While you were probably busy pounding beers and watching fireworks, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had one of his busiest days of the year.
The Galaxy striker had to carry his team to its 11th win, scoring two goals to secure that win. He then joined the internet in the #BottleCapChallenge trend.
And he did all of this, with his name misspelled on his jersey.
The Fourth of July is a time for unnecessary parades, celebrating overzealous patriotism with the sounds of war and relaxing with a cold beer in the hot sun followed by binge-watching Season 3 of Stranger Things.
It is not, apparently, a time for spelling names correctly.
The LA Galaxy defeated Toronto FC 2-0 on Thursday night, an appropriate celebration of the United States’ Independence Day as one of the league’s standard bearers defeated the best Canadian club. But the two goals were scored by a Swede whose name was remarkably misspelled on his own jersey.
The MLS Players Association has released data for the 2019 season this week, so now we know who is making the big bucks in this year's MLS campaign. This season's list was chock-full of newcomers, with five of the 18 players on the list for MLS highest paid players 2019 debuting this season for their respective MLS Clubs.
The Designated Player Rule, also known as the Beckham Rule, remains in effect as the league enters its 24th season. The rule allows teams to sign up to three players that are considered outside the team’s salary cap ($4.035M in 2018).
In essence, this allows teams to compete for star players in the international market (like how the LA Galaxy started this whole rigamarole by signing David Beckham to a five-year contract worth $6.5M annually back in 2007).
After winning two straight away matches, the Los Angeles Galaxy slipped to a surprise 2-1 defeat to the lowly New England Revolution on Sunday night at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Goals from Cristian Penilla and Teal Bunbury in the opening hour of play set the stage for New England’s first road win of the season. The Galaxy managed only two shots on target throughout the match, but one was an absolute stunner from Zlatan Ibrahimović in the 84th minute.
This is Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s dark period. Like Francisco Goya before him, he’s probably living in near-solitude outside Lose Angeles in a farmhouse, painting haunting themes concerning his bleak outlook on VAR and retrospective fines from Major League Soccer.
It’s been 227 minutes since his last goal in MLS, a stretch that’s included three straight defeats for the LA Galaxy. When considering his exploits so far this season — nine goals and two assists in 10 games — this current run of form is apocalyptic.