Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck for a first-half brace to lift the LA Galaxy to a 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Union Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Ibrahimovic, who pulled within one of Carlos Vela’s Golden Boot lead, opened his account in the 27th minute when he leapt over the back of Auston Trusty to meet Jorgen Skjelvik’s lobbed cross and headed past Andre Blake.
Ibrahimovic then latched onto a lofted Jonathan dos Santos service, but crashed inside the 18-yard box following contact from Kai Wagner. Referee David Gantar pointed to the penalty spot, a call that was upheld following a lengthy Video Review.
Ibrahimovic finished clinically into the side netting with Blake diving the other way. Any chance of a Union comeback was thwarted in the 76th minute when Trusty was sent off for his second bookable offense.
While Philadelphia’s winning streak was snapped at three games, the larger concern is the health of midfielder Marco Fabian, who limped off with an apparent ankle injury, after 23 minutes.
Goals
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: In a matchup of streaking teams, this was one-way traffic. The Galaxy won their fourth in a row and fifth in their first six games and secured a second straight clean sheet, while the Union had a three-match winning streak, and four-match unbeaten streak, snapped in Carson.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: Ibrahimovic placed his stamp, and asserted his dominance on this game early. But should he have been called for a foul for going over Trusty’s back?
- MAN OF THE MATCH: Ibrahimovic tacked on two more goals to dominate the young Union defense again and is currently outpacing Golden Boot-record holderJosef Martinez through six games of the season. If he remains healthy, who knows how many goals he’ll end up with?
Next Up
- LA: Friday, April 19 vs. Houston Dynamo (11 pm ET | Univision, Twitter, MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada)
