Carlos Vela scores as “El Tráfico” ends in thrilling 3-3 draw

In a game that featured three Mexicans in Carlos Vela, Jonathan dos Santos and Uriel Antuna, Los Angles Football Club and the Los Angeles Galaxy played out to an exciting 3-3 draw at the Banc of California Stadium on Sunday night.

As expected the, match got off to a flying start, and after scoring hat-trick in the last “El Tráfico”, it took Zlatan Ibrahimovic just two minutes to open the scoring when he latched on to a Cristian Pavon through ball to fire into the back of the net.

Ten minutes later, Latif Blessing had LAFC leveled after a denied header from Diego Rossi landed for the 22-year-old to score.

But LAFC’s woes versus Zlatan Ibrahimovic continued as the Swede fired back almost immediately, once again finding himself in a 1 v. 1 situation with the goalkeeper and regiving the Galaxy the lead.

Seconds later and the score was 3-1. Cristian Pavon sought his way into the edge of the box before beating Tyler Miller to his near post and scoring his first goal in Major League Soccer.

With no further chances of note coming from the Galaxy, it was LAFC who would take complete control of possession, and they would capitalize on it at the stroke of halftime. Following another fortuitous rebound into the path of Latif Blessing, the Ghanian midfielder would weave his way past the goalkeeper to put the ball into the back of an empty net for his second goal of the night.

At the restart, LAFC kept on the offensive, and it didn’t take long for that to turn into the equalizer. Mark-Anthony Kaye put Carlos Vela through on goal, and the Mexican made no mistake from close range, grabbing his 27th goal of the season. Shortly after, Carlos Vela had to leave the match with a hamstring injury.

With Vela’s forced exit, it was Brian Rodriguez who was making his official LAFC debut. The Uruguayan proved to be a tricky customer for the Galaxy defense, twice putting LAFC within scoring range.

At the end of the game, however, LAFC’s winless streak over their rivals would extend to five games, as the match would end in an exciting 3-3 draw.