Two MLS originals will square off this weekend for the final home game of the regular season at Toyota Stadium when FC Dallas plays host to the LA Galaxy.
The Galaxy have had a rough 2025 season, due to injuries and roster turnover. They’re already eliminated from playoff contention with a couple of games to go. They’re also busy tonight with the annual Campeones Cup, where they’ll host Liga MX side Toluca.
Let’s dive into the Galaxy to see what kind of team we should expect in the first of two straight games with them.
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Key Player: Joseph Paintsil
The Ghanaian international leads the team with nine goals this season. Last weekend against Sporting KC, he ended the night with a hat trick.
Key Matchup: Edwin Cerrillo vs Patrickson Delgado
We all know Cerrillo will likely be fairly emotional in his return to Dallas. I would expect him to be fairly aggressive in his matchup against Delgado. This one could be a fun and cagey battle to watch on Saturday afternoon.
Availability Report1:
Suspended: none
Out: Emiro Garces (foot), Matheus Nascimento (lower body), Riqui Puig (knee), Lucas Sanabria (foot), Marco Reus
Questionable:
On Loan: none
International duty: none
Quick Notes:
All time at Dallas: The Galaxy are 9-25-7 in all-time meetings in Dallas, with their last win coming in the 2015 season.
Recent form: After a truly historic bad start to the season, LA has found some form in recent months and have gone 2-1-2 in their last five league matches.
Where they're at in the standings: The Galaxy has struggled to replicate last year's title-winning form amid injuries and squad turnover. They sit last in the Western Conference (24 points; 5W-17L-9D) and are eliminated from MLS Cup Playoffs contention.
Comparing the two clubs: The Galaxy are going to want to possess the ball as much as possible, but what they do with it in the end hasn’t been great in 2025.
Potential Lineup:
Greg Vanney will likely rotate his lineup a bit after dealing with Toluca on Wednesday night.
Micovic, Nelson, Garces, Yoshida, Cuevas; Miller, Cerrillo, Ramos; Fagundez, Pantsil, Pec
Keys To Three Points over LA
- Start fast: The last few weeks, Eric Quill has gotten his team off to fast starts, especially at home. The games against Austin and Colorado were largely won in the opening 15 minutes of the match with the type of pressure Dallas put on the other teams and with that came plenty of chances and some quality goals.
- Finish the chances: With those chances, the finishing has to be there in a game like this. Dallas is treating this as a ‘final’ and that kind of mentality means they have to find ways to finish the open chances that they’ll get. LA has a pretty leaky defense again this season, so there will be plenty of chances. Dallas has to make the most of them.
- Don’t slip up defensively: While the Galaxy have had their struggles in 2025, they do still have a quality attack with the likes of Marco Reus, Joseph Paintsil and Gabriel Pec combining for 19 goals and 22 assists in league play. LA is in pure spoiler mode at this point, so those three will be need to be locked down this weekend.
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1 Note: MLS has a injury report deadline that doesn’t hit until the day before each game. Our scouting reports will include last week's report and will be fully updated the day before with our injury report for FC Dallas.
