LA Galaxy Earn 1-1 Draw in Extra Time against Houston Dynamo FC at Shell Energy Stadium on Saturday Night
MLS LA Galaxy

LA Galaxy Earn 1-1 Draw in Extra Time against Houston Dynamo FC at Shell Energy Stadium on Saturday Night

Published on September 7, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
LA Galaxy News Release


LOS ANGELES - Continuing their 2025 MLS Regular Season campaign, the LA Galaxy fought hard in extra time and earned a 1-1 draw against Houston Dynamo FC on Saturday night at Shell Energy Stadium. Next up, LA travel to face Seattle Sounders FC at Lumen Field on Saturday, September 13 (5:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass).

LA Galaxy Against Houston Dynamo FC

Saturday's match marked the 45th all-time meeting across all competitions between the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC, with LA leading the series 18-14-13. Against Houston, the Galaxy now hold a 14-14-13 record in league play, a 1-0-0 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 3-0-0 record in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. In the first meeting between the two teams during the 2025 campaign, LA and Houston played to a 1-1 draw at Dignity Health Sports Park on April 12. In 21 MLS regular season road matches played against Houston, the LA Galaxy hold an all-time record of 7-10-5. In the last league meeting between the two teams at Shell Energy Stadium, the LA Galaxy fell 2-1 to Houston Dynamo FC on Oct. 19, 2024. In three career matches played against Houston, Gabriel Pec has recorded two goals and one assist.

Goal-Scoring Plays

HOU - Ezequiel Ponce (Ondřej Lingr), 35th minute: In a one-on-one battle down the field, Ponce broke through and hit a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the lower left corner.

LA - Lucas Sanabria (John Nelson, Gabriel Pec), 99th minute: Gabriel Pec passed the ball across the top of the box to John Nelson, with a one-time pass lofted in the air to Lucas Sanabria to head the ball to the bottom left corner.

Postgame Notes

Saturday's match marked the 45th all-time meeting across all competitions between the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC.

Against Houston, the Galaxy now hold a 14-14-13 record in league play, a 1-0-0 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 3-0-0 record in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.

In the first meeting between the two teams during the 2025 campaign, LA and Houston played to a 1-1 draw at Dignity Health Sports Park on April 12.

In 21 MLS regular season road matches played against Houston, the LA Galaxy hold an all-time record of 7-10-5.

Newly signed defender Chris Rindov played all 90 minutes in his first official match as a member of the LA Galaxy First Team.

Next Game

Next up, the LA Galaxy will continue the 2025 Regular Season campaign and travel to face the Seattle Sounders at Lumen Field on Saturday, September 13 (5:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass).

2025 MLS Regular Season

LA Galaxy (4-16-9, 21 pts) vs. Houston Dynamo (8-12-9, 33 pts)

Goals by Half 1 2 F

LA Galaxy 0 1 1

Houston Dynamo 1 0 1

Scoring Summary:

HOU: Ponce (Lingr), 35

LA: Sanabria (Nelson, Pec), 90+9

Misconduct Summary:

LA: Yoshida (caution), 52

LA: Cuevas (caution), 58

HOU: Urso (caution), 71

LA: Pec (caution), 90

LA: Nelson (caution), 90+10

Lineups:

LA Galaxy Starting XI: GK JT Marcinkowski; D Mauricio Cuevas (Miki Yamane, 61), D Chris Rindov, D Maya Yoshida ©, D John Nelson, M Edwin Cerrillo, M Elijah Wynder (Lucas Sanabria, 61), M Diego Fagundez, F Harbor Miller (Isaiah Parente, 79), F Tucker Lepley (Gabriel Pec, 45), F Miguel Berry (Christian Ramirez, 45)

Substitutes Not Used: GK Novak Mićović, D Zanka, D Eriq Zavaleta, F Nicklaus Sullivan

Referee: Marcos de Oliverira

Assistant Referees: Corey Parker, Matthew Rodman

Fourth Official: Lorenzo Hernandez

VAR: Edvin Jurisevic

Weather: Cloudy, 86 degrees

Attendance: 18,471

LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY

On staying patient and taking points wherever the team can:

"It [patience] was a big part of it, even mentally at halftime I could feel a little bit of the tension and the frustration. We didn't create a ton of chances in the first half. But as I said to the guys at halftime, 'listen, we're fine,' right. It's 1-0, we are on the road. Let's get the emotion out of it and let's just be solid. We'll adjust. Get some guys on as we keep pressing and keep pushing for it, and I thought the guys did a good job. I thought the last 20 minutes or so, we were definitely leaning on them. We put the ball in the back of the net a couple times. Had a couple other decent looks. I thought by and large, the group managed the game pretty well. The first half, we had a really hard time getting the group to threaten them in the spaces behind. I felt like the pressure kept mounting on us a little bit in terms of them feeling more and more comfortable to step forward to us. So part of it was us being able to get them to worry about the space behind them a little bit so we could get between their lines and we could get across the field sometimes, things like that. But again, on the road, I thought it was a good performance in terms of just scrapping things out. J.T. made a couple big saves, which we might need in a game like this, and we stuck with it and we found a way down the stretch, a great goal by Lucas. He had a couple great runs at the end there we broke the last line and gets the cross across on the one that hits Christian on the goal line and makes a hard run into the header woman that he scores and he almost has another he had header a few minutes earlier. I thought the positioning and work he was doing around the box was excellent. To your point, I think that's it. It's us playing the long game sometimes on the road and understanding that we don't have to win it right off the bat."

On watching the game come together at the end to earn the draw:

"Yeah, I was happy. It felt a lot like the reverse of last year's last game here. You remember the last game of the season where we could have won the Western Conference and we gave up that very late goal and it felt a lot like that but in reverse. I agree. I think they had a couple chances to get the second; they could have made it a little more difficult. We managed to thwart those moments, and I felt like we found ways to get more numbers high, to put the ball in some dangerous positions, get into wide areas where we could cross. I feel like it's a game that we've seen some of those go against us over the course of the season. It was nice to get one to go a little bit more in our favor and to see the guys just keep battle willing till the end, especially in moments like this where we are in the season. Guys battled it all the way through."

On Maya Yoshida's position toward the end of the match and if he could serve as another striker:

"That was the second time. He had a big goal in LAFC. It's the second time that we've been down the stretch there and we need another target there, another guy up top who we can play off of, who will win some balls in the air and keep some things alive. Yeah, when we are in that situation, you should get used to seeing Maya up there and keep giving us that target and keeping things alive for us. He set up a couple chances off of it."

On what scoring the goal do for Lucas Sanabria's confidence:

"I think it's huge. I think he's had a tough time settling in here and there. Also for us, just trying to figure out what's the best role for him, is it higher, like he did tonight and he got into some great positions? Is it a little lower, because he is a disrupter and he can tackle and break things up? Is it in the pivot position? Recently we really kind of decided we like him higher and making those hard runs through where he has a little more space to run and operate a little more freedom in some of his actions. But yeah for his confidence, I think it's huge. He's a guy that he's felt it. He's felt the pressure of not totally settling in the way he wanted to but he's always stuck with it. He's a great kid and an eager learner and he's a warrior and tonight he battled to the end and he got to some great spots. I like it because it also gives me, again, more information on him that he does get himself into good finishing positions and he can vary things, and it's good information and I'm sure it's great for him mentally. He had the biggest smile I've seen on his face when he came into the locker room and everyone cheered for him, and I think that's wonderful."

On where and how Sanabria might fit into the group when Riqui Puig returns:

"When Riqui is there, we know Riqui likes to dominate down low and pick up the ball, get on the turn, play through the lines. And so you know it's important for us to have a player on the opposite side of Riqui who can take up high positions, and he can present himself in the gaps and be a target for Riqui to play through as well as when Gab [Gabriel Pec] is wide and things like that. It is a role that we need and so between the two of them, sometimes we'll sit a guy lower and then we'll have to drop him out to create space for Riqui and sometimes we can put him higher like we did last year, sometimes with Marco, and we play almost like a more traditional 4-3-3. There's certainly room for what he did tonight with Riqui on the field, and there's room for our guys to sit a little lower like Marc did at times last year, too. We'll have to organize how we want players to move and Riqui comes on because obviously we have to create certain spaces for him and allow him the freedom to move where he likes to move. It certainly plays into the big picture."

On if he's ready for this season to end or prefers using the remaining games to test plays for the 2026 season:

"I'm definitely looking forward to these games. As you see, a game like tonight is huge for a player like Lucas to come on and do something great that's going to build his confidence, I know he'll be super motivated as he goes through training this week. We need these little types of successes for guys and they will come back in a better place as they start the season next year. So these minutes are huge for these guys. Mauricio [Cuevas] got minutes, Lucas, Elijah [Wynder]; Harbor [Miller] and slightly, again, the role he played against Colorado, not his long-term role but getting out there and competing at this intensity is incredible for him. Chris Rindov got 90 more minutes. These are super valuable minutes for these guys and I look forward to working with them all the way through to whenever we have to break and keep trying to move guys forward as we build on what they can bring for us in the short term but also in the long term."

On if he's started thinking about and planning for next season:

"I think internally, we are always discussing long term sort of projections into next year. It's how does each player that's on our current roster player into the vision of where we want to be in six months, in 12 months, things like that. And also, what qualities, what things do we really want to focus on the players we have long-term plans for, like a Lucas and others. So there's always ongoing discussions because it also informs the guys with Will [Kuntz] and his team up there as to what we need to be looking for as we build our roster into next year but a lot of that is also dictated by what the guys who are currently on our roster bring to the table as we go into next year. So these things are always ongoing, while my day-to-day is also, you know, really focused on preparing these guys and preparing for the games and everything. But it never stops, let's put it that way."

LA GALAXY DEFENDER JOHN NELSON

On the team setting themselves up to spoil Houston's lead, and their patience leading to the draw:

"In my experience in the league so far, playing here has always difficult. It's always tough. I'm sure Greg said that. But yeah, second half, I thought we earned it. I thought we deserved it. We're the better team. We were pushing for a little unlucky there, I think with Christian off-side. So we deserve that point. And obviously with Lucas, a really good header from him.

Happy for him and happy for the team, we fought hard and we deserved it."

On what he saw leading up to Sanabria's header into the goal:

"Yeah, yeah, no, I saw Pec, you know, coming across. I thought he was going to shoot it, honestly. But, no, it was coming across and he played it perfectly so I could hit it first time.

I knew we had Maya in the box, we had a lot of numbers. You know, pretty much last play the game. Just put in a good cross, you know, give it a chance. That's what I did, and, you know, obviously Lucas, with a really good finish."

On the importance of getting the goal and the assist as the potential end of the season draws near:

"Yeah, yeah, very important. You know, this season it is what it is. Obviously, we qualified for Champions League, which it's huge, it's just momentum now. You know, can we get, you know, some rhythm, some momentum going into these last games. Campeones Cup coming up.

But no, it's huge for these guys, huge for me, huge for Lucas, his confidence. It's crazy what confidence can do for a player, and hopefully you'll have to see that more."

On if he thinks, with the chances the team had, the Galaxy could have beaten Houston tonight:

"That's what we were saying in the locker room. Yeah, obviously last year, it was tough for us. I think we could have maybe stole three points from them. But it is what it is. We're happy. You know, we're dead tired. It's so hard to play here. You know, we should be tired, though. It's super humid, super hot. But can we maybe steal all three points? Yeah, yeah, maybe we should, but, you know, I think we're happy with the point on the road."

On his approach to the next few games and if it's moreso about preparing for next year:

"You know, like I said, the season, it is what it is. You know, playoffs, I don't know. But honestly, for me, it's just one game at a time. You know, can we get points a the road, and then at home, can we can we win, not just for us, but for the fans, of course. But for me, it's one game at a time, even if we're out of playoffs, 100 percent we're still trying to win, we're still trying to get the results. We're working hard in training. But yeah, for me, you know, I think for the team as well, you know it doesn't matter, we want to win. We want to play. We want to compete for us, for the fans. That's my mindset, and for sure tonight, really happy, really proud of us. We deserved a point. That's what we did tonight. And hopefully we can keep doing that as we continue to finish out the season."

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