LOS ANGELES — So much for solidarity.
On a night when the city convened its 26th El Trafico — a rivalry built on the intensity of L.A. Galaxy and Los Angeles Football Club supporters — pre-match festivities centered more on what brings Angelenos together than tears them apart.
Then they played the game.
Following another classic on the long list of frantic affairs between the Major League Soccer powers, a stoppage-time goal by visiting captain Maya Yoshida culminated in a 3-3 draw that won’t soon be forgotten.
The Galaxy rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 down, splitting the points at BMO Stadium.
“These games are always crazy,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said. “In a rivalry game, you never give up. These games specifically have always had a way to have some crazy in them.”
LAFC leaned on Denis Bouanga, who scored twice to go with a goal from Javairô Dilrosun, offsetting Yoshida’s improbable equalizer that was possible after a pair of finishes by Galaxy forward Gabriel Pec.
A choppy, rhythmless start to the game faded away in the 26th minute when LAFC finally took a shot on goal.
With the ball at his feet at midfield, fullback Ryan Hollingshead dribbled past Miki Yamane and found Bouanga sprinting toward the Galaxy box. Delivered with perfect weight, Hollingshead’s second assist of the regular season put the French winger exactly where he needed to be to curl his shot inside the far post.
Bouanga, LAFC’s most important player for three seasons running, established a new record for goals in consecutive derby matches, surpassing Vela with his sixth in a row.
Shortly after the half-hour mark, LAFC increased the advantage with a similar sequence. This time, midfielder Mark Delgado won the ball in the middle of the park and pushed it forward to Nathan Ordaz.
Ordaz sprinted down the left and picked out Dilrosun charging unmarked into the opposite end of the box. The Dutch forward controlled the cross with one small touch and coolly finished at the far post for his second goal since arriving in June on a loan from Club América.
“We wanted to give our supporters these three points,” said Dilrosun, whose time with LAFC could conclude on July 24 when the MLS secondary transfer window opens. “And unfortunately, we couldn’t give them the win.”
The Galaxy caught a break in the 34th minute when a handball in the box on Hollingshead offered Pec a chance to cash in a penalty kick, which he did to end the Black & Gold’s shutout streak at 376 minutes.
The two sides pushed and pulled over the next hour, with LAFC limiting room up the middle and the Galaxy surviving dangerous opportunities on their end.
Bouanga’s brace in the 67th minute came after a brilliant individual 80-yard effort. He outran a pair of Galaxy defenders before connecting on his 13th goal of the year, surpassing Zlatan Ibrahimovic with 10 El Tráfico goals, two behind Carlos Vela for the all-time series lead.
“For me it’s a loss today,” Bouanga said. “It’s not a draw.”
Pec’s second finish came in the 79th minute courtesy of Marco Reus’s eighth assist.
“Today, it showed the mentality of the team,” Reus said, “but our goal has to be to win all games. We are not giving up until it’s over.”
From that point forward, the Galaxy (3-14-7, 16 points) ramped up the pressure they always seem to exert on LAFC (10-5-6, 36 points).
The Galaxy’s hectic rally was nearly complete in the 88th minute; however, LAFC goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris, who earned shutouts in the previous three games, denied Christian Ramirez on the doorstep and kicked the ball away.
Lloris stopped three of the six shots that the Galaxy put on frame, while Novak Micovic saved one of LAFC’s four on-target attempts.
During five minutes of stoppage time, defender Eddie Segura was shown a red card for an altercation following what LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo described as a “dirty foul” against David Martínez.
Segura ran to where the foul occurred and grabbed the neck of Galaxy midfielder Diego Fagundez, who stood over Martínez at the time, prompting referee Guido Gonzales Jr. to send him off, leaving LAFC with 10 men on the pitch.
Moments later, Yoshida managed to secure that outcome by gaining prime position inside LAFC’s six-yard box. Mauricio Cuevas’s lofted pass glanced off the Japanese defender’s head for his first goal of the season.
“I don’t want the end of this game or the emotions to spoil what’s been a fantastic couple of weeks for us,” Cherundolo said. “We’ve been on a great run, and yeah, we would’ve wanted three points tonight, but we’re leaving here with only one tonight — and that is okay.”
Absent from the chaos, the Galaxy’s main supporter groups — Angel City Brigade, Galaxians, Galaxy Outlawz and the LA Riot Squad — continued to boycott their club’s response (or lack thereof) to the sweeping federal immigration raids across the Southland.
Criticizing Galaxy ownership for not engaging with the city and a “lack of communication regarding security for members attending home and away matches amid immigration raids,” supporters posted on social media Thursday that the decision not to show up was made “in solidarity with those who can’t attend.”
Instead, the visiting supporter section was partially occupied by Galaxy season ticket holders, among an announced crowd of 22,301.
Meanwhile, the North End of BMO Stadium was filled with members of LAFC’s independent supporter group, the 3252. They previously protested raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by watching a home game on June 8 in silence. That evening, a banner displaying the words “Abolish ICE” was prominently displayed in the section.
The same group of Angelenos offered an expression of kinship prior to kickoff on Saturday, hoisting a tifo that, translated from Spanish, read, “Los Angeles united will never be defeated.”
That certainly applied to LAFC and the Galaxy when they met this year. Unless the rivals clash in the Leagues Cup or the MLS Cup postseason, which is unlikely, their two draws will go down as the fewest matches between them in a season in Year Eight of bringing the city together.