CARSON, Calif – The roars of the capacity crowd at StubHub Center blew the roof off the stadium as the LA Galaxy marched to a 4-3 comeback victory in Zlatan Ibrahimović’s MLS debut.
The 2018 season is still in its infancy, but the Galaxy experienced playoff atmosphere in the first edition of their intra-city rivalry with LAFC.
“It’s rare that you get a game this early in the year that feels like a playoff game,” said Chris Pontius. “And that’s what this felt like tonight.
“To win a game like that, especially a crosstown rivalry with all the buildup, it can certainly give us a little boost here. Even now just around the locker room, there’s been more confidence in the guys and we can take that going forward.”
It’s the kind of game that a club can build behind, which comes while Designated Players, Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan dos Santos, and Roman Alessandrini continue to come back from injuries. The depth showed well for itself, as Sebastian Lletget netted his first goal since returning from 2017’s season-ending injury and Pontius scored in his first start for the Galaxy.
Now the team will have to work those injuries players back in and work out a system which blends them with Ibrahimović. The comeback and atmosphere provide a platform for that to happen.
“I guess sports psychologists call them team building moments,” said head coach Sigi Schmid. “You never know what our defining moments are for our team. But this is the kind of game that becomes a defining moment, there’s a realization within that group that nothing is impossible, you’re three to nothing down and you can still come back.
“It helps build our character and our belief in our abilities.”
For Lletget, who started the comeback with his 61st-minute goal, this was destined to be a huge game before Ibrahimović’s debut was ever announced. This was something the players had been aware was coming for a long time, as the second team in Los Angeles began their build years ago.
“You could feel it from the day they got here,” said Lletget. “That this was going to be a big game. The lead up to the game, we could all feel it. I think anybody would be lying to you if they said that this was going to be a regular game.
“It was just an incredible atmosphere. It was amazing for our fans, especially that we showed some resilience. To show that we weren’t going to give up on this, and we didn’t.”
