- San Jose Earthquakes have won two, drawn two and lost only one of their last five games in all competitions.
- LA Galaxy have won one, drawn two and lost two of their past five MLS 2025 games.
Earthquakes will fancy their chances
San José Earthquakes are available at odds of 2.27 ahead of the visit of LA Galaxy to California on Sunday, which makes Bruce Arena’s men favourites to win.
But the hosts are only just favourites at 2.27 while LA Galaxy are still available at 3.22, which seems too good to be true given that the Earthquakes beat Galaxy 1-0 in Los Angeles only three weeks ago.
Although LA have dominated the recent head-to-head record, winning six, drawing one and losing only once in the last eight meetings, San José are clearly the team in the ascendancy right now.
Arena has brought a renewed tactical aggression and higher pressing intensity to the Earthquakes since taking charge in January 2025 and it has given them renewed energy.
They are still 18th in the USA MLS 2025 table with 23 points from 18 games, but their recent improvement is clear in the sequence of results.
San José are not easy to beat at PayPal Park, where they have avoided defeat in their last two MLS fixtures (1 win and 1 draw), but have failed to win any of their last five home games against LA Galaxy – which suggests some psychological issues could be involved.
Galaxy have been woeful on the road
But in Christian Ramirez, Galaxy have their own talisman to take the game to the hosts this weekend. The forward has four goals in 17 MLS 2025 games this year, but the team have been let down by the form of Marco Reus, who has three assists in the past five games as Galaxy’s creative focal point.
Greg Vanney’s men are in a shocking position in 30th place with only eight points from 18 USA MLS 2025 matches, which is the worst points total in the league. Vanney did make some tactical tweaks to great effect in their 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake last time out, so that will be a factor here.
San Jose are a 4-4-2 team that presses hard and likes to get their wide players in behind the opposition full-backs, but they can be exposed on the counter or in transition. LA are a more fluid team, capable of moments of magic, but their inconsistency will be a problem again here.
The home team are more reliable in front of goal with 2.78 scored and 1.89 conceded at PayPal Park, which shows their attacking thrust and defensive weaknesses. Given the way both sides have been playing, we think ‘Both teams to score’ is a strong play here and the odds-against for the home win makes it worth taking with a caveat for a closely-contested game.
