The new kids on the block blow another chance to cement themselves as the true kings of LA soccer with their draw tonight against the LA Galaxy. The cross town rivalry nicknamed El Trafico has now become the LA sports event to attend. The energy in tonights game was electric and so was the performance via the players. The first time the two teams met the LAFC took an early lead only for the LA Galaxy to battle back and get the win 4-3. Tonight’s match took place in Los Angele’s newest venue Banc Of California Stadium and pitted the two rivals with the city skyline in the back drop. The LAFC took an early 2-0 lead and completely dominated the pitch with possession, take aways and shot attempts. Yet tenaciously the LA Galaxy climbed back into the game to end El Traffico in a draw. The two teams meet one more time this season. It will take a solid win for the LAFC to be able to claim this years El Trafico Championship Title. Yet this game leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of the LAFC.
It appears the Galaxy, who have rallied from deficits to claim seven points in their last three games to push their unbeaten streak to eight, have a mental edge on their neighbors. “They have to think that,” said Alessandrini, who finished a Zlatan Ibrahimovic cross. “When you play this kind of game, a derby, they just [joined] MLS. We have to make sure to stay the first team in Los Angeles. They have to feel that.”
The Galaxy were poor in the first half, beaten to balls in midfield and unable to penetrate LAFC’s defense when they attacked. To think they were able to score two goals in the last 10 minutes is unfathomable. “The whole MLS is everything can happen,” Ibrahimovic said. “You lose 2 or 3 to 0, the game is front and back. You can come up catch them 2-2, 3-3, and even win the game because you will get chances. you will get chances and you will get good chances. The only thing is you have to make sure you score when you get those chances. That is not like the Championship or the countries I’ve played in. You don’t get a lot of chances. You get one or two. If you don’t score on those chances, you don’t win the game and they punish you for that, but here you will get a lot of chances. I am starting to understand the game much more and today we got chances. LAFC was a better team and we got chances and took care of the chances we got.”
