Los Angeles FC became the new reigning Major League Soccer (MLS) champion on Saturday. A title acquired in pain, at the end of the suspense in a completely crazy end to the match against Philadelphia (3-3, tab 3 to 0). After opening the scoring in the first half through Kellyn Acosta (27th, 1-0), Gareth Bale’s teammates, on the bench at kick-off, conceded the equalizer on the hour mark on a goal from Daniel Gazdag (59th, 1-1). In the last ten minutes of the game, the game started to get carried away and the two teams surrendered blow for blow. Jesús David Murillo restored the advantage to Los Angeles (83rd, 2-1) but only a few minutes later Jack Elliott again equalized for Philadelphia (85th, 2-2).
During extra time, former Real Madrid player Gareth Bale entered the field (97th) but his team had to reorganize after the exclusion of Canadian goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau (116th). In numerical superiority, Philadelphia then tried everything to break away from the score and Jack Elliott ended up finding the fault by scoring his second goal of the evening (120th + 4). But opposite, a player saved his team in the very last moments of added time. The Welshman took on the superhero costume and equalized with a header to send everyone to the penalty shootout (120th + 8). During the latter, the substitute goalkeeper, John McCarthy (30), entered to replace Maxime Crépeau, stopped two penalties, those of José Andres Martinez and Kai Wagner, to allow Los Angeles to win the competition. At the end of the match, the Canadian goalkeeper was even elected MVP of the final.
ILE. PANDEMONIUM. pic.twitter.com/v5HSDvu9Ic
— LAFC (@LAFC) November 5, 2022
