Marco Reus: German icon finds his groove with LA Galaxy | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

Most anyone who’s relocated to a new place can point to a moment of commitment, a key step towards putting down roots. For some, it’s inking mortgage papers, enrolling the kids at a new school, or perhaps something simpler, like signing up for a gym membership.

For Marco Reus and his family, it was flying a horse halfway around the world.

The LA Galaxy star first touched down in Southern California last August, helping the Gs win their league-record sixth MLS Cup with an emphatic run to the 2024 championship in December, the first league title of his illustrious career. He, his wife Scarlett and their two young children understandably took a bit longer to settle in their first extended stint outside of Germany, though.

Settling in

One more member of their inner circle finally touched down in SoCal a couple of months ago, as they took on the substantial logistics of reuniting Scarlett, an accomplished equestrian who often competed in dressage events back in Europe, with her beloved horse Mochi, and setting him up at his new stable in the Golden State.

“Happy wife, happy life – you can put it like this,” wisecracked Reus to MLSsoccer.com this week, ahead of the Galaxy’s El Tráfico throwdown with their crosstown rivals LAFC on Saturday night (10:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+). “It’s her hobby, and she's quite happy to have her horse here, especially in LA. So that's good. I always try to help her with all these things.

“You know how it is. When the family is good, the wife is good and the kids are good, everything else doesn't matter. So I'm happy if my wife and my kids are happy,” he added. “You have the beach in front of you, so that means you have so much time to have quality time with your family. And besides this, there's so many things to do with the kids – we're enjoying, of course, the sun and the free time.”

Main man

It would probably be a reach to directly credit Mochi for Reus’ resurgent form on the pitch, the playmaker having reeled off 12 goal contributions in his last 13 matches, including his team-leading fifth goal of the campaign in last weekend's win over D.C. United. Yet the fact that the German is lately showing his best self on the pitch inevitably ties into his and his family’s growing sense of comfort in their surroundings.

After a taxing start to the Galaxy’s season – statistically one of the worst title defenses in MLS history, as injuries and roster turnover provoked a galling 16-game league winless skid and a slide to the foot of the standings right out of the gates – LA finally staunched the bleeding over the past few weeks, and Reus is a major factor.

“It was quite hard in the last months with the results that we got,” said the German. “Mostly, I would say we played not badly, but we did too many mistakes. And even in this league, mistakes cost you.

“We had a new group, with new players coming in. It was quite hard at the beginning to score goals. We conceded too many goals, especially in the first games. And now you can see that after the win two weeks ago [over Western Conference frontrunners Vancouver] that we got a little bit of our confidence back, and it makes a huge, huge impact. When you have the confidence in your team, you see it in different types of players.”

Finding rhythm

After an assortment of nagging injuries disrupted his rhythm in the early months of his Galaxy tenure, Reus has stacked up a string of starts, and his influence is unmistakable.

“He's smarter than everybody else. That's what it comes down to,” noted head coach Greg Vanney after the 3-0 beating of the Whitecaps on July 4, in which Reus bagged his team-high seventh assist. “He sees the game, he knows what's happening in the game, he knows what the next play looks like, he knows what you should be doing, the next guy should be doing, the defender. The game is already flowing through his brain. So he can play in anticipation when the rest of the players are playing in the moment.

“I think the biggest thing for him, and I don't want to speak for him, is he feels better,” added Vanney. “So when you are running around the field and you feel good, then you aren't thinking about this, that or the other – you're just playing the game. And now he's been able to get into a flow with the rest of his teammates and just play the game.”

Reus’ star turn in the year’s first edition of El Tráfico, a dramatic 2-2 draw on May 18, was another notable inflection point. Even in the depths of a five-game losing streak, he and the Gs rose to the occasion to deny LAFC a win at Dignity Health Sports Park, Reus bagging a brace via a stunning late free-kick equalizer. He says he’s eager to experience the other side of the clásico at BMO Stadium.

“I played a few derbies in my career, so I know a little bit about derbies and rivalry,” said the Borussia Dortmund legend, nodding to his old club’s ‘Der Klassiker’ showdowns with Bayern Munich and the ‘Revierderby’ against Schalke 04. “Of course everybody in the team is excited to play this game, especially when you play away. For me, it will be the first time to play in this stadium. But honestly, our goal has to be always the same: to win these games.

“It will be a huge game for the city, for the club. So we try, of course, our best.”

Leading by example

His Tráfico heroics point to a growing embrace of the LA spotlight. Last year, Reus had to adapt to a complementary role upon arrival, with the Galaxy in full flow under the orchestration of their No. 10, Riqui Puig. When the Spanish wizard tore his ACL during their Audi MLS Cup Playoffs run, Reus was the logical replacement in terms of creative inspiration, at least on paper.

Their differing skill sets and personalities made that a trickier assignment in reality, especially amid a raft of changes elsewhere as the Galaxy chopped and changed their squad to attain compliance with MLS roster regulations. As difficult as the circumstances were, Reus’ pedigree is such that he inevitably bore the burden of expectations as last season’s euphoria melted away.

“I had a lot of times in my career, situations where I was not scoring or not giving assists, but for me, it's more like, I want to play well, and then the goals and the rest will come automatically,” he reflected. “So I always try to say myself, ‘Relax. It will come. Just work hard.’

“We had also, [for] one or two months, a chance to play with almost the same team; we have no bigger injuries besides Riqui, I would say. So that means the structure is better, and that helps me and the team as well.”

German connection

Sometimes settling in just isn’t as straightforward as you might expect. As Reus detailed in a German-language podcast appearance last autumn, one of he and Scarlett’s first househunting targets turned out to have previously been the site of extensive organized crime operations, prompting them to move on to a spot with a less checkered past.

Thankfully, the Reus clan have a well-connected countryman they can call on for advice: Former US men’s national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann, who helped sell them on the charms of Newport Beach, a beautiful seaside community some 35 miles down the coast from DHSP with a significant European expatriate population.

“He was actually one of these guys I was reaching out to him before I arrived here. I asked him, 'How is Orange County?'” Reus said of Klinsmann, who even took him on a drive to show him around town. “He showed me a little bit of Newport, the best places, supermarkets, doctors, schools and kindergarten. So he helped me a little bit at the beginning, and we have still contact sometimes.”

Klinsmann famously used his helicopter pilot’s license to commute by air from Newport to USMNT camps in Carson, bypassing the infamous traffic snarls on Interstate 405. Reus says he’s happy to have a typically North American car commute, however, using the time for phone calls back to Germany, as he works on a few side projects like Goalden League, a soccer-themed game app he’s involved with.

“You have to be open for every business idea,” he noted. “Obviously your [playing] career is not going to take you 50 years. So you have to be careful with your plans after your career. So I have always open eyes for new ideas … Don't be blind, I would call it.”

Full steam ahead

In the shorter term, Reus hasn’t given up on 2025 despite the Galaxy’s woes.

Even with the defending champs 14 points south of the playoff places after Wednesday’s home loss to Austin FC, their 23rd match of the season, he and his teammates hope they can build momentum by digging out one positive result at a time – and none carry more weight than El Tráfico.

“We’ll try to win as many games as possible in the next weeks, because our goal has to be to reach the playoffs,” he said.

“I know it's far away, but nothing is impossible. So we go for it.”

Player of the Matchday 14: Marco Reus