LOS ANGELES — With the season ticking away and stoppage time dwindling, the Los Angeles Football Club did exactly what they had to do on Decision Day.
But would the Galaxy?
When a header from Brazilian defender Marlon Santos found the back of the net in the 91st minute at BMO Stadium, LAFC snatched a 3-1 win over San Jose and the crucial tie-breaking edge in goal differential — presuming the Galaxy went down to defeat.
Suddenly, it seemed plausible that the Black & Gold could steal away the MLS West’s No. 1 seed and home field advantage from their city rival.
During seven minutes of stoppage time in Houston, a video review confirmed a Galaxy penalty that was ably converted by Gabriel Pec at 90+6.
As players and fans in L.A. kept tabs of the action in Texas, former Galaxy player Daniel Steres, who was with them from 2016 to 2021, proceeded to stick a dagger in the back of his old club, delivering a header for Houston in the 101st minute that set BMO Stadium ablaze.
With LAFC and Galaxy level with 64 points and 19 wins, a plus-one goal differential for the Black & Gold (20 to 19) sealed the heart-pounding outcome.
“Save your energy,” Ilie Sanchez implored the crowd after both results were set in stone. “The best is yet to come.”
For more than an hour LAFC couldn’t get much right. Then the match — and the regular season — reached the last 30 minutes and the Black & Gold turned the screws on San Jose.
That increased pressure quickly paid off when, 64 minutes in, Denis Bouanga bagged his 20th goal of the season.
Just the fourth MLS player to score that many times in back-to-back seasons, Bouanga’s finish came after cheating down an errant clearance in the box and drilling a shot past Brazilian goalkeeper Daniel.
With 15 minutes remaining in regulation, Eduard Atuesta replaced Timothy Tillman in LAFC’s two-man midfield and immediately gave his club the lead on his fourth goal of the season.
Facing a historically bad defensive team, LAFC (19-8-7) was uncharacteristically quiet in the first half.
For just the fifth time in 34 regular season games, Cherundolo’s team did not put a shot on goal.
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Struggling to combine and dictate the action despite having a nearly 60% possession rate through 45 minutes, LAFC’s lack of sharpness before the break gave San Jose (6-25-3) the break it needed to grab a 1-0 advantage in the ninth minute.
Deep in their end of the field, defender Eddie Segura struck a pass to no one in particular. Earthquakes defender Paul Marie picked it up and dished the ball to midfielder Jackson Yueill, whose only goal of the season came from eight yards away with his left foot.
Frustrated by LAFC’s inability to combine and dictate the terms of the match, fans at BMO Stadium let referee Pierre-Luc Lauziere that they did not appreciate his officiating.
By the final whistle, after firing a season high 11 shots on target in a single half, all was forgotten.