With multiple injuries in the midfield, the Galaxy have had to get minutes from several unlikely places, including midfielder Isaiah Parente.
Parente spent the majority of the 2024 season playing with Galaxy II/Ventura County FC. He’s become a valuable fill-in so far with the first team, playing the full 90 minutes in each of the past two games, including Wednesday’s must-win CONCACAF Champions Cup game against Herediano.
“His previous coach in Columbus sent me a message when we signed him, said I really like this kid and he’s going to help you out,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “I felt like last year in preseason he struggled a little bit just because I felt he was probably trying to show too much. His game is a game of simplicity and just being clean and moving and playing and keeping … a time-giver, a little bit like Mark Delgado was.”
The Galaxy (0-3) visit the Portland Timbers (1-2, three points) on Sunday.
“He moves the ball quick, he shows up and he plays. Over the course of last year, he settled in to the group,” Vanney said of Parente. “He was actually training really well at the end of last year and this year he came in and I wanted to see the guys that we brought in and I wasn’t sure exactly Isaiah was in terms of connection, playing forward, managing some of the defensive moments and things like that. In these last couple of games, he’s shown that he’s somebody who can help us, especially because nobody has stepped into that role next to Eddie (Edwin Cerrillo) and said, ‘This is my position and this what I do.’ And he has done that.”
“He’s a version of what we were getting from Mark (Delgado). He’s a balancer, he’s a guy who plays fast, gives his time to other people. He has a high level of field awareness, which allows him to play fast and find good positions, and he helps sort of the system function a little bit and that’s something we haven’t had in some of the games prior.”
Parente had a pair of assists in the Galaxy’s win over Herediano
Matheus Nascimento available
Brazilian forward Matheus Nascimento is in line to make his debut Sunday after recovering from a groin injury.
Nascimento, 20, joined the Galaxy from Botafogo in Brazil. Even though he’s been with the team since the early days of preseason, he hasn’t logged much training time with the full group.
“He hasn’t trained a ton with us,” Vanney said. “He’s done a lot of training on the side, either to get fitness or because he was awaiting his visa, then he got injured and then he’s been recovering. He’s probably been in a total of five, six team training sessions.
“What I’ve seen? Pretty clean with his feet, he’s a guy who likes to come in and link up with the team. Looks good in the finishing areas. I just want to see as he goes, how dynamic he will be, how much he’s going to look to run behind the opposition. See how he physically covers the ground in an MLS game, things like that, that I’m not sure yet because I just haven’t seen him enough to have some of those ideas.”
Marco Reus’ availability uncertain
Reus went 90 minutes in last Sunday’s 3-0 loss against St. Louis City SC and was not available in Wednesday’s win against CS Herediano. His status for Sunday is uncertain, trending toward not being available.
“I won’t put him into a high-risk situation, for sure,” Vanney said of Sunday’s plan. “If that means limited minutes, maybe. If that means not all, possibly. I would certain rather make sure we’re playing the long game instead of any kind of short game. Good chance that he won’t be involved.”
More injury updates
Defender Miki Yamane will be available Sunday. … Vanney said forward Joseph Paintsil “should be coming back in the next week to two weeks.” … Vanney said defender Mauricio Cuevas is still two to three weeks “from getting back into the mix.”
GALAXY at PORTLAND TIMBERS
When: 1:45 p.m. Sunday
Where: Providence Park; Portland, Oregon
How to watch: FOX (Ch. 11), Apple TV (MLS Season Pass)