Ibrahimovic Goal Carries Galaxy Past Real Salt Lake
Apr 28, 2019, 8:49 PM
Zlatan Ibrahimovic #9 of Los Angeles Galaxy yells at Nedum Onuoha #14 of Real Salt Lake following Ibrahimovic's goal during the second half of a game at Dignity Health Sports Park on April 28, 2019 in Carson, California. (Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images)
(Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – In a tale of two halves, LA Galaxy superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the game-winning goal to give the Galaxy a 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for Real Salt Lake.
Los Angeles has now won seven of their first nine games to start the season.
First Half All Galaxy
RSL was able to escape the first two minutes without conceding a goal as there was cracks in their defense early in the match.
Just 16 minutes in, Real conceded the goal as the center backs failed to close off the through ball from Diego Polenta, which found Chris Pontius and he connected with midfielder Uriel Antuna, scoring his first goal of the season as he scored on RSL goalkeeper Andrew Putna.
It’s evident that Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s presence is felt, even though he didn’t touch the ball on the goal that the Galaxy scored. RSL is putting a lot of focus on the superstar striker.
RSL Plays Strong Second Half
Real Salt Lake started the second half strong as they controlled possession and created chances to score early in the half. The efforts paid off when Donny Toia leveled the match in the 64th minute on a rebound shot that was originally created by Aaron Herrera and once LA goalkeeper David Bingham deflected the shot, Toia capitalized.
Leveling out the score! 1-1 pic.twitter.com/PEXHuG1XbD
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) April 29, 2019
The midfield domination by LA lifted as it looked as though the three games in nine days was starting to wear down Galaxy. That opened up a lot of space for Real Salt Lake to attack.
In the 78th minute Ibrahimovic scored the game-winner on a pass from Sebastian Lletget in the run of play as Kyle Beckerman turned the ball over in a dangerous place on the field.
A difficult result in LA. pic.twitter.com/wmLhqyr3LE
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) April 29, 2019
Up Next
Real Salt Lake will return to Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday at 7 p.m. to face the Portland Timbers. The match can be seen on KSLSports.com and the KSL TV app.
