Galaxy, LAFC each victorious to stay atop West
Joseph Paintsil scored a first-half goal and the Galaxy added two more late in the second half to defeat the San José Earthquakes 3-0 on Saturday at Stanford Stadium for their fourth consecutive win.
Paintsil scored with an assist from Gabriel Pec in the 37th minute and the Galaxy took a 1-0 lead into the break.
In the second half, Dejan Joveljic scored in the 72nd minute off a header after Riqui Puig hit the crossbar with a shot. Mauricio Cuevas wrapped up the scoring with a goal in stoppage time. It was the first goal of his MLS career.
The Galaxy had seven shots on goal to six for San José. The Earthquakes had an 18-14 advantage in total shots. John McCarthy had six saves for the Galaxy and William Yarbrough stopped four for San José.
The Galaxy remain tied for first place in the Western Conference. LAFC (12-4-4) and the Galaxy (11-3-7) each have 40 points. Real Salt Lake (10-3-7) is off until Wednesday and remained at 37 points.
Saturday’s match marked the 101st edition across all competitions of the California Clásico between the Galaxy and Earthquakes, with the Galaxy leading the all-time series 49-33-19.
The Galaxy will play rival LAFC at the Rose Bowl on Thursday.
LAFC rolls past Colorado at home
Mateusz Bogusz scored all three goals for his first hat trick in two seasons with LAFC in a 3-0 victory over the Rapids at BMO Stadium on Saturday night.
Bogusz scored in the 20th, 58th and 72nd minutes.
The third goal came after Colorado’s Kévin Cabral received a red card.
Bogusz raised his season total to 12 goals, second on the team to Denis Bouanga’s 13. Cristian Arango of Real Salt Lake leads MLS with 16 goals.
LAFC had 11 shots on goal to Colorado’s one and outshot the Rapids 21-11 overall.