Zlatan Ibrahimovic was made for the big stage. In the Swede’s first California Clasico rivalry against the San Jose Earthquakes, he scored a first-half brace to seal a wild 3-3 draw for the LA Galaxy.
Stanford Stadium’s 50,000-strong crowd might not have been big enough for Zlatan, in fact. “Listen, I’ve played in front of 90,000,” Zlatan told reporters after the match. “This is too small a crowd for me. I’m used to bigger crowds.”
San Jose Earthquakes captain Chris Wondolowski, who matched Zlatan’s brace with two goals of his own, was skeptical of the striker’s bravado. “That’s awesome for him, that’s cool,” Wondolowski laughed. “Next time maybe LA can fill ninety thousand. Tell them to fill ninety.”
Yet Ibrahimovic left no one in doubt of his phenomenal talent after a dominant first-half display.
The forward wasted no time imposing his will, smashing a wicked volley into the top corner after just sixty seconds. “I wish I could’ve scored in the last minute, the winning goal, instead of the first goal,” he said. “But a goal is a goal, and it was a good goal also.”
Quakes coach Mikael Stahre had hoped to contain Zlatan with a defensive game plan, but the thirty-six-year-old was, literally and figuratively, a head above the rest.
“If you give Zlatan an inch, he scores,” said Stahre.
“For me, as a Swede, he is the best [Swedish] player ever. We will never, never, never, face a player like him again. He’s strong, he’s fast, he’s technical, and he’s a winner, pure winner.”
“From my perspective, he’s one step above the other guys on the field.”
Zlatan netted a second in the twenty-fifth minute, beating the keeper from all of thirty-five yards with a low free-kick under the wall.
But even Zlatan is human, and the Quakes successfully shut him down with the introduction of Yeferson Quintana, an imposing defender. LA let San Jose back into the match with defensive lapses, and Wondolowski’s two penalties pulled the Quakes level.
“When you are doing simple mistakes like that, you should look back and not repeat them,” said Zlatan. “But we are all human and it can happen to everybody.”
“It’s a shame because we scored three fantastic goals today. Yeah, f***.”
Even then, Zlatan still cut a powerful figure.
“There was a minute in the game, in the second half, when I made a run back and then we were standing there for a free-kick,” smiled Quakes defender Nick Lima. “I kind of looked him up and down and was like, oh man, this is a big dude! This is a BIG dude! But it’s good to play against players like that, you see the way he’s thinking. He’s a phenomenal player and he punished us. You saw what he can do and we’ve got to do a little better marking him tighter.”
Although Zlatan asked for more from LA, LA could ask no more of Zlatan in his first Cali Clasico.
