LA Galaxy's Concacaf Champions Cup elimination is a blessing in disguise | OneFootball

Manager Gregg Vanney may not be able to admit it publicly. But the LA Galaxy's 3-2 defeat at Tigres UANL in Leg 2 of the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday night (and their elimination on aggregate by the same score) may be exactly what his team needed.

To say the Galaxy ship has been taking on water would be an understatement. Vanney's LA squad is one of only three in MLS still seeking its first victory after Matchday 7. His defense has conceded a league-worst 14 goals. And his attack still looks a far distance from the mesmerizing unit it was at times while powering the Galaxy to the 2024 MLS Cup, crippled by the long-term absence of talisman Riqui Puig, who is still several months from returning from an ACL tear.

Amid all that, Vanney may have gotten the ideal result in its trip to Mexico: a close defeat to one of the giants of Concacaf in a place where MLS clubs rarely win, allowing his club to exit with a competition it has no realistic chance of winning while giving a performance it can build on.

And that's the thing to understand here: very few MLS clubs have the quality needed to even consider a run at a continental title. A Galaxy side minus two of its four double-digit scorers from a season ago isn't one of them.

How the Galaxy lost mattered

But it was also important that Tuesday's match didn't turn ugly, which it certainly had potential to early as Tigres roared to a 2-0 lead. At that moment, there were echoes at that point of the Philadelphia Union's 6-0 loss at Pachuca in Leg 2 of their second-round series, which proved to be foreshadowing of a ruinous season, and the last for popular manager Jim Curtin.

Instead, goals from Joseph Paintsil and Emil Garces allow Vanney to keep his group's confidence up as it turns its focus solely toward the league. And despite that winless league start, there are reasons to believe the Galaxy can at least become a competent league side while waiting for Puig to recover.

Paintsil, who was another of LA's double-digit scorers last season, has still only played 87 league minutes while being tasked with focusing on Concacaf games since his return from a preseason injury. Christian Ramirez has scored in his last three league matches after being signed to be an affordable replacement for the departure of striker Dejan Joveljic.

And Garces has proven a set-piece threat like the Galaxy haven't had on their back line in a bit, having also scored in a 2-2 draw at Minnesota United a couple of weeks ago.

So you're saying there's a chance

And now that its Concacaf run has ended, earning league results with less roster bandwidth becomes more realistic. Add the forgiving MLS Cup Playoff format, in which nine teams from each conference qualify, and there's still enough in the Galaxy dressing room to consider postseason qualification a reasonable aim.

By then, Puig will be healthy. And when he's on the field, the Galaxy always has a chance. But he wasn't coming back by next month, which always made the question of the Galaxy's Concacaf Champions Cup elimination a matter of when and not if. Better to have it over with now.