{"id":661837,"date":"2026-05-24T06:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661837\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:23:19","slug":"galaxy-forced-to-settle-for-draw-against-houston-dynamo-in-final-game-before-world-cup-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661837\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy forced to settle for draw against Houston Dynamo in final game before World Cup break"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy midfielder Marco Reus, top, jumps on forward Joseph Paintsil after Paintsil scores a goal against the Houston Dynamo during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy forward Joseph Paintsil (28) scores a goal against the Houston Dynamo during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy forward Gabriel Pec kicks the ball against the Houston Dynamo during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy midfielder Justin Haak (15) heads the ball against Houston Dynamo midfielder Ondrej Lingr (9) during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy defender Miki Yamane, left, defends against Houston Dynamo forward Lawrence Ennali during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy midfielder Marco Reus (18) controls the ball against the Houston Dynamo during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski kicks the ball against the Houston Dynamo during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

Galaxy midfielder Erik Thommy, front, kicks the ball defended by Houston Dynamo midfielder Mateusz Bogusz during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 8<\/p>\n

Galaxy midfielder Marco Reus, top, jumps on forward Joseph Paintsil after Paintsil scores a goal against the Houston Dynamo during the first half of an MLS match at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

CARSON \u2014 Earlier this season, a draw seemed like a positive step for the Galaxy.<\/p>\n

Now, as the club has found form and consistency, climbing back into the Western Conference playoff race, draws, especially at home, are sometimes painful to take.<\/p>\n

Case in point was Saturday night.<\/p>\n

In the final game before the six-week MLS break for the FIFA World Cup, the Galaxy (5-5-5, 20 points) scored first, had the sellout crowd of 23,638 wanting more, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw against the Houston Dynamo at Dignity Health Sports Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you aggregate the best chances in the game, I thought we had more of them,\u201d Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. \u201cI do think in the first half and specifically the first 30 minutes or so, we were good on the ball as we\u2019ve been all year. It was disappointing to give up a goal in that fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think we could have got more out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The draw sends the Galaxy (5-5-5, 20 points) into the break having earned at least a point in seven of their last eight games, but leaves them wanting more.<\/p>\n

Joseph Paintsil gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute, scoring after the goal was initially ruled offside before referee Lorenzo Hernandez overturned the call following a video review. The Galaxy nearly doubled the lead moments later, but Marco Reus could not steer a point-blank shot on goal.<\/p>\n

Houston answered in the 41st minute on Guilherme\u2019s long-distance blast from outside the 18-yard box. It was the only legitimate threat against the Galaxy defense in the first half.<\/p>\n

With the game tied at 1-1, the\u00a0Galaxy came out in the second half, not as sharp on the attack as they were in the first half. That allowed the Dynamo to open the game up into a more transitional pace.<\/p>\n

In the 74th minute, Houston nearly took the lead on Lawrence Ennali\u2019s shot from 20 yards out that just missed curling inside the left post.<\/p>\n

The Galaxy spent the second half trying to break down a deep-sitting Houston side, but former Galaxy goalkeeper Jonathan Bond kept them out with five saves after halftime. Bond, who played for the Galaxy from 2021 to 2024, helped Houston leave with a draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll feel like early, we left some points on the table in a couple of the early games for sure,\u201d Vanney said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll look back and we\u2019ll like some of (how we played) against the league leaders, we did well again some of those. The teams that were lower in the table, we gave up points in some of those places, that\u2019s something that we\u2019ve got to clean and win the game that we supposedly should win.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s MLS. I feel like every game in MLS is difficult and every team can beat anybody on any given day, but for us, I think that\u2019s something that we did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a really, really busy first half of the season. We\u2019ve had some big injuries to the big guys, who missed sections of the season, including now. How we\u2019ve played over the last 6-8 games, I\u2019m pleased with it because a lot of those games have been on the road and we\u2019ve showed a different kind of resilience, both with and without the ball and I think we showed a different intensity. I think we\u2019ve found a formula that we can really build on with this group and a connection that we can bring back for the second half of the season and push.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galaxy head off into the break in a better spot than earlier this season. The draw moves them to ninth place in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

The team will get three weeks off and then report back for the final three weeks, heading into their July 17 return against LAFC. There will be 19 regular season games remaining.<\/p>\n

The game ends a hectic start to the season for the Galaxy. Their first game was back on Feb. 19 in the first round of CONCACAF Champions Cup, with the regular season starting Feb. 22. The road trips have taken them to Jamaica and Panama.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s been a lot of ups and downs,\u201d defender Jakob Glesnes said. \u201cTo be honest, we wanted to have more point at home than we have so far. This should be our fort and we have lost a little bit too many points here so far, but the good thing is that we\u2019re just halfway through (the season).\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a question of what the Galaxy will look like when they do return. The transfer window opens July 13, just four days before their return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Galaxy midfielder Marco Reus, top, jumps on forward Joseph Paintsil after Paintsil scores a goal against the Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,30059,3,403,99,452,453],"class_list":["post-661837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-los-angeles-galaxy","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}