Three days ago Marco Reus was uncertain when he would be cleared to play for the Galaxy. He had a contract and a uniform but he didn’t have a work permit.
And until he had one he would have to watch from the stands.
It took the efforts of nearly a dozen people, from lawyers and front-office employees to a congresswoman, to end that stalemate, cutting through enough government red tape to get Reus a visa just in time to get him on the field against Atlanta United. And he made all that work pay off, coming off the bench Saturday to assist on one goal and score the other in a 2-0 victory that extended the Galaxy’s modest MLS win streak to three games and extended their lead in the Western Conference standings to five points over LAFC.
The win was the 400th in team history — an MLS first — and the sellout crowd of 25,174 made the Galaxy the first MLS club to draw more than 10 million fans. But afterward the discussion centered on Reus, who completely changed the game when he came on in the 62nd minute.
“He brought class, composure, intelligence, quality. A lot of things,” coach Greg Vanney said. “In a way, he made things look a little bit easy at times.”
“He could be a game-changer, like he was today,” added captain Maya Yoshida. “This could be another level that we needed.”
Reus did his best to deflect the praise.
“It’s not about me, it’s about the team,” he said. “We want to be champions. So we take it game by game.”
Reus, 35, who arrived on a free transfer 10 days ago, needed just 14 minutes to pick up his first MLS assist, setting up a Riqui Puig for the only goal the Galaxy (15-5-7) would need. The sequence started with Reus taking a pass from Gabriel Pec at the top of the penalty area, patiently dribbling across the front of the goal to buy time, then passing back to a rushing Puig, who buried a right-footed shot from 18 yards out.
Nine minutes later he added his first MLS goal, banging in the rebound of his own shot to double the lead.
But none of that happens without a visa.
“We got really lucky,” Galaxy president Will Kuntz said.
What made Reus’ situation unique was the timing. Although Kuntz had been working on getting Reus signed for weeks, he couldn’t do anything about the visa until the contract was signed. And with less than two months left in the regular season, the Galaxy had hours to complete a procedure that can take as long as eight weeks.
And there’s one more catch: All this has to be done at a U.S. Embassy or consular office outside the country. So when the Galaxy learned late Wednesday afternoon that the consulate in Vancouver, Canada, had an opening at 8 a.m. Thursday, Reus and Oliver Curry, the team’s player personnel specialist, went straight to the airport.
Once he had the visa in hand, Reus then had to reenter the country — and he had to do that Thursday night in order to participate in the Galaxy’s final training session before Saturday’s game.
Given the drama, Reus, who hasn’t played since going 19 minutes for Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final loss to Real Madrid, was supposed to play only about 30 minutes Saturday. So with the scoreless game lagging, Vanney sent him on for Mark Delgado with 28 minutes left in regulation and he made his presence felt immediately, with his first touch in the penalty area leading to a handball call on Atlanta defender Derrick Williams.
Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan stuffed Joseph Paintsil’s penalty try to keep the game even, but the shutout lasted just nine more minutes before Reus set up Puig for what proved to be the winning goal.
Despite his limited playing time, Reus created a team-high three scoring chances and matched Puig and Pec with a team-high two shots on goal, putting the second one past Guzan in the 84th minute. As debuts go, it may have been the best by a Galaxy player since Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a brace in 19 minutes against LAFC in 2018.
And like Ibrahimovic, Reus has already learned to love L.A.
“Besides the traffic, it’s really amazing,” he said. “The people are so friendly. The weather, it’s really nice. When you wake up in the morning and the sun is shining, you start different the day.
“So I’m really, really happy every morning I come into the dressing room, and I’m just happy and excited.”