seattle sounders

With the terrible year they’ve had in MLS, expectations weren’t exactly high for Galaxy ahead of their Leagues Cup quarterfinal match against Pachuca.

The Galaxy suffered embarrassing defeats during their past two MLS games, falling at home to the Seattle Sounders and on the road against Inter Miami.

However, Galaxy coach Greg Vanney’s players put the losses behind them and continued to perform well in Leagues Cup play, surprisingly eliminating Pachuca 2-1 on Wednesday night at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Liga MX leading Pachuca entered the match as the favorite despite losing to Xolos de Tijuana at home last Saturday.

The Galaxy opened the scoring in the 27th minute thanks to an own goal by Pachuca defender Daniel Aceves, who seemed to be struggling with ball control and spacing.

Diego Fagundez took a short corner kick for Marco Reus, who sent in a low cross and Aceves, unfortunately for his team, pushed the ball into his own net to give the Galaxy a 1-0 lead.

The Galaxy kept pushing forward and their efforts soon paid off when Joseph Paintsil launched a swift attack down the left wing to Matheus Nascimento inside the box, who backheeled the ball to Reus to make it 2-0 in the 37th minute.

In the sixth minute of second half stoppage time, Pachuca found space to score a consolation goal. The goal came from a half-volley inside the box by Brazilian Alemao to make the score 2-1. The match ended a minute later, sending the Galaxy to the Leagues Cup semifinals.

All Mexican teams were eliminated from the tournament Wednesday night.

The Galaxy will play the Seattle Sounders and Inter Miami will play Orlando City for spots in the Leagues Cup final.

This article first appeared in Spanish via L.A. Times en Español.

Danny Musovski scored a goal in each half and 18-year-old Snyder Brunell scored in his league debut as the Seattle Sounders cruised to a 4-0 victory over the Galaxy on Sunday night.

Seattle grabbed the lead in the 25th minute on an own goal by defender Julián Aude.

The Sounders took a 2-0 lead in the 37th minute on Musovski’s unassisted goal. He made it 3-0 in the 54th minute with another unassisted goal. Musovski has already scored a career-high eight times this season. He had five goals with LAFC as a rookie in 2020 and five for Real Salt Lake in 2023.

Brunell subbed in for Jesús Ferreira in the 73rd minute and scored in the 85th. Defender Álex Roldán notched his third assist of the season and the fourth of his career. Rookie Kalani Kossa-Rienzi collected his third assist.

Andrew Thomas finished with three saves for his first clean sheet in his seventh start of the season for Seattle. He had two shutouts in five starts last season.

Novak Micovic saved five shots for the Galaxy. He had three saves and Thomas wasn’t tested in the first half.

Seattle is unbeaten in its last seven league matches at 4-0-3 and is on a 10-match unbeaten streak across all competitions after winning all three matches in Leagues Cup play.

Seattle leads the all-time series 15-11-14 in league play and 21-18-14 across all competitions.

The Sounders travel to play Minnesota United on Saturday. The Galaxy head to Florida to play Inter Miami on Saturday.