A tie, by definition, is neither a win nor a loss. But Saturday’s El Tráfico might challenge that.
Because while the game ended in a 3-3 tie, for LAFC the result stung like a loss while for the Galaxy it felt like a win.
“These games are crazy always, so you never give up,” said Galaxy coach Greg Vanney, whose team evened the score on the last touch of the night. “Didn’t disappoint there at the end.”
Well, it did if you were cheering for LAFC, which twice gave up two-goal leads, the second time on a Hail Mary cross and a glancing header by defender Maya Yoshida, who hadn’t scored a goal in 15 months.
Galaxy and LAFC players get into a on-field scuffle during Saturday’s 3-3 draw at BMO Stadium.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
“It should never really have gotten to that point. Being a little naive in that moment cost us two points. That’s it,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said.
“Sometimes you’ve got to hold on and grind out results. And tonight we came up 10 seconds too short.”
That the teams were even at the end of the game is significant since they started it streaking in opposite directions. LAFC had lost just one MLS game since April 5; the Galaxy had won just three all season. LAFC was playing for a postseason berth; the Galaxy are trying to avoid the worse season in franchise history.
But in emotional cross-town rivalries like El Tráfico, records are meaningless.
“Derbies,” said LAFC’s Javairo Dilrosun “always are different.”
LAFC star Denis Bouanga celebrates after scoring in the first half against the Galaxy on Saturday.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
Especially this one, which has defied logic, plausibility and reason ever since Zlatan Ibrahimovic came off the Galaxy bench to score two wonder goals in the first El Tráfico eight years ago.
Saturday’s game saw nearly 97 minutes of soccer turn on one 20-second span early in stoppage time that started with the Galaxy’s Mauricio Cuevas fouling LAFC’s David Martínez. As Martínez and Cuevas exchanged words, Martínez’s teammates ran over to protest the tackle and a shoving match broke out, drawing in as many as 10 players.
“To me, it made no sense,” said Galaxy midfielder Marco Reus, who thought LAFC should have let the foul go and concentrate on closing out the game. “If they want to fight, let them fight.”
When order was tentatively restored, referee Guido Gonzales flashed yellow cards at Cuevas and teammate Diego Fagundez but LAFC’s Eddie Segura, who grabbed Fagundez by the neck and wrestled him to the ground, was given a straight red, leaving LAFC to finish the match shorthanded.
“I thought it was a really dirty foul on David, which was not taken care of properly by the officials. And that’s why emotions boil over,” Cherundolo said.
“The officiating tonight didn’t do a good job of calming the emotions down. I don’t think creating chaos is the job of a referee. In my opinion they didn’t do their job today.”
The Galaxy’s Gabriel Pec, who scored his team’s other two goals, and LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, would both draw yellows over the next five minutes as Gonzales struggled unsuccessfully to regain control of the match. But it was the red card to Segura that would loom largest – in part because the dust-up led Gonzales to extend what was supposed to be just five minutes of stoppage time.
And the desperate Galaxy didn’t test Lloris until the final seconds of that additional stoppage time when Cuevas bent a last-ditch, long-distance cross into the center of the penalty area. Without Segura to contend with, Yoshida was able to step around defender Nkosi Tafari and nod the ball in at the far post.
Coming just seven seconds before the 97th minute expired, it was the latest score in El Tráfico history.
At the final whistle, Cherundolo marched across the field to confront Gonzales, who was pelted with trash by LAFC fans as he headed up the tunnel to the locker room. But LAFC had only themselves to blame after twice blowing two-goals leads.
Scores by Denis Bouanga and Dilrosun have given it a 2-0 lead after 31 minutes, but a handball call in the box on Ryan Hollingshead led to a penalty-kick goal from Pec that gave the Galaxy life heading into the intermission.
When a breakaway by Bouanga in the 67th minute ended with his 13th goal of the season, pushing LAFC back to a multi-goal lead, the frustration became obvious on the Galaxy side with Pec shouting and waving at teammate Emiro Garces, who appeared to give up on the play.
But Pec pulled that score back 12 minutes later, making it a one-goal game once again and setting the stage of Yoshida’s late heroics.
“When you’re up two goals you have to manage the game and win the game at the end. And that’s what we didn’t do,” Dilrosun said. “The last kick of the game was their goal. We have to manage that better.”
Not that LAFC (10-5-6), which dropped to fifth in the Western Conference standings, a point out of a home playoff berth, didn’t have an excuse: the game was the team’s fifth in 21 days.
“We’re taking two days off,” Cherundolo said. “We’ve had a pretty insane schedule. You can see and feel the fatigue.”
For the Galaxy (3-14-7), the result netted them just a point in the standings, leaving them mathematically eliminated from the MLS Supporters’ Shield race with three months left in the season. Even if the Galaxy win the rest of their games, they can’t catch the top three teams in the MLS standings. Even making the playoffs appears out of the question for the reigning league champions at this point.
In fact, the Galaxy need to win six of their final 10 games just to avoid matching franchise records for fewest wins and most losses. On Saturday, however, a tie that felt like a win was worth celebrating like one.
“My daughter doesn’t like LAFC,” Yoshida said. “So at least I can go home with a smile and hopefully she’s going to be proud of me.”