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Since winning their sixth MLS Cup in 2024, the LA Galaxy have disappointed its fan bases expectations of being a top club.

The Galaxy opened its 2025 campaign with a 16-game winless streak, lost designated player Riqui Puig to a second straight ACL season-ending injury in 2026 and have been unable to find a consistency of winning.

The Galaxy have yet to regain its spot as the premiere club in MLS.

As we go through the timeline of how the Galaxy (5-5-5) have reached this point in late June of 2026, Galaxy General Manager Will Kuntz and company face major decisions to make regarding the future of the six-time champions.

As the FIFA World Cup continues and the transfer window is open for most leagues, stars like Casemiro of Manchester United have decided to pick Inter Miami FC over the Galaxy, who hold the Brazilian midfielder’s discovery rights.

This led to rumors today around 25-year-old winger Gabriel Pec of the Galaxy potentially moving to Brazilian team Bahia for a transfer fee around $16 million.

Pec won MLS’ Newcomer of the Year in 2024, notching 19 goals and 15 assists across 38 matches.

Pec has a combined 12 goals and 7 assists in 43 matches since his rookie season.

The issue for the Galaxy is that it paid $10 million for Pec in 2024.

Pec’s former club, Vasco de Gama, instituted a sell-on clause that could bring some money to it instead of the Galaxy.

At the time of writing this article, the Galaxy are 9th in the Western Conference.

If the season ended today, the Galaxy would miss the MLS Cup Playoffs by one spot.

The question is: where do Kuntz, LA Galaxy President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Tom Braun and AEG go from here?

The positives for the Galaxy are there through 15 MLS regular-season matches: the club rank 11th in goals conceded per match, 7th in expected goals (xG) with 24.7 and 8th in big chances with 42.

However, newly brought in striker João Klauss, DP winger Joseph Paintsil and center-back Jakob Glesnes have all experienced injuries throughout the 2026 campaign.

Midfielders Edwin Cerrillo, Lucas Sanabria and Elijah Wynder have all traded starting minutes but have not matched the production Puig provided in 2024.

The club could add another DP midseason if Pec is sold or if the club finds a suitor for Paintsil, along with the hope of extra General Allocation Money (GAM) coming from Casemiro’s discovery rights to bolster depth.

LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney believes the 2026 season has put a lot on his players’ bodies, claiming they’ve traveled 30,000 miles this season between CONCACAF and MLS play.

“We’ve had a really, really busy first half of the season,” Vanney said in a postgame press-conference after the Galaxy’s 1-1 tie against Houston Dynamo on May 23, 2026.

Vanney said his club dropped points to some lower table teams and gained some against some at the top.

Vanney seems to trust this group, but the injuries and lack of depth maybe too much to overcome facing a packed second half of the regular season.

Adding on to a team that still has not figured out how to win without Puig is another false hope the Galaxy cannot afford.

Selling Pec to another club while developing young defenders Harbor Miller and Emiro Garces and bringing in new U22 initiative players to replace Sanabria, Matheus Nascimento and Julian Aude could be on the table.

The sprint season is unpredictable, but it may serve as the perfect time to start fresh with the new U22s and new DPs.

Find a new identity in that season: improve the defense, move the ball through the midfield, reincorporate or find out what life is like without Puig, finish big chances and stop recycling possession.

Once MLS flips the calendar to a summer start, the Galaxy would have spent the money from selling Pec and finding out if Puig can return to his previous MVP type form to stake its claim at the top of American soccer.