On Saturday, things hit a new low for the Los Angeles Galaxy, losing 7-0 to the New York Red Bulls, and it’s now the worst start by a defending MLS Cup champion in history with zero victories after 12 games. It was a rematch of the 2024 MLS Cup, which the Galaxy lifted, and a show of how far they’ve fallen, with the Red Bulls tying the largest margin of victory in a rematch with their seven-goal triumph. It’s also only the second time in their history that the Red Bulls have scored seven goals, and their first time since 2016.
In 12 matches this season, the Galaxy sit at the bottom of the Western Conference. Conceding a league-high 28 goals, things couldn’t be going much worse for Gregg Vanney’s team, but they’ve also scored the second-fewest goals in MLS, with only eight goals.
Struggles were expected with star midfielder Riqui Puig missing the start of the season with an ACL injury, but with stars such as Marco Reus, Gabriel Pec, and Joseph Paintsil in the team, scoring goals wasn’t expected to be an issue for the Galaxy. Given that MLS is a salary cap league, it’s natural that changes can come after winning the title and that those changes can make the team worse, but with an xG of 12.93, it’s not even like they’re missing good chances; they just aren’t creating them at all.
Let’s take a look at the worst starts for defending champs in some other leagues in the United States:
NFL: Los Angeles Rams (2022-23)
In 2022, after winning the Super Bowl, the Rams couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start with a 3-6 record. Winning two of their first three games of the season, they then went into a tailspin, only winning five games ahead of missing the playoffs and finishing third in the NFC West. This was the season where Matthew Stafford played in just nine games due to injury.
This still isn’t as bad as what the Galaxy are currently going through, but it was the joint worst start by an NFL team after winning the Super Bowl.
MLB: Florida Marlins (1998)
In baseball, the worst start by a defending champion belongs to the Florida Marlins (now Miami Marlins) in 1998. They had gone on to win the World Series in 1997, but they then traded Moises Alou to the Houston Astros and began the season 1-9, before finishing 54-108.
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