{"id":178102,"date":"2025-08-26T22:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/178102\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:08:09","slug":"leagues-cup-la-galaxy-look-to-flip-the-script-on-seattle-sounders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/178102\/","title":{"rendered":"Leagues Cup: LA Galaxy look to flip the script on Seattle Sounders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could the LA Galaxy<\/a> salvage their 2025 season after all?<\/p>\n

The reigning MLS Cup champions have toiled near the bottom of the league table for virtually all of this year’s regular-season campaign. But with two more wins in Leagues Cup<\/a> 2025, they’d improbably find themselves hoisting a trophy in front of their home fans for the second time in less than a year.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s a fair statement to say that [winning Leagues Cup] would save the season,” head coach Greg Vanney said at his MD-1 press conference. “It gives something for this team to look back on as a legacy and, as I said earlier, it gives our fan base something to celebrate.<\/p>\n

“I think it will say a lot about this group, even though we got off to a bad start,” Vanney noted. “Maybe it says that we just needed to find ourselves a little bit and that we really are a good group.”<\/p>\n

Added star playmaker Marcos Reus<\/a>: “Not ‘could [save the season].’ I would say 100 percent… Like I said, we have one more game left to go to the final, and then let’s see. But until now, we are really focused just on tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

\n High stakes<\/p>\n

To make that a reality, LA first need to get past Seattle Sounders FC<\/a> in Wednesday’s semifinal at Dignity Health Sports Park (10:45 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+<\/a>; TUDN, UniM\u00e1s). Just two weeks ago, the Sounders dealt the Galaxy a 4-0 defeat<\/a> in Carson.<\/p>\n

There’s also the added benefit of knowing the winner hosts Inter Miami<\/a> or Orlando City<\/a> in the Leagues Cup final on Aug. 31, and is guaranteed a 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> spot. Meanwhile, the loser heads to the Third-Place Match on the same day.<\/p>\n

“The last game against them [Seattle], I don’t really care,” said Reus. “Honestly, because it’s a different competition and [this is] a win-or-go-home game.<\/p>\n

“There are different things in your mind when you go to these games, and I played a lot of these games. I’m really, really looking forward for tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

\n Mission focused<\/p>\n

For his part, Seattle head coach Brian Schmetzer isn’t anticipating a repeat of the lopsided result that his side pulled off two weekends ago, even despite the Rave Green’s recent form.<\/p>\n

Since their 2025 FIFA Club World Cup<\/a> campaign this summer, Seattle are 8W-1L-4D across all competitions. They were also the only club in either MLS or LIGA MX to win all three of their Leagues Cup Phase One matches.<\/p>\n

“They’re going to be a much different team because that game they were coming off some heavy rotations, heavy games played, they had one day less rest if I remember correctly,” Schmetzer said. “So that was not the Galaxy that Greg rolls out there on a normal basis. We just got on top of them early and were able to score timely goals.<\/p>\n

“I fully expect a different look, but our objectives are still the same: We’re going to try and do the things that we’re good at and try and take the game to them.”<\/p>\n

\n MLS form<\/p>\n

Both sides employed heavy squad rotation over the weekend in anticipation of Wednesday’s clash, yet still earned resoundingly positive results.<\/p>\n

The Galaxy crushed the Colorado Rapids<\/a>, 3-0<\/a>, with a youthful, reserve-heavy starting XI. Seattle, meanwhile, made eight lineup changes in their 5-2 rout<\/a> of Sporting Kansas City<\/a> at Lumen Field.<\/p>\n

“This is going to be a whole different team,” Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan<\/a> said. “This is a [Galaxy] team that’s motivated, that got a couple of good results after we beat them. And so they’re ready, I think, and it really starts from the first minute.<\/p>\n

“We have to set the tone, and I’m sure they’re going to try to do so as well. But this is a team that’s ready. They’ve won championships before, and they have a good track record. They’ve done it before, so they’ll be ready for a game like this.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could the LA Galaxy salvage their 2025 season after all? The reigning MLS Cup champions have toiled near…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":178103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,70315,100873,61117,224,5337,100872,36219,37638],"class_list":{"0":"post-178102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-galaxy","12":"tag-lavssea-08-27-2025","13":"tag-leagues-cup","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-match-previews","17":"tag-seattle-sounders-fc","18":"tag-sendtonews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115097351287384074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}