CARSON — Gabriel Pec’s 2024 has seen him join a new club in a new country and get married.
Saturday, the Brazilian forward opened his scoring account as a member of the Galaxy, leading the club to a wet and wild 1-0 win over the Seattle Sounders in front of 22,736 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
“I was waiting for a game like this,” Pec said. “The only thing that affected me was the cold weather. I’m glad I could score and I was happy with my performance.”
Pec joined the Galaxy (3-0-3, 12 points) from Vasco da Gama in Brazil, signing as a young Designated Player on Jan. 30.
In the fourth minute, Pec beat Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei for the game’s opening and only goal.
“(Seattle defender) Nouhou is easy to play against,” Vanney said. “I thought he (Pec) was really good. I think we saw some of his talent that we hadn’t seen in other games.”
On the field, the Galaxy slowly let Pec work his way into the group. He earned his first start last week in the 3-2 win over Sporting Kansas City and he assisted on the game-winning goal. Previously, he had only seen action as a second-half substitute. He also missed a game due to his marriage.
The adjustments he’s had to make are not only on the attacking side, but on the defensive end.
“Defensively, I think he’s still working through his tendencies before he got here and finding the rhythm of what we’re asking him to do,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said Thursday. “Before he got here, he would just defend the outside back and that was his responsibility, but now we have more weakside responsibility when the ball is on the other side of the field for him to have to fulfill.
“On the attacking side, we have to play better, to help him too. Some of this is just him going through the growing pains of not having a preseason, not having as much time with the group.”
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Pec’s fourth minute goal, should have given the Galaxy a 2-0 lead, but in the second minute, Joseph Paintsil got behind the defense, but his shot hit the post.
Both teams had to splash their way up and down the field as rains left the field soaked. Hours before the game, members of the grounds crew and even some of the Galaxy technical staff were out with brooms and squeegees trying to move of the excess water from the field.
By the second half, the Sounders tried to push for the equalizing goal. The Sounders had the possession advantage and had more shots than the Galaxy.
“We needed to improve for sure,” Galaxy defender Maya Yoshida said. “Today we did well, it’s still a long season and we need to keep going and adjusting. We had a lot of discussions last week and we had to think about improvement. The three points were very massive.”
As much water as the field took, the Galaxy took just about the same amount of pressure, but surviving thanks same amount of pressure, but managing to defend their way to safety.
“The guys were resilient,” Vanney said. “It was not an easy field to play on, I think we dealt with 25 crosses that the guys had to clear and not many of them turned into anything dangerous.
“The guys dealt with some awkward numbers coming at them, but they did a good job pulling together and dealing with stuff. It was a resilient effort and one that we needed today.”
The win, not only kept the Galaxy’s unbeaten streak to start the season alive, but also gave the Galaxy their first MLS regular-season win over Seattle since 2018.
“Getting results makes everything better,” Galaxy midfielder Mark Delgado. “Makes all the difference in everyone’s attitude. I don’t think we played our best, but we got a good result. I don’t think it was our best, but we move on.”
The Galaxy will return to the field Saturday in the first El Trafico against rival LAFC at BMO Stadium.
