When the MLS schedule-makers gave the Galaxy a second home date with crosstown rival LAFC this season, the team decided to hold that game at the Rose Bowl, where the Galaxy played during the league’s first six seasons. That paid off handsomely at the gate, with Tuesday’s match and the postgame fireworks show drawing a league-record crowd announced at 82,110.
That appeared to be a healthy undercount.
But giving up the cozy confines of Dignity Health Sports Park for a cavernous college football stadium left the Galaxy playing before a crowd that was evenly split between the two Southern California rivals, though they gave their supporters far more to cheer about, extending their unbeaten streak to five games in MLS play with a 2-1 victory.
Tyler Boyd and Riqui Puig each had a goal and assist for the Galaxy, with Puig setting up Boyd midway through the first half and Boyd returning the favor midway through the second. Ilie Sánchez accounted for LAFC’s only goal in the 57th minute. Carlos Vela appeared to tie the score in the 84th minute, but the goal was negated by an offside call.
The result dropped LAFC (9-6-5) to third place in the 14-team Western Conference table, while the Galaxy (4-9-7) stayed one spot out of the cellar.
Maybe you can go home again.
Tuesday’s game originally was scheduled to be played in Pasadena in February, with the bitter neighborhood derby giving AppleTV, the league’s new broadcast partner, both a marquee matchup and a massive crowd to kick off its first season. But torrential rains washed out the match, pushing it back to July4.
A lot has happened in the last 41/2 months.
LAFC, the reigning league champion, has remained near the top of the table while becoming the second MLS team — after the Galaxy in 2000 — to play in two CONCACAF club championship finals. The Galaxy, meanwhile, tabbed as playoff contenders in the preseason, weathered a monthslong fan boycott and season-ending injuries to two starters.
The Galaxy once ruled both Southern California and the MLS; now they don’t even rule Pasadena. The franchise might have been born there, but LAFC now has a large and active supporters’ group in the city. Same goes for the South Bay, the Galaxy’s home area since 2003, which is now an LAFC bastion as well.
In fact, since LAFC entered MLS in 2018, the Galaxy have ceded territory faster than the Russian army. Once the league’s top draw, the Galaxy are averaging smaller crowds than LAFC despite playing in a bigger stadium.
(Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times)
Tuesday’s sellout, for what counted as a Galaxy home game, will skew those numbers. But with half the crowd dressed in the black-and-gold shirts of the visitors, the game was even in the stands even as the Galaxy held an edge on the field.
LAFC, beset by injuries of its own and playing for the ninth time in 35days, started a back line that paired 38-year-old Italian legend Giorgio Chiellini with teenager Erik Dueñas, who was overmatched at times. The Galaxy, meanwhile, had to use a makeshift defense of their own, playing outside back Kelvin Leerdam in the center. They took another blow at halftime when starting goalkeeper Jonathan Bond was pulled in favor of Jonathan Klinsmann after sustaining a left thigh injury late in the first half.
LAFC had the best look of the early going, with Denis Bouanga one-timing a long Vela cross on target in the 16thminute, only for Bond to bat it onto the top of the goal with both hands. Ten minutes later, Boyd put the Galaxy in front, spinning away from Dueñas to create space at the top of the box, then driving a right-footed shot into the side netting at the far post for his third goal of the season.
Puig, one of the few players on either side who had played in the Rose Bowl, got the assist on the goal, his team-leading fifth of the season. Puig played in Pasadena in summer2018 while on tour with FC Barcelona.
The goal marked the sixth time the Galaxy have scored first this season, which was a good omen because they lost just one of the previous five. It also marked the sixth time in the last seven games that LAFC had conceded first; it lost four of the previous six. But with the Galaxy attackers having little trouble slicing through the midfield, LAFC was fortunate to keep the deficit to just a goal.
The start of the second half was a different story. Seconds after Klinsmann made a splendid save of a Bouanga deflection of a Vela free kick, Sánchez headed a Timothy Tillman corner in off the goalie’s gloved hands to tie the score.
But it wouldn’t stay that way long, with Puig sliding on to a perfectly placed Boyd cross at the end of a breakaway in the 73rdminute.
For Galaxy coach Greg Vanney, who made his MLS debut for the team at the Rose Bowl in the club’s first season, Tuesday’s game was a long-awaited homecoming. And the win made it even sweeter.
“I don’t remember it being this full,” he said, motioning to the crowd, the second largest for a soccer game in the U.S. since 2018. “It’s nice to be back.”