Vanney praises mentality after hard-fought win

LA Galaxy snapped their winless streak on Wednesday with a 1-0 victory over San Jose Earthquakes despite making their own task harder in the process. Lucas Sanabria was shown a red card on the stroke of half-time, leaving Greg Vanney’s side to dig in with 10 men for the second half.

The win moves the Galaxy up to 10th in the Western Conference, just two points back from the playoff places, and it is their first victory since the World Cup break.

Vanney hailed the strong spirit of his players and urged them to keep finding ways to win as they travel to CF Montreal next in MLS.

"Sometimes winning the hard way is even better for the mentality and the spirit of the group as you embark on an important part of the season," Vanney said. "The challenges are we lose another guy in the midfield going into the next game, and we're just going to have to see the guys step up. That's really important."

"I think the team has the capacity to not just, as we move forward, show the qualities we have but also the maturity and what it takes to understand how to win different types of games," he added. "We're starting to build our identity with a new group of players that are coming in and building our relationships in the core group."

Montreal also end drought

CF Montreal remain second from bottom in the East, though they are only four points behind ninth-place D.C. United, meaning their playoff hopes are still very much alive.

Like the Galaxy, they ended a long wait for a win in midweek; having gone eight matches without a victory, they beat Columbus Crew 2-1. Alexis Sanchez made his debut in that game, getting his first minutes off the bench, and Montreal will be hoping to continue his winning start.

Players to watch

CF Montreal – Prince Owusu
Prince Owusu has been involved in 18 of the 27 goals Montreal has scored this season, with 12 goals and six assists, including scoring the opener against Columbus on Wednesday. Owusu is tied for fourth in goal contributions in MLS despite Montreal sitting tied for 23rd in the league in goals.

LA Galaxy – Joseph Paintsil
Joseph Paintsil scored his fifth goal of the season in Wednesday's 1-0 victory – it was the fourth time this season he has scored the Galaxy's lone goal in an MLS match. Prior to that, the Galaxy had drawn all four MLS matches in which Paintsil had scored this season.

Head-to-head and prediction

LA Galaxy have won four straight meetings with Montreal after managing one win in the first five encounters. The last meeting between the sides was in California in July 2022, while they have not played in Montreal since May 2018.

Montreal snapped an eight-match regular-season winless run with a 2-1 away win over Columbus. Montreal have put together back-to-back wins in league play just once since the start of the 2025 season, doing so against New York Red Bulls and New York City FC in April.

As for the Galaxy, they snapped a six-match regular-season winless run with their victory over San Jose. Since the start of last season, they have managed back-to-back league wins just twice, with both coming in pairs of home matches in July 2025 and October 2025.

Opta win probability for the upcoming meeting: CF Montreal 44.4%, Draw 25.1%, LA Galaxy 30.5%. The forecast leans to a CF Montreal win.