Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his arrival in Major League Soccer with two goals on his debut including an injury-time winner as the Los Angeles Galaxy fought back from three goals down to beat Los Angeles FC 4-3 on Saturday.
Ibrahimovic — who only arrived in California on Thursday — lashed home an imperious volley from 40 yards just six minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute to make it 3-3 at the StubHub Center.
The Swede then headed home Ashley Cole’s cross in injury time to put Galaxy ahead in an extraordinary finale that lived up to the hype surrounding the veteran striker’s arrival from Manchester United.
“If you look back, every team I played for, I scored in my first official game. I wasn’t going to let that stop today,” a delighted Ibrahimovic said afterwards. “I heard the crowd saying ‘We want Zlatan, we want Zlatan’ And I gave them Zlatan,” he added.
Ibrahimovic’s winner was the final act of a thrilling first ever derby between the Galaxy and expansion side LAFC, who had surged into a 3-0 lead early in the second half after two goals from Carlos Vela and an own goal from Daniel Steres.
Slack play from LAFC allowed Galaxy to pull a goal back through Sebastian Lletget in the 61st minute after dogged work from Servando Carrasco. The home crowd then roared in appreciation in the 71st minute when Ibrahimovic made his entrance from the substitutes bench.
The 36-year-old star had an instant impact and was involved in the build-up which led to Galaxy’s second goal, headed in by Chris Pontius from Emmanuel Boateng’s cross. Suddenly the Galaxy dared to dream of an improbable comeback, and when Ibrahimovic thundered home his equaliser on 77 minutes the home side had drawn level.
Los Angeles Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid hailed Ibrahimovic’s “world class” second goal.
“Ibrahimovic is the perfect definition of a guy who always dares to be brilliant,” Schmid said. “If you do that, you can pull off things. That’s a goal that will go around the world.”
LAFC had a chance to regain the lead when Costa Rican international Marco Urena hit the woodwork late on.
But instead it was Ibrahimovic who was determined to have the last word.
Former Chelsea and England left-back Cole stormed forwards down the left flank and crossed into the area, and Ibrahimovic guided home the header to launch his MLS career in the most dramatic way possible.
Fatigue prompted the long ranger
Ibrahimovic later said adrenaline carried him through his fairytale debut after arriving in California on Thursday and had not played since December.
“I felt I’d played 40 games for my 20 minutes,” Ibrahimovic said.
“It was everything - jet lag, didn’t play for a long time. I did the first sprint and I was starting to breathe immediately.
“I was happy when the game finished because I don’t know if I could have played more.”
The former Manchester United star said fatigue had prompted him to attempt his audacious lob for the Galaxy’s third.
“When the second one came, I thought I’ll shoot and not run with the ball. That was the ball that went in,” he said.
“I saw the goalkeeper he was out and I thought I would shoot it over. I chose the power way and it went in and you don’t want the adrenaline to finish.
“If I had more strength, I would have run all over the pitch, but I just managed the one side of the field.
“Under these weather conditions, it’s not easy. I was asking for sun cream after 10 minutes.”
Ibrahimovic, who has hardly played in the past year during his recovery from a serious knee injury sustained last April, said he had been itching to take the field as Galaxy fell behind by three goals.
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