The Battle of Los Angeles

As a LA sports fan, one of my favorite aspects of being a sports fan in Los Angeles (the most underrated sports town in the country, we get a bad rap), in a large sports market we have lots of professional sports team and not to even count out UCLA/USC, so we get some awesome cross town rivalries. The newest rivalry in LA, and in my opinion the best one out of the professional teams is LAFC/LA Galaxy rivalry, I say professional because in Los Angeles nothing is bigger and historical as the UCLA/USC rivalry, but like I said I'm talking about the Los Angeles area cross town professional sports teams, and I will talk about each one and tell you why I think the "El Traffico" (I think the only thing LAFC and Galaxy supporters are united about is that the name of our rivalry is stupid), why this is the best rivalry in Los Angeles and one of the top rivalries in MLS.

Greater Los Angeles area is home to a total of 11 professional sports franchises; LAFC, LA Galaxy of Carson, LA Dodgers, LA Angels of Anaheim, LA Kings, Anaheim Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, LA Rams, LA Chargers of Carson and the LA Sparks (the only team without a cross-town rival). One thing that is very impressive about all these clubs is that even though people across the nation accuse LA sports fans of being fair weather and not showing up, most of these clubs are usually amongst league leaders in attendance even when the teams are not doing well (Lakers and Dodgers especially). For those born and raised in the Los Angeles area, we know how passionate we are about are teams; especially when your team plays their cross-town rivals, and I'm going to talk briefly about each one, but mainly talk about the LAFC/Galaxy rivalry.

Dodgers vs. Angels aka "The Freeway Series", the Dodgers have been in Los Angeles since moving from Brooklyn in 1958 and since then have always played in Los Angeles, the Dodgers played 4 seasons in the historical Los Memorial Coliseum, before moving into Dodger Stadium, which is still their home and still one of the most beautiful and best stadiums in baseball. Meanwhile the Angles played only 5 seasons in the city of Los Angeles, 1 season in Wrigley Field (yes there was a Wrigley Field in LA), they played 4 seasons at Dodger Stadium, which they refer in their history and when they played there as Chavez Ravine. In 1966 the Los Angeles Angels moved to Anaheim and changed their to the California Angels (that was their best name), to this day they are still in the same stadium, which has gone through remodels and name changes, but to Angel fans it is always the Big A. For 31 years the only time these two clubs met was in the pre-season, as a kid I loved going to the pre-season freeway series games. Then in 1997 MLB started inter league baseball, which meant for the first time when the Dodgers and Angels meet the games will mean something, in the regular season standings. Once inter league baseball started, you could no really longer be a Dodger and Angel fan, before inter league, I was one who liked both clubs, I stuck with the Dodgers. Even though the Angels lead the all-time series 70-54, the city of Los Angeles is a Dodgers town, it it's very evident whenever this series, is played at Angel Stadium, with Dodger fans taking over the stadium. Even though the Angels have won the most recent World Series (2002), the Dodgers have a much bigger fan base, that spans generations, and with their recent success, LA is a Dodger town when it comes to baseball. But being that this is a inter-league rivalry, it's really not a huge rivalry like Dodgers/Giants, which is why it's not the best rivalry in Los Angeles.

Lakers/Clippers rivalry has really never been a rivalry, especially when you consider the Lakers lead the all-time series 101-52, as well as having being 16 time NBA World Champions and 31 times conference champions. While the Clippers have 0 World Championships, 0 Conference Championships, and 0 Division titles. These two clubs have never met in the post-season, there really has never been a meaningful game between these two teams. Since 1999, the Lakers and Clippers have shared the same arena, Staples Center, but it has always been more of a home to the Lakers, although the Clippers are planning to build their own in Inglewood. Hopefully with the Clippers getting better, this turns into a real rivalry, but there are high schools in Los Angeles that are bigger rivals than the Lakers and Clippers.

Alright first off the Chargers should still be in San Diego, this is not a rivalry at all, there are Junior High Schools in the Los Angeles area that are bigger rivals than the Rams and Chargers, that's all I'm going to say about this LA rivalry.

The Freeway Faceoff; Kings vs. Ducks. Now in my opinion this use to be the best LA rivalry, it's now 2nd place, but a very close second place. The Anaheim Ducks entered the NHL in the 1993-94 season, the season after the Kings first Stanley Cup appearance which they lost in 5 games to the Montreal Canadians. These two teams become rivals from the get go, being that they were put in the same division, which meant playing each other multiple times during the NHL season. The all-time regular season series is lead by the Ducks in a slight margin 67-63-11 (there use to be ties in the NHL, hence the 11). This rivalry has always been huge in the stands, with Kings fans usually taking over the Honda Center when the teams meet in Anaheim. Then in 2007 Duck fans won huge bragging right as the Ducks become the first team of the two to win the Stanley Cup. But 5 years later after 45 long years of waiting the Kings fans were finally able to celebrate their first Stanley Cup Championship. In the NHL it's said there's no true rivalry until the two teams meet in the playoffs, and after years of Kings and Ducks fans waiting, it finally happened in 2014. The Kings and Ducks meet in the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, in a hard fought 7 game series, with the Kings winning the best of 7 series, then going on that year winning their 2nd Stanley Cup in 3 years. Now a whole article could be written on this rivalry, but this is not a hockey blog.

One thing that football (soccer) is known for throughout the world are derbie matches, you've Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid, Manchester United vs. Manchester City, Inter Milan vs. AC Milan, just to name a few, there are tons. Now I'm not comparing "El Traffico" (let's just please change that name, my suggestion "The Battle of Los Angeles"), but this is by far one of the best rivalries in MLS, I think the best rivalry is the Sounders/Timbers rivalry, but the Battle of Los Angeles is in the top 3 even though it's technically only two years old. Now the Galaxy, who us LAFC fans refer to as Carson, because the Galaxy do not play in Los Angeles, Carson is 17 miles south of Los Angeles, the two teams actually play 12 miles from each other. Now the Galaxy have been around since the MLS first season in 1996, something they like to constantly remind us (since 96), they played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, from 1996-2002, when they moved to Carson, to the at the time the Home Depot Center. Being that the Galaxy have been around since '96, they have a impressive history with 5 MLS Cups (something they like to constantly remind us about), 4 Supporter Shields, 2 US Open Cups, and 1 CONCACAF Champions Cup. They also have had some great players to wear the Galaxy crest, since '96; players like; Cobi Jones, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Jorge Campos, Carlos Ruiz, Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Robbie Keane, just to name a few. The Galaxy are the most decorated team in MLS history, and have accomplished everything a team can in MLS. Like I had mentioned this rivalry is only 2 years old on the field. But in October of 2014 it was annouced that their will be a new MLS club in Los Angeles and this club will be playing in the City of Angels. As soon as the club was annouced the club already started getting a following. As the next 3 1/2 years passed a team crest came out, they tore down the old LA Sports Arena and started building Banc of California Stadium. By 2018 LAFC had huge fan base, season ticket holders a entire supporters group, the 3252, and the Galaxy had a new cross town rival.

The first time these two clubs would met was on March 31, 2018. On March 23 the Galaxy signed Swedish international star and their newest desiganated player Zlatan Ibrahimovic (who has been a huge thorn in the side of LAFC). LAFC got to a quick 3-0 lead, and looked to completly dominate the game and win the first game of this rivalry. But then in the 2nd half Zlatan who literally had just landed in LA came in as a sub, scored 2 goals, including a 45 yard volley goal, which Tyler Miller along with LAFC fans still see in their nightmares, and the Galaxy won 4-3. Here's what I remember about this game, I had to work that day, but I was able to watch the first half, it was 3-0 when I left for work. When I went on my lunch at work I checked my phone just to see the final the score, and to my shock and surprise I see the final score of 4-3, a Galaxy win.

In the 2018 season, the two clubs would go on to play each other 2 more times, with each being a tie. The one that hurt the most was the match on July 24, 2018, known to us LAFC fans as the "Horta Match". LAFC was up 2-0, with 10 minutes left in the match when in the 82 minute Alessandrni scored a nice goal to make the game 2-1. Then in he 86 minute LAFC newest DP Andre Horta, made his first touch making a beautiful through pass to Ola Kamara, who was wearing the wrong jersey, he scored the tying goal for the Galaxy, the game ended in a 2-2 tie, but it felt more like a loss. The two clubs would meet again Carson, with that match ending in a 1-1, once again Zlatan scored against LAFC.

As I write the day before the second match of The Battle of Los Angeles, the clubs have met once this season on July 19, 2019, and once again Zlatan beat LAFC all by himself, by scoring a hat trick and the Galaxy coming off victorious 3-2, with two goals by Carlos Vela. I do not like to give predictions (I'm afraid of jinxing the team), but I will say this, all they need to do, to beat Carson is stop Zlatan, earlier in the season I saw Portland beat the Galaxy 4-0, I say watch this tape and see how to stop him. As both teams enter this game LAFC has 61 points, while Carson has 41 points, LAFC is a better team than Carson, but for some reason, they seem to allow Zlatan to intimate them. This is the biggest monkey (I'd call it gorilla) that LAFC needs to get off their back, is beating the Galaxy. I really wish I could be there but tickets are crazy expensive, but there will be watch parties, I'll be spending the days with my wonderful amazing daughters, then watch the game at home. Everyone have fun, enjoy the game, behave, don't do anything stupid, and be loud. Let's show the world how great this rivalry is.

I thought about going into detail about all the stuff that has happened between both club's supporters off the field, but this about our team that we love and support, and about the Battle of Los Angeles.