LA Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney rubbished ideas that there’s a goalkeeper disaster on the membership, backing primary John McCarthy to bounce again.
McCarthy has come below scrutiny after making an enormous blunder within the Galaxy’s 2-1 defeat to Orlando Metropolis SC, letting Luis Muriel’s late free-kick slip via his fingers.
Vanney has modified his goalkeeper as soon as already this season, with Novak Micovic making a lot of high-profile errors within the early a part of their marketing campaign.
McCarthy stored a clear sheet within the Galaxy’s goalless draw with Tigres of their CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-final in midweek, with Vanney assured in regards to the man in purpose.
“For me, there’s no query what John McCarthy can do,” Vanney stated. “All of the nonsense about this disaster crap is nonsense.
“Now we have two good goalkeepers, and so they’re each very succesful. There’s one job to do and I do know what every of them is able to doing. John has completed it for a whole season.
“I’ve the utmost confidence in John, and he got here again out tonight and confirmed why he’s that veteran goalkeeper. He can bounce again.
“So he made a mistake and on my crew persons are allowed to make errors. You simply received to reply to them the suitable approach and you bought to bounce again.”
Actual Salt Lake, in the meantime, wish to reply to their 2-0 defeat to Minnesota United, a recreation that left head coach Pablo Mastroeni ruing missed alternatives.
Of their final conflict at Allianz Subject, RSL registered an anticipated targets (xG) complete of 1.61 from their 15 photographs, however solely 4 have been heading in the right direction within the contest.
And Mastroeni is searching for his crew to rediscover their medical edge in entrance of purpose, suggesting that if they’re unable to take action, they might not attain the playoffs this season.
“Positionally, particularly within the first half, it was a story of two halves. We had a tough time holding the ball up entrance,” Mastroeni stated. “Any time you possibly can’t do this, we can’t be threatening.
“After the break, we had some actually good probabilities. These are game-defining alternatives. These have been nearly as good as we have been going to get. Now we have to be prepared for the second.
“That’s the place expertise comes into play. You possibly can’t educate it, you need to dwell it. It’s about being in the suitable place and the suitable time and having the calmness to complete.
“That takes time. We had numbers within the field, received into good areas, however the ending half has been eluding us. Whenever you’re not defending your field properly and never scoring targets, we’re going to discover it very tough to win video games.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Actual Salt Lake – Forster Ajago
Having scored simply twice for Nashville SC in 15 appearances throughout all competitions final season, Ajago has already equalled that complete throughout his eight outings for RSL.
However his crew are one of many lowest scorers within the Western Convention, with solely St. Louis Metropolis and the Houston Dynamo (4) netting fewer this season. So RSL will likely be turning to their prime scorer to offer that spark within the attacking third.
LA Galaxy – Christian Ramirez
Ramirez scored LA Galaxy’s solely purpose on Saturday and now has three of the crew’s 5 targets this common season.
He has additionally netted 5 occasions towards RSL in his MLS profession (common season & playoffs), equalling his most towards any opponent (additionally 5 towards Orlando Metropolis).
CR17 pic.twitter.com/AoYgRUzoIx
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) March 30, 2025
MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW
LA Galaxy are unbeaten in 5 straight regular-season matches towards Actual Salt Lake (W2 D3), with each wins in that point coming in Sandy, Utah. That is solely the second time the Galaxy have gained two right away matches towards RSL (additionally 2012-13).
However they’ve struggled this season. Their two factors via six matches are the fewest by a reigning champion in MLS historical past (earlier low – 4 by 5 groups).
That is additionally the Galaxy’s worst-ever begin to a season, having by no means recorded fewer than three factors of their first six matches earlier than (three in 1997 and 2023).
RSL, in the meantime, have misplaced back-to-back dwelling matches after dropping solely two of their earlier 16 league matches at America First Subject. They haven’t misplaced three straight dwelling league video games since a six-match dropping streak to finish their inaugural 2005 marketing campaign.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Actual Salt Lake – 38.3%
Draw – 26.5%
LA Galaxy – 35.2%