LA Galaxy Crushed 6-2 By St. Louis City

St. Louis, Mo. — St. Louis City tied the MLS record for the longest unbeaten run with a 6-2 drubbing of visiting LA Galaxy on Sunday, October 11, 2026.

A 20-minute first-half Carlo Holse hat trick and a Rafael Navarro brace of goals and assists led the way for the surging hosts, whose unbeaten streak reached 20 games. Former Galaxy assistant and Current St. Louis City Head Coach Yoann Damet’s team took control from the opening whistle and never looked like letting it slip.

“Yeah, we didn't start the game well,” LA Galaxy Striker João Klauss confessed in a post-match press conference. “I think less than a minute they had a chance, and then immediately we concede the first goal and the second goal, and then you have to start to chase. You have to start to take more risk. You have to go out of our game plan, and things become complicated.”

Now, Klauss and the Galaxy will have to wait for their first-ever win against St. Louis after getting blown out early and failing to find a way back.

The complicated start ruined what should’ve been a festive day for Klauss, who was returning to St. Louis for the first time as an opponent and started on the bench. Unfortunately, he was pressed into service early when Striker Kyogo Furuhashi was forced off in the 11th minute with a hamstring problem, with his team already down 2-0.   

Navarro and Holse combined in the first minute after Navarro easily stole the ball off Galaxy Defender Justin Haak. The Brazilian then found the trailing Holse in the middle of the box for the one-touch finish and the 1-0 lead before the home crowd had even gotten settled. 

“Certainly didn't go to plan,” LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney shared in a post-match press conference. “We wanted to stay in the game longer and give ourselves a chance in the second half, and we were behind it very quickly. And that became, I felt like, an emotion that we were playing with for a lot of the night.”

Photo Credit: LA Galaxy

LA Galaxy Winger Robert Taylor scored a goal in the Galaxy's 6-2 loss to St. Louis City on Sunday, October 11, 2026, at Energizer Park.

Five minutes later, the pair punished the Galaxy defense again. Navarro picked the ball up and drove toward the middle of the Galaxy’s box. He cut the ball back to Holse on the left, who powered it past Galaxy Goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski to make it 2-0. 

Holse completed his hat trick when he brought down a peach of a pass from Chris Durkin, muscled past Haak and sent the ball into Marcinkowski’s far post for three unanswered goals in 21 minutes.

Robert Taylor briefly gave the Galaxy a glimmer of hope in the 31st minute. The Finnish winger drove forward with a mazy run on the left wing, curling a shot past St. Louis Goalkeeper Roman Bürki to make it 3-1.

But when the Galaxy were in their best moment of the match, Pablo Ruiz fouled Alex Mățan in the box and conceded a penalty that Navarro duly dispatched to make it 4-1 for the hosts. To add insult to injury, St. Louis scored again on a powerful Lukas MacNaughton header just before halftime, making it 5-1 at the break.

It took just eight minutes for the hosts to find another goal, their sixth and last of the night. Navarro, who competed with Holse for player of the match, received the ball at the top of the box, turned and shot coolly through Jakob Glesnes’ legs. 

Klauss would get another one back for LA with a header off a Marco Reus cross to make it 6-2, but the game was sealed for St. Louis by that point.

After two straight matches where they came from behind to win, LA's resilience was missing in this match. 

It means an important three-game week starts poorly for the Galaxy. They have no time to mourn a tough loss, though. Portland, just behind the Galaxy in the standings, visits LA on Wednesday for a midweek showdown with plenty of playoff implications.

“Wednesday is the most important game of the season,” Vanney stressed. “We said this was the most important week. Wednesday is the most important game of the season.”

Klauss, too, was already trying to put this loss behind him.

“Yeah. Look, if we win the two home games that we have, what do you guys think? It's a good week or a bad week? We get six points out of nine? For me, it's a good week. And then nobody is talking about the result here anymore,” Klauss claimed. 

“But yeah, it's game by game. We have to win Wednesday.”