ClapThe race for the playoffs at the top of the Western Conference is going to go down to the wire, but one thing we can say with some confidence is that Los Angeles Football Club are going to be in the mix. As such, any and all games involving them are pretty interesting to watch, because it’s quite clear to see that they’re currently one of the very best teams in the entire league.
As reported by ESPN and MLS Multiplex, their latest game was the classic El Trafico as they went head to head with LA Galaxy in what can only be described as one of the best MLS games in recent memory.
Push back
LA Galaxy started off like a house on fire, scoring three goals within the opening 16 minutes of the game – with Zlatan Ibrahimovic getting two of them. Latif Blessing popped up with a brace to take the game into half time at 3-2, delicately poised in favour of the visitors.
It was already one of the best halves of football that we’d seen in the MLS in an awfully long time, but Carlos Vela’s equaliser put the cherry on top of an already fantastic cake. It’s the kind of back and forth drama that you need for people to sit up and think hey, maybe this MLS stuff is good after all.
“If they don’t beat us, they don’t beat us,” said Ibrahimovic after the game, who celebrated both of his goals in front of the LAFC supporters’ section. “What can I say? I enjoy it when I play against them. I enjoy to play in this stadium.”
“You lead 3-1, I think we should hold the results, but then we were doing mistakes that killed ourselves,” Ibrahimovic said. “It wasn’t them. I mean, they punished us, but when they play their game, and we do mistakes, they punish us. At a higher level, the one that does the most mistakes is going to pay the most.”
Clash of the titans
With the Swede scoring one more goal than Vela in the game it strengthens his theory that he is better than the Mexican star, which is already a pretty intriguing viewpoint when you consider how different their seasons have been so far.
One of the biggest takeaways from this is something that we all already knew to be true: LAFC are not invincible, and we need to stop pretending like they are. They can be beaten, and that can only mean good things for the MLS Cup playoffs.
We’re fascinated to see how they attempt to bounce back from this latest setback, because there’s a very, very good chance that they are going to be feeling the pressure just ever so slightly more than they have been recently.
LA Galaxy, on the other hand, don’t have any real pressure on them as a franchise: but when it comes to Zlatan Ibrahimovic specifically, it’s pretty clear to see that the guy is putting all of his chips into the middle and gambling in a big way.
