Dejan Joveljic targeting new era of success with LA Galaxy

It took just two minutes for Dejan Joveljic to find the back of the net last weekend. A sharp LA Galaxy counter-attack was put into motion by the vision of Riqui Puig, progressed up the field with neat interplay from Julian Aude and Diego Fagúndez, before being finished off, unerringly, by Jovelic.

That strike against St Louis City took his scoring start to 2024 to a fourth consecutive game; Joveljic is finally showing the quality that convinced the Galaxy to sign him from Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt in 2021. His quality has never been in doubt but his MLS goals have come in fleeting bursts, never with real consistency.

Speaking after the 3-3 draw against St. Louis, Joveljic admitted that he wanted more from his performance: “It’s [a] frustrating game. We should have won that game. I should have scored more goals than one.”

“I’m the box player, but unfortunately I didn’t show that today. I take responsibility for today’s loss, let’s say. We didn’t win one point, we lost two points today.”

To date his best season for the Galaxy was in 2022, when he scored 11 MLS goals. However eight of those goals came in a eight-game hot streak in the middle of the season, before tailing off with two in 13 to end the campaign. Now, after the off-season departure of Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez, Joveljic has the chance to nail down his place at the focal point of this exciting Galaxy attack.

Joveljic adds a new dimension for refreshed Galaxy

Over the off-season the Galaxy front office made a concerted effort to reshape their roster. The team lacked dynamism in the final third, missing attacking runners with the pace to match Riqui Puig’s speed of thought in midfield.

They made major additions in the transfer market with Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil joining for a combined outlay of around $20 million. Paintsil, in particular, provides the directness that Galaxy were crying out for in 2023 and the Ghanaian international has already built a productive on-field relationship with his teammates. Joveljic is only too aware of the importance of his arrival.

He explained: “I think that Paintsil already built a very good relationship between our midfielders and other guys. He’s such a good player and good person, humble, and he’s going to help us a lot this season with his goals and assists. I can say that we are going to work even harder and that we are going to be more dangerous this year, more than ever.”

Paintsil has began life in Los Angeles with two goals and an assist in just four games. With a league-high four goals for Joveljic, too, it’s been a productive start for the Galaxy’s new-look forward line.

Can LA Galaxy return to the MLS playoffs?

The Galaxy remain the most successful team in MLS history. One of the league’s founding clubs they have been crowned MLS Cup champions a record five times and are one of only three US sides to have won the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

But memories of those victories have become increasingly distant, their last triumph, in any competition, coming in 2014. We are now a decade on from the all-conquering Galaxy teams of David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, and recent performances have been distinctly mediocre. The Galaxy have made the playoffs just twice in the past seven seasons, never making it beyond the quarter-final stage in that period.

However this year has brought real optimism for Galaxy supporters, a feeling that years of instability and underperformance may finally give way to a period of consistency and, who knows, even success. A promising start to their 2024 campaign has brought new hope to the Galaxy but the players know that they will be judged on results, not purely on improving performances.

“Mentally, it’s hard,” Joveljic explained, reflecting on Galaxy’s struggles to win games that they have dominated. “But the good thing in football is that everything is happening quick, so in seven days is a new chance. If you win three points nobody will talk about the St. Louis game. A new chance is coming fast and we need to take it.”

“For sure, we can work out of this and continue this way and hopefully next game against Kansas, which is very good team, we can make a very good result. Why not?”

Watch LA Galaxy take on Sporting Kansas City with the MLS Season Pass on AppleTV.