The Galaxy entered September in their deepest slump of the season, one that left them closer to last place in the MLS standings than they were to first. So on Saturday they started four players who weren’t on the roster two months ago — including one who wasn’t even in the country last month.
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And it worked, with Kyogo Furuhashi setting up the first goal, Robert Taylor scoring the second and midfielder Sergi Roberto leading the team on both sides of the ball for 56 minutes, lifting the new-look Galaxy to a 2-1 victory over the New England Revolution at Dignity Health Sports Park.
The win, just their second in 10 games, breathed new life into the Galaxy’s fading playoff hopes, moving them to 12th in the 15-team Western Conference table and to within a point of a postseason berth. But whether the cavalry is arriving too late to save a season with just 10 games left remains to be seen.
Read more: Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano scores, but Galaxy still fall to shorthanded San Diego
“There’s a lot of opportunity to grow within the group as the group continues to get a feel for each other and a feel for the rhythm that we want to be at to be most successful,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “It’s really tight in the West. You’ve just got to get a little bit on a run.
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“Each of these players has experience, has a high level of field and game awareness, that nuance. I feel like that gives you the best chance to try to get this thing rolling as quickly as possible.”
With the Galaxy (7-9-8) in danger of missing the playoffs for the fifth time in seven seasons, general manager Will Kuntz began remaking the roster this summer. And the overhaul isn’t done, with Argentine midfielder Pablo Ruiz joining the team Thursday — he made his Galaxy debut in the second half Saturday — while the debut of Brazilian defender Lucas Calegari has been delayed by visa paperwork.
Either way, Saturday’s match was the closest thing to a must-win test the Galaxy have faced. And they passed, with Marco Reus putting them in front to stay in the 11th minute, scoring his fifth goal of the season on a penalty kick.
The goal came after Furuhashi got loose on a breakaway up the middle of the pitch, only to be felled by New England’s Will Sands in the center of the box, leaving referee Drew Fischer with an easy penalty call. And Reus, the only starter Saturday who also played in the Galaxy’s last MLS Cup win 21 months ago, made it count, chipping a shot into the center of the net for his second penalty-kick goal of the season.
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Taylor, who joined the team from Austin in mid-July — a week before Furuhashi came over from England’s Birmingham City — doubled the lead in the 33rd minute. He took a pass from Hirving Lozano in the center of the box and drilled a right-footed shot past New England keeper Matt Turner for his first Galaxy goal — and his first for anyone in 14 months.
“It’s been a while,” Taylor said. “It meant a lot to get my for first goal this year.”
For Lozano, acquired from San Diego on loan less than a month ago, the assist was his first with his new team. If the newcomers haven’t completely gotten on the same page, that chemistry is coming, Roberto said.
“I think we already are very good together,” the former Barcelona captain said after his first MLS start. “For sure we need to work more and to know ourselves better, how to play [off] the moves of the other player, to understand each other inside the pitch.
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Read more: Galaxy sign longtime Barcelona midfielder Sergi Roberto through 2028
“But the most important [thing] is the group is very good. Good people, hard workers.”
The Galaxy lost the statistical battle everywhere but the scoreboard, getting outshot 24-8. But goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski made the two goals stand up, making six saves before giving up New England’s only goal on Carles Gil’s penalty kick six minutes into second-half stoppage time.
“We need to build the rhythm and get these guys on the same page as much as we can,” Vanney said. “We start taking results, and that will give us momentum. With momentum, anything is possible.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
