CHAPTER 1 ZLATAN TAKES OVER EL TRÁFICO Zlatan Ibrahimović arrived in the United States just two days before the big match At 36 years old everyone called him just Zlatan Born in Sweden he had grown up playing all over Europe Everywhere he went he won league championships He won two in the Netherlands five in Italy one in Spain and four in France He had been injured for most of 2017. In 2018 he was healthy and playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer MLS The Galaxy was playing its new rival from the other side of town Los Angeles Football Club LAFC LAFC was a new team but it was already 2-0 heading into its first game against the Galaxy The fans of each team wanted to get a leg up on the other They'd come up with a nickname for the Zlatan Ibrahimović played all over Europe including for Manchester United
game too Los Angeles is known for its horrible traffic And in Spanish speaking countries El Clásico which means The Classic is the name of a game between big rivals So the LAFC and Galaxy fans started calling their game El Tráfico When the game started Zlatan was on the bench He had been in town for only two days and hadn't practiced much with his new team Coach Sigi Schmid decided he should sit out at least to start The Galaxy fell behind immediately Carlos Vela scored for LAFC just five minutes into the match Twenty minutes later he scored again Early in the second half the Galaxy scored an own goal Suddenly Zlatan's new team was losing 3 0 to its new rivals In the 60th minute Galaxy midfielder Servando Carrasco picked up a turnover and passed it to Sebastian Lletget Lletget beat the goalkeeper with a shot That made it 3 1 With 19 minutes left Schmid decided it was time to sub Zlatan into the game Almost right away the Galaxy scored another goal to cut LAFC's lead to 3 2 Then Zlatan really got going
Zlatan went from sub to star just minutes after being put in the game The ball got loose and bounced to Zlatan in midfield Even though he was 40 yards 37 m from the goal he saw keeper Tyler Miller standing too far out of his net So Zlatan launched a rocket of a shot It flew over Miller and into the net to tie the game The crowd and TV announcers went crazy He had just subbed into the game in his first MLS appearance and already he was a star in his new league
