LAFC are yet to beat El Trafico rivals, the LA Galaxy. While this season’s version is the best team in MLS history, they should be scared of their Zlatan Ibrahimovic-led neighbours.
Sometimes, you just have their number. Like Jurgen Klopp against Pep Guardiola, Arsene Wenger and Spurs or Lionel Messi and pretty much anyone, there is something to be said for certain teams and players being able to beat a particular opponent time and time again.
And in MLS right now, the team that is presently enjoying the best season in the history of the league simply cannot beat their noisy neighbours.
Los Angeles FC are in the process of breaking all sorts of records. Carlos Vela is having the best individual season of all time. They are the greatest MLS team that I — and most other people — have ever seen. And yet, when it comes to getting one over the Los Angeles Galaxy, they simply don’t know how to win a game.
In five matches against the LA Galaxy, LAFC have won none. Considering their relentless tear throughout their two-year existence, that is quite the statistic. For some reason, they struggle against the Galaxy. And the real problem is that everybody now knows it.
After the weekend’s El Trafico 3-3 draw, Galaxy midfielder Sebastian Lletget spoke about the mental advantage that he and his teammates over their bitter rivals:
"“I think definitely, they have this blockage, that they can’t get the job done, and, you know, that’s fine. I’m sure next time it’ll keep building, keep accumulating in their head, as it would totally get in my head if it were the other way around. But we have the opposite sort of approach. We’re like, they can’t beat us, and we know we can beat them.”"
LAFC head coach Bob Bradley echoed those sentiments, ceding that his players must overcome the mental block that they have against the Galaxy, and that that will get increasingly tougher with every contest that passes without a victory.
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Perhaps the most domineering figure in this one-sided relationship is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The towering Swede has, quite literally, stood head and shoulders above every other player in these matches, including the inexorably brilliant Vela. Zlatan now has eight goals against LAFC, including two hat-tricks, and he too strutted his stuff when it came to illustrating his and his team’s LA dominance:
"“They don’t beat us, what can I say? It’s five games, and I enjoy when I play them.”"
All this is to say that LAFC should be scared by their Galaxy record. As the playoffs loom, a postseason El Trafico is likely. The Western road to the MLS Cup runs straight through the heart of LA, and if the Galaxy stand on one side of it, I am not sure LAFC have the resilience and grit to stand on the other side.
And you bet that the Galaxy are raring for a playoff showdown. In fact, Zlatan actively wants one: ‘I want to play it here.’ LAFC should be scared, no matter how brilliant they may be.