On a perfect Saturday evening the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders battled to a wild 2-2 draw before a sellout crowd at Dignity Health Sports Park.
The first period was a rollercoaster of emotions for both teams, who experienced brief moments of ecstasy followed by heartbreak. Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s squad started out brightly as Diego Polenta and Cristian Pavon had clear-cut chances to put LA ahead early, only for referee Robert Sibiga to issue Daniel Steres a straight red for bringing down Raul Ruidiaz on a breakaway.
Despite a few close calls the Galaxy managed to force Seattle into lackadaisical soccer, but the Sounders would take advantage of poor marking as Raul Ruidiaz finished off a counter-attack in the 42nd minute to give Seattle the lead.
Moments after the Sounders narrowly went up by two, the Galaxy equalized when Sebastian Lletget’s cross found Zlatan in the box and Ibra cushioned a header past Stefan Frei.
The Sounders were camped out in LA’s half of the field to begin the second period, but the Galaxy slowly but surely grew into the match. Despite being down a man LA were the better team on the night, and in the 65th minute Zlatan drew a penalty, converting down and low to give LA a shock lead.
The Galaxy held onto the advantage and Ibra missed a sitter that would have iced the match, but more heartbreak followed when a Bingham clearance outside the area ricocheted off Jorgen Skjelvic’s face before agonizingly trickling into the net.
Seattle pressed late but LA would held on for the draw.