The full page ad on the back cover of the Los Angeles Times sports section read simply Dear Los Angeles You're welcome At the bottom was the signature of the Los Angeles Galaxy's newest player striker Zlatan Ibrahimović The tone was entirely in keeping with the bombastic Zlatan The Swedish superstar had played for just about every superclub in Europe first Juventus then Inter Milan Barcelona AC Milan Paris Saint Germain and Manchester United This is a man who once said I can't help but laugh at how perfect I am And now in 2018 Zlatan had reached North America He was just in time for the very first game between the Galaxy and their brand new crosstown rivals Los Angeles FC LAFC MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER IN LOS ANGELES The Los Angeles Galaxy were one of MLS's original ten teams in 1996 Like other teams from that era their stadium is in a suburb In this case it's in Carson California which is about 15 miles 24 km south of downtown Los Angeles In 2005 MLS launched a second team in Los Angeles called Chivas USA It was so named because the owners of the team CD Guadalajara in Mexico known as Chivas also owned Chivas USA Chivas USA shared the Galaxy's stadium The new team was supposed to appeal to local fans of Latin American descent but it was poorly managed and poorly run In 2014 MLS shut down the team and gave its spot to Los Angeles FC which started playing in 2018 6
That Zlatan a world superstar would even consider coming to Major League Soccer MLS was a testament to how the league had grown since it first kicked off in 1996. What began as a scramble to fill out ten teams with competent players had grown to the point that it could attract one of the world's top soccer talents to Los Angeles NEW TEAM NEW RIVALRY The Galaxy had been around since the beginning of the league but LAFC like Zlatan was new to MLS LAFC represented the second attempt to add a second team to the nation's second largest city one that was arguably the soccer capital of the United States It was fitting that Zlatan's debut would be in the first crosstown rivalry game between the two clubs taking place at the Galaxy's home stadium in the southern Los Angeles metro area The teams hadn't met even once but the rivalry games already had a nickname El Tráfico The name was a pun on El Clásico the name for matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain The modified name was a perfect fit for crosstown games in famously traffic choked Los Angeles That the game had a Spanish influenced name also made sense given the large Hispanic population in Southern California Before the first game was even played fans of both teams were clashing Murals of both teams in Los Angeles had already been defaced by rival fans 7
In many ways the TINSELTOWN game was emblematic MEETS SOCCERTOWN of the history of MLS It had a superstar European One of the Galaxy's first players was better known in his other player one who was past career Andrew Shue who the age at which big name starred on the popular 1990s TV show Melrose Place knew European clubs would give some of the people who were him a major role In Carlos starting the league in 1996 Shue had played college soccer Vela LAFC's biggest star at Dartmouth and been named it had a Latin American to an All Ivy League team before playing professionally player who had played in in Zimbabwe He managed to get a contract to play for the Europe and then moved Galaxy in addition to being a TV to the United States to star He ended up playing five dominate It was a local times for Los Angeles collecting one assist rivalry with a pithy name a game meaningful to its fans despite the teams having no history with each other If it had been a 0-0 draw the hype would have been wasted Perhaps it was good that Zlatan had arrived because a brash showman like Zlatan would never let such hype go unfulfilled TIME FOR KICKOFF It was Vela not Zlatan who got the fireworks started In just the fifth minute of the match Vela picked up a Galaxy turnover on the edge of the opposition penalty 8
Vela center made the first move in the 2018 edition of El Tráfico area He took one touch then blasted a curling drive into the far top corner of the net a gorgeous goal to get the rivalry going Twenty minutes later Vela was on the score sheet again This time he gathered a pass on the penalty spot and danced around the onrushing goalkeeper He then doubled back slowly almost as if he were waiting for as many defenders to scramble back as he could By the time he softly chipped the ball six Galaxy players were nearby none of whom could do anything but watch as the ball floated 9
