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Danny Acosta seemed to be seeking a fresh start of sorts when he signed with the LA Galaxy in 2020. That didn’t go as planned, however.
Acosta tore his ACL in the 2020 preseason, and the COVID pandemic took over from there, with the left back subsequently on the shelf for the entire season. So, he came back in 2021, after a long road rehabbing from the major knee injury, and finally made his debut with the Galaxy, a year later.
Here are Acosta’s statistics with the first team in 2021:
Danny Acosta 2021 LA Galaxy Statistics
| 2021 | Games Played | Games Started | Minutes | Goals | Assists | Shots | SOG | Yellow Cards | Red Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Games Played | Games Started | Minutes | Goals | Assists | Shots | SOG | Yellow Cards | Red Cards |
| MLS | 2 | 0 | 61 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Now 24, Acosta split his time between the Galaxy and LA Galaxy II, where he played seven games, all starts, and went 600 minutes at USL Championship level.
While Jorge Villafaña was a fixture early in the season at left back, his body broke down during the campaign and left back became an issue for the Galaxy, as they brought in Niko Hämäläinen on loan midseason to bolster the ranks. To me, that seemed to indicate either Acosta had a lot of rust from the long time away or Greg Vanney didn’t see him as a starter, and Hämäläinen jumped ahead of Acosta in the depth chart.
The highlight of Acosta’s season, aside from getting back on the field, was making his long-awaited debut for the Honduran national team, the country of his birth. Acosta had nearly featured for them in 2019 before reportedly having a late change of heart with the possibility of representing the United States on the table. But at 24, moving around MLS and then suffering the torn ACL, with the USMNT enjoying a resurgence with a new generation of players, Honduras opened up as his true option at international level, and so far, he’s made two appearances for Los Catrachos.
Acosta is an MLS Free Agent this offseason, meaning he can take advantage of the new expanded Free Agent category and get more flexibility in terms of where he can sign by virtue of his seniority in the league. The truth is, I don’t think he’s in line to get an offer from the Galaxy, so he would be moving on regardless. It was a tough break for him to suffer that injury, and it was a good risk/reward move initially for the Galaxy to sign him, as a player with tons of promise that had yet to be fulfilled. But in the end, it didn’t seem to be the right fit, and so I don’t expect him back for the 2022 season. And I don’t know where he’s headed next, although his international career could open some new doors if MLS doesn’t seem promising. We’ll see what happens.
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