The 18th edition of one of the best long-standing rivalries in Major League Soccer delivered fantastic goals, another effort from the derby’s goal king and a feat that has never been achieved before, as LAFC celebrated its first Trafico road win, defeating the winless LA Galaxy, 3-2 Sunday afternoon.
See: Granit Xhaka plays down criticism from Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta after West Ham draw
“It feels great. I feel like we showed many times that we’re better than them, but for some reason anytime we play here it’s a crazy start,” Carlos Vela said. “After this one, I hope we win more often here and show every time that we play LA Galaxy that we’re the team of this city.”
Vela played a key role in LAFC’s historic win, kicking off the scoring with a 22nd-minute golazo and adding a second from the penalty spot. This brings his total score to 12 goals, which is more than any other player in EL Trafico history.
“Carlos has a very special left leg and his football IQ is also off the charts,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “Carlos has done that time and time again and it’s great to see that, it’s great to see him finishing in the manner that he finishes his chances. He doesn’t get many many chances, but he’s there when we need him and that’s why he is at LAFC and nobody else.”
LAFC: Short rest, no problem
LAFC’s EL Trafico win comes days after the club secured a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals where they’ll face Philadelphia Union in a rematch of last season’s historic MLS Cup – which was won by LAFC using penalty kicks.
The club has had a busy stretch of games, but they emerged from it as the only unbeaten team in Major League Soccer after Matchday 8 (a 5W-0L-2D record).
“It’s very difficult to win a game in this league, especially on the road. This was also our fifth game in two weeks and I think we saw a little bit of that tonight,” Cherundolo said. “To win here and to continue in the Champions League in the fashion we did, and seeing where we are on the table, makes it much easier to forgive the guys for a rather average to below average performance.
“For them to find a way to win after what they’ve been through over the past couple of weeks is absolutely excellent and speaks about their mentality and where we are as a group.”
LA Galaxy: defeated but encouraged
LA Galaxy joined Sporting Kansas City to be the only two teams in MLS that are winless in 2023 (0W-4L-3D record). However, Galaxy coach Greg Vanney saw a glimmer of hope in his team’s play. Tyler Bord scored an outstanding goal from distance, the longest for the Galaxy in MLS since Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 40-yard strike on his LA debut in 2018, via Opta.
Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez started his first match of the season in his return from injury and played the entire 90 minutes, providing an emotional spark to a team that desperately needed one. And Riqui Puig was sensational with Vanney saying he played his “best game of the season so far.”
However, the club were brought down by self-inflicted wounds, delivering LAFC’s goals on a gold platter.
“For a lot of the day, I was pleased with our performance, I was pleased with our effort, our energy,” Vanney said. “We punished ourselves today. Today we killed ourselves and that’s unfortunate against a good team that has momentum in their favor.”
After a steep turnover by Gaston Brugman in midfield that assisted Vela’s first goal, the Galaxy entered the half courtesy of Boyd’s first MLS goal.
But “two colossal mistakes” two minutes apart led to Vela’s second goal and Ryan Hollingshead’s goal giving the guests a 3-1 lead with 20 minutes to go.
“I’m proud of the guys’ effort. This is an interesting week for everybody. But the effort for the guys was fantastic. And I thought at times our performance was fantastic,” Vanney said. “I’ve never been more sure about this group’s ability to do something special this season than today. We’ve got to cut out the part where we hurt ourselves to make the other team beat us.”
Chicarito described it as LA Galaxy’s best play of the season and, although he said he hates to lose, he will take a loss in the way they did to LAFC over the 3-0 defeat Houston Dynamo FC dealt with them on Matchday 7.
“Today I think regardless of the result, it was the best performance in my opinion that we did because honestly if LAFC is considered the best team in the league, we outplayed them,” he said. “The problem is we did [a] very naive mistake, all of us.”
LAFC intends to maintain their hot start to the season when they visit Nashville SC Saturday (8:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass), while the Galaxy will host Austin FC Saturday (10:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
