Offseason Guides: LA Galaxy and Toronto FC ready to bounce back

As usual I’ll start with the reminder that I’m going to be doing two of these on Mondays and two on Thursdays until all 30 teams are done. So far so good with the twice-weekly cadence.

And a reminder that the post-mortems for MLSsoccer are here:

• Western Conference dregs
• Eastern Conference dregs
• Wild Card losers

Another batch coming Wednesday.

Ok, in we go:

LA Galaxy

2025 finish: 26th overall with 30 points, which feels like a minor miracle when you think about how bad they were until June.

Biggest question: Is Riqui gonna come back and be Riqui again right away?

It was far too reductive to look at the Galaxy’s struggles through June – and yes, this is your reminder that they won but a single game1 out of their first 20 across all competitions; they were in hell – and say “it’s all because they were missing Riqui.” We know this because the Galaxy, from June onwards, played 25 games and went 11W-8L-6D, which… yeah that’s a playoff team. They were pretty good, and they qualified for Concacaf Champions Cup, and they were still missing Riqui when they did it.

But that’s the floor. What Riqui did as well as almost anyone in the league (non-Messi category) before he popped his ACL was raise the ceiling. They are clearly a trophy-caliber side with him in the lineup;2 we know that because they have the trophy to prove it.

Well, reports are he’s back to just about 100% in training (they’re saying he’s doing everything but tackling and defending, which sounds like pre-injury Riqui to me), and now has three-and-a-half months to try to knock any rust off and get as close to game-shape as possible.

He will be the biggest “addition” to the 2026 Galaxy roster. Period. There’s no one CSO Will Kuntz can go out and sign who will do more to define the way they play, no one who can be as much of a force magnifier for guys like Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil. Everything runs through Riqui.

His ACL was already torn when he played that pass! I still can’t get over it.

Let’s hope it’s a full recovery with no lingering, ill effects. If that’s the version of him they get, they’re a 60-point team again.

Top winter priority: Miguel Berry’s option was declined, and he won’t be back. Christian Ramirez was buried and basically unused3 the the second half of the season. Matheus Nascimento was in town on loan on a U-22 deal and man… he was not good.

According to their end-of-season roster decision update, LA are continuing “discussions with Botafogo to retain … Nascimento for the 2026 season” anyway.

That wouldn’t necessarily be a mistake, provided he doesn’t occupy a U-22 slot (that’s the only premium roster slot they’ll have available unless something unexpected happens). It wouldn’t exactly be unprecedented for a young import to struggle in Year 1 and then be pretty great in Year 2.

But it would be a massive mistake to go into 2026 expecting him to be the starter. They need to go get a reliable No. 9.4

State of the roster: The real upshot of the season’s second half wasn’t the decent record or even the CCC berth: It was the fact that the winning (and even the good losses, like against a wagon of a Toluca side in the Campeones’ Cup) came with down-roster players of the sort head coach Greg Vanney has traditionally ignored. Academy products, Next Pro stalwarts, veteran cast-offs… they all got playing time. A lot of them impressed.

This means that, for once, the Galaxy mostly don’t have to worry about their depth. They’ve finally opened the academy-to-Next Pro-to-first team pipeline at least a bit.

They will still shop, of course. But as long as Vanney’s willing to stay committed to playing these guys, the front office won’t have to cast a broad net; Kuntz & Co. can be very specific in terms of who they need, and where.

• 2026 TAM players: Garces, Reus, Yamane
• 2026 U-22 players: Aude, Sanabria
• 2026 DPs: Paintsil, Pec, Puig

Where the XI stands now: I still have some questions about the backline (Maya Yoshida looked his age at times last year) and in goal, but this group mostly picks itself:

4-2-3-1:

• GK: Mićović
• LB: Aude
• LCB: Yoshida
• RCB: Garces
• RB: Cuevas
• DM: Cerrillo
• CM: Wynder
• LW: Paintsil
• AM: Puig
• RW: Pec
• FW: ???

Things to know:

• I’m not at all sold on Novak Mićović, who was generally pretty poor. I’d hope JT Marcinkowski gets a real shot to win the starting job.
• Both Elijah Wynder in central midfield and Mauricio Cuevas at right back put in “it’s my job now” types of performances down the stretch.
• Orlando owns the Galaxy’s first-round pick. Oops.
• They’re in negotiations to bring back veteran Diego Fagúndez, which makes sense given he’s cover at four different spots.

Toronto FC

2025 finish: 25th overall on 32 points. I nailed the over/under (I set it at 32.5 points in February) but was wrong about them “winning” the Wooden Spoon.

Biggest question: How are they going to spend those two open DP slots?

TFC are almost an expansion team with how much cap space they cleared and how many roster slots they opened up. That includes opting out of half their TAM players, creating a path to three open U-22 slots, sitting on two unused DP slots, and raking in the GAM as they gutted the squad:

What they see their one current DP (Djordje Mihailovic) as will go a long way towards determining how they fill those other two. Djordje’s played both as a playmaking left winger and a true No. 10 during his career, and he played both for Toronto during the second half of last season after his cashfer arrival from Colorado.

• If he’s their 10 going forward, that informs the type of winger they need to get with at least one of those open DP slots.
• If he’s a playmaking winger, then that means they need to go out and get a No. 10.

The other question is whether or not they’re going to go get a DP 9 as well.

Nobody asked, but I simply do not think they should. With the way the league has evolved over the past half-decade, it makes more sense to spend your premium slots on guys who make the game – who control it, and shape it, and create chances within it – than it is to spend on guys who finish plays off.5

Top winter priority: I just wrote about it. Toronto can’t afford to do the Insigne/Bernardeschi thing again.6

But I’d wager they’re spending almost as much time figuring out how to fix that backline as they are figuring out how to spend those DP slots. They actually do have nine defenders on the roster heading into the winter, but only one of those guys (veteran Richie Laryea) looks to me like a surefire starter. A few others have caught my eye, though mostly not in a good way.7

Given how hard it is to hit on center back imports, I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see CSO Jason Hernandez shop primarily within MLS here, be it via free agency, cashfer or trade. There is a sense around the league that a number of veteran center backs are available for the right price.

State of the roster: The other big move Hernandez made this summer – besides buying Djordje and jettisoning the Italians – was bringing in José Cifuentes on loan from Rangers. The Ecuadorian had been in the wilderness since leaving LAFC, and while he didn’t pick back up and immediately perform at a Best XI clip, he certainly was an upgrade over what Robin Fraser had been running out at the No. 8 spot for the first half of the season.

He and Djordje form a core of MLS-proven guys who are smack in their prime. Laryea’s a little older but still good, while Jonathan Osorio has almost certainly reached the “reliable squad player” portion of his career.

The rest of it is up for grabs. I like many of their young attackers, d-mid Alonso Coello is useful, and I said what I said about the defense. So back to the point I made at the top: this is almost an expansion team.

There’s going to be a lot of new faces, and a lot of getting-to-know-you moments come preseason. I hope these guys like board games.

• 2026 TAM players: Cifuentes, Laryea, Osorio
• 2026 U-22 players: Mailula (they loaned him out last year and I assume they’ll do the same again in 2026, re-opening that slot)
• 2026 DPs: Mihailovic

Where the XI stands now: Lotta gaps! That includes in goal, where Sean Johnson had an excellent 2025 but is now out of contract; they’re in negotiations for him to return. We’ll see.

Gonna do some wishcasting here with the DPs:

4-2-3-1:

• GK: ???
• LB: ???
• LCB: ???
• RCB: ???
• RB: Laryea
• DM: ???
• CM: Cifuentes
• LW: Mihailovic
• AM: DP goalscoring 10
• RW: DP
• FW: Kerr

Things to know:

• I’m probably out over my skis on Deandre Kerr, whose underlyings are really bad. But he’s managed to score a goal every 200 minutes8 for this dysfunctional team over the past few years and I’ve got a feeling that he’ll be able to improve on that with a more competent attack around him.

• Like the Galaxy, they do not have their own first-round pick. Oops.

• Just bear in mind that TFC have traditionally done as little in terms of player pipeline development as LA. I’m hoping they get answers from within, but not counting on it.

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