In front of a sold-out crowd of over 25,000 people, LA Galaxy sent the majority Chivas de Guadalajara crowd home with frowns on their faces as the hometown team beat Chivas on penalties despite a last-minute equalizer.
"It’s fun. I love it. I'm sure everybody else loves it as well,” Galaxy midfielder Mark Delgado shared on the thrilling Leagues Cup atmosphere. “There's just a lot more on the line and just a different intensity to it, especially with the crowd as well. It's fun all around."
After originally being named to the starting XI, Javier “Chicharito” Hernández was scratched from the lineup during warmups in what would have been his first return to Los Angeles after leaving Galaxy this summer. Fellow former Galaxy player, Daniel Aguirre, also did not start the match and began on the bench.
On the other side, LA made both personnel and tactical changes to their lineup, shifting to a back five rather than their traditional defensive line of four as they gave multiple defenders a rest.
Quickly, that defensive unit was punished when Chivas capitalized on an energetic start to the game. Striker Ricardo Marín found the assist into the streaking run of fullback Alan Mozo who made no mistake with his finish to give El Rebaño Sagrado the early eighth-minute lead.
Immediately, Galaxy responded three minutes later with a clever move of their own led by star playmaker Riqui Puig. Nearly replicating the game-winning secondary assist he played in LA’s Leagues Cup opener against San Jose Earthquakes, Puig picked out his right wing-back coming around the outside with a perfect diagonal, allowing Mauricio Cuevas to slip Joseph Paintsil in for a tap-in equalizer.
“Unbelievable ball from Riqui [Puig]. I just know when he has the ball, just to try to make a run for him because he can put the ball anywhere he wants to,” described Cuevas. “I just saw Joe [Paintsil] coming in and it's repetition. That's how it goes. It's repetition for training sessions."
Chivas would dominate the rest of the half through their smothering press and constant chance creation, leaving Galaxy with a misleading majority of possession but were unable to find the final touch to take their second lead of the night.
Galaxy reverted to their normal 4-3-3 formation at the start of the second half with the introduction of Diego Fagúndez but remained on the back foot as Chivas began to take control of possession as well as chance creation. Fernando Beltran produced a massive opportunity for himself in the 62nd minute by dancing around Cuevas to open a shooting angle but Galaxy goalkeeper Novak Mićović shut the door with a shoulder save to deflect Beltran’s shot onto the post.
Losing control of the game, Galaxy began focusing on their transition attack which ended up paying dividends through Gabriel Pec. When the Brazilian winger received the ball just inside the top of the box in the 68th minute, he squared up his defender who anticipated a skill move but instead saw Pec pass the ball by him into the back of the net. A difficult finish made to look simple by the 23-year-old.
Within the next ten minutes, both sides created another major chance but due to a missed final pass from Paintsil and another clutch save from Mićović, Galaxy held onto their lead — for now.
Just when it looked like Galaxy had secured victory in group West 2, MLS product Cade Cowell rescued El Rebaño Sagrado. Connecting with a pinpoint Mateo Chavez cross, the former Galaxy rival with San Jose Earthquakes blasted his thumping header past Mićović for the 90+3’ equalizer, sending about 20k Chivas fans into raptures and the game into penalties.
Still, Chivas required a victory in the shootout to advance to the Round of 32.
Once again, however, Mićović came up big to deny the Mexican side with a game-winning save on Gilberto Sepulveda in the sixth round of penalties to secure the group for Galaxy and knock Chivas out of the tournament.
"Novak is starting quality goalkeeper,” Delgado praised. “He always shows up in training to where nothing can get past him. It's great to see that he's finally showing in front of the lights, in front of everybody to show his qualities and how clutch he can be so [I am] so happy for him."
As group winners, Galaxy will now travel to Seattle for their Round of 32 matchup against the Sounders on August 8th at Lumen Field.
