Two El Traficos. Two blown leads for LAFC.
After being in control for 81 minutes, the expansion side slipped up against rival LA Galaxy and the second derby showdown ended in a 2-2 draw.
Just like he did in the first El Trafico on March 31, Carlos Vela produced an early goal for LAFC, as he cashed in on Adama Diomande’s cross in the middle of the penalty area in the seventh minute.
Thirteen minutes later, Lee Nguyen struck a brilliant free kick into the left side of the net to hand Bob Bradley’s men a comfortable two-goal advantage.
While the center back pairing of Walker Zimmerman and Laurent Ciman kept the Galaxy attack under control, the LAFC attack was unable to send a third goal into the back of the net.
Just as LAFC was preparing to celebrate a victory, the Galaxy struck out of nowhere in the 82nd minute through Romain Alessandrini, who chested down a pass from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, took one touch to the right and finished past Tyler Miller.
Miller came up huge for the home side one minute later, as he sprawled over to a shot from Giovani dos Santos.
However, Miller was in the middle of a crucial error on the Galaxy’s 86th-minute equalizer.
A poor back pass from substitute Andre Horta, who was making his LAFC debut, caught Miller off his line and allowed Ola Kamara to slide into the penalty area and finish into an open net.
LAFC has to wait until after the All-Star break to erase the memories of the draw, as it plays New York Red Bulls on August 5, while the Galaxy are back in action on Sunday against Orlando City at StubHub Center.
Man of the Match
Before the Galaxy got back into the game, Carlos Vela was a constant threat in the LAFC attack.
Moment of the Match
Horta’s poor pass to Miller set up Kamara to equalize and deliver a tough blow to LAFC.
Match to Forget
Horta wasn’t on the field for long, but the moments he popped up in were crucial, as he gifted the Galaxy the equalizer and struck the post late in the contest.
Actually since the red bull have more points per game than Atlanta it may be the red bull v lafc
Or to put it another way….
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Mike Magee and Marcelo Sarvas — combined salary on the 2012 MLS Cup winning Galaxy side: approximately $300k.
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Gio and Jonathan Dos Santos — combined salary in 2018 filling generally the same positions on an unremarkable 2018 Galaxy side: $8 million.
I sure hope LAG are getting “value” out of the DS brothers in off the field marketing cuz they’re certainly not getting much on the field. To think they could 2-4 (especially on the back line) strong players for what they’re paying one DS, it’s madness…
They could get 2, they are both DPs so you can’t split their salaries.
Yup. Makes for an intriguing mix, actually.
What we have is a league where teams are now buying top guys for millions…and then trying to fit in cheap young players around them. It’s obviously hard and lots of MLS coaches and programs are struggling with it…but the consistently best and most successful teams are those – Red Bulls, Sporting KC, even NYCFC – that do not rely wholly on imported talent but instead are successfully developing and integrating the younger players into their rosters.
If you give it time and just keep it going, honestly, I suspect it might well turn out to be exactly the way to develop a boatload of talent because it does put such a premium on young-player development. Going forwards, you want an actual deep roster, you’d better have cheap talented young guys to plug in as your starters catch knocks and wear down as the season progresses.
my two cents: i’m finally on board with the traffico/el classico. for years, when it was lag vs. chivas usa, i just i dunno couldn’t get 100% into it. what was that, a league derby or an international friendly (usa-mexico?) or both? i like THIS version of the classico. what is it? A BIG CITY DERBY featuring some of the biggest-name players in the league. it’s a club rivalry, a regular season game and a los angeles derby. it has no international connotations about it. it’s just an la thing. two thumbs way up for the new la rivalry.
the zlatan dares weak minded haters to criticize him. the zlatan feeds off your negative energy BWA HA HA.
Another wild and crazy El Traffico.At times wonderful soccer, at times painful to watch ( the horrible back pass), always an exciting finish that seems to go down to the wire. Both teams have loads of talent, but I think Bradley gets more out of his team than Sigi. LAFC has been undone with last minute collapses. This time they were the better team for 80 minutes and still almost lost.
Once again, very entertaining. Seattle-Portland has always been fun (though it seems to have lost something lately). NYRB-NYCFC has had some moments as well. And Atlanta looks like a team that’s just spoiling for a good rivalry as well. Games like this are great for MLS.
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As for the action, I have to say I agree very much with the “Gary Page Viewpoint” on LAG. They just aren’t getting enough out of the Dos Santos brothers. They aren’t terrible, but they don’t contribute much more than an above-average MLS squad veteran could. When you sign guys like that, you should expect a man-of-the-match contender every game you play… Instead, it’s a surprise when one of them produces at this level. But…. they’re stuck. Either they get more out of them or they are an easy out in the playoffs.
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LAFC will be kicking themselves, but this team is still loaded and excellent to watch. An LAFC-Atlanta MLS Cup right now looks like the best thing that could happen to the league.
+1
+2
Totally agree.
Gonna keep throwing this out there until the idea gains traction or people are utterly sick of it: if MLS wants to take the next step, let the teams that don’t want to spend large sell their DP slots for cold hard cash.
That way the teams that DO want to spend – LAFC, Seattle, Atlanta, etc – will likely be carrying 5-6 DP’s each, plus a few more mid-level guys paid down with TAM, and you start seeing even better soccer. This will be balanced by the smaller-market teams that won’t be carrying “star” players but since DP slots will likely sell for a LOT they will then be able to afford a roster of 24 guys each making $500K or so…no-name guys, yeah, but certainly quality ones. Subsidizing the small market teams with the big spenders, basically.
Big markets will get even more big splashy players, the small markets will get deeper rosters…and IMHO, the league as a whole wins. (Steps off soapbox, again.)
What i’ve been pushing for the last several years. Bigger salary cap, choice to trade DP slots for extra money into the cap. No stars, but a better overall quality and a deeper roster. One thing I’ve got to admit is the job LAFC has done with the system seems amazing. They have a lot of good foreign players and well established MLS veterans like Zimmerman, Ngyuen, Feilhaber.
Quozzel and Gary Page– these are very likeable ideas but I feel like you are working too hard on a rubik’s cube exercise. At some point the Byzantine rules will have to be torn up for this league to reach its mature long-term state.
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Luxury tax. Revenue sharing. Simple stuff. That’s the equilibrium, in my view. ….