First to flop: What's wrong with MLS defending champion L.A. Galaxy?

After the Los Angeles Galaxy won the 2024 Major League Soccer Cup, coach Greg Vanney rightfully seemed excited for the future.

"This is kind of the stamp that we're back," he said, per ESPN's Cesar Hernandez, about his team's first league title since 2014. "We've proven, I think, that we're back as an organization."

Only four months later, however, Vanney's words ring hollow. 

The Galaxy (0-6-3), winless and last in the Western Conference, are in deep trouble. Los Angeles is off to the worst start in club history and worst title defense in MLS history. 

Here's why: 

Transfers, injuries derail Galaxy's attack

The Galaxy didn't win the league in 2024 by being defensively sound. It allowed 50 regular-season goals, more than all but three teams who qualified for the playoffs. 

In 2024, Los Angeles won with a high-powered offense. Its front four —the "Killer P" trio of Riqui Puig, Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil, plus Serbian striker Dejan Joveljic — scored 54 goals combined. That's more than half the teams in the league managed.

If the Galaxy had their way, that front four would've remained unchanged for 2025, but salary regulations and injuries got in the way. Joveljic aged out of the protected under-22 roster category during the offseason and became too expensive for the Galaxy, so they sold him to Sporting Kansas City for $4M.

Puig (left knee) and Paintsil (quadriceps), meanwhile, missed the start of the season with long-term injuries. That left the Galaxy with just Pec, and while he's done well, he's proof that soccer attacks are about cohesive units, not individual stars. He has tried his best to carry the team on his own, but his stats make for grim reading. 

Last season, Pec scored 16 goals from 126 shots for a hit rate of 12.7%. This season, he's scored one goal from 37 for a hit rate of 2.7%. It's just not clicking for him like it once did.