{"id":77969,"date":"2025-07-20T12:27:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T12:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77969\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T12:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T12:27:19","slug":"galaxy-scores-last-minute-goal-to-force-draw-with-rival-lafc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77969\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy scores last-minute goal to force draw with rival LAFC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A tie, by definition, is neither a win nor a loss. But Saturday\u2019s El Tr\u00e1fico<\/a> might challenge that.<\/p>\n

Because while the game ended in a 3-3 tie, for LAFC<\/a> the result stung like a loss while for the Galaxy<\/a> it felt like a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese games are crazy always, so you never give up,\u201d said Galaxy coach Greg Vanney<\/a>, whose team evened the score on the last touch of the night. \u201cDidn\u2019t disappoint there at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, who hadn\u2019t scored a goal in 15 months.<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy <\/p>\n

Galaxy and LAFC players get into a on-field scuffle during Saturday\u2019s 3-3 draw at BMO Stadium.<\/p>\n

(Luke Johnson \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should never really have gotten to that point. Being a little naive in that moment cost us two points. That\u2019s it,\u201d LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to hold on and grind out results. And tonight we came up 10 seconds too short.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But in emotional cross-town rivalries like El Tr\u00e1fico, records are meaningless.<\/p>\n

\u201cDerbies,\u201d said LAFC\u2019s Javairo Dilrosun<\/a> \u201calways are different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LAFC <\/p>\n

LAFC star Denis Bouanga celebrates after scoring in the first half against the Galaxy on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Luke Johnson \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

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 Tr\u00e1fico eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game saw nearly 97 minutes of soccer turn on one 20-second span early in stoppage time that started with the Galaxy\u2019s Mauricio Cuevas<\/a> fouling LAFC\u2019s David Mart\u00ednez. As Mart\u00ednez and Cuevas exchanged words, Mart\u00ednez\u2019s teammates ran over to protest the tackle and a shoving match broke out, drawing in as many as 10 players.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it made no sense,\u201d said Galaxy midfielder Marco Reus, who thought LAFC should have let the foul go and concentrate on closing out the game. \u201cIf they want to fight, let them fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

When order was tentatively restored, referee Guido Gonzales flashed yellow cards at Cuevas and teammate Diego Fagundez but LAFC\u2019s Eddie Segura<\/a>, who grabbed Fagundez by the neck and wrestled him to the ground, was given a straight red, leaving LAFC to finish the match shorthanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a really dirty foul on David, which was not taken care of properly by the officials. And that\u2019s why emotions boil over,\u201d Cherundolo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe officiating tonight didn\u2019t do a good job of calming the emotions down. I don\u2019t think creating chaos is the job of a referee. In my opinion they didn\u2019t do their job today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Galaxy\u2019s Gabriel Pec<\/a>, who scored his team\u2019s 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 \u2013 in part because the dust-up led Gonzales to extend what was supposed to be just five minutes of stoppage time.<\/p>\n

And the desperate Galaxy didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Coming just seven seconds before the 97th minute expired, it was the latest score in El Tr\u00e1fico history.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Scores by Denis Bouanga<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But Pec pulled that score back 12 minutes later, making it a one-goal game once again and setting the stage of Yoshida\u2019s late heroics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re up two goals you have to manage the game and win the game at the end. And that\u2019s what we didn\u2019t do,\u201d Dilrosun said. \u201cThe last kick of the game was their goal. We have to manage that better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that LAFC (10-5-6), which dropped to fifth in the Western Conference standings, a point out of a home playoff berth, didn\u2019t have an excuse: the game was the team\u2019s fifth in 21 days.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking two days off,\u201d Cherundolo said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a pretty insane schedule. You can see and feel the fatigue.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Galaxy (3-14-7), the result netted them just a point in the standings, leaving them mathematically eliminated from the MLS Supporters\u2019 Shield race with three months left in the season. Even if the Galaxy win the rest of their games, they can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter doesn\u2019t like LAFC,\u201d Yoshida said. \u201cSo at least I can go home with a smile and hopefully she\u2019s going to be proud of me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tie, by definition, is neither a win nor a loss. But Saturday\u2019s El Tr\u00e1fico might challenge that.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[7910,38124,1582,276,53902,44308,53901,21804,42155,2961,2220,224,5337,53903,4804,53900,5950,53899,53905,53904],"class_list":{"0":"post-77969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-area","9":"tag-assist","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-consecutive-game","13":"tag-denis-bouanga","14":"tag-first-touch-shot","15":"tag-galaxy","16":"tag-goal","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-lafc","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-maya-yoshida","22":"tag-pec","23":"tag-scoring","24":"tag-season","25":"tag-stoppage-time","26":"tag-straight-red-card","27":"tag-string"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114885561166369488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}