Vanney preaches patience with young star Cabral Today:

One of the biggest questions facing the Galaxy this season was what type of production it would get from Kévin Cabral.

In 28 games last season, his first in the U.S., Major League Soccer and the Galaxy, Cabral scored five goals and added two assists.

During the preseason, he again showed promise, scoring three goals.

“Scoring goals is about confidence,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said in the preseason. “It’s about taking a risk a little bit ... He was playing as a winger, but he was in front of the goal and he was goal dangerous, which was excellent. We didn’t see that a lot last year.”

Tonight against FC Dallas (5-1-4, 19 points) will be Cabral and the Galaxy’s 13th game of the season (11 MLS, two U.S. Open Cup), and he has recorded just one goal and one assist.

Cabral, 22, was signed last year as a Young Designated Player. He joined the Galaxy from France on a five-year contract.

“I don’t read social media, but I know Kévin is getting a hard time,” Vanney said Tuesday. “I had a veteran player tell me that people just don’t understand what Kévin does for our team.

“He does a lot of running, he does a lot of work, he does a lot of just the dirty work that not everybody wants to do and not everybody does. There’s a lot of value in that. We don’t have five shutouts without some of that work.”

“I feel like he made a hard run across the face of the goal against Portland that he runs that defender into the way when Sam crosses it, it hits the defender and goes into the goal. He doesn’t get credit for it, but that run changed that play.”

It’s the little things that changes games, but those little things aren’t the reason why the Galaxy (6-3-1, 19 points) brought Cabral in.

“He has moments that impact the game,” Vanney said. “Clearly, he wants and everybody wants for him to impact the game more just in pure goals and assists, there’s no question that he wants to get there and we all want him to get there. I do firmly believe that it will come.”

Cabral was one of four players (Samuel Grandsir, Sega Coulilbaly, Rayan Raveloson) that joined the Galaxy last season after starting their careers in the French Divisions. Cabral, along with his twin brother Remi, who plays with Galaxy II, is the youngest at 22.

Vanney called Cabral “tactically versatile” and a “smart kid who can adapt inside of games better than a lot of guys.”

“Some of it is just technical choice, some of it is aggression, some of it is confidence in that final moment,” Vanney said. “But the challenge that he has is that he’s a DP (Designated Player) at the L.A. Galaxy, but he’s also a young player, developing ...

“But he’s a DP at the Galaxy so there’s a huge expectation and we’re trying to manage that. I appreciate the work that he puts in on both sides of the ball. I understand the frustration, but I also understand from my perspective, the appreciation he does and for me it’s remaining patient and supporting him and trying to continue give him the work that he needs out on the training field and the opportunities to get moving in the right direction. We all see the game in goals and assists when you’re a forward or an attacking player, but there are a lot of important things that happen inside of 90 minutes that if you want to win people have to do and he does a lot of that stuff for us.”

UP NEXT Dallas at Galaxy, 7:30 p.m., Specsn, ESPN+