After the LA Galaxy’s 5-3 loss to their crosstown rival, Los Angeles FC, in the Western Conference semifinals, Zlatan Ibrahimović vented frustrations with his team’s performance, and the game’s officiating, in post-match interviews with media.
“When there’s a lot of goals it’s always exciting and fun,” Ibrahimović said. “But obviously, for the team that plays, nobody wants to concede a lot of goals. And today we concede five goals, but at the same time we score three goals. The whole season has been like this. We score a couple of goals but we concede much more than we are scoring. It’s not the way you win, it’s not the way you become champion.”
On LAFC’s second goal, LAFC’s Brian Rodriguez received a pass from a seemingly offside position. The center official, Kevin Stott, was not told to look at a video review of the call by the VAR referee Dave Gantar, so the goal stood. Ibrahimović questioned the referees’ competence in reviewing the plays, referencing Magic Johnson, former Los Angeles Lakers star and part owner of LAFC, who was at the match in a suite with other club owners.
“What was he doing upstairs, drinking coffee with Magic Johnson?” Ibrahimović asked. “If you have VAR the game is extra controlled by not a fourth or fifth referee upstairs. If he’s drinking coffee with Magic Johnson, then it’s difficult to play the game. He has to be in control. He didn’t even go and check. He said he needed a signal from the VAR people to go out and check. What is VAR people doing?”
With rumors of this match being Ibrahimović’s final appearance in a Galaxy uniform, the big Swede remained vague about his future with the club, while expressing frustration with his run so far.
“Like I said, the season has been like this … we score two, we concede four. We score three, we concede four. We score one, we concede three. It’s hard to play like that,” Ibrahimović said. “I did my best, I think everybody did their best. And what happens next year? If I stay or not, I think for MLS it’s good because the whole world will watch us. If I don’t stay, nobody will remember what MLS is.”
The LA Galaxy are expected to have final media availability for the year in the coming weeks. Ibrahimović’s current contract is set to expire Dec. 31, but there is no word on whether fans will have to wait until then to know if his future will be in Los Angeles.