When the LA Galaxy takes the sphere on Saturday towards the New York Purple Bulls within the MLS Cup last, they’re going to do it with out their star midfielder Riqui Puig.
Puig, who joined the LA Galaxy in 2022 on a free switch from FC Barcelona, suffered a torn ACL within the Galaxy’s semifinal win over the Seattle Sounders on Nov. 30. He performed the ultimate half-hour of the match with a torn ACL and remarkably assisted Dejan Joveljić’s game-winning aim.
There is no such thing as a timetable for Puig’s return, however the expectation is that he’ll miss most, if not all, of the 2025 MLS marketing campaign. The Galaxy should discover a approach to complement the lack of Puig, who tallied 15 objectives and 13 assists in 29 appearances for LA this season and was named to the league’s greatest XI alongside his former Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba.
Would Gio Reyna be somebody that Galaxy considers as an appropriate short-term Puig alternative?
Attainable advantages of a Gio Reyna MLS switch | SOTU
Reyna, in the beginning, is on the market. And, clearly, he is American, and desires a spot the place he’ll play.
Since becoming a member of Dortmund from New York Metropolis FC’s academy in 2019, Reyna has appeared in simply 141 video games in all competitions. He additionally had an unsuccessful mortgage spell within the Premier League with Nottingham Forest in January.
From a positional standpoint, he is not Riqui Puig, however he is really obtained some Puig-ish sorts of qualities. For a few years now, even when the Galaxy was struggling, it was apparent Riqui Puig was a top quality participant, and this season, he lastly had some high quality round him, and he ran the present in a type of throwback manner.
From the Galaxy’s perspective, it is not about getting Reyna’s profession again on observe; it is about getting one of the best out there participant on the market that, perhaps, can approximate what Puig does.
Some time in the past, Landon Donovan advised that Christian Pulisic, who, on the time, was struggling to get taking part in time at Chelsea and was on the lookout for a brand new membership, transfer to MLS as a result of there could be an assurance that he’d play. Lots of people gave him crap for it.
Now, with lower than two years till the 2026 World Cup on house soli, Reyna’s in the same place with Dortmund, the proposition appears much less far-fetched. We’ll see what occurs within the January switch window.
Alexi Lalas is a soccer analyst for FOX Sports activities and host of “Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union Podcast.” He represented the USMNT on the 1994 FIFA World Cup and had a nine-year skilled profession. In 2006, he turned the president of the LA Galaxy and helped carry David Beckham to Main League Soccer.
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