last season, the Galaxy, in front of a sellout crowd of 25,224, dropped their home and season opener to an expansion team and new in-state rival San Diego FC 2-0.

The loss was the first at home since the final game of the 2023 season (Oct. 21).

“I thought most of the night (we were) a little disconnected in terms of our positions and specifically kind of in our midfield, where we needed to be and when we needed to be there,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “I felt like we weren’t very dynamic in the front half of the field and when we were getting forward and getting into forward positions, we weren’t really turning, advancing possessions into attacks.

“I felt like it was a little bit stagnate, not as dynamic as we’ve obviously seen in the past, in terms of breaking down the other team.”

In the 52nd minute, a bad pass from new starting goalkeeper Novak Mićović, combined with a bad first touch by defender Emiro Garces led to a loose ball that fed directly toward San Diego’s Anders Dreyer, who’s left-footed shot ended as the franchise’s first goal.

“It’s a tough ball to handle,” Vanney said. “I didn’t feel like Novak was under as much pressure as it looked like he did when he hit the ball. For Novak maybe to be a little bit calmer, to deliver a pass that’s a little more friendly at the point that it arrived at Emiro, I think it was almost more self-defense then actually doing something with it. The whole thing just seemed a little bit rushed and it didn’t need to be.

“I felt that through the course of the game, there were a lot of what I call for our group uncharacteristically unforced errors, choices that sometimes didn’t make sense to me, it looked a little bit not settled and that’s something we have to keep taking steps at.”

Mićović came up two big saves afterward that kept the deficit at 1-0, allowing the Galaxy’s attack to finally show signs of life.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen until late, with the additions of Miguel Berry, Ruben Ramos and Elijah Wynder as the Galaxy picked up their pace on attack.

“Ultimately the game turns on a mistake,” Vanney said. “I thought toward the end, when we got some urgency, we started to get a little more dynamic, we started to move a little bit more, break lines with our run, get to the endline and started to see things that looked like real opportunities.”

However, as the Galaxy pressed, chasing the one-goal deficit, San Diego would find the second goal late in stoppage time on a counter attack, ending with Dreyer’s second goal of the night to seal their first franchise win.

“They prepared well,” Galaxy defender and captain Maya Yoshida said of San Diego. “There’s no excuse that we even we (though) miss a couple of experienced players, who can change the game, we prepared well, we already have the base of the team since last season, of course the new players have to understand how we play still, but instead of six weeks of preparation for them, we should have done better and today’s totally lost.”



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