Galaxy

The Galaxy continued to stumble through their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season last week, taking just a point from two games against teams on the fringe of the playoff race.

That left the reigning MLS champions with just one win and nine points from 20 games. If they continue at this pace, they’ll set modern-era league records for most losses and fewest points while shattering virtually every team record for futility.

The team has done little to help itself off the pitch either. While LAFC and Angel City, Southern California’s two other pro soccer teams, were quick to issue statements standing with fans during last month’s heavy-handed immigration raids, the Galaxy’s silence was deafening.

That timidity angered two of the team’s main supporters groups, who canceled viewing parties, travel to road matches and other game-related events. The average attendance of 21,594, according to worldfootball.net, is off more than 17% from last year and is the Galaxy’s lowest for a non-COVID season since 2014.

Then there’s the coach, Greg Vanney, who took the team to a title after one of the worst seasons in franchise history in 2023, but is digging well below those depths this season.

It’s a plunge from grace with just one precedent in the history of U.S. pro sports: the 1998 Florida Marlins, who won just a third of their games and finished a distant last a year after winning their first World Series. Yet in many ways the Galaxy’s demise is much worse.

In 1998, the Marlins surrendered before the season started, returning just two starters from their championship team. The Galaxy still have 10 of the 14 players they used in December’s MLS Cup final.

The Galaxy have offered various excuses…er, explanations…for their humiliating demise, none of which hold much water.

Before the season had ever started, the team was saying bonuses and other costs associated with the championship had made the price of victory too high under the stingy MLS salary cap. To get under the cap, the Galaxy had to trade MLS Cup MVP Gastón Brugman, midfielder Mark Delgado, defender Jalen Neal and forward Dejan Joveljic, the leading scorer in the playoffs.

But every MLS Cup winner has had to make similar changes and three of the previous eight champions returned to the title game the following year. All but one of the eight posted a winning record.

Next the Galaxy blamed injuries, especially the torn anterior cruciate ligament that has kept midfielder Riqui Puig, the team’s best player, out all season. But Puig was injured in last November’s Western Conference final and the team won the MLS Cup without him. The Galaxy also had the whole offseason to replace him.

It’s true that a rash of injuries early in the season sidelined more than half a dozen starters at one time or another. But other teams had injuries too and even when the Galaxy have been at full strength, as they have been for most of the schedule, they haven’t won.

So when went wrong and how can it be fixed? The first question is easier to answer than the second.

The Galaxy had a magical year in 2024, going unbeaten at Dignity Health Sports Park and matching a modern-era franchise records for wins with 19. Every key player had arguably the best season of his career. Four of them — Joveljic, Puig, Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil — finished in double digits for goals. That had never happened in MLS.

Nor had it ever happened for two of the four players. Before last season, only Paintsil and Joveljic had scored more than eight goals in a season. In fact, Pec’s 16 goals in 2024 was double his previous best and his 12 assists were three times better.

This season Pec and Paintsil have combined for four scores and three assists, as many goals as they scored together in one playoff game last fall.

And they weren’t the only ones far exceeding expectations.

Captain Maya Yoshida started all 39 MLS matches, including playoffs, last year and led the league in minutes played. Both figures were career highs; he’s missed five starts already this season.

Goalkeeper John McCarthy started a career-high 37 games, stopped nearly 74% of the shots he faced — his best mark in a season with more than 11 MLS starts — and had a 1.41 goals-against average.

He’s lost his starting job this season.

It’s not unusual for a championship team to see multiple players have breakout seasons at the same time. What is unusual is the Galaxy have seen multiple important players have career-worst seasons at the same time.

McCarthy’s save percentage is under 60% for the first time in a decade and his goals-against average of 2.36 is a career worst. Pec and Paintsil are on pace for their fewest goal contributions since 2021-22. And Colombian center back Emiro Garcés has become more a liability than an asset.

As a result, the team has the fewest wins, has given up the most goals and has the worst goal differential in the league.

Then there’s Vanney. A defender on the Galaxy’s original team in 1996, Vanney coached Toronto FC to the only treble in MLS history in 2017, then returned to L.A. in 2021 charged with reviving a team that had made one playoff appearance in five seasons. Instead he has a losing record in four-plus seasons and in 2023 he had the worst full season for a Galaxy coach, winning just eight games, a record he figures to shatter this season.

Yet the team rewarded him with a multiyear contract extension in mid-May, when the Galaxy were 0-10-3. It’s hard to imagine another team in a first-tier league anywhere in the world giving a coach with a winless record a three-year contract extension.

In many ways this season is reminiscent of 2023, when the supporters organized boycotts and paid to have banners flown over the stadium calling for the sacking of president Chris Klein and technical director Jovan Kirovski. Amid the turmoil, the Galaxy matched a full-season franchise low in wins but they also replaced Klein and Kirovski with general manager Will Kuntz, who won an MLS Cup in his first full season with the club. It was the biggest one-season turnaround in MLS history.

So what can be done to fix that this time? Apparently very little because Kuntz has much less room to maneuver now than he did then.

The Galaxy payroll of $22.9 million is fifth-highest in MLS and all three of his designated players — Puig, Pec and Paintsil — are signed through the 2027 season, as is Julian Aude, an under-22 initiative signing.

The Galaxy are hoping Puig’s expected return late this summer sparks at least a modest revival but that won’t be enough since Paintsil increasingly seems lost, his confidence shattered, and newcomers Matheus Nascimento and Lucas Sanabria have so far failed to live up to their promise.

If the Galaxy had a magic season in 2024, this one has been cursed. And it’s a spell that shows no sign of lifting.

STANFORD — Marco Reus scored in the 70th minute and the Galaxy played the San José Earthquakes to a 1-1 draw on Saturday night in the 104th edition of the California Clásico.

The Galaxy (1-14-5) are unbeaten in their past eight road matches (Stanford Stadium and PayPal Park) across all competitions against San José (7-8-5) dating to June 26, 2021.

San José native Beau Leroux opened the scoring in the 16th minute with a shot into the upper-right corner for his fourth of the season. He settled Mark-Anthony Kaye’s cross with his left foot and curled in a shot with his right from the top of the 18-yard box.

San José goalkeeper Daniel stopped an initial attempt in the 70th, but it bounced right back to Reus for an easy touch home. It was Reus’ first game wearing the captain’s armband.

Daniel made several key saves. He came out of his area to deny Joseph Paintsil on a one-on-one opportunity in the 60th. He also got a hand on Gabriel Pec’s shot on a counterattack in the 88th.

The Galaxy entered with just three of a possible 33 points on the road this season.

San José announced the club sold 40,000 tickets for the game.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Djordje Mihailovic and Calvin Harris scored four-minutes apart in the first half and the Colorado Rapids beat the Galaxy 2-0 on Wednesday night in a game delayed two hours due to weather.

Colorado (7-8-4) snapped a three-game losing streak.

The Galaxy (1-13-5) lost to the Rapids for the first time since May 6, 2023.

Mihailovic headed in Sam Vines’ cross for his eighth goal of the season to end Colorado’s a 261-minute goal drought. Harris, in his first start of the season, scored his second goal in 12 appearances.

Harris nearly made it 3-0 in the 55th on a shot that hit off the post.

Rookie Nico Hansen, standing in for the injured Zack Steffen since May 17, recorded his third clean sheet in just seven starts.

Why is it always the women who stand up first?

That’s a rhetorical question, of course. But it’s one that has a basis in fact because girl power is real.

From Joan of Arc to Cassidy Hutchinson, whenever men have proven too cautious, cowardly or complacent to act, women have had the courage to do the right thing. The latest example of this feminine fearlessness came last Saturday, after federal immigration agents launched a series of raids throughout the Southland targeting everyone from schoolchildren to elderly churchgoers.

Within hours of the first arrests, Angel City, a women’s soccer club, became the first local sports franchise to issue a statement, recognizing the “fear and uncertainty” the raids had provoked. A day later LAFC, Angel City’s roommate at BMO Stadium, released a statement of its own.

That was a week and a half ago. But Angel City didn’t stop there. While the collective silence from the Dodgers, the Galaxy, the Lakers, Kings and other teams has been deafening, Angel City has grown defiant, dressing its players and new coach Alexander Straus in T-shirts that renamed the team “Immigrant City Football Club.” On the back the slogan “Los Angeles Is For Everyone /Los Angeles Es Para Todos” was repeated six times.

“The statement was the beginning,” said Chris Fajardo, Angel City’s vice-president of community. “The statement was our way of making sure that our fans, our players, our staff felt seen in that moment.

“The next piece was, I think, true to Angel City. Not just talking the talk but walking the walk.”

Angel City, the most valuable franchise in women’s sports history, has been walking that walk since it launched five years ago with the help of A-list Hollywood investors, including Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera and Jennifer Garner.

Angel City coach Alexander Straus wears a shirt with the words, “Immigrant City Football Club” before Saturday’s match.

(Jen Flores / Angel City FC)

It has used its riches and its unique platform to provide more than 2.3 million meals and more than 33,000 hours for youth and adult education throughout Southern California; to provide equipment and staff for soccer camps for the children of migrants trapped at the U.S.-Mexico border; and to funnel $4.1 million into other community programs in Los Angeles.

But while much of that has happened quietly, last Saturday’s actions were provocative, boldly and publicly taking place in a city still under siege from thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of U.S. Marines.

“We always talk about how we wanted to build a club that was representative of our community. But we built a club where we are part of the community,” said Julie Uhrman, who co-founded the team she now leads as president.

“In moments like this it’s how do we use our platform to drive attention for what’s happening, to create a sense of community and tell our community that we’re there for them.

“Our supporters wanted to do more,” Uhrman added. “And we wanted to support them.”

Angel City’s Sydney Leroux poses for photo before a match against North Carolina on Saturday.

(Ian Maule / NWSL via Getty Images)

So Fajardo reached out to the team’s staff and supporters. What would that next step look like this time?

“We knew we wanted to do shirts but like, is this the right move?” Fajardo said. “Also, let’s talk about language. It had to resonate and it had to be something they felt was true.

“And so it was through conversation that we landed on the Immigrant City Football Club and everybody belongs in L.A.”

That was late Wednesday afternoon. Fajardo needed more than 10,000 shirts to hand out to players and fans by Saturday morning. That led him to Andrew Leigh, president of Jerry Leigh of California, a family-owned clothing manufacturer based in Los Angeles.

“We wanted to be a part of it,” Leigh said. “These were definitely a priority as we believe in the cause and what Angel City stands for.”

That first run of T-shirts was just the start, though. Leigh’s company has made thousands more for the team to sell on its website, with the net proceeds going to Camino Immigration Services, helping fund what the team feels is a pressing need.

The campaign has resounded with the players, many of whom were drawn to Angel City by the club’s commitment to community service and many of whom see this moment as especially personal.

“My mom’s parents came here from China, and it wasn’t easy for them,” captain Ali Riley told the team website. “They had to find a way to make a life here. My dad is first-generation American. Being from Los Angeles, everything we do, everything we play, everything we eat, this is a city of immigrants.”

“It feels so uncertain right now,” she continued, “but to look around the stadium and see these shirts everywhere, it’s like we’re saying, ‘this is our home, we know who we are, and we know what we believe in.”

It has resonated with the supporters as well.

“It is great that they showed support and put it into action,” said Lauren Stribling, a playwright from Santa Clarita and an Angel City season-ticket holder from the club’s inception. “They really showed an empathy for the community they serve.

Shirts with the words “Los Angeles Is For Everyone” in English and Spanish were handed out to fans before Angel City’s game against North Carolina at BMO Stadium on Saturday.

(Jen Flores / Angel City FC)

“They stand up. It makes me proud of the team and makes me a bigger fan.”

And it makes the Dodgers, the Galaxy and the other Southern California franchises who have remained silent look smaller. On the same night Angel City was stepping up, seven miles away the Dodgers were once again stepping back, warning singer Nezza, the daughter of Dominican immigrants, to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in English, not Spanish.

“I didn’t think I would be met with any sort of like, ‘no,’ especially because we’re in L.A. and with everything happening,” said Nezza, whose real name is Vanessa Hernández. “I just felt like I needed to do it.”

So she sang in Spanish. Of course she sang in Spanish.

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

Substitute Ousseni Bouda scored in the 74th minute, and the San José Earthquakes extended the Galaxy‘s MLS-record season-opening winless streak with a 1-0 victory Wednesday night.

Bouda slipped between two defenders and got his third goal of the season on a precise pass from fellow substitute Preston Judd for the Quakes, who ended a four-game losing streak in the California Clasico rivalry.

The defending MLS Cup champion Galaxy (0-12-4) are edging toward historic ignominy after dropping yet another game at the stadium where they went unbeaten in 2024 and won their league-record sixth title in December.

The MLS record is 19 consecutive winless matches in league play by the MetroStars in 1999. Real Salt Lake played 18 in a row without a win from 2005-06.

Earl Edwards Jr. made six saves to keep his third clean sheet of the season for San José, which is unbeaten in eight games across all competitions in May. Quakes coach Bruce Arena had a successful return to the stadium where he led the Galaxy for nine seasons and won three MLS Cup championships.

The Galaxy nearly salvaged a draw in the final minute of second-half injury time, but Edwards saved captain Maya Yoshida’s header deep in the San José box. Supporters chanted “We want better!” after the final whistle.

The Galaxy’s woes have only compounded throughout the new season despite the return to health of stars Joseph Paintsil, Gabriel Pec and Marco Reus. All three international veterans played major roles on last year’s championship team,but were limited by injury in the new year.

Reus left in the 59th minute against San José after sitting down on the grass without contact and eventually walking off the field. Reus struggled with a knee injury earlier in the season but had been playing well in recent games.

Disorganized in attack and lacking any crispness in their passing, the Galaxy still look lost without Catalan midfielder Riqui Puig, who orchestrated their excellence throughout the 2024 season before tearing a knee ligament in the conference final. Puig could return this summer, but the Galaxy also had to part with a handful of key contributors to last season’s team due to the salary cap constraints created annually for the MLS champion by title bonuses in their players’ contracts.

The Galaxy’s leadership has declined to panic during this mammoth skid, even extending the contract of coach Greg Vanney two weeks ago when the winless streak was at a mere 13 games.

The Galaxy’s Novak Micovic had to make two diving saves in the first two minutes of play, and he finished with four saves in the scoreless first half. San José’s Ian Harkes hit the crossbar from long range in the 22nd minute.

The Galaxy host Salt Lake on Saturday night. If they don’t beat Salt Lake or win at St. Louis on June 14, they could tie the MetroStars’ record June 25 at Colorado.

The last time Bruce Arena and Dave Sarachan stood together on the sidelines at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy were beating the Colorado Rapids in the MLS Western Conference semifinals. That was 2016 and the win was the pair’s 18th playoff victory in eight seasons with the Galaxy.

It was also the last game they coached together in Carson.

They’ll be back on Wednesday, only this time Arena and Sarachan will be in the opposite technical area, standing in front of the San José Earthquakes’ bench. And in some ways it’s a bittersweet return. Because while both men have mostly fond memories of their time with the Galaxy, they return with the home team hungry and winless through 15 games, the longest drought in franchise history.

That makes the homecoming both welcome and challenging.

“I have nothing but good memories of my time in L.A. with the Galaxy. So it’s nice to go back,” Arena said.

“I like watching them and they’ve had tough times. But they’re better than their record indicates. We’re the next team up, which will be in some ways very, very challenging because you know they’re due to have success.”

The Galaxy (0-11-4) have led in each of their last three games, only to lose two of them on goals deep in stoppage time. So Wednesday’s game could be a dangerous one for the Earthquakes (5-6-4), who are unbeaten in their last five.

“It’s almost amazing that they haven’t gotten a win,” Sarachan said. “It’s a double-edged sword because there’s a certain fragility to it. But at the same time, they’re looking to get out of this funk. They’re in a tough situation so we just have to be ready.”

Arena and Sarachan, his top assistant with both the Galaxy and men’s national team, are arguably the most successful coaching duo in U.S. Soccer history, having taken the national team to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup before winning three MLS Cups and two Supporters’ Shields in five seasons with the Galaxy.

It was the most successful five-year stretch by any team in MLS history. But the Galaxy didn’t win another MLS Cup until last season, ending the team’s longest trophy drought.

Less than two years after leaving the Galaxy to return to the national team, Arena and Sarachan went their separate ways after failing to qualify the U.S. for the 2018 World Cup. They reunited this winter in San José, where they took over a team that had tied the MLS record for losses (25) and broke the record for goals allowed (78) in 2024, guiding it into playoff position after 15 games this year.

“Our goal is to get through the first half of the season where we have a good feel for our team and understand where we need to go in the second half,” Arena said. “At the end of next week we’ll be at the midway point in the season and we have a better feel for where we are.

“We’re improving. Maybe not as quick as I’d like but I think we have a chance to be a good team in the season half.”

Arena’s blueprint for turning the Quakes around is the same one he used to rescue the Galaxy team he took over midway through the 2008 season. In L.A., he remade the roster by shipping out more than 20 players that winter. In San José, he brought in 16 new ones, including former Galaxy defender Dave Romney, who leads the team in minutes played, and former LAFC striker Cristian Arango, who is third in the league with nine goals.

But while Arena celebrates his team’s success, he takes no joy from the Galaxy’s struggles.

“Listen, I did my spell there and it was time to move on, like anything else,” Arena said. “You stay in one place too long, they eventually want you to move on.

“I have the greatest respect for that organization. There are better times ahead for them. The second half of the season is going to be much improved.”

Sarachan agreed. But he’d just as soon the Galaxy hold off on that improvement until the Quakes have left town.

“Yeah,” he said, confessing to harboring no hard feelings. “I’d like to see them 0-12-4. And we can move on from that.”

SAN DIEGO — Hirving Lozano scored in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time to lift San Diego FC to a 2-1 victory over the Galaxy on Saturday.

Lozano scored on a header from the top center of the box following a well-placed pass by Anders Dreyer.

San Diego FC (8-4-3, 27 points), in its first MLS season, swept the two-game season series from the defending MLS Cup champions, having also defeated the Galaxy 2-0 in February.

The winless Galaxy (0-11-4, 4 points) scored first when Diego Fagúndez connected with a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the middle right zone in the 40th minute.

San Diego drew even a minute later with Luca de la Torre’s right-footed shot from the center of the box to the central bottom zone.

San Diego had a 57.2 possession percentage and outshot the Galaxy 13-9 overall and 2-1 in shots on goal. There were no goalkeeper saves in the match.

San Diego visits Seattle on Wednesday and the Galaxy hosts San José.

Records aren’t supposed to matter in Derby matches. When you’re facing your most bitter rival, the past is just that — the past.

So it meant nothing that the defending MLS Cup champion entered Sunday’s El Tráfico winless in 13 matches while LAFC was unbeaten in six straight.

“That all becomes irrelevant,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. “Those games are kind of isolated on their own.”

Perhaps it was fitting, then, that LAFC and the Galaxy played to a 2-2 draw in front of a crowd of 23,083 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

The draw kept LAFC (6-4-4) unbeaten since April 5. For the Galaxy (0-10-4), the tie ended a five-game losing streak — their longest since 2020 — but it also extended their winless one to 14 matches, the worst start in franchise history and the worst ever for a reigning MLS champion.

LAFC’s goals came from Denis Bouanga and Nathan Ordaz, one in each half, while Marco Reus had both scores for the Galaxy.

With playmaker Riqui Puig, who hasn’t played since undergoing surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament last December, looking on, the Galaxy attacked from the start and were rewarded in the sixth minute when Reus knocked in the rebound of a Gabriel Pec shot that LAFC keeper Hugo Lloris had stopped. The goal was the second of the season for Reus and it marked just the third time in 14 MLS games that the Galaxy had scored first.

But the lead didn’t last long, with Bouanga tying the score by lining a right-footed shot from about 30 yards into the side netting at the far post in the 13th minute. The goal was Bouanga’s seventh in seven games and was one he celebrated with a trademark front flip.

Former Galaxy midfielder Mark Delgado, who got his team-leading fourth assist on the play, chose not to celebrate the goal against his old team.

LAFC went in front five minutes into the second half when a low through ball from Ryan Hollingshead split Galaxy center backs Maya Yoshida and Emiro Garces and found Ordaz cutting into the penalty area. After catching up to the ball, Ordaz used his first touch to lift a left-footed shot by Galaxy keeper John McCarthy for his third goal of the season and the second in three starts.

The Galaxy appeared to even the game on a brilliant counterattack goal from Pec in the 78th minute, but after a long video review referee Drew Fischer ruled Pec was offside.

The Galaxy refused to quit and were rewarded when Reus chipped in a free kick from just outside the box in the 87th minute, giving the Galaxy their first point in a month — a point McCarthy saved with a brilliant goal-line stop of Hollingshead’s back-heel try deep in stoppage time.

Mark Delgado has known Greg Vanney since he was 13.

“We’re definitely close,” the LAFC midfielder said of the coach he played for in three MLS Cup finals.

So it’s been difficult for Delgado to watch from afar as Vanney’s Galaxy team, the one Delgado played for last season, has struggled through the worst start in franchise history.

“I definitely hope, personally, things go better for him,” Delgado said of Vanney, who got a multiyear contract extension Friday, one that reportedly makes him the best-paid manager in MLS. “I hope Greg can get things turned around.”

As long as that turnaround starts next weekend since Delgado returns Sunday to Dignity Health Sports Park for the first time since December’s MLS Cup final. Only this time he’ll be wearing the black and gold of LAFC, the Galaxy’s bitter rival.

“Yeah, definitely. I want to come out on top,” he said. “It’s kind of a weird situation. You don’t wish them too well because you want to do well yourself.”

A weird situation is also an apt description of Delgado’s last five months. Six weeks after capping a career-best season by assisting on the winning goal in the Cup final, Delgado was traded 12 miles up the Harbor Freeway to LAFC, a sacrifice to the league’s paltry salary cap.

The Galaxy (0-10-3) haven’t won since but Delgado has thrived. Not only did LAFC (6-4-3) give him a multiyear contract with a raise from the $876,250 he made last season, but he’s tied for the team lead with three assists and is one of just three players to appear in all 13 MLS games for a team that hasn’t lost a league game in six weeks and is fifth in the Western Conference table.

And he’s done that despite playing under a coach not named Greg Vanney for just the second time in 11 seasons.

Galaxy coach Greg Vanney celebrates after a win over Seattle in the Western Conference final on Nov. 30. The defending MLS Cup champion Galaxy is winless through its first 13 games of the season.

(Etienne Laurent / Associated Press)

“Coming to a new team, a different view of things, may take a little time,” said Delgado, who played under Vanney in Toronto and with the Galaxy after breaking in as a teenager with Chivas USA, where Vanney was an assistant coach. “I’m a guy who can take in information and change on the fly as well. I think my ability to do things passing and how I see the field, [my] work rate covering ground, helps.”

His leadership and experience is also important. Although he just turned 30 on May 9, Delgado is in his 14th MLS season and his 340 appearances, including playoffs, ranks ninth among active players, according to Transfermarkt. No other LAFC player is close.

He’s also the only man to have played for all three of Southern California’s MLS teams, Chivas USA, the Galaxy and LAFC. Yet none of that, he said, has prepared him for changing sides in El Tráfico.

“It is definitely a different look,” he said. “But at the end of the day it’s a Derby. Once that whistle blows and we’re on the field, I’m locked in.”

The crosstown rivalry has grown into the most passionate in MLS but most of that bad blood is felt in the stands. On the field, Delgado said, the feeling is more one of mutual admiration regardless of the colors you’re wearing.

“I don’t know what goes on between the two fans bases, but I know as players there’s a level of respect. Everyone has their own journey of getting here. Everyone has their own battles,” he said.

And his fight Sunday will be for LAFC. So while he feels for his former teammates, he’d like nothing better than to see them suffer for at least one more week.

“I have an emotional attachment with the club over there. But I’m over here, right?” he said. “I have duties over here and I’m working on doing my part and finding success for this club.”

Looking back, casting Diego Luna in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” may well prove to be the single most consequential decision in that storied franchise’s history. Hearing Luna’s Mexican accent in a galaxy far, far away was not only refreshing. It was radical.

And as Season 2 of “Andor” proved, it set the stage for what has to be the most Latino-coded of all the “Star Wars” tales, which is fitting considering this Tony Gilroy-created series was designed not just to explore Cassian Andor’s backstory but flesh out the dashing revolutionary spirit Luna had brought to the character. What better place to, pardon the pun, mine for inspiration than the vast history of resistance and revolution throughout the American continent?

Here are a few ways in which “Andor” felt particularly Latino.

Warning: this article contains some spoilers.

Undocumented laborers

Season 2 of “Andor” found Cassian, Bix (Adria Arjona), Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) and Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier) relocated to the agricultural planet of Mina-Rau. It’s a place that served as a safe haven for these Ferrix folks, allowing them to be housed while working for a local farmer — all without papers. Yes, our very own Cassian is an undocumented laborer (when he’s not, you know, on some super-secret Luthen-guided mission, that is).

“Andor” has always focused on the way the Empire functions at a granular level, while the “Star Wars” feature film trilogies are all about big-picture stuff. In its two-season run, this Luna-fronted project followed the day-to-day lives of those living under the thumb of the Empire. And in the scenes at Mina-Rau, the show insisted on showing what happens when those with a semblance of power (a uniform, a weapon) confront those who they think have none.

When Lt. Krole (Alex Waldmann), a lowly Imperial officer carrying out a run-of-the-mill audit of the crops in Mina-Rau, comes across Bix, he sees an opportunity. She’s clearly alone. And, perhaps most obviously, at a disadvantage: She has no papers. If she’s caught, the secure, if precarious, life she and Cassian have built in Mina-Rau will come crumbling down — all while putting them at risk of being revealed as smugglers and rebels.

Still, watching Krole escalate his slimy sexual advances into a rape attempt was a reminder of the impunity of such crimes. When those who are undocumented are seen as undeserving of our empathy, let alone the protections the law is supposed to provide — like many people in our current government seem to think — the likes of Krole are emboldened to do as they please.

Hiding in plain sight and los desaparecidos

Such ideas about who merits our empathy are key to authoritarian regimes. Borders, after all, aren’t just about keeping people out or in. It’s about drawing up communities and outlining outsiders; about arguing for a strict sense of who belongs and who does not.

When Cassian and Bix land in Coruscant after their escape from Mina-Rau, they struggle with whether to just lay low. You see Cassian being jumpy and constantly paranoid. He can’t even handle going out shopping; or, if you follow Bix’s winking joke at the grocer, he can’t really handle the spice. But that’s expected if you constantly feel unsafe, unable to freely move through the world, er, galaxy.
More tellingly: If your existence is wedded to bureaucracy, it’s easy to be dispensed with and disappeared. Bix knows that all too well. She’s still haunted by the specter of Dr. Gorst (Joshua James), the Imperial Security Bureau officer who tortured her. He appears in her nightmares to remind her that this is a war now littered with “desaparecidos”: “His body won’t be found and his family won’t know what happened to him,” his hallucination taunts her. It’s not hard to read in that line an obvious reference to those tortured and disappeared under the military dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the like.

Throughout “Andor” Season 2, we also watched the Empire slowly rev up its border policing — especially when it came to Ghorman. At first a planet most known for its gorgeous textiles, Ghorman later became the anchor for the show’s entire narrative. The best way to control a people is to surveil them, particularly because soon enough they’ll start surveilling themselves.

The Ghorman Massacre

The beauty of “Star Wars” has always been its ability to speak to its time. When the original film first premiered in 1977, echoes of the Vietnam War and anti-imperialist sentiment could be felt in its otherwise outlandish space-opera trappings. But not until “Andor” could the politics of George Lucas’ creation be so viscerally felt. This is a show, after all, that didn’t shy away from using the word “genocide” when rightly describing what happened in Ghorman.

In “Who Are You?” audiences got to see the Empire at its cruelest. Watching the Death Star destroy Alderaan from afar is one thing. But getting to watch Stormtroopers — and a slew of young, inexperienced Imperial riot police officers — shooting indiscriminately into a crowd that had just been peacefully singing in protest was brutal. It was, as Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) would later frame it, unconscionable.

The chants in the crowd “The galaxy is watching” are clearly meant to evoke the chants heard at the 1968 Democratic National Convention: “The whole world is watching.” But the essence of the massacre harks back to another infamous 1968 event: the Tlatelolco massacre.

Just like Ghorman, the Oct. 2 student protests at Mexico City’s Plaza de las Tres Culturas began as a peaceful demonstration. But soon, with helicopters up above and an encroaching military presence from every which way, chaos followed and the incident has long served as a chilling example of state-sanctioned violence. The kind now best distilled into a fictional massacre in a galaxy far, far away.

Villa, Zapata, Andor

In the hands of Gilroy and Luna, “Andor” billed itself over two seasons as the begrudging rise of a revolutionary. Cassian spent much of Season 1 trying to hide from who he could become. It took being sent to a grueling slave prison complex in a remote location (sound familiar?) to further radicalize the once-smug smuggler.

But with every new Empire-sanctioned atrocity, he found himself unable to escape his calling as a member of the Resistance. Yes, it costs him his peaceful life with Bix, but neither would have it any other way. Cassian has a solid moral compass. And while he may not play well with others (with authority, really), he’s a charming leader of sorts whose childhood in Ferrix set him up to be the kind of man who would sacrifice his life for a cause.

You don’t need to have Luna sport a mustache, though, to see in his rascal of a character hints of revolutionary icons from Latin America. Even if Cassian is more Emiliano Zapata than Pancho Villa (you’d never find him starring in films as himself, for instance), the revolutionary spirit of those historical Mexican figures is undeniable. Especially since Cassian has long been tied to the marginalized — not just in Ferrix and Mina-Rau but later still in Ghorman.

Add the fact that his backstory grounds him in the indigenous world of Kenari and that he is quite at home in the lush jungles of Yavin IV (where he may as well be playing dominoes in his spare time) and you have a character who clearly carves out homages to resistance models seen all over Latin America.

As attacks on those most disenfranchised here in the United States continue apace, “Andor” (yes, a spinoff sci-fi series on Disney+!) reminds us that the Latin American struggles for liberation in the 20th century aren’t mere historical stories. They’re warnings and templates as to how to confront this moment.

And yes, that message obviously works best when delivered by the devilishly handsome Luna: “The Empire cannot win,” as his Cassian says in the first episode of the show’s stellar second season. “You’ll never feel right unless you’re doing what you can to stop them. You’re coming home to yourself. You’ve become more than your fear. Let that protect you.”

The Galaxy have re-signed coach Greg Vanney to a multiyear contract extension, the team announced Friday, ending speculation over the coach’s future the team.

Vanney, 50, led the Galaxy to their sixth MLS title last season, triggering a one-season contract extension. But the team (0-10-3) is winless in its first 13 games this season, the worst start in franchise history, heading in Sunday’s match with cross-rival LAFC.

In four-plus seasons the Galaxy are 54-56-39 in MLS play under Vanney.

In addition to extending Vanney’s contract, the team also hired Ravi Ramineni as director of quantitative analysis, promoted former midfielder Juninho to the newly created position of special adviser to the general manager and promoted Zack Murshedi to director of team administration and player care.

The moves, a team spokesperson said, “reflect a real commitment to the team’s vision.”

“Greg is one of the most respected and successful coaches in MLS history and we are excited to be continuing under his leadership,” general manager Will Kuntz said in a statement. “While this season’s results haven’t reflected our standards, this was a decision made following our 2024 MLS Cup victory and we remain confident in the project we are building with Greg.”

The team had a magical season in 2024, matching a modern-era franchise record with 19 victories and going unbeaten at Dignity Health Sports Park. After finishing in the penultimate spot in the Western Conference standings the season before, the Galaxy tied for the top spot last season, becoming the first team since 2011 to go from second to last in the conference to the MLS Cup in one season.

It was also the first team in MLS history to have four players — Riqui Puig, Gabriel Pec, Joseph Paintsil and Dejan Joveljic — reach double digits in goals scored.

This season has been the opposite. Salary-cap issues aggravated by the team’s success in 2024 forced Kuntz to trade MLS Cup MVP Gastón Brugman, valuable midfielder Mark Delgado and Joveljic, who led the team with six goals in the playoffs. The Galaxy have also missed Puig, their midfield playmaker and assists leader, who hasn’t played since tearing his ACL in last November’s conference championship game.

They did return 11 of the 14 players who appeared in December’s MLS Cup final, but injuries have forced nine players to the sidelines for multiple games. As a result Pec and Paintsil, who combined for 26 goals and 24 assists last season, have just one goal and three assists this season for a team that has been shut out six times.

Only three MLS teams have fewer goals than the Galaxy’s 10 and no club has conceded more goals than the 31 the Galaxy have allowed. The -21 goal differential is also worst in the league.

Vanney, 50, a defender on the Galaxy’s original roster in 1996, played 10 seasons in MLS, making 193 of his 270 league appearances during two stints with the Galaxy, with whom he won three Western Conference titles, a Supporters’ Shield, MLS Cup and a CONCACAF Champions Cup. He also played 37 times for the U.S. national team, making the 2002 World Cup roster before being forced out of the tournament with an injury.

Vanney began his coaching career as an assistant with Chivas USA in 2011 and got his first managerial job with Toronto after Ryan Nelsen was fired with 10 games left in the 2014 season.

In his first full season as coach, Vanney guided Toronto to its first playoff berth. A year later, it played in the first of three MLS Cup finals under Vanney, winning the title in 2017.

CHESTER, Pa. — Tai Baribo scored two second-half goals, including the winner in stoppage time, and the Philadelphia Union rallied to beat the Galaxy for the first time at home with a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night.

The Galaxy (0-9-4) continued the worst start by a defending champion in MLS history despite Diego Fagúndez becoming the eighth player in league history to reach 75 goals and 75 assists in a career.

Baribo scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time after tying the match 2-2 with a goal in the 50th for the Union (8-3-2), who are on a five-match unbeaten run. Baribo has a league-leading 10 goals this season.

Defender Mauricio Cuevas scored for the first time this season and the second time in 31 career appearances to give the Galaxy the lead in the 31st minute. Fagúndez scored his second goal this season for a 2-0 lead in the 37th. Marco Reus collected assists on both scores.

Philadelphia tied it in the first five minutes of the second half. Jacob Glesnes headed in a goal off a corner kick by Kai Wagner in the 48th minute.

Homegrown goalkeeper Andrew Rick made the 10th start of his career and did not have a save for the Union.

John McCarthy had four saves as the Galaxy built a 2-0 lead in the first half and finished with seven.

Philadelphia improved to 1-3-2 all time at home in the Galaxy’s first visit since 2018.

The Union travel to play Atlanta United on Saturday. The Galaxy will host rival LAFC on Sunday.

SAMSUNG’s latest release is the thinnest smartphone on the market.

If you pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge now, you’ll get a free pair of Galaxy Buds3 Pro, worth £219, included with your purchase.

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Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, £52 per month on Sky Mobile

For anyone shopping around for a new handset, deals like this are a fantastic way to get more for your money.  

Sky Mobile is well-known for offering affordable deals, often sweetened by boosted data plans at no extra cost.

The standout pre-order deal here is the 10GB data plan, which is boosted to 40GB for just £12 per month.

There’s nothing to pay upfront either, and with the free Buds3 Pro thrown in, this deal delivers on all fronts.

If storage is important to you, Sky Mobile is also offering a double storage deal on the Galaxy S25 Edge.  

You can get 512GB worth of storage for the price of the 256GB model, just £40 a month, saving you a tidy £4.

This double storage offer ends on May 29th, so act quickly to enjoy more space for less.  

The Galaxy S25 Edge itself is a standout device in the S25 series, offering a thinner, lighter design compared to the other models.  

While I haven’t tested it myself, our Assistant Tech and Science Editor, Jamie Harris, has had a first-hand look at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.

He praised the handset for being “lighter than any iPhone 16 model around.”

There are trade-offs to achieve that smaller frame, though.

The Samsung Edge is so much lighter because it comes with a noticeably smaller battery compared to the rest of the S25 lineup.

It sports a 3,900mAh battery, compared to 4,000mAh on the Galaxy S25, but that still gets you around 24 hours of video playback with moderate use.

But for shoppers looking for one of the latest Android models without the bulk and weight of modern handsets, the Edge strikes the right balance.  

The deal is only available for purchases made between May 13th 2025, and May 29th, with the headphones dispatched with your device.  

We regularly round up the top data plans from all major providers, so check out our best SIM-only deals page for more savings.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, £52 per month on Sky Mobile