Under Greg Vanney, the Galaxy line-up in a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3. Wingers. He loves them. Two of his designated players play that position. Initially, I was curious which side each of them would take. Pec is left-footed, but loves to cut inside. He rarely ends the play at the corner touchline. Paintsil is right-footed and his data showed most of his shots came from the right half of the field. Joseph doesn’t get to the touchline either. At first, Paintsil started on the right wing. He was productive. Then, Gabriel Pec is properly integrated after receiving his visa and plays on the LW or would sub in for Paintsil. He’s nowhere near as productive as Joseph.

At some point after about a dozen games, injuries occurred with Dejan Joveljic and Paintsil takes the FW role. This lets Pec take the right side all for himself and he prospered. After Dejan came back, Paintsil went to the left and the team was better able to use both of their new stars. It was a goal galore.

Many of their attacks involved the combination of the backline or midfielders recovering the ball, finding Puig, and then he’d be off to the races. Through diagonals or deep through balls over the defense sprinting back, the Galaxy punished. If the buildup was slower than a quick counter-attack, the focus was around the penalty box and combining with a triangle to penetrate the defensive line. Most of their goals came from distributing the ball to the right-side of the pitch and making their way into the box. They did well to overload the penalty arc and the final third. Mark Delgado and Miki Yamane were so important on putting pressure on that right-sided portion of the pitch, allowing Gabriel Pec to finish his runs at his nearest post. The Galaxy had too many talented bodies for opposing defenders to handle.

On defense, it still wasn’t perfect, but it was better. Their rest defense improved, and they were better equipped to cover for Riqui’s poor defensive ability. When he wasn’t on the pitch, the team was cleaner and naturally more defensive. They don’t press very hard, and they let enemy teams come to them. This allowed them to pick up their interceptions a little better and had them punish the spaces left from the opposing teams.

After their MLS Cup win, the Galaxy had to tear down a lot of their roster due to salary cap limitations. Players that performed in the final like Dejan and Brugman were traded to other MLS teams. Jalen Neal and Marco Delgado were also let go. Some shuffling has been happening to replace those valuable players.